AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GAPING

THE FUTURE KING OF GAPERS

taken by Mary at The Pom

GRAND TARGHEE- SNORKELING IN THE MOUNTAINS

MARY AND MARY'S NIPPLE

Grand Targhee is the kind of place where they let you on the chair before 9 AM when it's a powder day. They know how much you want those freshies and they are happy to oblige.  Powder is not rarity- Targhee is known for it's pow; they have 493" this season. They average 500" a year.

Grand Targhee is located in the Targhee National Forest in Wyoming (some of the resort spills over into Idaho). It has two peaks: Fred's Mountain has a 2,212' vert and Peaked Mountain has a 2,270' vert. The resort has 2,500 acres of skiing and riding. Targhee tries to be as green as possible- Hooray!(http://www.grandtarghee.com/the-mountain/environment/index.php) It's about 45 min. away from Jackson Hole. It's not as steep as Jackson, but it's got everything; chutes, glades, cornice drops, bowls and I've heard some people do groomers there.

ME AND THE POW

Fred's Mountain is the main mountain. The Dreamcatcher Quad will take you right to the top. Drop off the Headwall and you will find yourself on the Blackfoot lift. This is a old school twofer that will give you a bit of a rest. There is also a sweet little beginner area (little monsters and googly eyes!). I have the happiest memories when I was little of Alley Oop (run of little rollers) and Eyeball Forest (baby tree run with wooden eyes on the trees). My family has been going to Targhee for as long as I can remember. My bro's first sentence was there, "Mama, see snow?". It's a great place to grow up in.

Peaked Mountain is a newer part of the resort. There used to just be catskiing on this hill with no lift access, but then they added the Sacajawea lift. Now you can easily drop the cliffs with little or no hiking, in theory. My cliff drops are never as pretty in life as I imagine they are going to be.

RACH

Then there is the infamous Mary's Nipple. This is within the resort, but it requires hiking. We didn't hike Mary's nipple this trip, there was too much snow to get with lift access.

This year I went to The Ghee with my bro. and two sisters. We were there for three days. We rode with smashed sandwiches in our pockets. It was too good to go in. The first day was clear with a light crust over their latest storm. The second day it pounded. I inhaled so much snow (charlie sheen voice). The third day was a bluebird powder day. This is rare, visibility can be frighting at Targhee. We could see our lines off the cliffs! Andy and I decided to try our luck. I mostly hacked my way over and around the cliffs, but Andy had some beautiful lines. We watched a group of eight come down the Pinkslip cliffs. I heard them cheering for each other and realized it was eight girls! Oh, you know; Just some local girls out for a sweet little powder day- dropping 50 ft' cliffs.

ANDY

WRITING ON THE WALL- ANIMALS ARENT JUST FOR EATING

WILLIAMSBURG

FOOD TRUCK- UNION SQUARE

F TRAIN

SOHO

SOHO

DISCOUNTS- ROOTIN' FOR DEALS

OKEMO-
$39 tickets for March 24th, March 31st if you buy them online (http://www.okemo.com/okemowinter/ratesandrentals/specialdeals/onlinedeals.asp)
$39 tickets for Ladies on Tues.
$10 on April 1 if you bring 3 non perishable items

GRAND TARGHEE
$199 Daylight savings pass- valid March 13- April 17th
(http://www.grandtarghee.com/the-mountain/rates/daylight-savings-pass.php)
Mon. March 28th- Twofer special- register online a day before and pay $69 for two lift tickets
(http://www.grandtarghee.com/the-mountain/rates/twofer.php)

SUN VALLEY
$79 gets you a lift ticket and a stay in the fancy Sun Valley lodge until the end of the year, you need to bring someone or it's $119 for a room and a ticket (http://www.sunvalley.com/trip-planner/deals/)

HUNTER MOUNTAIN
$169 to ride as much as you like till the end of the season
(http://www.huntermtn.com/huntermtn/tickets-passes/march-into-spring.aspx)

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GAPING

GAPER STRETCHES TAKEN BY MARY

GETTIN IT AT THE GHEE

ANDY

I am at Grand Targhee with my brother and two sisters. There is a little bit of snow here.

MARY

DISCOUNTS- MARCH MADNESS AND THE POM

Mary (lil sis), getting it at the Pom

SkiCoupons.com is having March Madness. They are giving away goggles and lift tickets every Mon. To enter, like them on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SkiCoupons?sk=app_4949752878#!/SkiCoupons?sk=app_4949752878) and then enter (http://www.skicoupons.com/scripts/giveaways.cfm?msg=success).

