MY MECCA- SUN VALLEY

me in the ganj

First resort in America. Known for it's gorgeous sunny days. Warren Miller started here, living in the parking lot of River Run. All the old school film stars came here to ski and make movies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFfzbZKMdmU). It's a place of great history. It's also a place of great rippers, not only do many infamous skiers come from here and train here, the locals are phenomenal. I mean phenomenal, they just rip- and they always have (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP3wU677tcg). 

Andy- Siegfried's line

  

Sun Valley is in Idaho. Bald Mountain (the main hill) is in the Smokys in the Sawtooth National Forrest.  This resort started out on Dollar  mountain.  Dollar is now Sun Valley's bunny hill. There is also a big boy terrain park on Dollar.  Here is the most recent TWS photo shoot at dollar-(http://snowboarding.transworld.net/1000151579/featuresobf/sun-valley-park-sessions-preview-with-aguirre-hironaka-kotsenburg-bros-willet/). Dollar is treeless and a great teaching hill.

Melissa- Old Olympic

The leg killer- Baldy. You come to Baldy to get strong. The summit is 9,150 ft. The vert is 3,400 ft. This hill is steep, blue runs here are east coast double blacks. The River Run side of Baldy has a great glass elevator (ganjula) that will take you to the old famous roundhouse. From there you can shoot up to the top on the Christmas quad or you can head over to Seattle Ridge. Seattle Ridge is the calm part of Baldy. The runs are short and not as steep. From the top of Baldy you can drop into the bowls or you can get to the bowls from Seattle. I love, love, love the bowls. The Mayday triple will keep you in the bowls. The Lookout express lift will give you access to all off the River Run side. Frenchman's quad is lower and in between River Run and Warm Springs. Warm Springs actually has a hot springs that you ride over on the chair lift. The halfpipe is on Warm Springs and they race a lot on Warm Springs. They also run a lot of gates off of the Greyhawk quad.

J2- top of Flying Squirrel

I  was in Sun Valley for three and a half weeks riding every day with my ski instructor bro. My legs are like anacondas. Spending so much time on the mountain lets you see the real ski fiends. There are locals that ski everyday. There are locals that ski in between beers. There are locals that only ski in the sun. There are locals that ski bell to bell.  Everyone has a different way of looking at the mountain. 

This place is paradise.

me- bench view of Exi

Back In The Game

I'm back in the west visiting my fam and the mountains. Yesterday was my first day home and I was beaten down by Baldy (Sun Valley). I'm walking like an 80 year old. Today my dad and I went to Pomerelle. Pomerelle is in the Sawtooth National Forest. I learned to ride at Pomerelle. I was raised there. I went to Pomerelle every weekend from age six to sixteen. Everyone in my family taught skiing or snowboarding there except for my mom.  I have the best memories of this place.  It's not as steep as Sun Valley, but it gets killer snow. If there is a chance of it snowing anywhere, it is snowing at Pomerelle. The mountain has two lifts, neither one of them are quads- so they give you time to rest, but also time to freeze. I find moving your arms as fast as possible will take care of the freezing. The mountain has been run by the same family for as long as I've been going there. I also don't think anyone is allowed to have a day off, I always see the whole family working. Did I mention that no one is ever there and you can get freshies at three in the afternoon? Yeah, so they've got that going for them.
the pic is punch last spring- no shooting today- it was a powder day

                                                                  
                                                                    
New York

                         these make me laugh