Winner of the Best Dang Backyard Sled Hill goes to Nate & Me!

Nate and I have the raddest sledding hill in our backyard. Our lot has a good deal of woods around it and we built the sledding hill from the leach field, through the trees, then up over a little creak (that you can't tell is a creak with enough snow) and up over a little hill to the driveway behind our house. If you get going really good, you can go a good ways down the driveway too... I'm declaring it the BEST DANG BACKYARD SLEDDING HILL! and next year, when the snow begins to fall again, I'm positive we would win for the best backyard sledding hill contest... who's on???

Check out the videos... sorry for the raspy breathing... I tend to be stuffed up most of the winter...

Nate poked a hole in Mount Washington... He did... I swear!

Before I tell the exciting story about our trip to Mount Washington, I'm going to start with the boring part... Well, I guess it wasn't all that boring. We have rented a house in North Conway and we went to stay there Saturday night because we wanted to do a trip on Mount Washington on Sunday. A couple of days before, the propane company called Nate to tell him that someone had called because they thought there was a propane leak at the house. Instead, it wasn't a propane leak, but we were out of propane. They told Nate that they filled up the propane tank and that they turned it back on and all was good. Well, we got to the house Saturday night, and it was cold in the house. Not just the usual heat is off type of cold, but no heat for a few days maybe a week type of cold. We turned the heat on and got ready for bed. Nate woke up in the middle of the night and checked and sure enough, the heat was not on and the house was still frigid. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much... But we still got our stuff ready in the morning and made a trek to the mountain. We have heard rumors that it had been snowing a lot on the old rock and the I think this first picture does show you how much snow they have had. The last time we went to the lean-to, there was snow, but it's almost buried now... 

 We didn't really have a good plan when we got to the mountain, which isn't usually the best idea, but there was just the two of us, so it wasn't too bad. We got to the lean-to and Nate asked if I wanted to go further up. I said, "sure, but let's stay safe". We decided to try and check out Hillman's highway. Here is a picture on our way up Hillman's highway. I forgot my sunglasses in the car, so my hood was doing a good job blocking the sun...

Since I forgot my sunglasses in the car, I had been wearing my goggles on the way to the lean-to. When we got to the lean-to, I put my goggles down on the shelf (second mistake). When I went to put them back on, I realized that the inside of the goggles had frozen up because I'm a sweating beast. My knight in shining armor, put them close to his body and warmed them up. Then once they thawed, I said that he could wear them. Here he's putting them on our way up Hillmans... 

After one of my least-favorite trips on Mount Washington where I think I told Nate that my mom was going to kill him if anything happened to me, I like to assess my own limitation and then say, "Nate, I'm stopping here". We got to a particular spot and Nate started cutting across the top a steep section and I watched what he was cutting across and then I watched a very small slab fall away from where he was cutting and I knew my own ability of climbing and knew that if anyone was going to be causing an avalanche today, it's most likely going to be me and decided it was not worth going any further up. So, I told Nate to keep climbing knowing that by the time he got where he wanted to go, I might have most of my stuff put together and by the time that he came back down to where I was, I might have everything on. Here I am putting my stuff together: 

While we were on Hillman's, some nice man came hiking up behind us. He said that he was just over at the Little Headwall and it looked really good. So we got down Hillman's, which was super light and fluffy and fun, and we decided to venture over to the Little Headwall. Since my gear was all put together and my skins were mushed to each other, I decided I would just carry my board. And I remembered why I purchased a split board again. HOLY SMOKES that is HARD work!!! So, we climbed up the Little Headwall and once again, I got to a point that I decided any further up would probably be not a good thing for me and told Nate to keep going... Here is Nate trying to climb further up...

And Oakley following... 

And Scout... 

I put my board back on and enjoyed the views fora  bit... It was really a gorgeous day!! Wildcat is the resort in the right of the picture. I do love when I am sitting higher than Wildcat...

Looking up towards where Hillman's is... 

Looking back up at Scout on the other side of a tree... 

After I got my stuff on and watched a few skiers and snowboarders coming down the little shoot and falling on their bums, I decided that I wanted to move a bit to see if I could watch Nate come down. So, I moved down and a little to the right...

Nate on a steep section...

So, Nate comes down and he falls up the mountain from me and then falls just down the mountain from me. When he was trying to get up, he just said, "Ok" and he looked at me and said, "Don't move!". He very slowly crawls away from where he was and then looks at me and says, "Slowly and carefully, move toward me". I didn't want to look because I knew I would get scared so I just got up and falling leaf carefully towards Nate. When Nate tried to stand up, he poked a hole through the snow....

Not sure if you follow Mount Washington news, but a man died last year after he fell into a crevasse while climbing Mount Washington... Needless to say, we hightailed it out of there.

Two last pictures. This is me either on Hillman's or the end of Little Headwall, I'm not quite sure.  

And Oakley and I cruising the Sherburne.

We made it back safe and sound and very thankful that there were no mishaps. I think we have a few more trips up to the rock. I am looking forward to the spring in southern New Hampshire, but hope that the mountains stay a little more winter like. It gets a little harrier up in the north country this time of year. 

Nemo! Ha ha! Nemo... I don't get it.

We had a good half day of Wildcat and then the real fun began! During Friday night, the snow really hit. Supposedly 17 inches of the fresh stuff landed between Friday morning and Saturday morning. Instead of breaking trail, we did the easy way and went back to Wildcat. Unfortunately, the wind was howling so every time we got to the top of the mountain, it was pretty unpleasant. AND because the wind was howling so much, the top of the mountain was losing snow fast and furiously! We would take the lift to the top of the mountain and move as fast as we could down the mountain because the snow was really fun at mid-mountain but it was bullet-proof from the top to mid. I made so many turns that my aching back turned into my aching abs... but I guess I needed to knock my body around a few times to get everything back working again and I'm pain-free... besides my abs... which feel ROCK HARD!!! 

Nate driving seriously through a blizzard! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the Subaru!! She's drives like a charm!!! 

The blizzard... 

Second chair lift ride... Notice Nate's face thing is already frozen... 

Nate making some turns! 

Nater looking stylish... 

And the best sequence of photos from the day. Nate was skipping ahead to see if I could spray him because I have been practicing this technique (and obviously need to continue practicing) Here is the early start of the spray... I do have sweet dance moves all splayed out... 

When I went to really grab in... I must have hit something and only one side of board dug in and it dug in hard... 

So my spray attempt ended up being a skid but I dug hard... 

And fell on my bum... 

And I laughed and laughed and laughed!!! 

Nemo?... that's a nice name...

Nate and I live in the northeast and unless you live under a rock, you probably know that the northeast just experienced a pretty rad snow event. They called it "Blizzard Nemo"... which is in my humble opinion, a lame name for such a sweet snow storm but whatever... they didn't ask me... AGAIN. 

So, we knew the storm was coming but I waited until pretty much Thursday to get excited about this snow event because the snow storms they said were coming before that never showed up ... and by never showing up... I mean, they said 6 inches and we got ZERO!!! So, Thursday night came, the forecast looked like it was for real going to happen so we started packing up. We decided to stay home Thursday night, sleep in our own bed and then drive up Friday morning. We left early Friday morning, hit up the chateau and then took the dogs to Echo Lake to wear off some of their energy. We then grabbed our gear and headed to Wildcat mountain for a half day of freshies. We walked in the lodge and who did we run into, but Mr. Nevins!!! He had just went through the trees which weren't quite covered enough and banged up his board pretty good. He told us to go do a lap and that he'd  meet us at the lift so that's exactly what we did. 

Our first lap was so full of snow that it didn't seem like we were just getting started at noon, but that we were there from the very beginning. We did our lap and then met up with Mr. Nevins. We did a few more laps and then he needed to meet up with one of his buddies. So we then ended up riding with Mr. Nevins, a sports photographer, and one of his buddies who ended up bring a film crew along... I'm totally serious!!! 

If you skip ahead past the artsy stuff to about 1:05, you'll see a shadowy figure kinda haunting the guy in the blue coat... that's me... :) I'm not fancy enough to get any other footage... all of my sweet moves are strictly in my head... Then you can skip ahead to 2:03 and you'll see Nate!! He got a whole 5 seconds of footage!! But we got to hang out with Nevins for the afternoon so it was all worth it... Except when he  made us duck a rope "to get a shot"... I'm not sure that was worth it... 

The only picture I took on Friday... 

My advice to couples who play together!

Nate and I get in regular... uh... spats while we are exercising. Typically, it goes something like this:

Jenny: "Ouch, that one stung a bit"
Nate (helping Jenny up off her bum): "You should bend your knees when you ski"
Jenny: "Yes, Nate, you said that 20 times now"
Nate: "I'm just trying to help!"
Jenny: "Yes, I know you are trying to help and I'm trying to bend my knees, but sometimes I forget."
Nate: "Well, if you bend your knees..."

So, in one of our recent cross country ski adventures, I was thinking of what annoys me so much about when Nate tries to help. I do actually know that he's trying to help. And the boy is a saint for dealing with me through times like this and this and this... However, it's incredibly irritating when he gives me constant direction while we are supposedly playing. There are many times that I have looked at him and said, "I'm not training for the Olympics, can you please just let me have fun without giving me pointers?" or "Why don't we go swimming so that I can constantly telling you what you are doing wrong?" Each time he gets more upset because I'm not letting him help me. I'm such a jerk! :)

While we were going on our third hour of cross country skiing, I was trying to rationalize what drives me crazy about the critiques. We had actually been going along fine and not spatting at all, but then I did something silly and he critiqued me. In my completely irrational attitude, I told him, "Ok, that was your one critique today so I hope you meant it." His critique was to bend my knees because I flew down a hill uncontrollably and I  fell on my bum once again! The light bulb went off. There are times when I am cross country skiing and I'm doing the "bend your knee" thing correctly and Nate never says, "That's it. You are bending your knees. Nice work"... I am an adult after all, but in being someone who is still learning how to do all these winter sports, I need a little positive reinforcement that yup, I can do this correctly. So, I said, "Ok, if you point out when I'm bending my knees, you can earn more critiques." He looked at me like I was a crazy fool but I expressed to him that I think I am doing it correctly but I'm not sure and it would be nice if he is going to point out when I'm doing it wrong, that he also points it out when I'm doing it correctly. That was my new years present to him!! A critique on critiquing!

So all you boyfriends out there teaching your girlfriends a new sport, my advice to you... You can critique all you want IF and only IF you pay attention and praise her when she's doing something correctly! I see WAY too many couples fighting out in the "field" and just want to look at the girl and say, "chill, it's going to be ok. He's just trying to help" and say to the boy, "you get ONE critique and then you've got to earn the rest! Now help her up and keep cheering her on!".

Day 2 - Quick & Easy!

Thankfully, my lack of updates to this doesn't mean that we have been sitting on our rumps doing nothing... We have been doing stuff, I just forget to write about it... So here's the first catch-up post..

WAY back in December, Nate and I went up the Cog side for a second day in a row. The first day we went to Sam and his brother Matt. Day two was just Nate and I and the crazy puppies. We decided that since the day before it wasn't worth going too high that day two wouldn't be worth going too high either. We set our goal to the cross-over and headed up. Thankfully for day two, the skies had opened up a bit and you could see the summit, but it didn't last long and started as we climbed up.

The summit from the base of the mountain. Not a blue-bird day but at least you could see the top. And you can also see how scoured the mountain looks. 

Nate and the dogs! I love this picture because all three look so athletic! Now if the two dogs would just stop barking

Nate's sweet tele turn... 

Scout is lucky that I mildly know what I'm doing because his bum was about to get run over... and I love to show off my snowboarding dance moves... 

And afterwards, little puppy Scout is all curled up and will sleep for the next 12 hours... He's so cute when he's tired!! 

Sleepy and happy... :) 

Fight for your Right... to... uh...

I've got a new adventure approaching. I went to the doctor today and we talked about the birth control pills that I'm on ... GASP... Yes, I said it. I'm on birth control pills! I do not wish to have a kid right now and am taking preventative measures in order to not populate the world with one more unwanted child. So, I talked to the doctor and she said that under the Affordable Care Act passed in August 2012 that oral contraceptives would be covered 100% as preventable care such as a yearly exam or a kids 6 month appointment. I am a freak and have been through the whole selection of pills and FINALLY found one that did not make me into a complete irritable BI-ATCH! Plus there are other things that happen when you are on the pill other than moodiness that the current pill is not causing so I've been really happy. I have been on it for 2 years and it does not have a generic. I talked to my HR rep and she said that I have to call the insurance company to find out if they will cover the pill 100% because she said that they will only cover generics... but as I said, my pill doesn't have a generic... so... Yup, I'm going to fight for my right to free birth control!

Any advice?

First day in the backcountry for this winter!

With the new fresh layer of snow, we decided it was time to head up north. Our friend and trusty real estate agent, Sam, and his brother, Matt, decided to come along too. I actually believe they prompted the adventure so I'll give them credit for that. All I know was that Nate said, "We are going up north tonight and we are going to do the Cog side with Sam and Matt". Sweet, let's go!!!

