After all the sitting and waiting, our Eastern Europe adventures ended with a crystal clear bluebird day...

My last post left us in Poland escaping National Guards, where as now we were skiing more snowy days, low angle trees, and pow (sans guards) in Jasna, Slovakia. Fortunately (similar to our Austria webisode), on the last day of our trip, the sun came out to say hello, as well as lay the ground work for my goggle tan. 

We were all blown away at how big the mountains actually were in Eastern Europe, and not to mention, we saw the most majestic Rime Ice I've ever seen. Not only did the lines we skied have these frozen phenomenon's sticking out in every direction, but each tower and lift was caked in frost. I felt as though I was trapped in an Ice Age, in a Dr. Seuss book. It was truly magnificent.  

With that in mind, we had a number of very fun and photogenic lines through out the day. The snow was a little variable in spots, but nevertheless the story should be quite entertaining and provide some very cool imagery. I will be very excited to see it in print, but until then we will have to settle with the pics that I was able to capture. 

Photo Credit: Chris Benchetler 

Our crew consists of Eric Pollard (skier), Chris Benchetler (skier), Adam Clark (Powder photog), John Stifter (Powder writer), Marek Doniec (the local), and Voitec (local photog). 

We arrived into Krakow, Poland late the other night and headed straight for the mountains. Arriving to our cabin in Zakopane at 1:30 am, tired and jet lagged, we saw fresh snow falling so we knew it was going to be game time in the morning. 

Sure enough we woke up to more snow and the continued precipitation that Nimbus seems to be stuck in this year... Stoked on the new snow, we suited up and headed out. Upon arrival to the mountain we had increased the crew to 11 (more locals and friends), and had just been informed that skiing off piste in Zakopane is strictly forbidden since the ski area lies within a National Park. Of course when it's pow on the line, we decided to disobey (don't tell mother), and shred in the trees.. Fortunately, we never were fined and escaped the 24 hour jail sentence.

After we hit up Poland we continued our adventure to Slovakia, which is where we reside now, as well as skied today.. It was epic and snowing (and still is), so I will keep you posted with what transpires here in Slovakia. So far what we have seen and skied is quite promising. Keep your fingers crossed for sun.

Check out www.powdermag.com for the full story written by the professional.  Photo credit: Chris Benchetler, John Stifter.  I also posted a bunch of images from the trip in the Nimbus photo gallery.

Just got back from a little journey to Yakima, WA where I met up with Andy for a solo mission in his backyard.  He called me on Monday and said the snow was awesome and it was actually gonna be sunny in Washington!  So I loaded up the sled and got to his house that night.  

We went out to a pass close to his house the next day, and proceeded to sled around and get stuck for the first half of the day. After that, Andy explained to me the only way into the bowl with the good skiing, was to drop into it on our sleds.  I watched Andy drop in and almost clip a rock, so I decided to find a new line in.  Like an idiot I hit the brakes on the drop in, and the sled spun sideways almost high siding.  Luckily it stayed right side up long enough for Andy to hike up and help me shimmy it to safety.  Once in the bowl, we saw numerous sled neck tracks, high marking anything that might be cool to ski.  Somehow, they left the best landing in the whole bowl completely untouched!  So we built a nice cheese wedge on the roll and went home to rest for the next day.  

Andy and I showed up the next morning to bluebird skies and a beautiful jump.  After a couple last minute preparations, we set up and hit it for a couple hours.  After that was done, we proceeded to shoot one turns on the sleds, in hopes of portraying some serious skill on the snowmobile.  I'm back home now, and it is snowing again, so stay tuned for more updates!  Don't forget to tune back in a couple days for "En Route Austria!" 

 Ike

One of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me, was the gift of skiing. I come from a ski family, my Dad was a downhill ski racer from the University of Washington and my Mom was a ski bunny who spent her winter quarters in Sun Valley. In my parents basement, there's a framed Skiing Mag cover with two people making some powder turns. People passing through always guess it's my Dad, but low and behold, it's my Mom's claim to fame.

Growing up my parents always took me skiing. They'd get off the lift with me, I'd go straight down the hill until I crashed. They'd pick me and I'd go straight again. My Dad thought he had another downhill racer in the family. During middle school and high school, X-mas and Spring Break were always ski vacations where the whole family would go to Whistler, Big Sky, Sun Valley, Mt. Bachelor, or Banff. They were our family ski vacations and are some of my fondest memories.

I'm a lot older now, as are my parents. We don't go on family ski vacations anymore, not that I wouldn't like to, but I recently had the pleasure of another family ski outting. It was my Dads 68th birthday and he wanted nothing more than to go skiing up at Crystal Mountain with his wife and son. The conditions were right on with blue skies and about a foot of fresh.

There is a universal joy that comes with skiing that is applicable to anybody at any age. It's great to watch my parents come down the hill, still rocking some good style, still getting it done just like in my memories. Skiing... fun for the whole family.