Billy Poole, Freeskier Dies in Wasatch Mountains

Billy Poole: 1979 - 2008

Billy Poole, an extreme skier from Montana living in Salt Lake died today in Big Cottonwood Canyon. He was being filmed hucking Wolverine Cirque between Brighton and Solitude Resorts, a jump he had probably skied away from dozens of times. This particular time, his landing was not clear of rocks and he sustained fatal injuries and pronounced dead at the hospital.

I have recently had the pleasure of meeting Billy's best friend, roommate and business partner, Julian Carr. I've been corresponding with both Julian and Billy over the website their ski-inspired headwear brand, Discrete. My few dealings with Billy were extremely sincere and I'm inspired by his passion and dedication to skiing. I respect and admire his life's work and hope that his legacy is one of ambition and intoxicating love of life. Our condolences to his friends and family.

The bottom line is that guys like Billy serve as heroes to guys like me. Billy and I were the exact same age and yet I was in awe of him. In his 28 years, Billy lived more than most of us do in 100. He's done things and seen things from perspectives most humans will never know, and in doing so he achieved iconic status among his peers and the ski industry. He will be remembered as someone who squeezed every last drop out of life, and died doing the same. I believe there is honor in that. I'm reminded that life is a fragile and previous gift that must be savored every moment.

Don't Tase Me 2.BRO

In the wake of "Tase-Gate", you may be asking yourself "Where can I see MORE tasings?" Fear not. Today, my friend Chris let me in on his dark and twisted side. Apparently he gets a sadistic kick out of watching impudent morons rendered even less coherent by the stun of non-lethal force. And I love him for it. In fact, his new site Tase.tv will let you in on his delightful perversion with clips and stories of all the best tasings from around the internet world. It's so much fun it's shocking. He he he. And the best part is that most of the people you'll see getting tased COMPLETELY deserve it. There are some cases where the use of force was with questionable judgement but what's NOT up for debate is that it's hilarious. See for yourself!
http://www.tase.tv/

Sunday at Deer Valley

On Sunday Joe and I finally got a chance to take advantage of the Deer Crest Gondola at Deer Valley, just five minutes from our home. The gondola is an ideal way to start the day; you board in a heated building, ride on padded leather seats and unload inside another heated building all without having to carry your skis more than 5 ft. Now don’t get me wrong this is not our typical ski day but it is nice to see how the other side lives some of the time.

Back to the point - skiing. We headed over to Lady Morgan a section of the mountain that a group of us had hike and skied with our dogs last year. The skiing off the lift was awesome, weaving through aspens in fluffy snow. After a few runs there we ventured into Empire Canyon, scoping out our next line on each chairlift ride, cheering fellow skiers on as they floated below us.

Later in the morning we met up with Kristin and Cory for some runs off the Sterling Lift Chair. Getting off this chair is a truly surreal experience with 4 high speed lifts all unloading within yards of one another. Joe led us down a sweat run which still had fresh snow at 12n. Cory was laughing the whole way down and loving the snow. The entire day was filled with powder and our smiles were ear-to-ear as we arrived at our car at 3:50p. It was the perfect Sunday in my opinion.

Storm Coming...

I've been hearing various murmurs about a potentially huge storm system moving in this weekend. They say it should start tonight and last into Monday with totals anywhere from 1-5 feet. That's exciting and I'm starting to believe it. So far: nothing. But I'm being patient. People tell me there is such a thing as TOO much snow. I'd like to see for myself. We're planning on taking tomorrow off to take the dogs out for a long hike and pick up our Sundance Locals tickets. But Sunday should be awesome. We'll keep ya posted.