I know, I know, I’m the Powder Highway Ultimate Ski Bum. You’re probably thinking that I should be in Canada the whole three months, ripping around the Kootenays in uninterrupted bliss. And I agree with you.

However it’s SIA time, and all things skiing are happening in Colorado this week. This ski bum is going down to Denver to host a party for helmet and body armor manufacturer POC at the historic Bluebird Theater. Top secret playbill, so make sure to line up early!

I’ll be running around the tradeshow floor pumping the Powder Highway and drinking free beer on Friday, so say hi if you see me. Then, it’s back to Canada to finish off the next two months of pow hunting in BC. Yippee!

The athletes and organizers of the Freeskiing World Tour had a powder day today, choosing to use the optional weather day to wait out the surging storm. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is offering up the use of their helicopter to shuttle athletes to the landing zone (LZ) at the top of the almost 2000 vertical feet of spines, chutes, and cliffs. With everything on hold for the day, the mountain was abuzz with the whoops and yells of roving groups of freeriders dressed in baggy, bright clothes.

If you had a chance to ride the 8-seater gondola from the mid-mountain lodge today, you would probably have seen some frozen waterfall lines being sent by shredders in full-face helmets. Or snowboarders slashing some turns down a steep, powdery face. Not much sun out, so most folks were taking advantage of their low-light goggle lenses to battle the drab greybird day full of indistinguishable clouds. With all the gladed, steep tree skiing on the main aspect of Revelstoke’s frontside, poor-visibility is not an issue.

To wrap up our day, some friends and I ate some good burgers at Nomad’s and finished it all up with a hot tub session.  The yoga from the other night can still be felt in my muscles, but the hot tub definitely helps.  Tomorrow, the comp wraps up; I’m hoping to get some interviews with fellow POC athlete Arne Backstrom , while he sits in third place going into an epic finals.

The border crossing into Canada was easy. The recognition of how monumental the task is that lay ahead of me: words fail me. It may be that it is now 1:30am, and I am full of beer, but the game has been layed, and it’s time to start playin. The contest has been won, and now it is commencement of an epic trip.

I left Eureka, MT this morning around eleven after waking up in a parking lot for a xc skiing trail. It was snowing, and after brushing my teeth, I hit the road towards the border. Eight miles later, I found myself being waved through by a border patrol agent who must have been sympathetic to skiing; I owe him a hi-five!

I met Chris Andrews, the man responsible for the whole Powder Highway contest, and he treated me to a lunch at Tim Horton’s. Apparently, TH is the staple of many Canadian diets, and I can see the appeal after wolfing down a turkey bacon club wrap with a chicken noodle soup. Mmmmm mmm, good.

We picked up the Dodge Nitro (Courtesy of Budget Rentals) from the place it got wrapped, and wow are there a ton of stoked partners for this trip! After a quick cheeseball photo shoot, Chris gave me his blessing and sent me on my way.

I killed some time at the Real Canadian Superstore until Justin flew in aroiund 8pm. His board bag didn’t make it, so we are now settling in for the night at the Prestige Inn at Cranbrook. A long hot tub sesh and some beers at Shenanigans (gambling is encouraged at Cranbrook bars) downtown gave Justin & I a lot of time to brainstorm more of our plan for this winter. Keep checking back for updates!

Well, I finally did it…I stuffed my bandaged and padded toe into my ski boots and found myself skinning up Snowmass. At this point in the season, I am re-acclimating to mountain elevation after spending close to two months at sea level. It’s nice to breathe the fresh air up here in Colorado, but the air definitely felt a little thin upon my return.

Now, with a few days of skinning and skiing under my belt, I feel once again like the ski bum that won Powder Highway’s Ultimate Ski Bum contest. Snowmass has limited coverage, so it’s mostly groomers, but that just makes the ascent that much easier. Typically, I would go find some backcountry tours to mission, but the snowpack here in the Roaring Fork Valley is the worst its been in years. There are reports of a hoarfrost layer 13 inches deep. The worst part? …it’s the bottom layer in the snowpack, making things really unstable and scary.

So, inbounds touring has allowed me to get after it in a controlled environment and build my climbing/skiing muscles up for the rest of the season. I even had a great day skiing on Aspen Mountain with my good friend, Mike Glock, and his liftie co-worker Keith. We ripped around the mountain looking for whatever soft snow stashes we could find. But, due to my sad big toe (see previous blog entry), I’ve been relegated to my Agent AT alpine touring boots. They’re nice and soft for comfortable climbing, but a little mushy for inbounds lift accessed shreddage. This leaves my ankles a little worn out after a dozen runs, so I ended up calling it quits by 2pm.

Tomorrow, I will skin up Buttermilk with Jamie and then head over to Breckenridge for some Winter Dew Tour action. I will crash at the POC house, where some of the athletes will be staying.

It’s been a full two days since I received the best call of my life.  I was sitting at an early dinner in Irvine, CA with my mom.  She was planning on coming to the Warren Miller ‘Dynasty’ show we were playing on the UC campus, and we met up ahead of time to hang out and grub down at a café just across the walking bridge from the theater.  We ordered some turkey/avocado/chorizo sandwiches with side salads, and took our time to chat up a storm about all sorts of topics.