Epic Race Mountain 03 – Breckenridge

This morning was super early so we could get up to Breck and get some turns in before the crowds started. Thanks to Mary, she knew it would get crowded and she was right! Started the morning off with Ryan’s untouchably fluffly and delicious scrambled eggs, bacon and toast… and then off to the mountains.

We got our first shot of the day at the overlook over Breckenridge the town, and then headed up the gondola to the lifts.

Right off the bat we hit some really good and fun groomers, but the day was cold, so Hydle and I bailed out to the T Bar for a couple beers and a quesadilla.

After lunch we did some laps through the park where Rhinehart did some rad daffys and some other fun tricks while Hydle filmed. We also met up with Rhineharts brother Colin who ripped through the park also. There were tons of guys ripping it up in the park, pretty fun to watch, but apparently it’s also rider beware, the jumps supposedly are not user friendly if you don’t know what you’re doing!

Lauren and I worked on improving our turns throughout the day, and the guys did a lot of filming in the park and on the groomers.

The mountain was a little crowded and it was pretty cold, so we decided to call it a day around 1, but not without first deciding to hit up the Gold Runner Coaster – it’s a roller coaster, on the mountain, that you self control on how fast you want to go. Um, probably the most fun thing you can do on the side of a ski mountain (at least for me so far).

We rocked out that roller coaster harder than anyone else today for sure, and then called it for the day.

We’re staying at the Rhineharts cabin again tonight (thank you again) and have been editing all afternoon.

And nooooooow, it’s time for the Broncos game, some white bean chili and guac, and possibly a hot tub, and possibly some other fun games. Tomorrow, we ski Eldora! Go Broncos! Epic!

Cooley’s Video:

Rhinehart’s Video:

Epic Race Mountain 02 – Vail Resort

Rocked out Vail today for mountain number 2 of the #epicrace. Beautiful bluebird day early resulted in complete awesomeness all around the mountain with our stellar team. Ashley Cooley’s turns are coming around and Devin Rhinehart continued to warm up some acrobatic maneuvers while sipping on fresh home made coffee in the air. So EPIC.

Rhinehart’s Video

Cooley’s Video

Cooley’s Update:

“Day 2 – Vail
Day 2 started off early with arising to the quiet sounds of Ryan Rhinehart stirring in the kitchen making us his famous pre-skiing oatmeal (thanks Ryan!), accompanied with him dropping his hilarious one liners all morning, like “shouldn’t you guys be on the road already” “wait, I thought you guys were going to be on the road by now” as Mary was pushing us to get going and out the door.

After a later than desired start, and a little photo op with Ryan destroying us in the “I look so amazing nobody can handle this” competition while shoveling snow, we got on the road and headed to Vail.

It was a beautiful morning with sunny groomers, and we took a few laps through the park to also get some of our video content.

Next up was a gondola ride to the top, and then somehow we stumbled upon the mountain opening chair 2. Everyone was lined up at the ropes, and then when the ski patrol opened it up, it was a gnarly Chinese Downhill straight to the chairs (see Rhineharts video for proof!)

After that we hit a sweet powder run that had some of us struggling but was fun and worth it to get to the burritos and gluten free burgers at Mid Vail!

After lunch, we cruised down some more groomers and Hydle decided it was time for some “drills” as some of us are not as advanced of skiiers as he is! So we unbuckled our boots, and snowplowed through a bunch of runs, which teaches us to “turn” and stay forward on our skiis.

The drills were a success (although Lauren won the award for not listening the most lol) and then we called it a day and headed back to the Rhinehart cabin.

More editing and flight booking for the night after another fantastic meal of bratwursts and mashed potatos, and then calling it a night early for a big day 3 at Breckenridge tomorrow! Epic!”

Epic Race Mountain 01 – Arapahoe Basin

112213 0251 - Arapahoe Basin - Team Shot (16x9)

The first day ever of the Epic Race started off with Rhinehart drinking black coffee in the backseat of the Touareg while Hydle drove and I DJ’d some Miley Cyrus etc on the way up to Arapahoe Basin. We had a quick pit stop at Rhineharts cabin to do some engineering on the Touaregs windshield spray (which we solved by adding in the super leaded Colorado version of wiper fluid) and then headed to the mountain.

When we finally arrived (1 pm ish) we posted up shop at “The Beach” where we shot our first videos of the trip, after poaching someone’s community beach chairs for the shot. The day was cold, but we had some Cold CL’s to keep us a little warmer.

Our next location was to visit the “new” 6th Alley Bar and Grill, which was actually still under construction. Hydle pulled some strings/opened some doors and got us into the construction zone to take a sweet pic in front of the beetle kill woodwork that’s gonna be super sweet once it’s all open! We took our photos/videos there and then headed up the hill.

The snow was fun, but the visibility was pretty bad since it was so overcast, so we just cruised a couple runs and then headed to our third and final stop, the Black Mountain Lodge. We took some badass photos in front of the lodge, and then in front of the Continental Divide mountain range, and then went in and grabbed nothing other than of course a Coors Original, since after all, we were tapping the Rockies in the Rockies.

After relaxing/eating/photographing/videoing and meeting some new friends, we took a few more runs and then called it a day, the visibility and weather really made it tough to want to ski much more at that point even though we had a great time!

Once we loaded up, we took a humongous series of jumping photos in front of the A Basin welcome sign. It was a workout, but it was worth it!

