Last Hoorah

This is my final blog post and for it I want to recap on every post I've ever written this year.  First I wrote about was "My Rafting Trip" and for this post I had a really hard time thinking of things to write about and I was dreading writing more after that post because I would never be able to write about anything. As I continued I started to figure out that I could write about anything I've done over the my break from writing. I realized that I do a lot because I had to write about stuff so it made me realize all of the fun things that I do every day. My next few posts were "Stanley the Bear," "UEA," and "Redskins" and all of these were just me needing to get a post and those were the only things I could think to write about. My next posts were "SNOW!!!," "Snowking," "Slalom," "Snowbasin," and "Super G." The theme of it all was skiing because it was ski season and that's all I do in the
winter is ski so that's all I could write about and that's what I love most in the winter so I wanted to share my fun trips and cool skiing experiences with everyone else. My posts got a little more interesting from the on, I had my "Lacrosse" post which made me super excited to play lacrosse because I was getting pumped for game season and to kick some major lacrosse but which me and my team did just that. My letter to Ted Ligety was a super cool post because I wrote it just for Ted Ligety and it showed how much I really like watching him ski and I thought that was amazingly cool. My next three posts all had another theme. The posts were "The Fight Against Juan Diego," "Pleasant Grove's Cry for Help," and "Just Pee Your Pants" all of theses have the same theme of lacrosse.  I

Thanks Mr. Parker! Pic. Courtesy of Popcorn Fest

think my interest factor in my writing got a lot better in these posts and my titles got a lot better because I started thinking of better names for my blogs too. My last two, "SUMMER!!!" and "The Final Countdown", were all about how ready I am for summer and how I am done with school but sad that ski season is over and the writing in this I felt like got a lot more appealing to read.  What I would like to say is thank you to Mr. Parker for helping me and push me to do something that I might not like but it helped me in the long run.

Snowbasin

Snowbasin ski resort is a really fun resort for outside skiers because the terrain can be anything from slow easy groomers to backcountry with mountains of snowfall on it. This weekend I had a race in Snowbasin, two G.S. and one slalom race. Friday was G.S. and I finished both races pretty consistently but not great but I was okay with it. Saturday was also G.S. and the course was set very hard; twenty five out of the one hundred girls fell on the first course. Twenty five percent of the girls at the Snowbasin race on Saturday fell and same with the guys because they had to ski the same course as us; I was pretty mad about that. The turn that made everyone ski out was right after a delay (a delay is where you go around the first gate and in the same turn you go around the second gate and on the other side of you is another gate so you go in betwe

en the two gates.) there was a gate that was very offset and really rutted because most of the girls that made it had a really bad line which created a huge bad rut. I was one of the twenty five girls that didn't finish so I was pretty annoyed. On Sunday I raced Slalom and that was not the greatest day ever because my first run I straddled a gate and had to stop and hike up to finish the course so I got a minute four seconds which is unbelievably slow considering the girl in first got forty two seconds on her first run. Keep in mind that winning by a second is really fast in ski racing and all the times are super close, a lot of people will be within hundredths of a second between each other so thirty two seconds slower is really slow. The girl in first used to be on the University of Utah Ski Team and she was really good, She was trying to give away points because she had sixteen in G.S. and thirty eight in slalom which is really low so she wasn't trying to get first and on her run she backed off a lot but she still accidentally got first in slalom which is crazy. Her name is Kristina Rove. My second run I got to the top and had to wait because there was the biggest course hold. I got in the gate with a mindset of this run doesn't matter at all because if I fail than it doesn't matter because I already failed the first run and I was running eighty seventh so I knew that the course was going to be in terrible condition but I went down and it felt horrible like the worst run ever but it actually was pretty good so I was super surprised about that especially because there was no fixing the course because it was bad. The Snowbasin qualifier wasn't my race but I will always have another race until I stop racing so I'll do better next time.

Kristina Rove

Slalom

Today at SnowKing I skied G.S. but I know the title says Slalom but I skied G.S.  Wall I was skiing the other course that was set up was slalom and it had some really good skiers there. Slalom is fast turns that aren't spread out across the hill as far and are shorter radius. Montana State University Ski Team, the Canadian Ski Team, the German Ski Team, and some of the Dartmouth Ski Team there as well. The German Ski Team was really good and had a skier with six points which is really good because it's like golf where you want the least amount of points you can possibly achieve. The guys name was Stefan Luitz, he's really good because the fastest guy in the world is the only person at zero so he has to be beat to have his zero points go up. Ted Ligety is the fastest guy in the world right now and currently has zero points. Stefan is so good that he had two pairs of skis for one run, he would wear his training gates skis and then go down the gate course and then he would have another guy come down with his skis and he would take off the skis that he wore for the course and then ski his free skiing trainer skis which were the exact same length as his training gates skis. Stefan also has another pair of skis just for race day and skis those only on race day, and he has all three pairs for all four events even though he really only does slalom. Stefan has a ski tuner which every professional ski racer has that will tune and wax and scrape and brush them every single day and a lot of the time they will do it multiple times a day, for race day or even for high intensity training days.

This Stefan Luitz skiing some G.S. courtesy of Weltcup

Points go down by beating skiers that have better points than you so they bring your points down so that you look faster and faster. Your points start at nine hundred ninety and go down from there and you can't go any hire than nine hundred ninety.

