Parade for the Park City Olympians

A local parade is our small town's way of showing how much we appreciate our local Olympians. Julie, Jasper and I went down to Main Street this afternoon to watch the celebration.  It was sunny this morning.  It is sunny now.  During the parade?  Snow. It figures.  Springtime in Park City.

While the parade was to honor our local Olympians, all the Park City kids on winter sports teams got to be in the parade as well.  In a town of 8,000 people, it seems the 7,500 of them are kids who competitively ski, luge, jump, figure skate, or something related.

The first to come by was Stein Eriksen, the namesake of the renowned Stein Eriksen lodge in Deer Valley.  He won gold and silver medals in the 1952 Olympics (giant slalom and slalom).

Stein is 86 now and we don't see him out skiing anymore, but he is still a deeply rooted part of the Park City community.  ... and no, his hair never moves.

Joss Christensen, Freeskiing Gold medalist.

Not sure I caught who is who, but in this group were some bobsledders, a figure skater and a speed skater. Apologies for no names...

Sage Kotsenburg, Snowboarding Slopestyle Gold medal.  You might remember him.  He won his competition by landing a trick (1620 Japan Grab) he had never tried before.  Nice time to give it a shot.

Right after the Olympics were held in Sochi, the Paralympics were held in the same venues.  We have a wonderful facility here called the National Abilities Center, where people with physical and mental disabilities can participate in activities like skiing, wake boarding, cycling and many others.  They have a big program going now with wounded vets.

While a lot of the NAC participants are happy just getting to be a part of these activities, they also have some very serious, Olympic caliber athletes.   I think there were about a dozen NAC athletes competing in Sochi.

It is really amazing to live in a town where you can have a parade with less than half the local Olympians (past and present) show up, and still have a pretty lengthy parade.  It was fun getting to pay honor to their efforts and achievements.

Thank you Snow Gods

Julie and I were supposed to go skiing in Colorado this week with some friends from Raleigh, but we had to back out of that.  Thankfully, the snow gods took mercy on us and brought 24 inches of snow to Deer Valley over the last three days.  Spring can be so weird. The nicest part is that they were only forecasting a few inches, so yesterday when we woke to nine inches and it was still pounding, it is like Christmas come early.

This first photo is from skiing on Monday. Nice and sunny with some wispy clouds.

Tuesday was more of a snow fest.  Visibility came and went as the day went on. The snow just kept on falling.

Julie is ripping it up.

 Tough to see in the low light, but she has a huge grin on her face.  You just can't beat surprise powder days!

Sage grousing

A few months ago, a group of people in the greater Park City metropolitan area got together and formed the Summit Photography Group. I did a first cut at their web site and ended up on the advisory board. That has given me a chance to get to know another local photographer, Michael Flaherty. He lives right next to the Swaner Nature Preserve and does a lot of great photography work with them and for them.

He had never been out to the Sage Grouse lek, so we packed up yesterday morning for a visit.  Because it was a Saturday, there were a lot of other photographers and birders there, some of which felt the need to get out of theirs cars, so the birds were further off than I would have liked.

I have talked about this several times on my blog, but a quick recap.  A grouse lek is where the males and females meet each morning during the spring to find mates.  The men do elaborate dancing and displaying in the hopes of catching a female's attention (and lust).

Sometimes I think they get a bit overeager and a little pushy.

This is one of the females leaving the area.  I just liked the snowy mountains in the background.  Tough to get them flying because it is early in the morning and the light is limited.  You can't crank up the shutter speed as much as you would like to.

Hoping to get out and take a number of photo trips with Michael.  Great guy!

Happy day. Sad day.

We have had a wonderful family renting our condo for the last three and a half years.  Sally, Monty and Hannah are great friends and fantastic tenants. Today they moved out, at least the bulk of things.

 While we won't get to see them in our driveway as often, they only moved about 200 yards down the street, to a house they just finished building.

Now we are going to do some minor remodeling and painting in the condo to make everything spiffy again.

We will miss having them so close, but they are still not much further than a good snowball huck.

The ski rack

This is what it looks like in our garage when we have a lot of skiing company.

