After an alright storm cycle we got hit with strong winds followed by a week of an acrtic high bringing in cold blue sky's. The cold snap (and shitty conditions) happened to arrive just in time for the big mountain comp here at Red. shitty skiing combined with being overrun with rippers, we decided a road trip was in order. Destination: Idaho

Our first day was all about driving. Down to Spokane then across to Missola, MT where we stayed at Nathan's aunt's house for the night. Montanians (Montanites?) seam to have a serious problem with gambeling, because pretty much every gas station, motel, liquor store everywhere had some form of a casino attatched to it. Another thing I found odd about Montana is the fact that they don't recycle glass. I thought that was odd.

Our plan for the next day (friday) was to go skiing at Lost Trail, but due to the -17F temperature, the hill decided they would stay closed for the day. Probably a good choice. So instead of skiing as planned we drove down to Nathan's uncles house in Salmon, ID and decided to go shoot some handguns. Apprently everyone in the States really does own a gun. After firing off a few rounds at some boxes and cans (and after a few beers and pipe hits) it started to get dark, and the cold drove us inside. On a side note, I was very saddened to find out that in Idaho they don't recycle anything. At all. I think there is something very wrong with this, and if anyone from Idaho is reading that I strongly advise you to bring this issue up with your local government.

It warmed up enough for the hill to open on Saturday (at a balmy -5F). finally, some skiing. Lost Trail is a small mom and pop ski hill that only opens on weekend. Which worked out in our favour, because while the rest of what seamed like the whole northwest was hard and windblown, we had a foot of untouched light powder. Ended up getting three good runs full of everything from some steeps to switch turns to cliff drops. The terrain was interesting though, there's a lot of flat mellow terrain but then a real gnarly cliff band comes out of nowhere. Karyn decided to enter a slopestyle course instead of ride the pow that day, and being the only girl to enter, got free stuff for particapating.n That night we drove back to Missola and bought 150 beers (5.9% Alcohol too) for $75 from the Super Wallmart. Crazyness.

Our mission for the next day was to drive back west into Idaho and do an afternoon of skiing at Sliver Mountain. We arrive in the parking lot at 11:30 and crack the first beer of the day while putting on our gear. Silver Mountain was claiming some pretty big things, so while riding up the "longest gondola in north america" i was curious to see if they could live up to all the hype. As expeced, the snow wasn't very good, so after a run we decided park laps were in order. I did not have rail skis with me so the rails were out of the question, although they looked very nice. the jump line was built well, but very small, with the biggest only reaching about 20ft. It was nice to hit a jump with a decent landing for a change though. After an afternoon of sessioning the park (which I haven't done for a very, very long time) we hoped back into the gondola (which I don't think is longer then Sunshine's by the way) and hotbox'd it on our way down.

We drove to Cour d'Alane for the night where we realized that we had two cases of beer too many for brinking back into Canada. The damage was 60 beers between 3 people before we could go to bed. By 4:30am with only 1 or 2 beers each to go I got caught by the cops for pissing in the middle of the highway (we were trying to make it icy to see cars slide out) and was told to "send my drunk ass home". I agreed.

note: I am just going to post the link to the picture because it never works then i try to do thinks properly.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=60844969&imageID=1756786093

halfway done the first case. only one and a half to go.

Still drunk the next morning we got up and drove north to Schweitzer for a full day of skiing. I don't think any of us thought we had it in us, but we were determined. I was very impressed with Schweitzer. The village at the base was more developed then I expected - not like I need or want any of it, and the mountain had some very good terrain. Unfortunatly we arrived to the wost conditions of the whole trip. tracked out sunbacked wind crust on almost every aspect. We managed to find some almost semi-decent powder on the odd southeastern slopes, but by lunch I gave up and went to the park. Their step up was decent, but the rest of the jumps were small with short flat landings. oh well.

This pictures was taken in the daylodge at Schweitzer.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=60844969&imageID=1756773894

if you can't ski like a pro. at least look like one.

that night we finally made it back into the land of celcius and kilometers, but decided to stop in creston for the night at Dylans aunt and uncles house for another free stay and some good home cooking. The next morning we drove back to Rossland to a light snowfall and normal tempuratures. Good to be back home.

A side note: every ski hill we visited had at least one super skectchy double chair that scared the shit out of me ever time I was on it.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=60844969&imageID=1756777676

they had big ceder trees in the middle of the groomers, they looked cool. (although I wouldn't want to hit one of them).

I appologize if I bored you, but if I did it probably means you stopped reading a while ago, so i guess this sentence is pointless.