Category Archives: Hydle

Epic Race Mountains 13 & 14 – Lech & Zurs, St. Anton, Austria

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Well, today was pretty close to one of the most mind blowing days of skiing I’ve ever had. I am not even sure if the English language has words for how incredible the Alps are. Maybe there are words in German that can accurately describe them, but in English I don’t think anything does justice.

The Alps are Huge. Beautiful. Vast. Insane. Steep. Heavenly. Gnarly. Happy. Lonely. Fun. Scary. Intense. Scenic. Insane. Commanding. A skiers paradise, and probably an original explorers dream and nightmare combined. I can’t explain this place other than until you see it in person, there is no proper way to explain them.

We had the best time today. We had a team breakfast here at the Apart Korona, and then headed off to the mountains. Our first stop was the Information office at Lech for our Epic Race stamps. The staff there was so friendly and even gave us the Lech keychains for free!

We ran into some fellow Epic Racers in the parking lot, of course they all recognized Hydle, and we shot the shit with them for a minute, and then parked the car and got everything ready to ski. After a quick playful jaunt in the playground (aka the guys terrain park), we walked over to jump on the first lift of our lives in the Austrian Alps!

Just the ride up alone, we were all in awe, like I already said, I can’t explain how grand this place is. It was a perfect, bluebird, glistening gloriful day!

Within the first 100 yards on our first run (for the record, it was his first run of the season) – Francis ATE it on the side fluff of the run, which I got to witness. Nice work Franics!

After that, we charged down amazing huge groomers with nobody on the runs, and headed to our three spots at Lech – the Kriegeralpe which is a cute lunch spot with a fake cow out front, the Weibermahd lift station where some European skiers asked Greg if he was Mc Fitti – again. When he said no, the guy then said “well if you were, or if you at least said you were his brother, you’d get a lot of chicks!” haha. And then we took the Rufikopf tram – HYDLES first tram ride!!!! – up to the Rufikopf panoramic view restaurant where we ran into several different groups of Epic Racers who all recognized Hydle of course!

Then, we went up to the panoramic view at the top of the Rufikopf tram. As Rhinehart appropriately described it, “This is the most panoramic view I’ve ever SEEN!!” Again, no words can describe the grand and vastness of this view, and of all things, we saw it on a perfect bluebird day!

From there, we cruised down the raddest, most fun cat-track ride I can confidently say I’ve ever been on! It lasted forever, and we had a blast zipping in and out, off the side of the run, taking videos in the sunshine, and tearing up some huge fast turns.
That brought us to the Zurs village – equally as cute as every other village we’ve seen so far, but just a bit smaller. We headed into the information office, partied with Elina and got some stamps, and then we were on our way up our first (and only) Zurs lift which was still huge.

At the top was one of our photo spots – the Madloch lift. DUDE. I WISH this lift was open. Holy crap. It was gnarly steep, took you straight to what looks like the top of the Zurs mountain area (but who knows, this place never ceases to surprise you!) and it flows back down into a canyon with a bar/restaurant overlooking what is now a frozen lake (but it must be so beautiful in the summer!).

So we took our videos, and then headed over to the bar/restaurant at the top of that lift called the Bergrestaurant Steepkopf. Insane mountain views from every angle of this place, it felt like we were in a movie!! We ordered a round of drinks from one of the coolest waiters we’ve met yet – ADRIAN! He was so cool, he played with the camera, and chatted us up in his best English. We also had our first Austrian dessert – an Apple Steudel with a vanilla cream sauce. Basically heaven in my mouth!

We shut down the place (they have to close when the lifts close and download the lift with the lifties) so we took an icy, but equally icy but gorgeous ski ride down with insane alpenglow views of the Alps on the way down.

We grabbed the bus back to Lech to get to the car, hit up the grocery store, and headed back to our hotel. I cooked up some spaghetti, the guys edited, and then Hydle and I decided to check out the sauna. Ok. I thought it was going to be just a sauna. What we didn’t realize was it’s basically a spa. It was a huge room with relaxing beach chairs in a warm room, a hot as shit sauna, a steam room, relaxing music playing, decorative plants, window shades that are on a three rail system that Hydle admired, and a shower with multi shower heads in all directions. Apart Korona – straight up killing it!

Now we are editing/blogging/uploading/listening to Mc Fitti, and there is some talk of the Moosewirt next. It’s late, but we are also kinda still on Colorado time, so it’s like 1 pm at home still…so whatever, we might rock it!

