Thanksgiving 2011

Hello from Wisconsin! I think it's official, Thanksgiving in Wisconsin is going to be annual for me. It's been the best trip back (not counting my Minocqua visits) since I've left. I flew in Wednesday evening and went out that night with a good 40 kids from my high school to 4 different bars in town. I hadn't seen them all in years so it was good to catch up. Apparently it's going to be a yearly event, very excited about that!

Courtney, Mallory, Kelly, Me, Sydney

The next day was Thanksgiving and we had most of my mom's side over at our house. Can you tell we're Packer fans?

Me and two of my aunts.

Ethan, Aiden, and Eoin with their mom Robin and cousin Maddy in the back.

Me and my beautiful Grandmother!

Me and my older brother. My mom: "Be serious!"

Then yesterday me and mom went shopping on Black Friday. I have worked retail since I've been 16, so it was really fun to be on the opposite end of things for a while. Me and my mom both scored some awesome deals. She definitely spoiled me a little bit and I'm so thankful! Today is a laid back day until I fly out tomorrow. I'm excited to get back to the mountains, but I look forward to all the festivities again tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Gingras Family!

- John, Linda, Eric, Ali, Dillon & Dan

Moving Forward- Danny T's Recovery

You may remember my (blog post) last year about pro snowboarder Danny Toumarkine who was in a riding accident and sustained a traumatic brain injury. 10 months out he's doing awesome and released the trailer for his new documentary. Check it out and remember to wear your helmet!

"On January 3rd, 2011 Danny Toumarkine took a horrible fall while snowboarding in Montana. Danny was care flighted to a local hospital where he spent the next 33 days. During his time at the hospital Danny underwent 4 brain surgeries as a result of impact trauma to the left side of his head. Danny is very lucky to be alive.

This video is a trailer to the full length video which will be released on January 10th, 2012. It documents the time before and after the injury and will come out a week after Danny's return to the snow.

For more information on Danny's story check out:
http://www.dannyisthebomb.com"

Bragging Rights & Blizzards

Sorry that this entry and the last were so close together. Sometimes things just come up and you have to blog about them! So, NOT TRYING TO BRAG OR ANYTHING.... (Okay, yes I am), but my best friend Ashley is A POSTER in December's issue of Freeskier Magazine, and my dear friend Angeli is ON THE COVER of November's Issue of Skiing Magazine. AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH... four of my dearest friends (Ashley Battersby, Grete Eliassen, Keri Herman and Devin Logan) were officially announced as 4 of the 10 members of the first U.S. OLYMPIC FREESKIING SLOPESTYLE TEAM! And Devin was also announced as a member of the halfpipe team, what an accomplishment! Guess I will have to start saving up to go watch them in the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games!

I am BEYOND proud and so so SO honored to have such talented friends!!!

In local news...
If you don't live in Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado you probably didn't hear about the crazy blizzard that has been blowing through since yesterday evening. Up to two feet of snow was supposed to drop in places, yet my drive to the grocery store this morning revealed that we currently have less than we started with, haha! From 9News.com:

"DENVER - After wind gusts reached over 80 mph in some areas on Saturday, it will be another windy day on Sunday, including in the mountains where the wind will combine with snow to create blizzard conditions in some areas. 

9NEWS Meteorologist Ashton Altieri says a second surge of energy on Sunday will create more powerful wind gusts up and down the Front Range.

Saturday afternoon winds hit 99 mph 7 miles northwest of Berthoud in Larimer County and 90 mph at the NCAR Mesa Lab on the south end of Boulder.

Here is a list of the most extreme wind gusts observed in Colorado through early Sunday morning...

Tenmile Peak: 115 mph (5 miles south of Frisco)
Peak 9: 115 mph (Breckenridge Ski Area)
Berthoud Pass: 113 mph
Kenosha Pass: 101 mph
Loveland Pass: 100 mph"
(Read more of this article here.)

There are also three other things I want to mention that are going on in Summit, but I thought I would just link you to The Summit Daily, where they tell the story best!

• Breckenridge Plans 50th Birthday Party For Ski Resort.
• Old CMC Breckenridge Building New Home of Peak School
• A two week old article, the castle has since started coming to life: Ice Castle Coming to Silverthorne

Blog Updates & Breck Opens

Breckenridge opened yesterday on 11/11/11 for it's 50th Anniversary Season. (I had to work and I'm super bummed about it, so we're just going to pretend that I was there.) It was an absolutely beautiful day and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. (Check out the opening day video here.) (And check out the opening day album here.)

Courteous of Breckenridge Ski Resort's Facebook Page.

On another subject, I added the "labels" feature on the right of the homepage for anyone interested in reading about certain subjects. I also added the "Places To Go, Things To Do" page which has been and will continue to be a work in progress. Not sure if it will ever be of use to anyone, but hey, you never know!

First Shred of 11/12!!!

Yesterday Keystone and Copper opened. I've gone to Keystone the last two years in a row and the lift lines have been crazy, so me and my friend decided to switch it up and go to Copper... Glad we did!!! The lift line was very pleasant compared to previous years at Keystone, so we got to take around 10 runs in the few hours we were there. The weather was absolutely perfect. There wasn't a cloud in the sky until around 1:30pm and it was in the mid 40's all day. It felt a little funny when I first got on my skis, but half way down the run I was linking turns like skiing never ended. Copper also had an awesome opening day park with several jibs AND two impressive sized kickers. Big props to Copper for that one, it's hard to get two jumps up this early! I didn't really ride anything in the park, mostly because I'm not ready to fall on my newly-healed arm after surgery, and also because I have this weird theory that riding park on opening day is bad luck. (My worst nightmare is to fall and break something during pre-season. Haha!) I enjoyed watching everyone else though!

Here are some picture's of opening day and Copper's "Bouncer Park" courteous of Woodward at Copper and Copper Mountain!

A sequence of my friend Dave, who is also a coach at Woodward at Copper.

On another note, a few of my friends went to Keystone and also had a blast. They said the lines weren't as bad as previous years and the opening day park was awesome (as always). The new EpicMix photographers were also out in action, which you can read more about here.

Here are some pictures courteous of Keystone Resort!