Paradox Sports Backcountry Ski Day

Last week I had the AWESOME opportunity to go backcountry skiing with fellow amputee and Paradox Sports athlete, Mike Crenshaw along with Paradox Sports ambassador Timmy O’Neil, and Finn Mikes dog. What fun!

The morning started early and with copious amounts of coffee. I have recently been debating the importance of coffee with friends and have determined that it is pretty close to oxygen on the top of my list of things needed to live. Maybe not that important but you get the point… Timmy and I met Mike and Finn in Idaho Springs and headed for the Berthoud Pass Mike was going to show us skiing the the “Upper 1-10′s.” This was my first time hanging with Mike and it was a blast. Mike – It is good to know you brotha. I think that you are a rock star. Lets go ski again soon.

I have not backcountry skied that many times and I still get a little anxious thinking about it. There are things that can go wrong if you are not careful and being a novice I get anxious. It is great though because A-Hole guide service is always there to lend a helping hand when it is needed. Like “Ski down that…I shoot it…$100.” (Referring to the death couloir to our right.” I like hanging out with Timmy for a variety of reasons but I can say that I rarely stop laughing when I am around him. I also want to say thanks to Timmy for the help with the risers on my bindings. I didn’t know I had them.

The skiing was amazing. I could not believe the areas of untracked powder up there. I have to admit that I enjoy the skinning as much as I do the skiing down. It is great exercise and the views are amazing. It is really interesting to me how fast you can get up the mountain on skis. I looked around at the point we stopped and there was skiable powder runs all over. We looked up at the “Postage Stamp” and it looked like it could avalanche but will probably be good in the spring. I HOPE.

I am really enjoying going on some of these smaller, spontaneous, one off ski trips lately. It is really awesome to connect with other people with disabilities and celebrate our abilities. I am really thankful for Paradox Sports for making those connections. When I speak with people who have participated in Paradox Sports programs they say that the “community” is the best thing about Paradox. I agree with that.

Moral of the story… Let’s go skiing.

Enjoy these pics:

Burlington Vermont Slide Show~Thursday February 3rd.

It will be a real pleasure this year to attend the Mt. Washington Valley Ice Festival in North Conway, NH on behalf of Paradox Sports in early February. We will be exploring the possibility of doing a Gimps on Ice event in the North East ion a regular basis. Paradox Sports athlete Maureen Whalley Beck has really worked her butt off to get Paradox Sports a slideshow at Eastern Mountain Sports in Burlington VT. It will be my pleasure and honor to present Paradox Sports and the story of how Paradox Sports has helped myself and others “assert their minds over their disabilities.” If you live in the area please join us on the 3rd. it will be great to meet old and new friends.

Special Thanks to the Airline Pilots Association

I wanted to take a moment to thank the Airline Pilots Association once again for sponsoring me on the Nepal trip. Matt Murray, a pilot with United airlines, was the man who worked his butt off to obtain the sponsorship. THANK YOU MATT! Check out the story ALPA Pilots See Soldiers To The Summit. You guys are great. I really appreciate everything you did for me! Thanks MATT and ALPA!

Paradox Sports Celebrates Tommy Carol’s 45 Birthday with 26 Inches of Powder

Paradox Sports athlete Tommy Carol celebrated his 45th birthday on January 18th. Tommy is a left above the knee amputee who has really pushed himself past his disability. Tommy lost his leg as the result of a motorcycle accident 20 years ago. Since then Tommy has gone to biomechanical engineering school and has become a prosthetist. Tommy is a rock climber, ice climber, cyclist, and a skier. Currently Tommy is working on building a new prosthetic foot and is a ski instructor at Ignite Adaptive Sports.

I had an opportunity to ski with Tommy earlier this year and we made plans to ski regardless on his birthday. We planned to ski at Winter Park unfortunately due to heavy snow fall and a missing snowboarder Berthoud Pass was closed. We decided to go to Copper Mountain after hearing reports of 17 inches of new snow. We passed through Eisenhower tunnel we decided to call our buddy Vijay to see what he was doing that day. Vijay is a paraplegic who is another Paradox Sports athlete. Talking to him on the phone I got really excited. He was skiing at Breckenridge and was reporting 26 inches of new snow. YEAH YEAH! We changed our plans immediately. We met Vijay at the bottom of Peak 8 and heading up into glorious powder. They were opening Imperial as we started up the lift. This was the first time I was going to ski with Vijay and I was immediately impressed with his ability to ski some of the hardest lines on the mountain in a sit ski. Rock Star!