See you tomorrow, Epic Euro Race Time – OUT!



Hydle Lech Video Mountain 13
Cooley Lech Video Mountain 13
Cooley Zurs Mountain 14

Epic Europea Travel Day!

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We made it! We left yesterday, December 10 at 2 pm, and Nabor Ryan (Rhineharts Dad) drove us to the airport – thank you Nabor Ryan! After a successful early arrival to the airport (yes, early, and Hydle was not happy about it!) we boarded our sweet humongous double decker Lufthansa plane. Our flight attendant was smokin hot and super nice, and she killed it the whole flight.

Flying to Europe on Lufthansa was almost like flying first class minus the extra leg room – we got served dinner, hot towels, all we could drink wine and beer, snacks, and then breakfast in the morning, and we got to watch unlimited movies that were pretty sweet also. Hydle also drank three vodka OJ’s the next morning before breakfast!

We landed in Frankfurt which was an insanely huge airport, and proceeded to lose Rhinehart who was in total zombie mode because he took half an ambien on the flight. We cruised through the airport which also seemed to double as a super nice ass mall, and then eventually got to our gate where Rhinehart caught up with us.

We had one final flight on a small little prop plane from Frankfurt into Innsbrook that only took about an hour. This was probably the sweetest view I’ve ever seen from an airplane flying into Innsbrook. The plane basically dives in through these huge peaks of the Alps and then circles around the city before landing pretty much in the center of town.

When we landed, Hydle had a friend he had randomly met a year earlier on his last trip into Innsbrook who offered to pick us up and hang out with us for a few hours while we waited for his other buddy Francis to meet up with us.

Bine picked us up from the airport and we went back to her super cute little apartment in the city to drop off all of our stuff, and then we walked to the bus stop and hopped on to go to the top of the city overlooking everything to get a drink.

The views in Innsbrook are unreal, the Alps are huge, and there are ski resorts everywhere leading into the town. I couldn’t believe how huge and steep some of the resort runs looked, it definitely made us all super stoked to ski!

After a drink at the top of town, we rode a bus back down into the town to go to the original place that Greg met Bine – the Stiftskeller! We had some beers and authentic Austrian food (sausages and pretzels and saurkrat and meat) and Bine had some other friends (including the other original friend that Hydle had met the year earlier, Ella) come meet up. Everyone was fun and friendly and spoke English so we had a good time, and then Francis who is gonna be our fourth wheel/local chauffer for the next few days also showed up.

Bine wanted to show us the Christmas Market in the downtown area so we all walked through the Christmas market which was so ridiculously cute and Christmasy in the village, and then we grabbed an authentic hot wine drink and took some pics. After that she talked us into meeting up with some friends for one more drink at the Mustache Bar – El Mustachio!

At El Mustachio there was a group of guys that saw Greg and then started kinda laughing and smiling, so one of Bine’s friends said “Oh we should probably let you guys know, Greg looks exactly like a famous rapper in Europe named Mc Fitti” (see video above, it’s hilarious how much Greg looks like him). The guys eventually came up to Greg to ask him if he was Mc Fitti, they chatted a bit and he high fived them. Greg’s doppleganger for sure, and turns out even though he raps in another language, he’s pretty damn good and his music video kicks ass, Mc Fitti FTW!

We headed back to Bine’s house and packed up our stuff into Francis’s car (thank you Francis!), and headed out toward St Anton since we are skiing two of the #epicrace resorts here tomorrow. Francis killed it driving while the three of us jetlagged out and passed out for the hour long drive.

We arrived at our hotel, which is adorable and really clean – it’s more like a condo/mini apartment really – called Apart Korona. The family that runs it lives here, and they were really nice and greeted us for check in and showed us around.

Now we are all doing computer stuff, I’m blogging, and just made three rounds of horrible microwaved popcorn. The microwave is struggling so we kept having bags full of half unpopped, half burned popcorn, and our room smells like smoky burned popcorn now! Hah!

Time to ski tomorrow, can’t wait, it is so gorgeous here, tomorrow should be fun! Epic European time!

Epic Race Mountain 12 Mt. Brighton, Michigan

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The flight last night was easy and we got some more attention through the airport in the form of Hydle meeting a fellow beard guy, so we took some pics with him and then were on our way to grab our rental car and head to Mt Brighton!

