GoPro Camera

This past week I picked up a camera.  It is a wide angle camera that you can strap on your helmet and you can video yourself and your friends skiing down the runs.  It is pretty cool.  I have not edited any videos from the ski hill but you can see some pictures I have taken below.  It has been a good last week or so.  I have not been as busy with the blog as some of you followers have noticed.  Not much new has been going on other than the normal skiing and outreach opportunities.  Session three has started and I am teaching students every Wed / Fri / and Sat.  It should be a good time teaching others as I continue to improve my own skiing.

This is a shot from the GoPro Camera.  You can see The National Ability Center on the left.  This is where I store all my gear and get ready right by this bench.  You can see some of the runs on the mountain straight ahead.

 Here is the bench where all the wheelers get ready and get into their rigs.  It is pretty cool out here because you are never the only one out on a sit rig.  Most people have seen one of us before and it is not uncommon to see five or six wheelchairs with nobody in them around this bench.

 This is the First Time Lift.  I usually ride from The National Ability Center to this lift and then ride it up and it is easier than hiking up to the lifts that go higher on the mountain.  It is a pretty good set up.  You can see the GoPro Camera attached to my helmet in the shadow.  It is a pretty cool piece of equipment.

Great Week

We as an AmeriCorps team did a service project last week on Wednesday.  We had to sort through cans and make sure it was sorted correctly.  It was a good service project.  Each month we all do a group service project in the community.  This was mine to coordinate.  I have done some volunteer hours with this organization and it was a good time to get everybody together.

Sunday we had a group called One Step come in for the week.  They are a group of cancer survivors from the Chicago area.  They have either survived their bout with cancer or are still going through treatment.  I was able to teach ski lessons to students throughout the week.  They went skiing for five days.  It was the best week of my teaching out here.  I had Matt for the first 2.5 days of the week.  He is in a mono ski and his goals were to do double blacks.  After I read his goals I almost got sick but we worked on some skills for the first few days and then he went with another instructor who was willing to do some crazy terrain.  I did not feel up to that challenge of skiing and teaching at the same time and still staying alive.

Here is Matt.  Here is my nose after a good face plant while catching an edge on one of our black runs.  I was beyond frustrated in skiing that day but what is skiing without a few marks on your face.

On Tuesday afternoon I was able to switch students and I was able to ski with some beginner students.  Ryan was a never-ever skier and Andrew was here last year.  By the end of the week we were skiing some really good black runs with really good tight controlled turns.  This week was a blast and a great week of teaching and working with students.

Here is one last shot of Jonathan from England, myself, Matt the crazy mono skier and Alma who is another instructor.  It was a week full of good skiing, good laughs and a great time shared by all.

My Life in Park City

I woke up this Sunday morning with the only intention of showering, going to church, running some errands, napping and then watching the Super Bowl.  I was right on track when I was running my errands and then I looked up at the sky and the sun and the runs on the ski slopes and the napping went right out the window.  I got done with church around 12:30 and I got back to my house around 1:00.  I got changed and I was on the slopes at 1:45.  For all you skiers and snowboarders out there I am not telling you this to make you feel jealous but go ahead and be jealous because this is awesome!  You can come out any time and take advantage of my great floor space and great location to get on the slopes.  Here are some sweet pictures and videos of some of the stuff I was able to do this week.

On Wednesday I had a little break and went and worked out with the NAC team members on the GS race course.  I made it all the way through the course one time and received lots of good pointers.  It was awesome.  You can see one of the guys at the bottom of the course with the gates set above him.

On Thursday I was able to go check out the qualifying aerial competition at Deer Valley.  The World Competition was here and they did aerials, dual moguls and ski and snowboard half pipe.  I was able to see a piece of all of them.  Here are the aerials.

Here is a video.  They are so high off these jumps.  It is amazing.

On Friday you could see the half pipe competitions from the chair lift that we ride to teach lessons.  Here is a shot of one of the skiers on the bottom of the pipe.

Friday evening was the dual mogul competitions.  Just looking at the course gave me the goosebumps.  Just look at the pitch and then look at the bumps and then think about how bad your knees would hurt after just one run. 

Here I am at the end of the night.  It was cold but a very good time for sure.

I was on my way to help out with a group for hockey on Saturday and I have seen these guys kite boarding before, but I stopped to get a picture.  They strap a kite to themselves and use the wind to board.  It is pretty crazy to watch.  They do jumps and stuff in the air as well.

Until next time don't be too jealous of my awesome life during the winter in Park City.  It is way too busy to take a nap but I got two hours of sweet runs on the mountain this afternoon and then a pretty good football game as well!

Car Bummer!

I went skiing on Sunday afternoon and was getting into my car when I had the bright idea to clean it out after I put my ski rig into the car.  I was planning on bringing my rig home to put a shoulder strap on it that one of the ski team members told me to try.  I was all set to go and had cleaned out my trunk and shut my hatch...That is when my Sunday took a dive!  I had to go to Salt Lake to pick up a shoulder strap.  It is about a thirty minute drive but when I shut my back hatch the broom did this to my window...

What a bummer huh?  I still had to go to Salt Lake when it looked like this.  This is after one shut of the back hatch.

At least the mountains looked good in the valley looking up!

This is a nice view from my rear view mirror.  that was after two shuts of the back hatch.  By the time all the bumps were done and I had it parked at my house it was worse.  I shut it really hard before the repair guy came out and fixed it just to take some aggression out on that stupid broom.  After that I only had about an inch of shattered glass all the way around.

It has been super cold this week and I got asked to attend a leadership conference today sponsored by Park City.  It was a history of Park City and how the city runs from the mayor to the superintendent of schools to the tourist director.  It was a cool day.  I was glad I was able to go and save my bum from freezing on the ski slopes. 

I have been a bit of a slacker on the blog.  I will try to snag some sweet pictures this coming week.  The World Ski Championships are here in Park City this week so I will see if I can get some good pictures.