Back to the Classroom

Tonight was the first night of the Avalanche Level 1 Certification course with Exum Mountain Guides. I think I'm going to like this course alot. It's right up my alley with being a nice combination of science and the great outdoors. It was also a good feeling to be back in the classroom; I actually kind of miss it.

As you can imagine with taking an Avy (note: short for Avalanche) course in a ski town, the classroom structure is pretty lax. Instead of being a formal, strict lecture, the instruction style is more like an interactive conversation between the instructors and the students. Instructors loosely follow their notes and obviously depend more on their own related experiences, while students effortlessly chime in with their questions and/or experiences so that the whole group gains from the conversation.

So far, I'm impressed with the quality of the instructors. The life of Ron Matous, who is the main instructor, appears to revolve around avalanches. Besides having impressive mountaineering and backcountry skiing achievements, he can vividly describe and accurately explain the source of any avalanche in the states of Wyoming, Utah or Colorado that date as far back as the late '70s and either personally touched his life or was written about in the local paper. It's a privilege to be learning from someone of his caliber and that lives, breathes and shares all that he knows on this subject so that other people can also enjoy backcountry skiing in a safe way.

In addition to Ron, Jim Woodmencey is a weather forecaster for an Alaskan Heli Skiing company, as well as THE local weather forecaster for the unpredictable and often changing weather of the Tetons. Last but not least is Nat Patridge, who is a co-founder of the well-respected Exum Mountain Guide service and has years of guiding clients on high-adrenaline heli ski trips in Alaska and Jackson.

Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

Today, I received an unexpected package from Laura and Koda. They made me homemade dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies, where Koda was the official taste tester and quality control inspector for every stage of the batter. Besides being the perfect antidote for a stubborn cold, they are delicious.

If anyone else wants to send me a care package (hint! hint!), my mailing address is:
John McMahon
P.O. Box 14722
Jackson, WY 83002

Not only will you keep me eating well, but you too will become famous!

SCORE: Mother Nature 1, John 0

The last few days have been frustrating for me. I have a cold that has been keeping me off the slopes. I must've caught a bug from this recent coldspell that won't let go of its strong grip on me.

The weather has been brutal lately, as the average high has been 5°F and the average low has been -5°F. Note: you're not misreading these figure. It has been this cold. Just to give you an idea, your throat burns when you walk outside. Hopefully, drinking plenty of fluids and taking it easy within my warm apartment will do the trick and get me back on the road to recovery in no time.

Temperature Inversions

Temperature inversions happen quite often in Jackson. It's an interesting phenomenon because a warmer, less dense air mass moves over a cooler, more dense air mass. An inversion can be simply described as "when a section of the atmosphere becomes warmer as the elevation increases", as explained on csun.edu. In this part of the country, the warm air hovers at the mountain tops and above, while the cold air lays in the valley. For example, today's weather forecast for the ski resort includes an upper-mountain temperature of 30°F and a base temperature of 19°F.

Furthermore, an inversion "occurs in the vicinity of warm fronts, and also in areas of oceanic upwelling such as along the California coast. With sufficient humidity in the cooler layer, fog is typically present below the inversion cap. An inversion is also produced whenever radiation from the surface of the earth exceeds the amount of radiation received from the sun, which commonly occurs at night, or during the winter when the angle of the sun is very low in the sky. This effect is virtually confined to land regions as the ocean retains heat far longer.", as stated on Wikipedia.

Besides low lying cloud formations in Jackson, temperature inversions are responsible for severe thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, tornadoes in the midwestern US states, the polluted air of Los Angeles, and the rolling fog of San Francisco.

GO GIANTS!

As some of you know, the NY Giants won their NFL playoff game today against the Dallas Cowboys. It was a close game and came down to the wire. In the end, it was the Giants' defense and a few dropped passes by the Cowboys that made the difference in the game.

Since I don't have cable TV yet (or even the basic TV channels because I couldn't find a clear signal with a set of Rabbit ear antennas), I watched the game at Sidewinders Tavern with a Snake River Brewing Company Pale Ale and a mixture of locals and tourists. To my surprise, there were plenty of people routing for the Giants and bringing the obnoxious New Yorker charm to the few Dallas supporters. I was happy to be at the right place.

The Green Bay Packers are the only team that now stand in the Giants' way of making the Super Bowl. Go Giants!

70 inches in the past 10 days!!!

It keeps on snowing and feels like it won't stop. What a feeling! I truly am living in a skier's paradise.

I love La Nina snow years!!! "The La Nina phenomenon, the so-called evil twin sister of El Nino, which also affects global climate, [brings] more than the usual amount of cold and snow", says Dawn Walton of globeandmail.com. There have been fresh tracks (aka untouched fresh snow) every day for the past 10 days, which included two overnight, 14-inch dumps. And, there's light, slightly chopped up knee-deep powder where there aren't fresh tracks. These conditions have made the first two weeks of 2008 memorable for all skiers experiencing them.

I'm off to the slopes for my 21st day of the season. In the meantime, keep praying to the snow gods for me. And, think snow!

Riding in Style

In my short time in this world, I've learned that knowing the right people always pays off sooner or later. The start of today's ski day reinforced this belief. Thanks to Sean's co-worker, we rode in style to a chairlift that was halfway up the mountain in a snowmobile drawn sled with seats and saved ourselves crucial time on a 14" powder day. It was definitely a first and probably not a last because the right people wouldn't have it any other way.

Also, I got my car back today from the body shop! Even though it wasn't too bad depending on my friends and the local bus system to get to/from the mountain for the past few days, it's nice to be able to come and go as I please again. When I picked up the car, I felt like I just bought it because the accident happened so long ago and the car looked great. My initial thought was, "Where should I drive it? Anywhere will do." Needless to say, I'm relieved to have the whole accident behind me now.