We got in to Brighton around 11:30, and decided to hit up Redddddddddddd Robin, yum! The guys powered down some late night milkshakes and dinner, and then we got to our hotel room, edited a bit and then slept like babies for the night.

This morning we took our time getting out of bed and the hotel because we knew we weren’t gonna need a lot of time on the mountain considering it had two lifts, one rope tow and a total vertical rise of 250 feet (elevation 1,100).

The hotel was 1 mile away from the hill – this seemed weird to me because it felt like we had stayed in a suburban downtownish area of Brighton, not a “mountain” town and there were by no means any “mountains” or really even any hills around town. So, on our drive to the hill, we were chatting away, and all of a sudden, Mt Brighton was in our sights and we all shouted out “whoah, there it is” in total shock at the same time. It was pretty hilarious, out of nowhere there’s literally just a big hill covered in snow when the rest of the surrounding area is flat and dry!

We grabbed our snowblades and not knowing that there was an actual entrance, we cruised down a dirt patch on the side of the building and onto the slopes. Our first run was up the most ridiculously fast rope tow, that was literally just a high speed rotating rope. I thought I knew what a small town “home mountain” was like until coming to Mt. Brighton – nobody was manning the rope tow, and the lift operators weren’t scanning tickets (we found out at the end of the day that they scan tickets upon entering the “entrance” like an amusement park (which we didn’t use).

We did some hilarious gaper laps on the rope tow, Rhinehart did a couple daffys off this run, and then we went over to their “high speed quad” – I guess when you only have 250 feet of vertical, you wanna move people up those lifts quickly

We took pics at the top of chair 3, and then cruised over to the magic carpet section where I took my video, and the guys talked to the lift operators who were working on the magic carpet. Even though it was fully dry outside and no snow anywhere besides the hill, it was dumping on this run because of all the snowmaking they were doing!

The last stop was at chair 1 and the race course. Imagine if you put a race course on your average mountains bunny hill and you get the idea!

We finished up the day and had to get back to the airport, so after having more fun than expected at Mt Brighton, we packed up and headed to the car and then the airport.

It started snowing a ton on the way back to Detroit, where we started to realize that so far, every time we have left a place, it snows (or in the case of Tahoe, dumps) right after we leave! Wtf, we are due for some fresh snow with all this storm missing we’ve done so far!

We actually were really early for our flight, and Hydle didn’t know what to do with himself. He was equally as out of sorts being early as Rhinehart and I are when we are running late!

So we went into the sports bar at the airport, and quickly realized everyone working in there was cranky. But we rolled with it, had some lunch and the guys edited.

We got on our first flight – to Atlanta, which is ridiculous because it’s not anywhere closer to Denver, and now we are on our final flight to Denver, where the one and only D-Roge is going to pick us up again (thank you D Roge!!)

The Broncos won, and other than being overdressed and got wearing our onesies, it was all in all a really fun weekend full of skiing and traveling that we would have not normally ever done.

Europe on Tuesday, we are all getting really excited watching the other epic racers who are already out there. The snow and terrain looks great out in Europe not to mention the appeal of the villages. Can’t wait to go! Epic Europe time!

Epic Race Mountain 11 Afton Alps

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We are back on the grid and epic racing! The morning started off with another 3:45 am wakeup call (dude who am I? I don’t do this, I need my 8 hours sleep!!)

Darren Freaky D Roge offered to pick us up at 4:15 am from Hydles house. Boggles my mind why anyone would volunteer such a thing on a Saturday morning, but he insisted so we got in his truck and headed to the airport – all three of us wearing his onesies – in the wee early hours of the morning.

The airport was a breeze, and we got quite a bit of fun attention, including a flight attendant who gave us free drink tickets, a chick who asked for a snapchat with us, and a 12ish looking girl with dreads wanting a pic with us.

When we landed, we headed to the rental car counter where an attendant asked if we were epic racing, uh ya, we’re epic racing, why else would we be wearing onesies through an airport at 8 am on a Saturday morning!

We got a sweet mini van with the doors frozen shut…after climbing through the back and then battling through it a bit more, we were on our way to Afton Alps with a weather forecast of a 1 degree high for the day.

We got straight to the hill, strapped on our snowblades (also thanks to Darren Freaky D Roge) and proceeded to go up the closest lift (which was close) to the parking lot.