Back at the cabin Devin cooked up some of the best vodka sauce sausage spaghetti of all time, and then Lauren, and the Rhineharts arrived to enjoy dinner with us (thank you for dinner and thank you for having us at your cabin Rhineharts!). Ryan and Mary did a pretty good job of convincing us we may have disqualified ourselves on day 1 (which was hilarious actually and was all in good spirits but also good looking out) but after lots of conversation and an email from the Epic team confirming we were fine, we continued on with our night and worked on booking the rest of our flights. Rhinehart and Hydle were huge in figuring out the best logistically sound order of flights, and once booked, we called it a night. Peace out until day 2. Epic!

Vail Resorts Epic Race – What is it? We’re doing it!

We might be crazy…or ridiculously out of control awesome, but somehow Hydle, Rhinehart and I decided to go full force and enter the Epic Race… The “Epic Race” which means we’ve decided to try to be three of the first 10 skiiers to ski all 26 Vail resorts in the 2013/14 season!

Our group consists of the following “team”

Cooley “The Chick” – self employed, living in Tahoe, ‘learnable’ skier level, never skied 26 days in a season, let alone in a row, but ready to try…and will 100% chance definitely sleep more than anyone else in the group, or at least get grumpy trying!

Rhinehart “Third Wheel” – corporate job engineer guy who still is going to make this trip happen on paid time off, everything he knows about skiing he learned from Hydle…gluten free

Greg “The Beard” Hydle – “Skiing is fun, and that’s about all!”

The rules are that you can only ski one US resort per day and two Europeans resorts per day, and the estimated day that we could be winning/finishing the race would be December 20 in France, as that is the resort that has the last opening day this season.

The most likely scenario is that there will be a tie up until this final day/final 26th resort (it doesn’t open until December 20, so the assumption is that there will be a LOT of racers that have completed the previous 25 resorts leading into this final opening day, so everyone who has will be ready to win on this final day.)

So, unless we fall behind, we will most likely be tied with the winners all the way up until the final day.
Each day you ski, you are required to document your day of skiing with (1) :15 second video, and (2) photos – each taken from a different location on the mountain that is on a list that is predetermined by Vail Resorts.

So, on the final day, we will have to be in line first, ski to the three locations we need to get to first, and upload our photos/video first. The winner is chosen based on when the actual content is UPLOADED, not when you actually have skiied – so we will have to figure out a good solution on the final day on how to access internet FROM the mountain, ideally from the final spot that we take our photo from.

For those who would like to follow along and aren’t already doing so on Facebook, you can follow our travels and ski days via the following links:

Overall Epic Race Leaderboard – #epicrace

Ashley Cooley Epic Race Profile Page #epicrace

Greg Hydle Epic Race Profile Page #epicrace

Devin Rhinehart Epic Race Profile Page #epicrace

Wish us luck!

Happy Fathers Day – Les Hydle Celebration Speech


[YouTube]

1 year ago today, we celebrated the life of my father Les Hydle. At the time, I couldn’t tell you how important it was for me to be writing and sharing my thoughts and feelings about how my dad and I spent his last waking minutes, but now… looking back over the last year – I realize there is absolutely no way I could re-write those feelings to the detail that I have already captured. I’m happy I have these memories, and I’m glad I can access them so easily just by clicking Les Hydle at the top of this page.

I know you like my videos even more than my writing… so here you go. This was the introduction to your Final Playlist at the celebration of your life last June 15th, 2012. Happy Fathers Day Dad… I love you.

HYDLE – The Best RAW Video I have Ever Shot – BHTM 06/07/08


[YouTubeUlar] <— 493 Happy BHTM Day - On this weekend year anniversary of my father Les being involved in a motorcycle accident that ultimately took his life… I give you the best RAW video I have ever shot.

The date was 06/07/08 and Big Head Todd was recording a live set to be released on both album and DVD. They played for 4 hours straight… 31 songs with no opening band … just all BHTM. My sister Jessica and dad managed to buy up some sweet tickets for us to enjoy the awesomeness. With a little help from Sara and Jake Manley and a side of Regier … We had access to everything :)

This was an awesome day in the history of my life… and now you can enjoy the most awesome moment from this amazing night at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Stay classy friends – I still want to find out who the girl in the orange dress is, so if you have any ideas… do share :)

Doug Smith – I Am Craig Video

[Vimeeeeeo] <— 1848 LinkedIn recently inquired me to write about some projects from my past, so I thought I would share this little write up on the 2011 Craig Hospital Push Dinner video with Doug Smith, the most amazing pianist (sorry doug) in the world.

The 2011 installment of the “I Am Craig” PUSH Dinner Video was a fun one. Getting the opportunity to interview Doug Smith, a true musical genius, was a treat for me to figure out where his creativity comes from. Tying his story into a live show was a first for the Craig Hospital PUSH dinner videos… something they have now copied three times since this 2011 showing.

If you could have only been there to feel this transition take place… to see my work presented on such a large scale to tell the story of Doug Smith and then have him revealed and play such a powerful song live — It was such an amazing feeling.

I shot, edited and directed this piece with a small team of Jake Manley, Mary Bonner and myself. We all had a fun working road trip to Lubbock, Texas were everyone on the team learned a lot about each other, the local watering holes, and the man Doug Smith!

After the 6:40 mark in the video… I had zero control of shooting and editing. I feel as if the impact could have been a bit better matched to my original work – but you still get the impression of how impacted the audience was. [raw video]

I can’t wait to actually tell this entire story in Hydle detail sometime in the near future for all of you loyal readers and newly Doug Smith fans :) But for now – it stays in the memory bank.

Don’t hesitate to pick up the most amazing Doug Smith album of all time. It was recorded live in 2000 before his injury. The stories behind the recording of this album are incredible, but Doug Smith’s playing is even better.

[iTunes – Live – Doug Smith]
[Doug Smith – The Amazing Piano Player – Homepage]
[Doug Smith – The Amazing Piano Player – On Hydle.com]
[Craig Hospital]