Day Trip To Cypress

Continuing on our skiing trips over February break, Dad, Jack, and Henry went up to Cypress Mountain outside of Vancouver for a quick day trip. The snow was much thicker and packed down. It's a very nice facility (was built up for the 2010 Olympics). All in all, a great day on the slopes!

Henry outside the main lodge

Quick video of Jack skiing while Dad rides the lift above

Weekend Trip to Bend

Rather than taking a week-long vacation this February break, we split up our time and did a long weekend and a few day trips. Jack and Henry had the week of 2/20 off but Joseph had the following week off.

For the first weekend, we went down to Bend, Oregon (about a six hour drive) for a three-day weekend. We had gone once before, a little more than four years ago, when the focus was exploring and doing some hiking (here's the old blog post). This time it was almost all about skiing - Mount Bachelor is a half-hour away and has some great skiing.

Lots of photos from the trip!

Early morning snow in downtown Bend

Getting ready to hit the slopes

In line for the 9:00 opening of Pine Martin lift

Snow covered trees on the lift

It was quite stormy up on the mountain part of the time we were there ...

 ... though we also saw glimpses of blue sky

Henry taking a rest on a particularly exhausting run

Mary Jo and John went show-shoeing the last day

Big rainbow over our hotel before we left

Jack Plays Photographer at Mission Ridge

Jack finished his one-semester photography class at the end of January. In early February, we went up to Mission Ridge to ski and he borrowed Dad's nice DSLR camera to take some nice shots from the top of the slopes.

Snow Day(s) !

Sunday night, February 5th, a snowstorm rolled into Seattle! We don't get much snow in Seattle, but we wound up with about eight inches from the storm - the most we've gotten since we moved here seven years ago. School was closed for two days, as the snow turned to ice on the roads. Our road remained unplowed and John and Mary Jo weren't able to get out to work for a couple of days. We also lost power for about twelve hours on Monday, making for a cold house, and no internet service!

View from our deck with all the snow!

Henry helped shovel out the driveway

SE 43rd Street was a sheet of ice

2017 Cowboy Up Jim Jack Challenge !

On Saturday, February 4, Jack and Henry competed in their first ski competition, the 5th Annual Jim Jack Challenge at Stevens Pass.

This was a competition not a race, judged based on five criteria: line choice (how difficult of a path the skier takes), control, fluidity, technique, and style.

The run goes down steep double-black-diamond slope (Rock Garden), which takes each skier about 2-3 minutes to ski. There were 100 entrants, across three age groups (U12, 12-14, and 15-18). Since it's based on your age on Jan 1, Jack squeaked in to the 12-14 group.

It was a long day, with the competition delayed by fog for about an hour eight skiers before they went. Both Henry and Jack did a really good job, managing turns, jumps, and dealing with moguls and lots of powder down through the course.

From the bottom of the competition - announcing tent to the left,
the course is to the right. Judges were behind this.

Dad's phone died as he tried to video Henry. Mom was able to get a short video of the end of Henry's run: