Oh My Golly Ned, Fam Ski Trip!

Last weekend was the annual "Fam" Ski Trip. My brother Matt has a very tight-knit group of friends from his undergrad days at Northwestern University. It is an incredibly special group primarily because they all really love each other, more than most other friend groups. AND, it is incredibly contagious. Ebenezer Scrooge couldn't hang out around this group and not feel loved and have a good time. Because of this, the have aptly been named "The Fam."

On top of their love for one another, they are all a bunch of bright type A go-getters, who get after it whether they are skiing, climbing, cycling, hiking, running, partying, or hot tubbing. They all seem to share a common love for adventure and for these reasons I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of the "extended Fam." In fact, most of my best backcountry skiing and climbing buddies are in this group, most of whom don't even live in mountain states! Part of the fun on Ski Trip is the "Fam" invites the extended members including siblings and parents. Roughly 18 of us (the total fluctuated over the course of the weekend) crashed in a 4 bedroom house in West Vail.

The best surprise of the whole trip was Andrew Wien. Andrew has been living in Chile for the last few months, and I visited him while climbing in Patagonia. No one thought he was going to fly up all the way from the Southern Hemisphere for "Fam" Ski Trip, but his dad surprised him 30hrs beforehand and flew him up as a surprise for the Fam! It was spectacular.

The highlight of the weekend was certainly the time together as friends and family, but it was also the best weekend of the year for skiing. We awoke Friday morning to a foot or more of "cold smoke." I don't think I have ever skied snow so light an fluffy. We skied hard all morning in-bounds, hitting all our favorite lines. Then we finished the day with 2 laps in East Vail, which were probably the best runs of my life.

Jimmy

Andrew

Matthew

 On Saturday, the sun came out and we enjoyed soft snow under the blue-bird skies in the resort and managed to snag a few more laps in East Vail, although the "cold smoke" had settled considerably. 

 Then on Sunday some of us took the day off to go ice climbing and wait for the next storm that hit Sunday night.  The ice climbing was great, although we were a bit under prepared. Matt did a great job leading for us!

Sunday night it dumped another 5 inches in-bounds and 8+ in East Vail.  We rounded out the trip with a few more laps in EV and then headed home, narrowly missing the 50 car pile-up on I-70.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR A GREAT TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!