I thought I had these snowblades down, and started cruising around, and then Hydle asked if I would grab his camera and film a shot of him blading. I did, got the shot, and then started to do some turns down the rest of the hill, where I quickly found a really steep patch of icy corduroy, totally wiped out flat back style, and slid down the hill for hundreds of yards, while Rhinehart and Hydle cheered me on and fist pumped my crash. It was hilarious although I did have a minor elbow injury, since I instinctively put my hands behind me to catch my fall, even though I now know thanks to Hydle that you should NEVER put your hands out when you fall…welp, learned that lesson the hard way! Oh and also, I kinda broke his camera since I was still holding it during my crash, and it was stuffed with snow when my crash was finished.

We went to Paul’s bar after that to regroup on my elbow injury, and take a look at the map to figure out where we needed to go.

After some lunch, we headed back out to get in a few more turns, and then finished up the day back at “Paul’s”

Since we had run into Adam – fellow epic racer – earlier in the day, and he happened to have brought a shot ski with him, we finished off the day with some rad green shot ski shots care of Jackie the awesome bartender, and then the guys finished up their edits while I periodically shouted out how much time we had left before we need to leave for the airport again tonight.

Another fun day of the #epicrace is in the books. Tonight we head to Detroit, and are gonna hit Brighton tomorrow! So Epic!

Operation Elevation at Heavenly, #EpicRace

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On Tuesday, Heavenly was closed again due to winds, so Hydle and I took a day off to get caught up on things. Tuesday night I had asked Daryl and Jess (my local friends who are watching my dog for me on this epic trip) if I could take them to a nice dinner, so we ended upgoing to our local nice restaurant called Evan’s. It was snowing outside, and we basically had the restaurant to ourselves – it was cozy and fun and the food was great!

Wednesday Hydle and I decided to get our hotel and rental cars booked for Michigan and Minnesota, so we spent the morning planning that, and then finally got our act together and headed for Hydle’s first day at Heavenly!

It was bluebird and beautiful out – we got to the mountain about 2, and spent some time at the observation deck first where Hydle managed to pose for one of the most glorious pics of him and his beard overlooking Lake Tahoe!

We cruised around the mountain for a few runs, the snow was pretty damn fun and it wasn’t crowded at all so we actually got to turn it on for once on our skis!

Once we got nice and cold, we headed to Tamarack Lodge for a round of drinks and snacks. Hydle was impressed with the lodge, and kept referring to it as the equivalent of another lodge at Vail in Colorado.

We had some fun with our waitress Geneva, and then as we were starting to close up so we could make it on the gondola ride down to enjoy the sunset, a ski patrol guy named Chris walked up to our table.

He introduced himself, and said “how would you guys like to take a cat ride to the top to check out the sunset?” Um, are you kidding me? Hell ya! Obviously we said yes, and Hydle asked if we could bring a beer on the ride and Chris said “of course you can!”

The ski patrol crew helped us board the snowcat literally named “The Beast” and our driver, also named Chris was awesome.

We cruised up the run to the top of Heavenly while the sun was setting. I still can’t really believe this happened to us, but then again, Hydle pointed out that I’m a lucky person which is true, so I guess it makes sense!

At the top the views were unbelievable – the sun was setting and making the clouds and mountain tops glow pink and orange, and we took a bunch of pics and videos up there.

Hydle captured one of the most incredible panorama pics I’ve ever seen. We had such a good time up there! Hydle already was saying Heavenly was exceeding his expectations and this was before the cat ride! Way to kill it Heavenly – very impressive and I was stoked for him to have such a perfect day for his first time out at Heavenly! Obviously we can’t wait to come back and ski the mountain when everything is open and kicking ass!

The colors from the sunset were still fading away on our gondola ride down which finished off the day perfectly, and then we headed into the village to have dinner, before heading home for an early night!

Thank you to Heavenly, all of the ski patrol and cat guys named Chris, and Operation Elevation for making this one of the best day’s of all time on the mountain, what a rad day!

Today we are heading back to Colorado, then Minnesota and Michigan this weekend, and then Europe on Tuesday!!

Epic Race Mountain 10 Heavenly

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Monday was our Heavenly day, and they had the mountain closed due to wind hold, as a storm was coming in later in the day. We hit the mountain and played around in the village taking what pictures we could to still have some fun and give the guys content for a good video edit later.