We had an awesome time together. Tommy commented throughout the day about how much he appreciated being a part of Paradox Sports. He said that it had opened many opportunities for him. He said that he liked being a part of the “tribe” the most. The camaraderie within Paradox is unparalleled. Here is Tommy’s facebook update following our ski day: “Today was bye far the b.day i skied in 26in of new snow at Breckinridfe. N.Boul on one leg god am i wiped with a smiel and joy photos will post in a few days.”

My opinion was that it was awesome to hang out with a couple of my friends and enjoy some awesome skiing. I can not wait to do it again!

Fake It Till You Make It – A Film by Rebecca Saunders

Here is an interesting perspective on the recent Outside Adventure Film Schools recent hut trip by Becca Saunders. Becca I love your film. It is funny but I love the contrast and comparisons that you made in the film between you and the people you interviewed. It gave me a fresh perspective. Thank you. It was awesome to get to know you.

More Outside Adventure Film School Magic!

Let me introduce you to Ryan Van Duzer. Duzer is one of those guys who you just know when you meet him that you are going to have fun. He was actually introduced to me as Mr. Fun. We had great fun on the Janet’s cabin hut trip. Check out his light hearted film on the adventure.

Ryan its good to know you brotha.

Skiing with Outside Adventure Film School

Last week I had an awesome opportunity to go on a hut trip with Outside Adventure Film School. It was great fun to hang out and ski with this group of film makers. With most trips you come away with a few people who you know will be in your life for years. One of those on this trip is Robinson Noble. Robinson made a great film staring yours truly and did an excellent job communicating a bit of my story. Check this film out… Don’t laugh too hard and me face planting in the amazing powder we got to ski. I want to thank Outside Adventure Film School and the students for the amazing week!

Ouray Ice Festival

Over the weekend I had the privilege to attend the Ouray Ice Festival. It was such a great time to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. Here is a video of the winner of Josh Wharton, the ice climbing competition.

I traveled from the warm and sunny front range on Thursday morning to Ouray. (Ouray is not warm and sunny even when it is) Upon arrival I immediately set my sights on Mouses Chocolate. Mouses is owned by Jon and Heidi a couple of great friends that I met through Paradox Sports and Gimps on Ice. Not only does Mouses have the best chocolate in Colorado they have the best coffee, cookies and Heidi gives a great foot massage. I needed to see my friends and have an awesome cup of coffee.

While in Ouray I was really excited to see friends. One friend in particular was Pete. Pete and I met here on the front range a couple of years ago. Last summer Pete moved to Ridgeway to live his dream of living near the desert and climbing out there. Pete is awesome and let me stay at his house for the festival. Pete, Lindsey and I had an opportunity to climb together. It was really great to see my friend. Pete is one of the most solid climbers I have ever met and it was good to share a rope with him again.

Another friend that I needed to see was Hutch at the Ourayle House brewery. Hutch has been a HUGE supporter of Paradox Sports and is a good friend. Hutch brews some of the best beer I have ever had. I can not wait for his “One arm, one leg, IPA” in March!

From the Petzl party to the fund-raiser at the community center and seeing Garnett from Treadwall it was a completely awesome weekend. I also want to give a shoutout to my friends Andy and Hailey at Gibbon slacklines. Andy way to keep pushing for the highline. I don’t know how you do what you do but it is impressive.

I also want to give a shout out to my new friend Brett. Mr. Ama Dablam. It is good to know you dude. Keep crushing it.

I know I didn’t mention everyone but it was great to see all of you. Alex, Jim, Sid, Chad, Mark, everyone! The Ice Festival weekend was a great weekend for me. I needed to get out-of-town and have some fun and accomplished just that.

Rex Pemberton makes an amazing film on paragliding Nepal

During our Soldiers to the Summit trip to Lobuche we were joined by several members of the Outside Adventure Film School. One of those people was Rex Pemberton. Rex did some amazing things while we were in Nepal including paragliding. Check out this amazing film Rex shot documenting his paragliding adventures in Nepal.

Channel 4 CBS Story

Here is the link to the channel 4 CBS news story that ran Sunday December 12th. It was so awesome to see some of this video again and remember the life long friends I made on this expedition. Seeing the team made me emotional and I miss Nepal. I can not wait to go back. Anyway… Here is a big thanks to Dominic Garcia for a great interview. I had a lot of fun.