A December to Remember???? More like one to forget

This has been one crazy month; being more productive than I’ve ever been, chainsaw warfare, long days, cold nights, and no snow.  Yeah I’ll repeat that; no snow.  I didn’t see this as the way I would close out 2011. 

But I can say that as of today we are finally done with tree work for the year.   Typically, and our own plans, we were to be done the week leading up to Thanksgiving.  And by all means we thought that’s what would have happened; the lifts at Snowbasin started to turn, the WROD (white ribbon of death) assault on the legs had begun and I was smiling as the chain saws were hung up in the storage with care, not a tree was stirring, not even above a house.  But then one frightful Wednesday night, the wind began hollowing, the wind lasted all night.  And then destruction loomed then next day and night, to last all month.  Ok enough of the Christmas story rhyming and on to the details.  We had a wind event to say the least, some have called it Windmageddon.  The county I live in got pummeled.  We had 65 mph wind gusts up to 102 mph wind gusts for an eighteen hour period.  The main victim, pine trees, any and all types.  Since the root system is very shallow in the ground and small in comparison to the tree, they didn’t have a chance against the winds.  Most were just pushed over, but many were snapped at some point of the trunk.  The devastation caused by all of the falling trees was incredible and vast.  Trees on top of homes, cars, power lines, you name it.  There were semi-trucks getting blown over on the freeway.  I saw trampolines flying across the highway (which was kind of funny).  It seemed that maybe 50% of the pine trees in the county went down.  All in all it was crazy.  Seth received over sixty calls on that Thursday.  Needless to say we knew we were going to be busy for the next few weeks.  We took a few days off the real jobs to focus on getting peoples home ready for power and clean up.  We worked ten straight days late into the night cleaning everything up.  You could hear chainsaws going throughout the night all throughout the county as if it was a war zone.  As we are now done there still remains a few clean up jobs out there, but we are tired, and we need rest.

However, I am yet to receive any.  I just got back from a whirlwind trip home for Christmas.  My travels started with a 4am wake up on Christmas Day for a 6am flight back to Madison.  It wasn’t so bad as the first flight was quite spacious with all fifteen of us.  I was good to be in Madison and great being with the family, especially my eight month old nephew Beckett.   I ran all over with my family and also was able to hang out with family numero dos, the Kraemers, for two nights.  It’s great to be with my best friend Joey, his wife, and his parents.   We chatted, talked, enjoyed fine Wisconsin microbrew beers, played games, and hung out just as we have done for years. 

Coming back to Utah happened after the furious annual Romashko Rummi Royale between my mother and me.  Unfortunately this year’s battle was put on hold during the third and final round as we ran out of time before my flight.  We’ll finish later on to determine who the better rummi player is. 

But for now I’ll return to dreaming and praying for snow during this fourth worst winter of the past 40 years, while waiting for my Kylies to arrive.  Of how I can’t wait to mount those up and take them for a spin.  Enjoy the random pictures.  Until next time.

Windmageddon Damage

Ice climbing with Clint (First time out in almost 3 years)

Home for Christmas

The Beard

New Sponsorship - Grace Skis

I said in my last post that I had an exciting announcement about my new ski sponsorship, and this is it.  I've been chosen to represent Grace Skis as their male telemark athlete.  Let me tell you that this is a great opportunity for me, not only to represent this company, but to be apart of something special, and I mean that.  This company is truly going to set itself above the rest, and it has barely even started to touch its potential. 

Grace Skis was founded with a vision to build a high performance, durable, big mountain freeride skis for the informed skier, meaning designing skis for the skiers that are the top one percenters, those that are pushing themselves, their limits, and their skis' limits to the top.  And that is exactly what I want, and who I want to be associated with.  It's not about getting free gear.  It's about working with a group of like minded individuals, giving feedback on the product, promoting something you truly appreciate, sharing ideas on progressing the company, the skis, and the team.  I've always wanted to get in with a small or new company and become ingrained, getting a chance to prove myself and use my talents to help in whatever way I can. 

The turning point in deciding between the various companies I was actively pursuing agreements with came down to talking directly with the company founder.  During our conversation, Dave took more than an hour out of his busy schedule to intimately tell me about his vision, his struggles, his successes, and his quest in following his passion.  Out of all the companies I've worked with and talked with, it was this conversation that set the highest tone and created the greatest desire in me to be associated with a company, even one that is just getting started.  One of the most respectable things in my eyes as I try to establish myself in my career and my business, is when one ventures out from behind the walls of their comfort box to pursue their passion, which is what Dave is doing.

Grace Skis is being run 100% in-house with the skis being designed, prototyped, tested, marketed, etc.  And Grace Skis is putting out a great product with incredible advances in ski technology.  The staple ski for Grace is the Kylie Y180 core.  The skis sports a rocker-camber-rocker profile and is utilizing the flip-core technology of pressing the ski with a rotated core 180 degrees lengthwise instead of tradition placement.   Here's a quick peek on it.

 Here's a video interview of Dave detailing his journey and vision for Grace Skis.  Enjoy.

