Exceptionally Average

Let the off-season begin! Crowds drop and work dwindles which means parties and adventures increase. It’s been awhile since the last post but for good reason - too much fun to find time to write. 

While writing my last post while on tour in Yellowstone, my homie Tanner Wenzel attended SplitFest - an event to spread the love of split-boarding. I was bummed I couldn’t attend. Reaching the final rides of my current split board, I was hopeful I could show up and test my luck at winning a new board.

Even better than luck is having friends with luck. More importantly friends with luck that only ski. In a raffle Tanner miraculously won a brand new TahoeLab board and gave it to me. Holy crap I have the best friends. Thank you bud. TahoeLab is a new split company hand making boards in Lake Tahoe, CA. I’m pumped to send them photos of their board hopefully ripping down Denali’s summit.

No better way to test the new board than backcountry tour in Grand Teton. From Buck with Denton to Tepee Glacier and the Dike Snowfield with Tanner, I am starting to get the hang of how it rides. While the park is always fun, the skiing has been sub-par. Warm weather and an early spring has brought heavy snow to the valley with few corn cycles. But remember - Jackson is an adult playground. When the swing set is broken there’s always the monkey bars. When the skiing is poor, there’s always climbing, biking, floating, and more. 

The last weeks offered eclectic adventures including ice climbing Teton Canyon, rock climbing the Shield, and biking. Most of us here pride ourselves on being masters of none but exceptionally average at all.

I didn’t grow up with seasons. You could rock climb year round. In Jackson we must diversify and let our outdoor pursuits ebb and flow with the changing weather. Rather than master one activity, we find hobbies for each season. Rather than train excessively for one, we become average at all. It makes for a never ending diverse range of merriment in the woods. I’m not good at any sport. But I try to reach an ability in each sport to enjoy it fully.

Plus we often can combine our passions. We use biking and ice climbing to access skiing. We use skis to access some climbing. And sometimes you’re hiking and just feel like swimming miles across a lake.

David Gonzalez said it best when he proposed how fascinating humans are that we can swim, bike, run, climb at an endurance level no other animal can. Sure many are faster or stronger than us in some realms. But the diversity of ecosystems we can move through is unmatched. An exceptionally average approach to recreation allows us to enter them all. 

My parents came out for several days as well! I have gotten to see them more this year than the previous two thanks to Covid. I love it. From story slam and apres ski vibes to the Hill Climb and critter watching, it was a great week. Thanks mom and dad for the visit. Love you guys!

Speaking of story slam, I placed second again. What a fun event our library supports and what a cool way to get to know the Jackson community. I’ve mentioned story slams on here before and said I’d eventually post one. Here are the recordings of my very first slam a couple years ago plus one more recent. 

Now to the parties. Spring is in the air. The snow may not be optimal but the warm weather, long days, and vitamin D bring out the energy of this town in a different way.

First Quaffing - a literal beer drinking competition.

Next Gin and Juice - a live cover band of hip-hop music. We may not get the big names here in Wyoming but Gin and Juice had to do. It was awesome.

Next Gaper Day. A holiday we look forward to each year. A combination of a party and shit-show mixed in with slushy spring skiing. Many of us prioritize getting April 1st off from work as early as December. It brings out the best (some may say the worst but screw them) of Jackson Hole’s ski community. If only it lasted two days but I’m not sure most of us could survive that.

And lastly Rendezvous Fest. How we rallied and went straight from Gaper Day to live concerts in the Village I am not sure. But it was rowdy and fun.

One thought that has kept me up at night lately - goal setting. Anyone who knows me would say I am stupidly goal oriented. I lay them out, plan my attack, and make sure to check them off. That being said, I am always at the mercy of nature. Most every sport in Jackson is weather and condition dependent. Some days, no matter how much you want to crush a goal, nature simply tells you it’s not the time. For safety reasons it’s best to wait.

I need to chill out about feeling down if goals go undone. The mountains are right in my backyard and I can check off a goal the next week or even next year. It’s no big deal.

Tanner and I planned on skiing the Grand this last week but ended up dropping in 1600ft short because of warming conditions and wet-slide risk. We still skied an awesome new line to us and had an amazing day. My brother’s summer plans have been changing and it may alter Yosemite dates. Who knows if Denali even gives us a weather window to summit?

In the grand scheme of things none of this matters. We are having fun outside every day and laughing with good friends. That’s the true goal. 

It’s April 5th. My finish line is in sight. I am on call for work from the 2nd-9th and then I am a free bird. I truly love my job and it’s been great to be back in the parks looking for critters.

Along with otters and a porcupine, my favorite sighting of late was this bull elk. At first I thought I was about to fulfill a lifelong dream of watching an antler fall off.

But I soon realized this bull had something different going on. He broke the bone of the pedicle at the base. The entire bone with antler attached was drooping down his face under his skin.

Nature is brutal. It’s METAL

But April 10th is the start of my crazy year of no work. It’s also the closing day for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It will be a fun send-off to winter and the start of my marathon year. I’m way too pumped. Let the games begin..