We ran into my friend Heidi in the ticket office, took some videos with them there, and then Rhinehart rocked out 10 Daffy’s all over the village. After that, we headed over to Lake Tahoe TV to film the Hi Sierra Report – my friend Crystal who works there wanted to interview us for their weekly segment.

At Lake Tahoe TV we filmed a 2 minute segment for me, and they showed my Gold Coaster video, and then Hydle was up. Hydle was hilarious as he was wearing his white sunglasses, ear muffs, and red hat while being interviewed, and he started things off with recording himself while being filmed for TV. Then Rhinehart was up, which was also hilarious because he was wearing his full ski gear including his gloves for the interview.

Once we were done filming, we had to get Rhinehart to the airport, and decided to stop at the Boulder Lodge on the Nevada side on the way to the airport just to get some final shots.

Everything was closed, but the guys still took some more video, and then Hydle said “Hey Rhinehart, film this” while I wasn’t paying attention, and he bombed a snowball right at me and drilled me in the shoulder all on camera. This made Rhinehart’s edit in case anyone wants to see me get smoked by a snowball (nice shot Hydle!).

On the way to the airport we grabbed lunch at my favorite Mexican place in Carson City where Rhinehart ordered a Mexican coffee that he said “tasted like high school” haha.

We dropped him off in Reno, and said our goodbyes, of course rubbing it in a little bit that he was going back to work and we got to go back to Tahoe to ski and hang some more!

On the drive home we found out that Hydle won the first week’s GoPro – congrats Hydle! The corporate team at Vail seems to really be enjoying Hydle and Rhineharts edits (along with all of us obvi) so I’m stoked he was the first to be recognized for his awesome content!

I’m bummed Rhinehart didn’t get to ski Heavenly, it really has the best views of any ski resort I’ve ever been to, and it’s my home mountain! Oh well, next time Rhinehart! Tahoe til you know!!

Epic Race Mountain 09 Northstar

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The drive to Northstar was Rhinehart’s first real view of Lake Tahoe “til you know!” It was a sunny bluebird day so the lake was beautiful, and Darin Talbot narrated our drive around the lake so Rhinehart could learn some facts about Lake Tahoe!

Once at Northstar, we rode the gondola up to the mid mountain and took a total of 4 runs, two of them were through the park so Rhinehart could do his daffy of course. By then it was time for the Bronco’s game to start, so we headed back down the gondola to the village.

We went straight to the Rubicon pizza place in the village and sat at the bar to watch the game and ordered some pizza. The game started off with the Broncos down, but after halftime they started to get it back together and pull ahead. A mom from outside kept coming in to watch the game while her son was skating at a birthday party, so we eventually bought her a beer and celebrated the Broncos together.

At around 3:30, the smores people came out, so we ran outside to get our photo with the smores (it was one of the items on the list) and then went back in to finish up the game with a Bronco’s WIN!

After the Bronco’s win, we finished our beers and headed out to take some spins on the ice skating rink. It may have been the beer, or it may have been that it was the end of a cycle before the zamboni came back out, but I was pretty shaky on the ice. We messed around a bit and took some spills, which I’m paying for today with some bruises, but it was worth it!

Finally, once we were done with ice skating, we headed over to Tavern 6,330 which was our last photo spot (we had taken a pic there earlier but we wanted to hit it while it was open). The bartender Trever was telling us that the signature drink there was a Bloody Mary and that all the other Epic Racers that were coming in were ordering that, so we decided to go against that and told him to make us his other signatures, which he did, and they were all three delicious!

It was a long day, but super fun and worth it with the Bronco’s winning, and we drove back to my place where the guys powered down some soup from the night before and edited their videos.

This morning we got up to check the snow report, and Heavenly is CLOSED due to wind…ugh, what a bummer, especially for Rhinehart considering it’s his last day here and he’s never been able to ski it before :( But we’re off soon to go play somehow before we head to take him to the airport!

Epic Race Mountain 08 Kirkwood

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The drive out to Kirkwood was gorgeous, it was a first for all of us and we enjoyed the crap out of the drive.

It was a bluebird day which has been rare for us so far, so we were pretty excited to get in some fun turns. We got the best parking spot on the mountain somehow, and then took a few photos in the village, and ran into #wherescoop and chatted and took a few photos with him.

There was one lift and one run open, so there wasn’t much to do on the hill, but like always the boys managed to make the most of it. Rhinehart found a spot to get in his signature daffy, and Hydle took an epic line that was “so huge” (um see the video, you’ll see what I’m talking about haha).

