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TR: 2 Days/3 Nights in the Valley of the Sun (Helis, Ian Mac, Smith Secrets)
If there were one unifying theme to tie this whole story together it would be the sun or light. We're all made of a previously deceased sun. Hydrogen and Helium are the only two naturally occurring elements of any quantity in space. The rest of the periodic table of elements and thus the requisite pieces to make our bodies aren't formed until a sun has lived and died (super nova). There's something really empowering and freeing about that. That we were made of something as great as a sun and the time it took to make something like us. But also the thought that even something as great as a sun eventually dies, but it wasn't the end of it's life... just a conversion to different lives. We, like everything else that has lived before will eventually die... Which makes appreciating every moment to the fullest that much more important. As well as having a genuine appreciation for the absolute miracle every single thing we are able to see, think, feel, hear and perceive is. We were headed to the Valley of the Sun to make the most of some of our limited time and to enjoy the light that lived on in so many of its residents.
Through an obsession and some hard work my brother Meats of Evil was able to win the Smith "We make the great days better" contest here on TGR. I have the good fortune of working and skiing with my brother on a daily basis and every single day he would talk about the contest and brainstorm ways to bring stoke to the contest and try to win it. He won 1 of the 5 photo contests and was then included for the grand prize which included a heli ski trip for 2 to Sun Valley to ski with Ian McIntosh. After winning the one category he went on to post more and more photos in the thread and even jumped from behind the lens into the athlete slot to try and make his entry more versatile. The contest was close and came down to what I assume was a very close call, but in the end he won and I was lucky enough to be dragged along on the adventure.
The day he was notified of the win we had just come out of a disheartening meeting with the Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in which we were not awarded a liquor license for a bar project we've been working on for roughly 18 months... that's a bit of a tangent. The call from Smith didn't make a great day better, but it certainly made a shitty day better.
As the date of the trip drew near it was obvious Sun Valley hadn't had anything resembling measurable snowfall in close to a month. Skiing expectations were low, but we knew we'd also be skiing with SuperG. He has a way of making Grey Goose out of lemons. I honestly don't think there is a person alive who loves skiing more than SuperG and can find ways to make any conditions more fun. Due to cloud cover we spent the first day skiing on the mountain instead of in the heli. He told us all we were training for AK and told us would be skiing "spines". I was a little confused, but followed along. Before I knew it we were in the air between every turn as we jumped from side-to-side off groomers to off-piste and back again. Our group began to grow as other residents were attracted to the energy and positivity of SuperG. Several of the residents were on the mountain to celebrate the lives of friends who had passed that same day just the year before, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph, and John Brenan.
After a few "spine" sessions SuperG took us on a tour of the burned forests of the Sun Valley side country. MOE had been itching to shoot the burned out forest of Sun Valley in great conditions. The snow wasn't on our side, but he grabbed his camera anyway.
Giant scorched pines loomed everywhere as we skied through a black and white world:
http://stk.tetongravity.com/forums/a...7&d=1361593029
A view of one such forest from the heli the following day:
http://stk.tetongravity.com/forums/a...8&d=1361593044
Jacqui Edgerly manages to make a turn look great in some pretty challenging snow:
http://stk.tetongravity.com/forums/a...9&d=1361593058
We made several laps through the trees just to explore despite the challenging snow. We made it back to the resort just in time for one more lap before the lifts shut down. All of us in the group get to ski quite a bit… and conditions were lackluster… but the decision was unanimous to head back to the “spines” before the lifts shut down.
After skiing we ran into yet more locals with the same sunny disposition we were finding everywhere. Before we knew it there were three vehicles filled with people headed to a natural hot springs. Beyond the group we’d already been skiing with (SuperG, MOE, Ian Mac, Jacqui Edgerly, etc…) there were others I’m sure you’ve heard of… Zach Christ, Lexi Dupont, Collin Collins, etc… Days like these I stay home from skiing and get work done, but everyone was a having a blast and making the most out of everything. I left Sun Valley with a greater appreciation for skiing and a fond place in my heart for the vibe the entire community exudes.
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