Opening Weekend

It was a really good opening weekend at Snowbasin.  Who wouldn't want to enjoy four days of getting back on the sticks and knocking the rust of your edges?  The resort keeps impressing more and more each year.  This year they brought in a new park specific groomer and absolutely crushed it for the first mini park.  Now I'm not a park guy, but if I was, I would be super stoked for the new layout and the possibilities of what's to come.

I did happen to put together a quick and dirty edit of the weekend activities.  Now this isn't my best work technically and I'm just not that happy with it as nothing really flowed through me as I edited.  And I may have blown a few good shots or two (extremely underplayed) which contributed to the outcome.  But here's the video, and feel free to share it and this site if you feel like doing so.  One more thing, I have an announcement coming up soon about my new ski sponsor.

Still Alive and Still Adventuring

Here’s an update that’s been a long time coming. That being said, it’s also been a very busy, busy year. And it’s finally slowing down just in time for the arrival of winter, which in my neck of the woods has just knocked on the door. I woke up to a wonderfully crisp morning in the 20’s. There was snow in the mountains and frost on the ground. And there is snow making going on at Snowbasin. That makes me really excited, to which I’ll explain more later.

So back to the catching up, it’s been a very good and busy year for Cutting Edge Tree Professionals. We have seen more business come our way this year than the previous season and an half. As we celebrated our two year anniversary, we also scored the largest job we’ve ever had; removal of 36 cottonwood trees and a willow. Now all of the cottonwood trees were in the 70-90 foot high category. We brought in a 60 foot boom lift for the job and combined with my rigging skills and techniques, we were able to get everything down, even those over fences and structures, without having to bring in an 85 foot boom lift. And now that we’ve finished up that job I’m finally starting to feel a little rested. You see it was a bit tiring working 72 plus hour weeks for a month straight and having to go from work to trees and changing in the car for a month. And to think, Seth put in even more hours on site than I did; I know he was exhausted and even happier to be done with the job than myself.

Now onto the exciting news with Snowbasin; the resort decided to put together a freeride team for the upcoming season and I was chosen to fill the telemark slot. It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m glad to be associated with such a good mountain and community. This will be my third season at Snowbasin and by far the most anticipated one for me. My team profile can be seen here.

In addition to Snowbasin, I’ve also started working with another great company, Flylow Gear. I love their products, both pants, jackets, and now finally bibs, oh how I love bibs. Flylow goods are technical, durable, and really stylish. I’m really blessed to have this opportunity to start a relationship with them and hopefully it’ll progress to a full sponsorship throughout the season.

And as for the visual treats, here are a few videos. The first is my promo video I created a few months ago with what little footage of myself I had. I definitely didn’t get much personal filming done this last year with the blood clot.



This is an edit giving a short glimpse into the work Ski Patrol does at Snowbasin. I had a good time creating this one.


And here’s one of stop number two of the Friday Night Lights Rail Jam Series that took place at Snowbasin last year. Another one that I was satisfied with producing.

Ups and Downs of the New Year

I know, I know.  I kept saying that I would post about everything and then I didn't.  It's been quite the busy month and an half let me tell ya.  A lot of good and a lot of not so good things have gone down.

Let's just start this back in December about 2 weeks before Christmas.  Things were going good, I had film projects lined up with Snowbasin, there was fresh snow every few days, I had just taken a new job with ARINC, a definite huge step up from my previous employer of three years, and I was also starting to see a certain woman more frequently.  Things were really good.

Now let's jump to December 21st; minor, very minor knee surgery to clean up some believed torn menicus, which was proving to be a more frequent issue than I could take for a whole season.  I was back at work the next day after surgery and my knee was feeling good.  It was only to be a matter of two weeks off a skiing and then back to training for the.  Good........at least it seemed that way.

Christmas Eve finally came and I hoped on a plane back to Wisconsin.  It'd been a whole year since I had been back and it was good to see my family.  My little niece Masha Mae actually spoke with me and didn't just cry every time that I acknowledge her or looked at her.  YESSS!!! Progress.  She really is a very cute and sweet girl.  I had an awesome Christmas in which my beloved mother got me not one, but two, yes TWO Warrior Nut Huts.  I was sooooo stoked, to the point at which I put one on over my clothes and walked around.  And my thoughtful awesome brother got me this really cool knife, against my mother's advice, which totally surprised me and is used almost everyday.  I was able to head over to visit Jay and Jeanie Kraemer before I left and touch base with my other family.  Every thing was going well, until I had to leave and I realized that 3 1/2 days a year isn't enough time for my family.  At that point I didn't want to leave yet.  I wanted to stay there and take care of my mother's needs with the house, my brother, the dogs, the yard, and whatever else I could do for her.  My mother and I even got in our annual rummy game.  Due to our crazy schedules we decided to head to the airport a little early and play in the lobby before my flight.  Ah, it was good to the soul to beat her in a few quick games and remind her of how well and ruthless she taught me how to play.

