powered by pork

no phones, sleeping in hats, cribbage war, high life, what's wrong with my skins? honey, I love you, sugar mountain, poaching a run, blanker - blanker! no worries, peter will break trail, does he ever get tired? screaming barfies, jeannette is a trooper, matt is such a dork, i am so full, how many calories did we burn? makes you say smarter things to dumb people, that's alot of trash talk, is anyone in the groover? coffee anyone? baileys in your coffee? best skiing of my life, black betty, shag carpet in a bathroom? union suits, peter's cleavage, "i carry about 100 pounds," yum, stoli and crystal lite, this might be the last year for the budweiser, chicken curry wraps, sorry about the coughing, i like mine black and crispy, skunked, did you fall in that whole on the way to the bathroom, spit bath, powder, powder and more POWDER!

Friday night we left for Driggs Idaho... The weather was a bit "iffy," Jeannette and Matt were sick and still on the fence about going. We detoured to Idaho Falls and stayed the night with Mike's uncle and arrived in Driggs early Saturday morning. We checked into our lovely and cozy "Pines" lodge, did a quick change of clothes and were able to fit in a 1/2 day at Grand Targhee Resort on Saturday. Matt and Jeannette arrived late Saturday night and we started our trip into the Teton's backcountry on Sunday morning.

In the yurt we have a wood stove, bunk beds, firewood, camp stoves, and some basic cooking supplies. Our bathroom was a cozy little tarp over a wood box about 50 cold and slippery yards from the yurt. We melt snow for water - and to keep busy and keep from smelling too much life monkeys by washing ourselves with baby wipes and hand sanitizer.

To arrive at our cozy round home in the mountains, it is a 4 hour "skin" in (that is skiing in uphill with special equipment), with about 50-60 lbs each (much more for some) on our backs. Most of our weight was FOOD. We eat WELL on this trip and it is by no means a weight loss camp. Even though we burn about 3,000 calories a day (we actually calculated it this year), we probably eat more than that between our huge breakfasts and dinners.

Our 3 days were filled with a lazy morning, lots of coffee, maybe a quick morning ski (for the very energetic), and then we all head out together to find the best skiing for the day. Jeannette made it on the trip which was a miracle and feat in itself - she is THE toughest, hardiest woman we know - once to the yurt and almost dying on the 4 hours skin in - she took day one off of skiing, but by day 2 she was ready!

Our evenings were full of a lot of "trash talking" goofy moments that involved cribbage, cooking, or just general weirdness. Each meal stuffed us to the point of having to lay down to feel good. Each night the snow gently fell, giving us fresh tracks for the next day.

The weather was great. There were moments of blue skies, but it was mostly rather gray. The temps stayed around 10-15 degrees, with little to no wind. The skiing was epic! Most runs involved powder up to your knees and blowing in your face or over your head! No matter how tired our legs were or how badly the blisters were (Brooke is the only idiot with blisters), it was hard to stop skiing!

The skin / ski out goes MUCH faster than the long trip in... Less weight (b/c we eat most of it) and it is mostly downhill. We all arrived back home to our kids and dogs safely Wednesday night - hard pressed to join civilization again.