I thought it was really cool to be able to watch these really good skiers, even the ones that don't have only six points because they were all really fantastic skiers and I enjoyed and was intrigued watching them. I also really enjoy watching them ski because they all are fantastic skiers and in slalom it's really easy to point out the things that they do that makes them go so fast that you might also need to work on so they help you too see what is right and then your coaches help to feel how it is right.

Stanley the Bear

Stanley the Bear is a bear that lives in Stanley Idaho. Stanley is a horribly taxidermy bear. Stanley's ears rest right above his jawline causing him to look weird. Also Stanley's mouth is so awkwardly deformed that he looks like he's smiling but I think the taxidermist meant for him to look like he's a big bad bear. Stanley has become a landmark for my family and close family relatives. My family loves Stanley so much that we have created a Facebook page for him and also have made shirts and hats that have Stanley printed on it.

On Stanley's Facebook page he has pictures of him and other friends of him that are also horribly taxidermy job. Stanley can dance dive and can hunt. Stanley dance moves are a little static however he is still amazingly awesome at dancing.Smokey the bear is Stanley's cousin so occasionally you can see Stanley wearing Smokey's at or them just hanging out putting out a fire. Stanley also posted that he joined the polar bears and he died his fur white for the picture which makes him look even weirder.

This is  Stanley as a polar bear getting spotted by a hiker on a trail

Stanley has been printed on hats that I personally love to wear on the river and we also have shirts of him which I wear working out sometimes. Stanley has shown up in the ocean on freeways and many other places. My favorite is when Stanley is swimming in the ocean and they call him a sea bear because he is a bear swimming in the sea. I believe one day that Stanley Idaho will become a land mark for people to see and there will be lines outside of the restaurant that Stanley is in.

My dad's friend wanted to buy the bear at the restaurant but they said that he was not for sale but I bet he could have tried harder to get Stanley and I wish he did because then Stanley would join us at family parties. I met Stanley this summer on my way to the Middle Fork of the Salmon river because we stopped and stayed the night in Stanley before we had to get to the river. I stood next to Stanley and also I did pet his fur. The sign said don't touch him but I did because I am a rebel. Haha, no just kidding I'm not really a rebel and I didn't even pet him, so I guess I'm just average when it comes to Stanley the Bear.

If you have a Facebook you should seriously consider following Stanley because he is so funny and he looks so dysfunctional that every thing he has posted is hilarious. I especially love his 80's dancing one. My favorite picture that Stanley has posted is the reunion one where he is with all of his friends that have a horrible taxidermy job and comments that Kevin always made that goofy face in photos.

This is my favorite one that comments that Kevin always made that goofy face.

P.S. if you don't like profanity then following Stanley isn't the best thing to do.

My Rafting Trip

The Gates of Lodore section on the Green River is a beautiful section that you can fish, white water raft, and just have a great time. For me and my family it is one of the best places on this Earth. I love the wildlife and beautiful things you see. Not too long ago I went on this section of the river for the fourth time. Usually I ride along on the raft and maybe oar a few rapids but this time I got to oar the entire section. All I had was my gear Melissa, a close friend that rafts with us, and her gear. Although the river doesn't have much whitewater it is still a blast. The best part of rafting is the people you are with and how they will react to situations good or bad. My favorite to do is raft, no matter what you offer I would always choose to go rafting over it.

The wind was crazy fast the entire way and to add to that it was all blowing upstream. The entire time I had to fight 40 mile per hour winds wall trying to pick my way through the rapid or rocks. My arms felt like they couldn't even pick up a pebble by the end of the trip. Every night I had to set up camp and some nights I had to make dinner, because of this my arms were begging for a break.

At camp everyone talks about stories. Granted, we have heard every story three hundred times it is still fun to hear the stories. We sit around the campfire or play games like horseshoes or ladder ball. Often times our camp will be at a place where you can go on a hike. Most of the hikes on the Gates of Lodore are to go see some amazing pictographs, we didn't go on very many hikes because time ran out because the wind doubled the time it took to get to camp. My favorite hike is up to a waterfall that we call Butt Blocker Falls. We call it Butt Blocker because what you do is have someone stand at the bottom and then a lot of people will plug the water up with their butts' at the top and then all at once they stand up and get the people at the bottom soaked by the water.

The Gates of Lodore only has about three bigger rapids. One rapid is Disaster Falls which is super fun all you do is avoid rocks and hit the waves. Then there's Triplet which has two sections to it. The first part of Triplet is just hit the waves big and avoid two big rocks but then the second section has a birth canal and you go left. The birth canal is really scary because you don't want to go between the rocks that look like you may be able to go through because if you do you would get trapped and many people have died from trying to go through and getting stuck and drowning. Luckily, no one in my group has gone near the birth canal even though it sucks you into it. The last rapid I am going to talk about is the biggest, Hell's Half Mile. Hell's is tricky because you have to go through giant rocks and not go over the ones that may look like you can go over. There is one big rock that you don't want to hit because if you do you will get rapped and then hit the huge whole at the bottom and most likely flip the raft over. After the first part you have a rock garden that you have to try and avoid the rocks. I hit one of the rocks in the rock garden and almost fell out but Melissa grabbed me before I fell out and pulled me back in. This is a video of the upper part of triplet.

One of my favorite rivers is the Green because of how fun it is and how pretty it is to look at everything. I saw so many animals. I swam a lot in the river and floated down the river at camp on our sleeping pad that hold you out of the water. Over all, I had such a fun time but I usually always have the best time of my life on the river.

This is me and Melissa on my raft, Purple Goob.