Friday, February 21, 2014

TGIF...Our Legs Need a Break

We headed out to Bridger for the 5th day in a row...the first time that has happened since we arrived in Bozeman.  One thing or another has gotten in the way...temps dropping to -32 degrees for three days and then Bill decided he had a cold so we didn't head out to the slopes.  Maybe we were on to something since both of us now have some very tired legs.  Too bad we have stairs up to the apartment.

On the other hand we would not have missed the last four days of powder...Tuesday's 1 inch which doesn't sound like much, but it makes the board run so nice.  It was followed by 3 inches on Wednesday and then a whopping 10 inches on Thursday.  Which really brought out the powder hounds and created a mass of happy people at the start of the day.  We actually made the 'rope drop' at 9:00 AM.

Today's 4 inches wasn't quite as grand, but we had a full fledged whiteout to ride through...WOW!  As we headed up the lift with some fairly heavy snow falling we made the comment "how nice it would be to have snow falling all day".  By the time we reached the top of the lift the wind was blowing pretty darn hard...with the snow flying and blowing off the trees it created a total whiteout.  We decided to head down through what we thought would be a more protected chute.  It certainly wasn't clear, but we could see well enough until we reached the bottom...then nothing but white swirling around us.  We made our way back to the bottom trying to see any objects that could be in the way...trees, lift poles, people.  Not a comforting feeling at all. 

Once we made it to the lift we decided to bail and wait it out in the lodge.  We were not alone.  One of the Ski Patrol guys walked in after us and stated the obvious "Holy crap"...within 10 minutes the lifts where we had been all were on wind holds...which lasted until after 1:00 PM.  Thankfully other lifts on the far side were still running and basically wind free.  It ended up being another terrific day on the slopes. 

Crossing our fingers that the 'big storm' being forecast for Sunday and Monday occurs...we  may have become Powder Hounds.
 
Another short video of Thursday's boarding....


Powder Run at Bridger

Yesterday we woke to the news of 10 inches of fresh powder at Bridger Bowl...Bill has never driven as fast as he did to get there.  We actually made it before opening.   The ONLY line of the season so far...



Thursday, February 20, 2014

Powder Day at Bridger Bowl

A week or so ago we broke out the Go Pro for a run through of fresh snow...beautiful day.  



Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Yellowstone at Minus 14

The Gardnier River
When Bozeman hit their record lows 2 weeks ago we decided to skip boarding in minus 20 and head out to Yellowstone.  We enjoy watching the animals in any weather and since the sun was shining we headed out to Yellowstone.  The low for our trip hit a minus 14...yeah it was cold enough to freeze    "your nose hair" and standing out taking pictures was a wee bit frigid.  It was a beautiful day even if we couldn't stay outside more than 5 minutes at a time.

Enjoy...

Black Tail Deer

What's up?

Bison

Big Horn Sheep...always on this hillside




Cooper watching bison



Frosty mugs







Paradise Valley- Absaroka Mountains
Pawing for lunch





Buffalo watching Cooper
Cooper watching Buffalo

Elk

Scratching an itch

Buffalo tussle in Mammoth





Triple stare...more elk

 
*click any picture to enlarge

Just a Few Trees

 Presidents' Day we had a bit of sunshine so Bill broke out the camera...for a bit of boarding between the trees.


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Sunday, February 2, 2014

One Dog and Lots of Snow







We decided to take a short drive out to Hyalite Canyon on Sunday.  We spent over a week camping and hiking in Hyalite this summer, but winter is more spectacular.  The added benefit of snow measured in feet and cold weather made the day about perfect. 


Cooper REALLY enjoys being out and about when there is snow.  He figured out last winter that it is really hard work to move in deep snow... so he chooses to follow our foot steps.  Most of the time.

Ground Squirrel?
Gotta run!


Uh Oh...deep hole alert

What?

I'm coming...don't leave me!!

On second thought...ground squirrel!

I'm coming...again

...as fast as I can

I love SNOW




Leaping is fun

so is digging

Ice crystals

I may be stuck
Wow what a leap

Almost frozen


Hip deep snow


The boys

Squirrel?

*click on any picture to enlarge