For some reason on the way to Mount Washington that morning, I was more nervous than ever. I believe it was the first time for the year that had my tummy in knots. Lately, I have been playing the what-if game in my head with the worst case scenarios that I can imagine. With all the snow we had gotten from the snow storm, there was a considerable avalanche danger BUT one thing that I didn't know yet was that there wasn't enough snow on top of Mount Washington so that yes, there was avalanche danger, but the snow was soooooooo localized to very small sections that the chances that the slide would be big enough to do any damage at all was extremely unlikely... But whatever, I didn't know that going into the day (I did read the avalanche report but they didn't say, "the snow has been blown off the top of the mountain on the west side so everything will be scratchy."). So, I was nervous driving to the mountain and asked Nate 101 what-if questions. I'm sure he was probably thinking, "when did my lady turn loco?" But back to the adventure....

It started off with Sam wearing his helmet and eating poptarts...

Poptarts are extremely dangerous, you know! 

I don't remember it being really frigid that day at all. I don't know the actual temperature while we were hiking. I do remember it being windy, it was snowing and I remember lots of wardrobe changes. I started off with a short sleeve, long sleeve, vest and shell. Then I took off the vest and left the shell on. Then I took off the shell and put the vest back on. I thought that with the winds, I would be better off with the shell but I was sweating so much from the warmish temperatures that I eventually had to take off the shell. 

This cheesy picture was taken at the water tower by the railroad. See it's snowing and my hair is frozen with snow! :) I was sweating so bad that my hair was wet with sweat. Always having fun though!!! 

We got up past Jacob's ladder and I desperately wanted to go into the bowl to see if there was some snow fun to get into. Unfortunately, you couldn't see very far and what we could see was trees and rocks. So, it was not likely that there were pockets of snow to be found. Also, with the lack of visibility, it's really easy to get lost in places that you have been to 100 times so it was best that we just stuck to the main trail... so we did! 

Nate wasn't his happiest self that day so this was my third attempt at getting him to smile for a picture... Notice the complete lack of smile... :( 

Oakley with the Jacob's ladder sign behind her. 

Jacob's ladder looking back down the mountain... Somewhere in that fog was Nate and Sam... 

Scout and his snowbeard!! 

I'm sure this picture is going to stir up controversy and at this point, I don't care, obviously! We do muzzle our dogs on the downhill for two reasons... they are constantly trying to wrangle us and bark endlessly and in the attempt to herd me, they bite my hands and my legs and when you are going fast and moving around and not knowing that something is attempting to bite you, those bites can be pretty painful and distracting. So it's safer for me and probably those around me that they are muzzled. I can focus on what is in front of me instead of worrying about where my dogs are. They can breath with the muzzles on and they still run right with us the whole time. Yes, they hate them and when we stop to rest for a bit, they are squirming around trying to get the dreaded things off. I hate making them wear them just as much as you hate seeing them wearing them, but again, it's the safest thing that can be done other than leaving them at home... and I don't leave my dogs at home because what's the point of having a dog then...  I did try and use tennis balls that they could carry down the hill but again, trying to chase after tennis balls as they roll down the hill with one dog barking at you and the other dog biting your hands, is not the safest thing either. So... back to the picture, Oakley was being all sheepish about jumping over the railroad because when she has a muzzle on, she becomes a meek princess, so this is her with her front paws on the railroad looking at us oh so cute like!! :) 

So,we begin heading down the hill. Love the fluff all around Nate's sexy telemark turn! 

Nate and the dogs and my board, everything I love about backcountry!!! 

Nate passing me again. Love the fluff!!! 

Nate approaching me!!! 

Nate and the puppies again and all the snow!!! Makes me such a happy girl!!! 

After we got down the hill, Sam decided that he wanted to make a jump so Nate and Sam got to work... 

Oakley watching on from her little snow hole... 

I honestly hope that this is the only digging my avalanche shovel will ever have to do... 

Nate's look of concentration as he prepares his jump... 

and just his legs.... :) 

Sam's sick crane-style explosion... 

Nate on jump #2

Sam's rail slide... 

Nate over the railing... 

I believe Sam was trying to twist this jump although, I don't think that's what ended up happening... 

Once my bum was frozen from being wet and sitting in the snow, I told the boys I was done taking their pictures. We all headed back to the car. It was a super fun day with nice fluffy white-ness. I forgot to turn my watch on at the car, but we descended 2,136ft so I'll take that. We did 2,879 in December hiking North Moat so that puts us at 5,015ft. 

Now, if I can get rid of this cough so I can get back out there, things would be good!!