Liftopia has some excellent end of the year deals (http://www.liftopia.com/)

Pomerelle has three $20 days coming up (3/23, 3/30, and 4/6). Just bring two cans of food; the food goes to the Helping Hands Mission in Burley, Idaho. http://www.pomerelle.com/_webapp_3849710/2Can__$20_Days
Pomerelle is also selling next years season pass for $285.14 (what? amazing) and with that purchase you can also ride till the end of this season. This deal is good until 4/30/2011. (http://www.pomerelle-mtn.com/)

Okemo has a buy one get one free deal on 3/25. You have to become a fan on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/okemomountain) and then go to Fans Only for details.

Mary, top of Punch at the Pom

CESSPOOL BROOKLYN TO JAY PEAK

CESSPOOL BROOKLYN TO JAY PEAK from elisabeth toft on Vimeo.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GAPING

EQUIPMENT REMOVAL- GAPER STYLE

SHAOLIN VS WU TANG- THE CHEF'S NEW CONCOCTION

RAEKWON AT THE MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

I was massively excited for Rae's album release party for Shaolin Vs Wu Tang. I have a little bit of a Wu problem.

I was so excited that we only went to the show an hour and a half late, despite everyone reminding me that I always went to hip-hop shows too early. We should have been three hours late. We watched Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg (Hot 97 DJs) spin for two hours. Q calls them wedding DJs. I mean, don't get me wrong, they know their hip-hop, but I would love to hear something different. Why doesn't Rae have some Wu afilliates open for him?
Whomp Whomp

So Rae came out and explained that in this album Shaolin was him because he was raised in Staten Island and this album was him trying to go back to his roots and his OG way of ryhming. Um, think that this really means its Rae VS Rza.

Rae

I love Rae. He is a true lyricist. You can see how much he feels and lives hip-hop. He did some 36 Chambers. He did some Cuban Linx. He did some of the new album. Inspectah and Cappadonna showed up and rocked the mic.

Rae & Inspectah

There was a massive fight which cleared out more than half of the crowd. Rae ended with "Kiss the Ring" my fav. joint off of Cuban Linx II. It was a sweet show.

Afterwards Rae had a table set up where you could buy CDs and posters and he would sign them.
In my day an album release party meant that you got the album, that's part of the reason you would go to the show (bitter old man voice)

MY BROTHER'S GIANT HEAD

Apparently now his hands are growing too,

my poor brother

DISCOUNTS AND DEMOS- A REASON TO DO STUFF

the Gypsy

It was the last Burton Demo day at Hunter so the Gypsy and I decided to demo a board we would never own.

The Method

the Method is Burton's $1,500 snowboard (yeah, there's a $1,500 snowboard- shake head in shame). It's a directional with an Alumafly core (looks like an aluminum honey comb, makes it über light, big no for rails). It's got carbon i-beam and fiberglass. It has UltraMeth Construction which I think means that they smoke Meth while they think up prices.

Paul

 Paul was working the Yurts
He gave the Gypsy a 156 and me a 160. The Gypsy rides a 149 and I ride a 156; we decided to go big.





We hiked out of bounds and rode down a creek. We might have hit some things; that board is like a magnet.

the creek

Gymnast Gypsy

Consensus:  excellent for creek riding!!!!!! and its shiny like a rainbow trout













ST. PATTY'S $17 TICKETS
Attitash (http://www.attitash.com/) , Waterville Valley (http://www.waterville.com/),  Ragged Mountain (http://www.raggedmountainresort.com/), Wachusett (http://www.wachusett.com/ need to be wearing Green), Mt. Snow (http://mountsnow.com/events/stpattys/), Sugarbush (http://www.sugarbush.com/vermont-activities-events/calendar), Wildcat Mountain (http://www.skiwildcat.com/wilddeals.html), Jiminy Peak (http://www.jiminypeak.com/)

Stowe does a $39 ticket (http://summer.stowe.com/activities/resort_calendar/page2869/)

New Hampshire discounts: http://www.skinh.com/lift-ticket-deals/index.cfm

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GAPING

GAPER POUNDS

Hunter  taken by the Gypsy 

BAGGING IT IN THE RAIN- KILLINGTON

Yuko

MARCH 5TH & 6TH 2011

me

We waited till the last minute to book a hotel in Killington and everything was full. We knew it was going to be a busy on the hill. Bleech

Then a miracle-
It rained

 On sat. The parking lots were full. The bars and lodges were full. We had the hill to ourselves.

Ryan watches for Zombies

Q's belly bag shirt

                           


 On Sunday it was a full on rain storm. We played in the slush.  In plastic bags.                                            

Yuko just kills it

WRITING ON THE WALL

MEANWHILE- BACK IN THE CITY............

23rd St. 

from the Williamsburg Bridge

LES

Canal St.- Taken by M

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GAPING

                                                        
                                                       THE CLASSIC GAPER

Hunter Mountain

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.