OK, not really.  This is what our garage looks when we don't have any company at all. Julie and I demoed a number of skis this winter and with the year end sales, each just bought a pair.  The good news is that two old pairs will get sold at next year's ski swap. In Julie's defense, I am the worst offender.  Doesn't everyone need a pair of normal all mountain skis, some race skis, and some powder pigs?

Canyons Pond Skimming - 2014

This weekend it was time for one of our favorite Park City events, the Canyons Spring Gruv Pond Skimming.  If you haven't seen this in previous years of my blog, pond skimming involves trying to ski or board across an ice cold, 2-3 foot deep "pond".  Everyone is in costume and as you will see, some are quite elaborate.

The concept is simple.  You start about two hundred yards up the ski hill, run down carefully managing your speed, and then hit the water.  You lean back, but not too far back.  With coordination and balance, some make it all the way across the pond.  In reality, most don't.

While some people do very simple "10 minutes of thought" costumes, lots of them are very creative.  For anyone who has seen the TV show Breaking Bad, you will recognize this character and his tray full of blue meth.

Not sure what this guy was dressed as, but he is showing what happens when you start leaning forward.

... and it doesn't end well.

This guy didn't get all the way across, but his balance was so good that he was able to drink whiskey from a bottle as he skied across.  The RIP Shane probably refers to Shane McConkey, a famous extreme skier who died.

You can either go off a one foot drop or take the little jump.  Of course, the more exciting ones come from the jump.  Most doing the jump strive for big air, which is always followed by a big splash.  This guy had a much more athletic approach.

 Even with such a small jump, he managed to turn a 360 in the air.

 Coming back around.

 and landing it smoothly.

 Smoothly, but unfortunately with just a bit too much forward lean.

I said that big air from the jump means a big splash.  Here is the one clear exception. She got a good jump and some good, but not great air.

She lands it smoothly.

 And rides it right on out.  For grace, I don't think anyone matched her efforts.

I am not sure why this Panda has a cape and blue smoke coming from his poles.  Perhaps something from kid's TV?   Perhaps just really weird?

Now this is how a lot of people came off the jump.  Big and with little regard for their bodies.

 Notice the ski flying through the air. I'm not sure this was what ski binding makers had in mind.

I am not sure how this guy successfully skied down to the jump.  As soon as he went off the jump, both skis dropped off and he did his best Superman impersonation.

If you look closely, you'll see that this guy is built like Superman, making him one of the female crowd favorites.

We've seen what leaning forward can do to you.  Here's what happens when you go a bit too far back.

 You start with a forceful enema.

And then you get smacked on your butt with your own skis.  Not many style points awarded for this one.

I would have to give this guy the prize for the smoothest pond crossing.  Dressed in lederhosen, he's carrying a beer.

He made it look easy and didn't spill a drop. He popped up onto the far bank and chugged his beer.

A group came down, one after another.  The guy in the air clearly has no hope of landing in a way that can keep him upright.

I included his picture because this was probably the biggest splash of the day. I'm guessing 25-30 feet.

This one started looking ok.

 But he was rolling backwards too slowly for a back flip and too quickly for a happy landing.

 I was pretty sure he wouldn't recover from this position.

 and that was correct.

Every year there is at least one effort that goes way beyond all others.  This year it was Pinocchio, Geppetto, and a cricket on their boat, being chased by Terrible Dogfish.

 Geppetto took a fall as they got close to the water.  Not a good idea with Dogfish right behind.

The fact that the giant fish was going off the jump was just too much to watch.

 Not a lot of air, but at least the cricket got clear.

 Because Geppetto was dragging the ground, the boat never even made it all the way into the water.  That's kind of ironic.

The "spout" was created by a large fire extinguisher, routed up to the blowhole.   Now he looks like Sad Crazy Dogfish.

Fortunately, this guy was right near the end.  You can tell he has a lot more speed than most of the competitors.

 Then he cut hard.

One of the downsides of having a camera to your eye is that you don't see the water coming until it is too late. Glad I always have a cleaning cloth in my pocket.

Also glad it was a beautiful sunny day.