The Janssen Family World Travels: Winter Wonderland

Man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever to be pushed upon the people of our planet. To the contrary, I’m quite convinced that after a brief blip in the nineties, we are now entering the next ice age. I know this to be true not because after making billions off the hoax and doubling his girth, Al Gore is in hiding; but rather and more importantly because of the science of direct observation. Last winter, I directly tested my theory at Crystal Mountain, Washington. There was near record snowfall and the longest ski season in the resort’s history (skiing in July). Not being one to be satisfied by one point of data, I traveled this winter to the heart of the European Alps to directly see what all of the Europeans zooming about in their diesel-exhaust-spewing cars were complaining about. There was talk of receding glaciers, little snow, bad Americans no Kyoto, wahh, wahh, wahh! Let it suffice to say that those Europeans who were crying are nowhere to be seen. In the Alps, they, as are we, are buried in snow.

It started snowing here around the 5^th of December and except for a few 2-3 day respites, and raining on New Year’s Eve, it hasn’t let up. The most recent storms to whack us over the course of 4 days left us with about 7’ of snow in the village and double at the mountain tops. The locals say it is the most snow in 10 to 30 years (depending on the local you talk with of course…how would a local who has only been here for 10 years know what the previous 20 years were like?) Now you understand why my science is indisputable. I love snow. I even love shoveling snow. I grew up shoveling neighbor’s driveways for spending money. In the winter I love the exercise of shoveling snow at our cabin at Crystal Mt., favoring a hearty roof shovel over a snowshoe death march with Traci. The owners of our house here are British and returned to England for 3 weeks for the Holidays. I promised I’d keep the place shoveled. Big mistake. Big mistake. Even with a hearty snow blower it was a losing battle. I lost. I’m sick of shoveling snow. My wrists and back hurt. Bad.

We had a great Christmas, going out on Christmas Eve (when the locals celebrate) to a fabulous restaurant where little Austrians were all dolled up in their lederhosen and singing Christmas carols in front of a raging fire. When they got around to “silent night” (written by an Austrian in WWI) it was actually very cool. The next morning we enjoyed a quiet Christmas with a simple tree. We set low expectations about gifts this year, given our propensity for traveling light, yet the kids were truly delighted with what they received. We hunkered down and went into homework and crowd avoidance mode for most of the week before and after the New Year.

So back to skiing and the snow. One of the forgotten joys of a youth that is becoming ever so distant past, is the creation of your own ski jump, better known in ski lore as “a kicker.” It is a rite of passage for kids to have to build their own kicker, and any parent with a heart has to help or at least condone the activity. On New Year’s Eve some fine young locals had built a kicker about two blocks below our cabin. Note the key word “below” and not “near” or “next to” and then consider a two block hike through waist deep snow for access. Hayden rather impulsively decided that he wanted to do a helicopter, which for the non-skier readers is a 360 degree spin off a jump. So at the end of a great ski day, as the snow turned to rain and the daylight to darkness, Hayden tried about 10 helicopters off this jump, with his mother at his side, slogging his skis back through the waist deep snow up to the starting area. Being the engaged parent that I often am, I was shoveling snow off the deck, and having once been a master of the art of helicopters, shouted (really loud as I can be) encouragement from the deck. So on try #10 or so, in the fading light and fading hours of 2011, Hayden stuck his first of what will undoubtedly be tens of thousands of helicopters. Traci and I were so proud and so excited. I thought I was young when I achieved this passage to manhood but Hayden beat me by two years. I was also vividly reminded of what a wonderful woman I married as she trudged through the deep mashed potato snow, helping and encouraging him while attempting to ruin my camera. So the next morning, in the now very wet, deep snow of New Year’s Day, Hayden requested that I accompany him to the kicker for some more helicopters. This was at precisely 6:30 a.m. While most fortunate Americans were waking up to watch some of the greatest professional and college football ever to be played, I, having been deeply shamed by my wife the night before, was forced to agree to this simple request, albeit an hour or so later in daylight. Being a parent, and clinging to the only thread of influence and leadership that I currently have, I dutifully agreed but insisted that we build our own kicker, much closer to the cabin, for easier access and observation. After an hour or so, using the perfect wet snow, we created a masterpiece. After his trial jump deemed it safe, Hayden’s first attempt was the always unsuccessful 270. His skis were stuck uphill so I trudged through the snow to help. As I gripped his ski in beast mode and undid the binding while pulling towards me, I discovered upon impact with my shin that kid’s skis do have remarkably sharp edges, even without being tuned in a month and having encountered miles of ice, several meters of rocks, and probably 50 meters of metal rails. What started as a small boo boo two weeks ago has grown into a larger, somewhat infected wound which doesn’t seem to heal when pressed against the tongue of my ski boot every day for 20,000+ vertical feet, not to mention Traci forcing me to skin about 1600’ up the mountain every third day. We set a goal to ski every day that we’re here, so I’m sure that in the next 8 weeks or so it will miraculously heal. If not, I’m confident that upon encountering the sanitary mecca known as India all will be well.