As Rhinehart was filming Hydle take his huge line, a kid launched off a jump and exploded into a gnarly yard sale. Rhinehart went over to help the kid gather his skis and stuff, and found out his name was Charlie, so he got the nickname Gnarly Charlie (see Rhinehart’s video for a rad slo mo shot of Gnarly Charlie’s yard sale!)

We took a total of 3 runs, and then headed to the bar at the bottom where we ordered a round of drinks in the sun and a fellow epic racer Adam showed up and sat with us. Once the sun went down we got cold, and decided to head over to the Kirkwood Inn for our final photo/video spot and have some après ski.

The Kirkwood Inn was awesome – super cute old cabin with a nice big fireplace, and a creepy photo of Zachary Kirkwood in the back corner. We sat next to Mr. Kirkwood’s pic and the fireplace and ordered some drinks and apps and took some more videos, and epic racer Adam caught up with us again.

We closed up the day by heading back home to my house, and had a bunch of friends over for editing, cooking, and drinks. Another fun day in Tahoe, and now we’re off for Northstar! Go Broncos!

Epic Race Mountain 07 – Canyons Resort

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Our alarms went off at 2 am. Yep. 2 am. Hydle was struggling a little bit to get up considering he went to bed I think around 12:30 – at least I went to bed around 9 pm so I was doing alright. It took us a bit to get the car loaded up and out of the house. Rhinehart was getting frustrated because he also woke up at 2 am, but we didn’t reach his house until 3:15 am!

Once we grabbed Rhinehart, we were rolling by about 3:30 am. Hydle drove the first leg with Rhinehart keeping him company while I slept some more! At around 7 am, Rhinehart took over driving, Hydle went to the backseat to sleep and I kept Rhinehart company.

We arrived at Canyons right at Hydle’s goal of 10 am. This beat the navigation time estimates by about an hour and half. 6 and a half hours to Canyons in Park City, Utah. Not bad!

We took a series of really fun photos and videos in front of the Canyons welcoming sign, and then went to the parking lot which has a people mover that gets you to the village from the lot.

There were only two lifts open for their opening day at Canyons, so we had plenty of time to play with the staff. Hydle and Rhinehart chatted it up with the lifties, and we took some fun Epic Mix photos at the top of the first lift.

There were also really only two runs open so there wasn’t a whole lot to do other than play around on the groomers a bit. The boys were good at making the most of it like always and played around through some of the soft side runs, and Rhinehart did his signature Daffy in the park a few times also.

After a some laps we headed to the Red Pine Lodge outdoor bar and hung out with some super fun staff in the sunshine. Hydle ordered the “Triple Epic Burger” and Rhinehart ordered the “Most epically epic gluten free burger” – we had a blast hanging at the bar, eating burgers and making videos.

Then we cruised down and had to go take some pics and videos at the orange bubble lift, and met some more fellow epic racers.

By now it was about 2 pm and we had to get on the road, considering we had to make it all the way to South Lake Tahoe! I drove the first leg while the guys sat and edited on their Iphones,

When we got to Elko, Nevada, Rhineharts video was ready to be uploaded, but we majorly struggled to find fast enough internet in Elko to even upload his video to Youtube. So after striking out a few tims, we ended up at a Verizon store where the guys finally got it to upload.

Hydle was impressed with Rhinehart’s edit from the day, and they reviewed and re-reviewed the video lots of times, and Hydle offered his feedback, and then started filming “directors cuts” of his edit which was hilarious for me to watch them interact with each other.

The drive was a total of 1,100 miles, which we did in one day. 3:30 am through 12 am. When we got to South Lake Tahoe, my good friend Dwyer – who has a place in South Lake – kept asking us if we wanted to swing by for a beer. At first we thought we couldn’t pull it off, considering the day we had, but somehow we all got a second wind and headed to his house.

Dwyer poured Rhinehart and I some nice red wine, gave Hydle a Coors Banquet, and we hung out checking out the work he’s done on his house, played a little “island pong,” ate some pizza and snacks, and then finally decided to head back to my place around 1:30 am….and then still somehow decided to get in my hot tub back at the house. Holy crap. What a gnarly long day, but totally fun and totally worth it! We slept in this morning, and now are heading to Kirkwood for everyone’s first time! Feels good to be home. SAFE!


