Spring Ski Touring

We have endless amounts of footage from these past few weeks of ski touring in the back country. (But I won't bore you with all of it) Brandon has been exploring and then bringing me along to share in the fun. We get tons and tons of fresh turns all to ourselves. But it's not easy getting there- a good 2-3 hours "hike" up on our skis with "skins" on the bottom that help grip the snow as we travel up the mountain gets us to those wide open spaces.

While others are cursing Mother Nature as she delivers storm after storm when they want it to be warm and springy, we have been loving it! Utah has almost 200% of normal snowpack levels thus far and if May warms up too fast we're looking at major flooding problems this year. As for now- let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Weekend Warriors

If we have a weekend to get away, we all vote on going to Zion! We got a permit to do a slot canyon and things couldn't have turned out more perfectly! Here we are at the petroglyph spot. This place is special to me because the last time I was here last summer my Uncle Al showed us the way here. I felt his presence with us the entire time we were there.

We were the only 5 people in the entire canyon, which starts on the east side of the park and comes out above the Zion Lodge. (Lodge Canyon) Emily, Nick, Brandon, me and Anthony. We were a great team.

Loving the 75 degree weather. This weekend marked the 2 year anniversary of Em's "non-wedding" in Zion.

This was a first for me! Southern Utah has received very heavy snowfall this winter and there is still snow in this canyon! We skied down this chute- Brandon got first tracks.

Emily didn't want to risk injuring her knee, less than 3 months post-op ACL repair, so she slid down on her butt!

Lunch break.

We found a really cool cave in a side canyon and went up to explore for a bit.

It was nice to get out of the sun for a while.

Double-rope rappels.

Our fearless leader.

Nick on the spectacular last rappel over the hanging garden. A beautiful oasis in the desert. 8 hours after we started we hiked out and made it as quickly as we could to the Zion Pizza & Noodle. We were staaaaarving! Such a fun trip with fun people! We can't wait to go back again!

One Spring day...

Spring in Utah is hit and miss- luckily before the late spring snow we enjoyed some lovely days!

College roommates. Sammie now has 2 kids and 1 on the way.

Piper and Ryker- the cutest kids I know!

Piper, this beauty looks just like her mom.

Isn't he a heart breaker already? I wish they lived closer!