So Hayden stuck a helicopter after about 4 tries off what turned out to be a tough jump. He was getting better quickly but then suffered a bit of a setback after he learned that once the landing area of a jump gets packed out, it becomes much harder and hurts more when you miss. After breakfast as the family headed out to ski, I thought I’d impress Hayden and the rest of the gang and lead by example to show how easy a helicopter really was. I promptly tried 3 helicopters: the first on the kicker we built…a horrible jump by the way; the second on the one where Hayden made his first helicopter with Traci the night before (those local punks don’t know how to build jumps); and the third and final in front of a small crowd of skiers off a cat track. I fell fairly badly after each, with my pride taking a progressively worse beating after each mangled attempt. Sticking one used to be like breathing for me, and now Traci and the kids were calling me the big “O-fer” (as in 0 for 3). Shamed, I went to bed early and cried myself to sleep. After a night of mental positive imaging, I approached the terrain park with new, grim determination. I nailed my first attempt with about 6” of air off a kiddie jump. Not proud or pretty but done. It may have been my last.

Over the past few days we had the lovely Mrs. Julia Clarke visit us from Seattle. Suffice it to say that she is a great skier and it was a pleasure having her join us for three days. She put herself in mortal danger by skiing with the Janssen clan, with three kids and one adult skiing dangerously fast and out of control around her at all times. Her composure was remarkable except for one “s-bomb” screamed aloud as she followed me blindly off a snow drift. She experienced a bit of planes, trains and automobiles getting here, finally showing up about 24 hours behind schedule due to avalanches closing rails and roads, but she gamely cut short the next stop on her itinerary by a day, showing a tremendous grasp of priorities. We managed to ski St. Anton, Lech, Zurs, St. Christoph and Rendl. About 40 lifts and as many miles of great tracks! Thanks for the visit Julia!

Below are the latest pictures and a couple videos of snow, snow and some more snow. In all seriousness the snow just let up two days ago and we are due for a long spell of sunny days which we are looking forward to as there is so much to see and explore.

January 15th will mark the end of our 6^th month traveling. I can safely say that each of us is glad we undertook this trip. I can’t believe a half year has gone by so quickly and we’re half done. While thinking about this at first was a bit depressing, the glass half-full is a much better outlook. We have an incredible 6months ahead of us, with seven more weeks in an incredible ski area that we now know well, with incredible conditions and friends coming to visit. That in itself is more than anyone could ask for. After we head East in March, we’ll get to experience incredible parts of the world that I’m sure will be as, if not more, interesting than the places we’ve been to date and where we will hopefully be visited by family and more great friends. As the Germans say…”Alle ist Gut!” (or something like that). Wishing you all the best!

Sydney displaying the latest Euro fashion trend

Traci not to be outdone

Nor Halle. Hayden wasn't buying it. Actually they are modeling so that my mother can make these for a future school auction.

Hayden or "Ski Hawk"

A little church in the woods where we hiked and the local school kids sang Christmas carols

Christmas Eve...courtesy of Sydney Janssen

Christmas morning. note Halle's belt of ribbon which was soon to take on immense proportions as she added to it with the bows from each gift

Halle. I think that's Halle?

Waking the kids up for first tracks, only to be forced to wait an hour for avalanche control

Sydney needing a break

Think he got any face shots?

Sledding from the patio

Life is good as long as you have a bear hat

Hayden 320 degrees around..

Success in the dark and rain

Poor dad. 0-3

First in line at the first lift to open

Sydney experiencing the rewards of first tracks. She is a powder skiing machine.

Traci not to be out done

Brian...More speed

After Sydney helped me shovel the car park roof, she was responsibly encouraged to jump the 15 or so feet off the roof by her father and promptly post-holed in up to her neck and was blissfully stuck

Julia Clarke and Traci apres ski at the world famous mooserwirt. Don't know who took this photo as I was of course at home watching/teaching the kids

The first sunny day after the storms. The light was so bright and foreign to us that despite 4 photos Halle couldn't keep her eyes open in any of them

Brian and T-bar buddy Halle. Riding a T-bar with someone half your height is one of the world's most difficult feats, especially going up steep hills. Sydney thought this was funny for some warped reason.