Sebastian hucking a backflip off the Tram deck while his father is home cursing up a storm.

Chris Gray and the FWT guide Bruno for probably saving a life.  So here we are, waiting underneath the Tram face for the first male competitor to start when a good size slab breaks loose from the hanging snow field, cascading hundreds of feet down the main cliff face.  Puckered up and in a bit of shock the organizer calls off the comp for the day.

Shannon Yates, long time fellow snowboard competitor, has been slaying it all season. Shannon has collected four, yeah FOUR, samurai swords by now and will begin a Ninja Training Academy in Salt Lake.  After winning the North Face Masters in Kirkwood, making her the tour Champion, she hustled to Squaw and kept the ball rolling.  Good on ya girl!

As for me, third place.  Verbier in two weeks.  Taking the train home to see my little sis. Snowboarding around the world is cool but family and friends still take the cake. Especially when your family will wear wigs for no reason at all.

The quiet white guy whose been on the train since MONDAY!!!! and told me the story of the person that tried to kill himself by jumping in front of the train in Cleveland but the train was moving so slow at the moment it was able to stop in time. Oh, the party is growing. Blue Moon and Budweiser is the breakfast of choice. One man, the teacher, as he has been referred to, has enough gold in his grille I could have sold his chops for a private leer jet to and from my front door. From time to time the “proper” family walks thru this zone, that’s good for a giggle.

Word on the track is that Leslie Nelson, from Airplane and Naked Gun, is riding in the private cabin section. The gentleman next to me is sketching a cartoon version of his travels and it’s damn good. I’ve met a fire fighter, a young man from MT competing in the North Face Masters this weekend, a few little brats and guess who showed up – LISA! Yeah, my crazy girlfriend from Aspen that joined me in Europe last year! The coolest part about the train is that everyone is different yet so friendly. You look out for your homies on the train and get to know your neighbors. There’s always “the creepy one” who gets busted for being shady.

The worst part is that I have to clean the bathroom before I can use it. The best part is I have all access to my baggage. I’ve changed cloths, adjusted my bindings, and modified my boots all while traveling. You could bring an AK and a pound a weed on this trip and no one would ever know, or care.

Our highlights included dinner at Sebastian’s parents place, off piste skiing where everyone stays on piste (we found pow a week after the last snowfall!),

GIANT calzones stuffed with a salad

and more adult amusement park rides such as this covered magic carpet:

Since the snow is somewhat crap Janina and I decided to skin up the mountain one day for a little huffin’ and puffin’.  I came across this tree house/smoke shack/hunter’s perch.

With strategic perfection Jackie, Liz and I did a final pack of three chics and all thier gear into a teeny tiny Toyota to make the long drive back to Geneva, Switzerland where Jackie and I depart back to the States and Liz finally returns to her working husband.

Topping it off in style, all the ladies, decked out in leather coats with attitudes to match, postpone our good byes with a shopping spree!  To the cheapest store we could find, of course, because after all, we are ski bums.

went to bed, played a bit of the hurry up and wait game, hiked to the top, (which was phenomenal!)

and within five minutes of reaching the summit I was ordered to go. Had a challenging line-really trying to push my own comfort level with the whole hucking off cliffs thing. Got lost, jumped anyway, rag dolled over some rocks, smashed my behind, got over it and enjoyed watching everyone else rip it up. Saw some really impressive lines from the ladies. Didn’t check out much more of the mountain because we had to be at the bottom just after the competition but it looked as if it had great potential. Seems the more East I travel in the Alps the less people ski off piste! A dream come true!

Glu Vin is another way to say “hot wine” and it is my FAV! Few cups of that started off the evening. Three bottles of Vodka between 8 people was the appetizer, off to the bar where we were entertained by an AWESOME HAIR BAND!!!! The 80’s birthday party in the Butte must have leaked across the pond. Rocked out to AC/DC, Metallica, White Stripes, G N’ R, you name it.  Yes, there was stage diving.  Next morning census was a 9.8 score for the Fieberbrunn after party.

The travel posse increased from three to six as we made our way back toward Mayrhoffen, Austria to hang out with the Kuzma twins for a few days. We were stopped for about an hour for a Carnival Parade. What I understand is that it’s Austria’s winter break for school kids and also a Mardi Gras celebration! Liz and I have been seeing full on costumes on the slopes; chickens, pigs, cows, doctors, crazy wigs, and this whole time we just thought it was silly Euros. Anyway, the parade was HYSTERICAL! About as politically incorrect and offensive as it gets-like the Butte when parades were fun. It began with the street sweepers harassing the onlookers.  PS. The baby is smoking a cigarette…

Then we saw twenty plus Michael Jackson’s grabbing their balls and dragging a coffin thru the streets. Behind them was a sadistic doctor with a pile of drugs!

It’s sunny and the snow is not so great so it’s time to tour, finally. I’ve carried my dang split board all over Europe so I’m really excited to climb up for a change.

