Progress 2004/05 Well, it’s been a fantastic start to the old spring break! After the much needed dump on st. pattys, I headed over to see my old buddy jeff and hit the powderkeg race. The race you ask? Yes, those 9 miles of fun from Alta to Brighton was again accomplished in record time. I had been getting some random, ‘good luck’ comments as I chowed down some girl scout cookies (2 or tree), but alas, success was mine. Hoping to do in under 3 hours (3hr 14 last year), I started out on the first climb simply asking, ‘why am I here?’ What the? Thankfully the beans which I devoured on the way over to Alta gave me a nice side ache and that took my mind off the why questions. By the second climb, I was gaining speed, but thinking I was behind. I decided, screw it, I’m going to do this at a normal pace and enjoy both the uphill and downhill, rather then bringing myself to vomit. Thus was the case, I cruised through the course and when I finished, I had beaten my previous time by 21 minutes, for a new mmp standard, 2:53, which was good enough for me and 26th out of 48 in my class, around 30th out 75ish for the ‘race division’ (though the results haven’t posted that in-depth as of yet). To top the day, jeff met me hit Brighton and we toured for the next 4 hours, which was amazing. I was so out of it, it didn’t really matter, but I’m guessing I logged 7-8000 feet of climbing that day. The area off the top of Brighton, which connects to Alta is incredible and a must for everyone. jeff and I employed the ‘merge’ technique to use the lifts, and this was the scenario for the rest of the weekend. Deer valley received around 12 new after an all night storm on sat followed by much more snow on sat. We pulled the all dayer going from 10-4, loving the valley, as they say. Last night we learned that Alta received 26 new out of this storm, so I again ‘merged’ on to the chair and viola, another all day pow event. Currently, I’m residing the in lovely SLC airport on my way to Calgary. Day 4 – After nailing the 26” at Alta, I hop a snowy, dark plane ride to Calgary, where my weary travel companion mike, or little mike as we call him had road rallied from Steamboat to meet me. It’s now 11 pm, snowing, about 10 F outside and we’re on the road to Fernie in a jeep wrangler. The skis are packed so tight, I can’t open my door. Burning the midnight oil, we cruise small Canadian ‘highways’ to the little mecca in the south. Around 3 we arrive and crash, back up at 8 to overcast skies and little snow in the valley. We cruise up to the hill and skim across little snow on the base. Terrifying after all this travel, our fears are erased once we cross up to the White Pass quad where the steep & deep and blue skies await. Incredibly, this is there worst season in 40 years, but the skiing (and the footage) was unreal. Fernie is a series of ridges, which reminded me of an Alta/Bird situation. The touring from the top is also incredible, but working for the man (free tickies) we filmed primarily in bounds. Some interesting features of Fernie include a chute where there is a group of tires and a rope. Totally confused by this we awaited a local who showed us that you simply hang on to the rope and walk down the tires to get to the lower start of the chute where the powder awaits. Should be some amusing footage of little mike scaling down around trees and rocks. The second day at Fernie proved snowy and cold, but such is life in the Canadian Rockies. On to Kicking Horse. Kicking Horse, which is about 3 hours north of Fernie and 3 hours west of Calgary was once a heli opp. An ingenious ski entrepreneur bought the area and turned this amazing area into an actual area. With 2700 acres currently open, another 2000 is planned and one can see why. Only 2 main lifts (which is really all that’s needed) access load-in-your-pants skiing by mere 10-20 min boot packs off the top. The skiing here is some of the best lift accessed skiing I have ever done. It reminds me a lot of Blackcomb (whistler) with less terrain restrictions/closures. I’m sure this is partially b/c it’s currently a real skiers mountain without the gaper factor. Basically you ride up the gondola and options are only restricted by your time and imagination. Pack your avi gear and you’re able to access as terrain that is as steep as you want to get through the top gates. Again, this was supposedly the worst year in 40, but if that was the worst, bring on the best. Powder filled chutes, no one around, and the feeling you were poaching heli runs. It’s basically as good as it gets. After the first day, we finished late on the hill around 5. Patrol stopped us, asked us where we had skied and waived us on. Thinking that was odd, we asked what was up. Patrol was tight lipped, but doing some digging we found out the truth through a local. The next day the liftie stops us and says we have to go to guest services. Guest services says we have to wait, so we do. Eventually a patroller walks in and asks if we were filming, etc. We tell him what were up to and what we’ve been doing, to which he replies, “ohh (Canada accent) no worries eh, we we’re looking for some sweeds. You’re good to go, but I have to clear it with the head of patrol.” Ok fine. 15 minutes later, the head of patrol walks in and the other patroller says “these aren’t the guys.” To which the head guy responds, “Nope! This is our guy right here (pointing at me).” Hauls me off to some room where he’s starts laying into me. I’m totally shocked and am playing the stupid tourist “I don’t even know where this line is!” I told him. Just then the other patroller returns and pulls the head guy aside and says, “eh there, these aren’t the guys, they were Swedish.” You can tell the head guy is totally embarrassed and starts apologizing right away. He then asks where we had been filming and due to flat light, we responded the trees. After a little pause he goes, ‘well, if the light gets better, come find me at patrol HQ and I’ll take you around (meaning the ‘real goods’). Sadly, the light got worst, but we saw him later and got a rain check. So I got that going for me, which is nice. Apparently some Swedish folks who were going home after that day had decided to poach one final line before another season passed. Supposedly there were 40 Swede friends cheering on 5 other Swedes who skied this permanent closure and patrol missed all of them. To top it off a guy in a blue and gray jacket filmed the whole thing. Crazy coincidence. We left vowing to definitely come back and for all you real estate buyers, this is the next mecca. Get some cash together! Saturday, we hit Lake Louise which was cold, snowy, icy, and no vis. Sweet! Still fun to hit a classic area, but there snow truly is in bad shape. Hopped the plane that afternoon for one final day at the ‘bird on Easter Sunday. Beautiful bright blue skies and good snow as I rendezvous again with little mike who had drove from Calgary to SLC to meet up again. It’s amazing what people will do for free tickets. Hahahahaha With around 20000 feet of climbing under our collective belts, we packed up and hit the road home.