But it was really sad and hard saying goodbye, especially as she sat in front of the security area at the airport and watched me the whole way through.  I kept looking back and seeing her loving and concerned eyes watching over me, trying to get one last glimpse of me before I would be gone, heading to my home in Utah.  I couldn't help myself from letting a couple of tears roll down my face as I returned her gaze. 

Now moving onto the following Wednesday,  post-op follow up visit with the Doc. "What's that Alex, your calf really hurts does it? How about when I squeeze here? Wow did you really just hit your head on the ceiling?"  Yeah not good.  I was then sent down to get an ultrasound for a D.V.T., a deep vein thrombosis, or POS blood clot, as it's commonly referred to around my place.  Yeah at the moment the doc confirmed it, even though I knew I had one before the results were read to me because the rad-tech couldn't keep her eyes and demeanor from divulging the truth, I sank.  How does this happen to a fit, active 29 year old?  Why does this have to happen to me, when I'm getting ready to compete this year, when the season is just starting, when I'm to start filming for a with Telemark Skier Mag, when I just started talking to SkiLogik about riding for them?!?!?!?  ARGH!!!!!!

I was absolutely devastated.  When everything was going so, so well, it came crashing down on me....so it seemed.  So you're telling me my knee looks great and it wasn't as bad as once thought, that I'm a healthy person and strong enough to ski, but that there's this little itty bitty thing sitting there in my calf that could kill me if I slip on the ice?!?  Great........no skiing, no lifting, no work, and no hockey.  Now Alex, you have to sit at home for two weeks, shoot this lovenox in your stomach twice a day, not eat any of your favorite greens, and also wear these tights 24 hours a day.  Deal?  Oh do I have a choice?  Haha.......not so funny.  It really bummed me out and was kind of hard to deal with at first.

The good thing that came out of this is the awesome amount of time I was then able to spend with Mercedes.   She decided that she was going to take care of me, keep me company, and keep my spirits up.  This girl drove through a blizzard to come up and make me dinner the day I found out about the clot.  She even brought up her spare TV from the corporate apartment so I could watch movies while I laid around for the first week.  This wonderful woman seriously dedicated the last bit of her vacation to making sure that I was well and comfortable.  But I couldn't let her sit in the house when there was good snow falling in the mountains and had to kick her out a couple of times.  Now I want to talk more about her and how awesome she is, but I'll save that for a later post, one just about her.

So you might be wondering how I got the clot.  Some think that it was the plane ride after surgery that eventually caused it.  But after thinking about it and finally understanding that it was a blood clot causing the pain, and knowing that I had that pain since the very next day after surgery, I eventually put some things together to figure out what happened.  So two days before the surgery I had a bad crash that bruised my calf pretty good.   I dropped a small cliff that I do all the time and dropped it to a surprisingly hard landing, which was due to the slope beneath the cliff naturally sliding under the weight and temperature of the new 10 inches of snow.  So I landed, bounced with the harder than expected surface, rolled forward, came up going backwards, only to have the tails of my skis dive down under the snow surface, get stuck, and throw me backwards over the tops of my boots.  I hurt my calves so bad that I couldn't ski down to the car without unbuckling my boots and also only take a few turns and then stopping to rest.  I couldn't even straightline down the groomer without being overcome with pain.  Now imagine the deep tissue damage that was done, fast forward two days to the surgery, and think about all the broken blood vessels in my calf just waiting to clot up.  And now where was this clots you say?  Well it's right where I bruised my calf, where the boot top jammed into my calf.

So what have I done since then.  Well I have helped Mercedes move into her new apartment, installed a shelf in the laundry room for her, and put up an arc shower rod, spent way too much time at IKEA for my first visit, put furniture together, and shopped for countless other items that she needed to get for her new place.

And just this last weekend I finally got OKed by my physician to go ski some groomers.  Oh how nice that was to not have to work Friday and get to go ski.  I can tell you that it was truly a calming to my spirit.  I needed that more than anything else at the time.  I felt so rejuvenated while trying to use my legs that had not received any ski conditioning for 6 weeks.  And to top it off, I got to ski with Mercedes on Saturday while she worked up at The Canyons.  I skied the first two hours by myself ripping up the groomers and probably going faster than I "should" have, but I was still conservative nonetheless.  Then I got to head all over the mountain with MAV for the next three hours.  It was fun watching her shred and carve all over the mountain.  She made me smile and laugh every time that she tried throwing a shifty or would throw spread eagles with me as we goofed off of the groomers.  What a good day to spend together before having to send her off to Connecticut for two weeks work trip.

Life is good.

Chris and Me in Wisco

The Mother and Me

Family

Mercedes and Me

Trying to smile with my teeth...didn't quite work out.

Snowbasin Friday Night Lights Rail Jam Series Stop 1 Video

I know it's been awhile since my last post.  I have one in the works.  But for now here's an edit of Snowbasin's new rail jam series called Friday Nights Lights.  The comp was held Friday December 17th.


Snowbasin Friday Night Lights Stop 1 from Free 2 Be Productions on Vimeo.