ELEVATED LOCALS OF JAY PEAK- THE O'SHEA FAMILY

Introducing the O'Sheas

A truly Elevated Family.
Quinn, their 21 month old little girl runs the show. And then we have Shawna and Eamon. Shawna was raised in CO and learned to ride in Breck. Eamon was raised at Jay Peak; raced as a skier and then began riding in '93. They met at Winter Park in the cafeteria. It's a true ski bum love story. They spent some time in Whitefish, MT and then two phenomenal years in Jackson.
In Jackson they ate off a ping pong table while games were played. They thoughtfully let off fireworks in the house as alarms for their roommates. The second year they spent at Jackson it snowed over 600".

In the summer they would go back to Montgomery, VT. They lived in a tree house on the land that is now Shéady Acres. While they lived in Vermont and Wyoming they built their house at Shéady Acres with the help of friends and family. The O'Sheas kept a stocked cooler of beer and an open tab at the local restaurant, The Belfry (they have banging scallops) to encourage their helpers.



Eamon is a builder who "got bored building vinyl shitbox houses, and wanted to build something creative, functional, and efficient."
Introducing Shéady Acres. Shéady Acres consists of five houses: The Sugar House (Vermont style), The Caribe (Caribbean bungalow), The Tea House (where we stayed! Japanese style), Irish Farm House (Irish without a thatched roof), and The Adobe ( Southwestern style). I heart the tea house.

Do not be deceived, Q is not bigger than the Tea House

 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2vw0yEi0_8)
Three of the units sleep two and two of the units sleep four. The least expensive time to stay is in Nov. And April. And the best deal works out if you stay 4-7 nights. Sometimes they will have home-brewed beer waiting for you (Eamon's best is his Obama brew) or sometimes they might give you cereal.
People are welcome to tune their equipment in the O'Shea's garage, but the O'Sheas' recommend First Trax- a local shop in Montgomery. That is if you need a tune in all that powder.

Obama Brew

The O'Sheas play hockey- it's like a law when you live so close to Canada. Shawna plays in the first women's hockey league to play at the Jay Peak Ice Haus.

Eamon also designed and built a disc golf course on their property and in the summer they have crazy tournaments. He writes the variety show in the spring that is a fundraiser for the town. I've heard this is an insane event that should not be missed. The people of Montgomery are really what make Jay Peak such a magical place.

On our last day at Jay I watched wistfully as Shawna and Eamon began the hike for some epic turns on Big Jay. One might say, this family gets it.

Ah, Colorado

My girl Carrie commented in her facebook status that it was a powder day. She's in Breck. I began reminiscing about last years CO trip..........





A long time ago, in a land far away there were four ex-Burton sales associates who decided to leave the big city and follow the call of the mountains. On the way there one of them acquired a Ram Zi. Time passed and I became more and more worried about their mental state. So Q and I set out to visit the escapees. We rode Breck. We rode Vail. We rode the Beav. We pretended the elevation didn't effect us. Then we rode Vail some more. All these mountains are within an hour and a half of each other, if it's not a blizzard and you aren't driving a toy car. We were driving a toy car in a blizzard.

These mountains are just a bunch of kids that have been chilling together for a while.

Breck is the bad kid. All my girls worked at Breck. I was on the chair with a 10 year old who was rolling a blunt, I was like, um, give me that- I'm telling your mother! I have a bump problem so I was all about The Burn. (Peak 8 was closed, no snow). Those long rollers are big fun too.

The Beav. is the fat kid. They give you warm cookies at 2pm everyday, c'mon. Our tour guide was a voiceless sushi chief ninja from Queens who showed us the glades. Man, is the vert at the Beav sweeeeeet! Root broke his collar bone. Genna had some fat lady run over her face. Was fun for all.

Then there is Vail, Vail is the smart kid that knows everything, you want to hate him, but then that smart kid writes all your papers and you realize that all you wanna do is chill with the smart kid. Q had his first bump run! Ramz and I rode from one side to the other, front and back. Wildwoooood!
Vail is Mecca. It's 7 miles wide. Bowls and bowls and bowls and then some more bowls. You could ride Vail for a whole season and not cover all of it- Someday I will take that challenge.Ps- for all you Eastcoasters- check this out http://www.rideandskine.com/Home.html. Good discounts and it's something for the kids.......