Liz has decided to be the pampered wife that she is, skip out on the only two days of work she has and rally with me across Europe. We drove 7 hours to Austria and only got lost once! So there we are sitting in the rider’s meeting and they announce there will be a tele competition. Liz’s eyes brighten up and she says, “I can do that!” Next morning she’s renting tele gear and going for it. And I thought I was flying by the seat of my pants.

Competition went fantastic for me. Never been so nervous-does that come with age, WTF, I don’t like it. Cure was a phat sandwich and a Red Bull, which actually calms me down, while the ladies all waited for the men to go first. I was determined to jump off a freaking real cliff already. Had two picked out but couldn’t find the take off for the first. Stalled a bit one the second because I thought I was lost, cliff looked bigger and there was no take off. Did it, looked up and realized it’s exactly where I wanted to be. So next goal, jump without stalling. Oh, did I mention to get to the start they stop the tram above the venue and you rappel out of the tram door! Euros are wild. I love it.

Here is a picture of the venue and then a “close up” from the top.  It was BIG and rather involved.  Kinda like 10 Hour Glasses stacked on top of each other.

So Holly-can you get this job.  Fly film crew and photographers around for four hours and when someone crashes save their lives?

The party was a blast. Good DJ, lots of weak drinks, dancing with the ladies…and of course, at some point, only in Europe, men take off their shirts instead of the ladies.

Toke a chill day yesterday and on a walk in the woods came across a kids training camp for ski jumping. So cute to watch a four foot little girl with six foot long skis fly 40 feet in the air. If she can do it so can I damn it!

After packing the match stick size car full with three peeps, a dog that smelled like poop, and all of our equipment we headed to Courchevel.  Naturally, we stopped at Mitch’s place (the french exchange patroller from last year) for a little drinkie poo. Mitch follows the traditions of his family in distilling Genepi, a french digestif, curing whole ham in salt for a year, canning duck parfait, soaking prunes in grain alcohol, and many other cool old school ways of making your own food and booze.

The next day we went on the three valley tour of Courchevel.  Quite the plethora of chairs, pomas, gondola, trams and other amusement park like rides on the slopes. Today I’m nursing a sore knee from too much hard pack.  Picky, old, I don’t care what the excuse, this girl needs powder.  Good thing it’s snowing!

The first stop for the FWT was in Sochi, Russia but only the men were invited. Snow continued during the entire week up north so they never got to run the event. Second stop (first for the ladies) was on the Hotel face in Brevent. Brevent alone is about the size of Vail and is just one small section of the Chamonix ski area. I will have spent five days riding here and covered, oh, about 10%. The snow is fantastic and I’m very lucky to be here at a time when you can ski to the valley floor. Every good run is it’s own little adventure.  Jarkko, one of the judges, led us down this powder filled couloir:

The competition day was FREEZING and blue skies. Conditions were not optimal on the south facing side and my stubborn ass insisted on riding this little dogleg thru a cliff band. So the line won the comp (for the male snowboarders as well) but lesson learned, pow will always look better and maybe you oughta ride some of it. Jess McMillian changed her line last minute for this exact reason and was glowing ear to ear by the time she reached the finish line. I only got to watch four men because the hike to the start was about an hour, however, I did see some on the big screen during the awards in the Chamonix Square. WOW! Candide Thovex’s line was SICK! He was skiing so fast that you’ve gotta have a good I to catch the avalanche he set off in the middle of his line. Check it out http://www.freerideworldtour.com/en/multimedia/videos/contest-lines.php

This guy has been around for 20 years in Cham.  I like him.

Now I’m off the Courchevel with Mark and Liz Ewing. They are here from CB ski patrol on exchange. Yesterday we had a killer exploratory day at Grand Montet. I am really looking forward to drinking Mitch’s homemade Génépi, a french digestif. Wikipedia says each mountaineer has his own “secret” recipe for Génépi, but the rule of thumb for each liter is 40 flowers, 40 g sugar, 40 percent alcohol by volume. Pretty, sweet, and intoxicating-sound good to me!

When in Rome…

The four flights to France went super smooth. Rode Brevent today-the venue location. It could use a fresh coat. Hopefully we get it. Contest to go off Sat. or Sunday. My bad luck with phones followed me to Europe and my “global phone” that doesn’t work in the US or Europe says it’s Sun, Jan. 7th at 4:30 am. Will Bromelsek, my current roommate, and I walked two miles in the wrong direction yesterday looking for dinner after long flights (he came from Russia). So between my awesome sense of direction and my dependable phone I’m sure to show up at the right time, right place, and ride in the right direction. GO GRAVITY!!! All in the name of adventure.

Chamonix Brevent Venue

Chamonix Valley

Remind your snowmobile who’s boss,

dress up in your favorite ski outfit,

go climbing where it is warm,

and train for lift evacuations in a controlled, unrealistic situation.