Epic Race Mountain 06 – Beaver Creek

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Happy Thanksgiviiiiiing! This morning we got up and I made a yummy breakfast casserole with our leftover Mac n cheese from the night before that Hydle said “tastes like Christmas”

Our goal this morning was to get to Beaver Creek, knock out our photos and videos, and then get back on the road back to town for everyone’s respective Thanksgiving dinners. Hydles Mom gave us specific instructions to be back for dinner by 2 pm or the turkey goblins would get us!

When we got to Beaver Creek we got lucky by asking the parking attendant at the full parking garage if we could get in and he let us in and we got the most VIP spot in the garage!

Our first goal was to go directly to the brand new 2 day old escalator to get some footage taken for our videos – um, we had a lot of fun on the escalator! We were making all of the employees laugh because they couldn’t quite figure out why we were doing laps on the escalator with our skiis and poles in hand, and of course hilarious looks on our faces…we were cracking ourselves up in the meantime also.

After fun times on the escalator, we were eager to get on the slopes as it was probably the best day yet we’ve seen on the mountain so far – sunny, crisp, and the snow was surprisingly soft on top of nicely groomed groomers.

We rode the chair up with a fellow epic racer who is doing the race solo named Jason – and then took a couple epic mix pics with him.

After that we rode again all the way up, and cruised down to the Raptor downhill race course which was in full race mode, lots of people and racers in their speed suits at the top of the course. We grabbed a pic there and then headed down to take some more ridiculously sweet (probably our best yet) epic mix pics.

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We took some more footage cruising down some great runs, and by that point we all decided in order to make it back to Thanksgiving on time, we needed to head out. We totally wished we could have stayed but turkey goblins don’t wait for skiing!

Hydle said we made record time driving back to his house – 1:10 flat. And then he informed me that in order to make it to Thanksgiving on time, I would not be allowed to go inside the house to a) change out of my ski gear b) put on makeup. I was not excited about showing up to Thanksgiving where I was about to meet about 25 new people wearing stretchy ski thermal pants, ugg boots with ski socks, and an underlayer top with no makeup on. But we were on a time schedule, so we showed up to Thanksgiving in our ski gear – definitely a first for me on many levels!

We agreed with Rhinehart that in order to ski Canyons in Utah Friday and then Tahoe Saturday, we would need to get on the road by about 2 am.

So after a beautiful Thanksgiving meal with Hydle’s family (and Rhinehart said his was great also) we got back to Hydle’s house where I got ready for an early morning departure, and Hydle edited probably the best escalator video of all time. Epically early ass morning tomorrow, goodnight!!!


Epic Race Mountain 05 – Keystone Night Skiing

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Rhinehart had to work again today (the day before Thanksgiving?!) but we all had decided ahead of time that in order for him to maximize his hours at work and also maximize getting days knocked out on the epic race, we would utilize night skiing at Keystone on their opening night of skiing.

Rhinehart put in his time at work while Hydle and I did some more final chores and errands around town. The Touareg got a new “rack” – a sweet Thule setup, and then we went to Christy Sports to meet up with Mo and get mine and MOM’s new VJJ’s mounted up with new bindings. Hydle and I also were able to grab a quick lunch at Machetes in Cherry Creek with some friends – Maggie & Clayton – who were in town for Thanksgiving.

Rhinehart showed up in a full suit straight from work around 4, and we got on the road to head toward Keystone.

The sunset through Loveland pass on the drive up was breathtaking enough that we had to pull over and take some glamour shots of it. Driving into town seeing the full Keystone Mountain lit up with the village holiday lights twinkling was pretty spectacular, I had never seen a mountain that pretty at night time!

Since it was of course, “Wear a Bow Tie Wednesday” for Rhinehart, Hydle and I had to step up and participate in “Onesie Wednesday.” This was a great decision because I actually have not ever skied Keystone NOT in a onesie, so good thing I was able to keep the streak alive!

We got on the mountain and I was reminded again how fun Keystone is to ski all the way from the top all the way to the bottom – it’s huge!

We had some fun taking pics and videos around the mountain, got some much deserved compliments on the amazing onesies (Thanks D-Roge!) and suit, and basically just played around all the way up until closing time at 8 pm!