2/7/05- Progress is back on! After landing a new job and traveling a bunch, I finally got my website up and running. Thus far, 04-05 has been nil for Steamboat. We are awaiting another storm and skiing rock hard groomers on the hill. The canyon has been holding well with about 5 new in some areas. Today MMP is heading for Copper for the trade show. I’ll have your next update Monday after the trip. January-This month? Well, it snowed. Once. December-Europe- Happy New Year! It’s late on the first day here of 2005 and I’m bringing you all the euro news that’s fit for email. Since the last update here are the haps Sunday 12-26 I skied at axamer, south of Innsbruck. This was the sight of the women’s DH in the 70s Olympic games. The area is relatively small but a touring paradise as you could take off in multiple directions from the top station of the cog train. As with the previous day the avalanche hazard kept me at bay and I actually triggered a small avi as I down climbed out of this bowl. Small and no harm done, it was a good to know that I was correct in my avi forecasting as I really wanted to bag this chute, but I chose to forget the amazing chutes that are there. Next time.. The following days were again snowing and cool, but the payoff was just around the corner. Monday we hit the small area hochzeiger. Tuesday we hit the regional classic Kitzbuehel, which is an epic place to ski, though interesting to negotiate it with my parents. I almost got us stuck in a far village and we ended up skiing down in near dark. More on that another time. Wednesday I got a taste of the epic snow to come at Ischgl, an area that is a close second in my opinion to the Arlberg area, but smaller. The real story was that after three days of snow, the Arlberg region was ready, and luckily we timed it right & hit Lech on Thursday with crystal blue skies and a foot new. Lech is part of the St Anton Arlberg area, which has 80 some lifts, so finding face shots at 3 pm was no problem. They actually have high-speed 8 person chairs, which you can only get to by touring. You skin your sorry ass across this massive region and then skin back by the end of the day or end up in the wrong village. Hopefully the photos will show the quality. Strangely, just like last year the 30th and 31st of Dec have been incredible ski days. Following lech, we returned to st Anton on the 31 and I just happened to time the opening of the schindler piste chutes which are 40-50 degree shots accessed via a high speed triple with no one on it. As we know, the euros love their carving so I did 10 laps on massive chutes with about 10 other people. Meanwhile the pistes were packed. You have to love it. As an added bonus, this ended a 9-year regret of not having skied the longest chute the last time I was here. To bring in the New Year we had dinner and checked out a euro new year from a hut half way up the mountain here in leutach where we are staying. You’d be amazed at what is considered legal fireworks over here. The snow began to fall heavy and I skied down at about 1 getting my first pow turns of 05. My parents tried to sled down, but that s another story all together… Tomorrow we are off to Italy for the final 5 and I will see the rest of you on the 8th Happy New Year, MMP The websites for max http://www.axamer-lizum.at/ (axamer) www.ischgl.com ischgl http://stantonamarlberg.com/ (st anton, lech)

12/25: Merry Christmas Charlie Brown! Its 9 pm here in Austria and day four has come to a close. Thus far it’s been an interesting mix of snow. The first day pow, the second day at St, Anton a whiteout, the third we were in northern in Italy skiing in the sun and today at Seefeld Austria, I bagged what I am calling the $45 couloir as it was the only good skiing I did, but it was fantastic, if not wind blown. ha! The avi conditions kept me from hitting the main couloir as it was the classic upside down cake (shakelton term) where there is sugar snow on the base and a firmer wind layer up top. such is life in the mountains… its suppose to snow the next 2 days so we shall see what happens. Wishing everyone happy holidays and I’ll be back with your next MMP update soon peace! (literally) MMP

12/21/04 Hello all! Believe it or not, I am emailing you from the highest point in Germany on the first ski day of the trip. There is a free email computer here at the top station. If my sentences seem short, its because the keys are in weird places and thus, I’m typing like a moron. We are skiing at the zugspitz, which as noted, is the highest point in Germany. The view is spectacular, with the highest points of Italy, Austria, and the mountains of Switzerland in the distance. I ripped up some Euro powder this morning, and we are off to St Anton tomorrow, so hopefully this snow trend will continue. Flights went well and I’m shooting film like crazy. Hope all is well back in the states, and hope Ron is making a good recovery!