FIRST DAY OF SKIING THIS YEAR

Connie and I met Ike and Brenda at our little local resort Lost Trail yesterday for our first skiing day this season.  Some pretty good snow and just a beautiful day with lots of sunshine, blue skies, and WIND.  Not to bad on one side of the hill, but over on chair 4 it was really ripping.  Anyway, we had a good time and all of us could tell it was our first day - quite a bit of thigh burn!  All the pictures below were taken on the lodge side of the hill - I did not take one picture over at chair 4 where the wind was blowing so.

They have removed a lot of beetle killed trees near chair 2 so there is a lot more terrain to ski.

Brenda making a few powder turns.

This is my go to guy when I have bird or birding questions.  This guy travels all over the world looking at birds and is one of the main guys in the valley's Christmas bird count.  And a pretty good skier also.

The crowds here are pretty bad sometimes.

Connie waiting for me to get in my skis and get in line at the lift below.

UPDATE: 8 DEC 13

It is cold here in Montana as well as other parts of the U.S.  We don't have much snow, but what we have sure squeaks when you walk on it.  We had one of our stock waters freeze up which is always a pain.  And it is warmer in North Pole, Alaska where we used to live than it is here - but that has happened before! Connie has been getting ready for Christmas and Brenda and Rita came over the other day and they did some baking.  She also made a lot of horsehair necklaces, bracelets, and ornaments and sold some at a bazaar in Hamilton.  We have all our horses back at our place and now that hunting season is over we have turned them out in the meadow and trees.  I think they were glad to get out there.

Connie opening the gate letting the horses out.  You can see she is pretty bundled up and the horses have frost and snow on their backs that doesn't melt.

Even old Baylee did a little running!!!

Most the horses did some pretty hard running once they hit the meadow.

The bakers working.

Connie at her table at the bazaar.