I realized tonight that Rhinehart and Hydle are perfect teammates for each other in this race. Hydle needs someone who can play and interact with him in front of the camera on the spot, and Rhinehart is really good at reading Hydles mind and playing back. They’re also a great match because Rhinehart is learning alot from Hydle in terms of new techniques in editing, and it seems that Hydle enjoys showing his “apprentice” some new tricks. It’s fun to watch from the background :) On the flip side, it’s fun to see Hydle learning what the “real” world looks like through the eyes of Rhinehart – and managing this trip through a “Paid Time Off” schedule, something Hydle has no comprehension of whatsoever.

We closed off the night by making some friends around the fire pit in the village for a bit, and then headed straight back to Rhineharts family cabin (Thank you again Rhineharts!) for some mac n cheese, editing, and laughs.

Moral of the story from today is for those of you who thought pulling off the Epic Race with a corporate job wasn’t possible, the proof is in Rhinehart’s pudding, sending it straight to the mountains in a full suit just to get in some epic turns!

All in all it was quite the relaxing, enjoyable evening full of fun skiing. Beaver Creek and Thanksgiving tomorrow! Epic!


Epic Race – Corporate Never Takes a Vacation

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Today is our 5th day of competition, and unlike many others in this race, the corporate stud, Nabor Devin Rhinehart had to return back to his day job to remain in good standing with his company and boss while still staying sharp and competitive in the competition.

Some may wonder how in a race of this caliber our team could be taking a day off, or rather, a day to go back to the office, but since Vail Resorts has confirmed since day one of releasing the on mountain locations…

“Photo/Video Locations for Brides-Les-Bains will be announced on December 20th – a) posted to the website and b) available for pickup at the Brides-les-Bains tourist office that morning”

…this allows for a few days for the hard working life balanced competitors like Nabor Devin to maintain a successful career, grad school, and compete in the #epicrace! What. A. Badass.

So, Hydle and I took a day off for errands, chores, and logistics planning while Nabor Devin put in some solid hours at the office. I am sure he epic raced harder than anyone out there today. Work Hard. Play Harder.

Epic Race Mountain 04 – Eldora

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Day 4 started off with Nabor Ryan (Nabor Devin “Rhinehart”s Dad, who has so much personality he could be straight out of a movie) cooking us up some of the best gluten free pancakes and “links” that I could have ever imagined!

After our delicious breakfast, packing up, and a goodbye wave off from Nabor Ryan in the driveway, we were on our way to Eldora for the first time for all three of us! This is not significant for me being a California native, but it is significant for my two coloradoan teammates, considering it is actually one of the most accessible ski resorts from the Denver area!

After road tripping – with Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz album on repeat) through Central City (note: this town is worth revisiting, as it is a super cute gold rush era town with casinos and an adorable Main Street) and then taking some sweet team photos in front of the welcoming Eldora sign, we arrived!

Upon arrival, our first task was to take a photo by the Nordic center sign, where Hydle proceeded to spin some donuts in my car around Rhinehart…and then we were off to gearing up and getting on the mountain!

We parked three rows from the lift, and then cruised up a sweet two man chair called “Cannonball Lift” – dude, what is better than a resort that has a two man chair from the base camp! We also learned that Eldora has a lift that is the oldest lift in Colorado (unfortunately didn’t get to ride it as it was closed but I’d like to!)

We took some video footage and then rocked out a few super super fun, soft, groomer runs. My favorite mountains are the small local ones and we were having a blast at Eldora.

As is standard, I was ready to take a break before the guys, and headed to the Corona Bar to enjoy a delicious beer alone!

Once the guys showed up, we had a round of drinks and some lunch, and then headed back out for one more glory run and then skied back to the car!

After skiing, we drove through Nederland for some happiness and smiles, which we achieved in full ski gear while riding the famous Carousel of Happiness! The happiness level on the Carousel of Happiness was at all time highs, which kept us elated on the drive back to Golden!

As we were driving through Golden I asked Greg what his favorite restaurant was and he said “Sherpa House” without any hesitation right as we were driving right by it. Rhinehart quickly agreed and we called Lauren to see if she could meet up for dinner which she also agreed to.

We posted up in the corner and got lots of attention from the staff considering Hydle is a local Golden celebrity! We chowed down on the best chicken tikka masala and the guys edited their videos for the day, with plenty of laughs while reviewing the footage.

Super super fun day, we all loved Eldora and capping it off at the Carousel of Happiness and Sherpa House was a great way to finish off our 4th day of epic racing!

Epic Race Mountain 03 – Breckenridge

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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

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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!”