Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Perfect Winter Day in Late Fall

Blog Lovers,

Every once in awhile I like to reveal a little piece of my personal life. Here's a short note I wrote to my ski buddies last week after an epic day of skiing at the Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Alta Wyoming. My good friend Johnny N. left the mountain the night before the storm hit and that's why I mention his vulnerability at the top of the e-mail. He loves deep snow and missed it by just a few hours. Ouch! Jennifer is one of my favorite people in the world and she was planning to come over from Jackson Hole not expecting to be skiing in thigh deep powder. She nailed a rare beautiful and perfect day in the snow in early December (still Fall on the calendar) with me and only a handful of happy people. Lucky us!

PS ~ Gotamas are skis and when it's puking it means snowing hard.

PSS ~ If you love skiing, riding and the mountains like I do, come and join me and other BeachBody diehards at Jackson Hole for a mini-camp, February 27 thru March 1st. Contact JuliAnne Forrest at jforrest@j4strategies.com

Here's the e-mail


Team,

What I don't want to do is rub it in, partly because Johnny is very vulnerable right now.

All I will do is relay the facts. About 9:00 last night I spoke with Jennifer. She would show up around 9:00 this morning. I went to bed before midnight with zero exceptions and not a flake in sight. When the alarm went off at eight AM I hit the snooze control... twice. What's the hurry, right? Why would today be any different than the last four? Knowing that Jen would be arriving soon I pulled myself out of bed at 8:15. The curtains were pulled tight but there was some light peering through a little crack at the top. Was that sunshine? Please no. Prior to opening the curtains I said out loud, "Show me something gorgeous!" OMG! There it was. Lots and lots of snow. Beautiful, new, fluffy, puffy, whiteness. I honestly couldn't believe it. It was like Christmas morning when you're ten years old. I threw my fist in the air and made some weird (non 50 year old) cheering sound.

I threw on the gear, grabbed the Gotamas and headed to breakfast. Muppet, Dino and Eric and two other strangers were the only people having breakfast. I stuffed my face with oatmeal, raisins, tea and burnt wheat toast, dry. Jennifer was easy to find, because it's easy to find anyone when there's only 20 people hanging around in a 5 thousand square foot area. Keep in mind that at least 8 inches were on the ground at 8 AM and it was still puking. By the time the whole team caught the chair by 9:15 we had close to a foot at the top of the mountain, and it was still coming down, hard.

If you've ever skied Targhee on a powder day you know the rest of the story. Untracked all day long, an empty mountain, shin to waist deep pow and huge grins from buzzer to buzzer, blah, blah, blah.

13 comments:

Joey said...

That's a cool story. Makes me wish I was a skier. :0(

Anonymous said...

Tony...
SO Freakin JEALOUS!! I live in Northern Canada and we are just starting to get some good snow and powder up on the mountains...
You should make the trip to Whistler/Blackcomb (well maybe after they fix the whole Gondola fiasco) or even Banff/Lake Louise... Then I could totally join you guys for some shredding!
All the best and happy skiing!

Lori Jantzi said...

....so I take it you had fun? ;)

:) :) :)

Thanks for sharing, "A Day In the Life of Tony Horton". It made me smile.

Anonymous said...

Tony,

Now, that's living "La Dolce Vita," my good man! I was just checking out the Alta Web site, and I gotta admit that it sure looks a heck of a lot more pleasing than Park Ave.-;) The place is really known for powder, and you guys were right there in the shadow of the Grand Teton, wow! I wonder if they have trails going off that bad boy? Probably helicopter accessible... They even have cross-country skiing, my personal favorite. And I really got a kick out of the name of one mountaintop run, "Mary's Nipple." I know you did that one, dude-;)

Just like our friend Lori said, thanks for making us all smile.

Live Life Outstandingly!

Nick

Unknown said...

You make it sound so fun!

Snow skiing didn't turn out to be my thing. Me and my wife got altitude sickness and spent a week literally puking. :P

I guess I'm truly a Beachbody person, as I like riding the waves of the ocean!

LisaErin82 said...

So how 'bout in the summer some water skiing with a group of beachbody folks?!?! You know....show off the benefits of being so committed to an AMAZING program such as your AWESOME ones and have some fun?!?!

Well....so I don't know that I'd have fun water skiing since I've never been before...but it's warm and not cold like on a mountain with a THICK blanket of white....I'm not a skier (or a cold weather person) by any stretch of the imagination but appreciated the story (and the definition of 'puking' in the 'forward')

So anyway...how 'bout something fun like that in the summer for us who like to be warm and not flying down a mountain on two narrow flat 'sticks' full speed ahead

Alison Simpson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alison Simpson said...

Tony,
thanks for sharing. Wish I were a skier! Sounds like fun. Skiiing is on my list of things I want to do, right along with hiking to the bottom of the grand canyon and trying my hand at mountain climbing. I'm 38 and I feel like I'm running out of time! (Working mom, freelancer, very involved with church, etc) But, I'll get to tackle some of those things on my list, at least.

Love to hear about your life and what you're up to, love how you give it your best all the time. Thanks for inspiring others to do the same.

Alison

Anonymous said...

its kinda fun to know that you hit the snooze. makes you seem more human, less superhero:P i like being able to relate

Anonymous said...

Odd question, by "riding" do you mean motorcylcles, horses, or mountain bikes, or "all of the above"? LOL.

CT Olson said...

As a fellow obsessed skier who loves powder, free riding and steeps, I can so appreciate this! We've gotten some 2 feet of snow this weekend back east and if it weren't for a 60 person party for Christmas Eve we're hosting I'd have been there for both days this weekend. I'll get away somehow tomorrow - this is what we live for as skiers - moments and days like this! I never regret taking a day and going skiing - we wait all year for these days!

Anonymous said...

Skiing is a great addition to my P90X workouts. Lots of champagne powder falling here in Steamboat Springs and the skiing is great!!! Bring It! (Day 62 of Round 1 and the results are amazing!)

Unknown said...

just learned about your p90x program. will give it a try! Very excited to know that you ski my favorite spots - Jackson, Aspen, Whistler/Blackcomb. Check out Tyax heliski operation north of Whistler. Phenomenal. I hope you are doing another ski camp in 2010! D