Loving Life: October 2013

First snow! Guardsmans Pass...

With the first snowfalls in Utah I was more than ready to strap into my snowboard again. Lucky for us there is a zone up Guardsmans Pass that has some rails and other features setup. I got out a couple days with a great group of girls to shred with! Here are a couple photos and a little video from our sessions..

EV Guardsmans Pass from erika Vikander on Vimeo.

#SummitTeam... Bald Mountain

I've mentioned before numerous times in posts how amazing Utah is, and how incredibly blessed we are to be surrounded with so much beauty. With all of the National Parks being closed down due to the government shutdown (UT having just been re-opened as of 10/11/13 thanks to state funding along with a couple of other places see; http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/12/232691491/grand-canyon-and-other-national-parks-reopen-on-states-dime for more information on that.) It makes getting out there and enjoying these special places that much more important.
Although the Uintas were not affected by the shutdown it makes me wonder what other points our government may have to "prove" by the shutdown of National Parks across the US. As someone who enjoys the outdoors and makes a living by doing so, I am concerned about the direction we are headed and encourage everyone to go outside and enjoy it while we still can.

Despite the new snowfall on Thursday night we still decided to head out to the Uintas on Friday morning, the drive up looked inviting enough, but when we arrive at the trailhead for Bald Mountain, we were faced with ankle deep snow for most of the route. Since it was such a beautiful day, neither max nor I thought to bring snow boots, just our regular hiking shoes which usually suffice. Because of the new snowfall we were unsure of where the trail actually started, probably due to the fact that we were the only ones with the idea that day to summit Bald Mountain. We started walking on what appeared to be the "right" way and quickly picked up the trail and were off to start the switchbacks up the mountain.
Patches of gray skies, sunshine, and harsh wind from the exposure up there gave us a feeling again of how quickly the weather can change at altitude, and that you always respect the mountain. We reached the summit about an hour of slowly meandering up the slope, carefully placing our feet, and taking photos every 10 steps.
The view from the top was breathtaking, vast valleys leading to the foothills of other mountains in the Uintas, a very up close and personal view of Reid's Peak, and the colors of the fall leaves popping through the white snow in bursts of yellow, orange, and red. Needless to say, it was worth it.

Exposure

September 7th Marked the 2nd annual Backyard BBQ rail Jam at Keystone Resort with an awesome setup built by the Keystone A51 terrain park crew. I can honestly say every single person there had so much energy to snowboard, the anticipation was high all around and everyone was ready to ride. The event kicked off around noon with the ladies taking the spotlight first! This is pretty rare in itself so we were thrilled to get to hit the course first and show what we can do.

The amount of girls trying hard tricks first thing this season was pretty impressive, I was blown away at the courage these girls had. Fortunately for me, I have done a couple rail jams in my day and know what it takes to make finals and put on a good show. They chose the top 5 girls for finals which included some really great riders, and I was very happy to be chosen at one of the finalists. Two or so hours later after all the other riders were able to compete for their chance at finals, the finals took place and it was an intense session. Everyone was throwing their hardest tricks, people flying in from all directions, people on rails at the same time, on the wall ride, on the ground, literally everywhere you looked there was someone trying to show what they are made of, and it was quite the show! At the end of the 20 minute finals heat I was thrilled to have put down some pretty technical tricks, including front and back lips, 180s on and off, and some serious fun on the wall ride, landing me in first place. Congratulations to everyone who participated and to KEYSTONE RESORT for hosting such an awesome event to get us all stoked for what is going to be a purely EPIC 2013/14 season.