Here’s to Frabert: A Montana Adventure
Last winter was sort of a dream! We skied all over New England and found a certain kind of respect for the ski culture over there that you can only understand from first-person experiences. Not being there this winter was bittersweet. I knew I was going to miss skiing, but I also knew that I was not going to miss the ice. When we made the decision to “skip winter” and snowbird down in Tucson, I immediately knew I was going to have to plan a ski trip up to Montana. This winter was a tricky one to pick a time to head up there when the skiing would be good. I ended up landing on the week prior to my birthday, which allowed me to knock two birds out with one stone. A little family time, while getting those must-have turns in on the mountain! Icing on the cake, we had a visit from Colorado come visit us in the desert for some exploring!
Mile: 83,169
Quote of the Blog: “Skiing is the best way in the world to waste time.” - Glen Plake
Song of the Blog: “Memories” - David Guetta Ft. Kid Cudi
Because of Allegiant’s minimal flight schedule, I planned on flying out for Montana on a Monday. The Saturday before I left, we were paid a visit from Amy Zucher and Will Buck. We love having them as guests! Amy and Will were inspirational toward our travel life and making Live Rad & Travel a reality. They were the original travel physical therapists in our lives and now live in Denver. Will had a conference in Phoenix, and they took the last couple of days of their time down here to make the quick trip to Tucson for the weekend. We spent the first night with them going out to dinner at the infamous El Charro. It was so good the first time, we had to bring them here! We all enjoyed a delicious chimichanga, and they treated me to a table side mariachi band singing me happy birthday. This led to some good laughs and a great memory. We are pretty sure the table next to us was not enjoying it as much as we were. I think the pitchers of margaritas helped. We capped the night off with some Zebra Skull drinks at the Zebra Unicorn. We had to give them a dose of Tucson’s greatest hits.
The next morning, we got an early start to do some hiking and exploring around the Mount Lemmon area. We set out to hike Soldier Trail. The trailhead was right on the road up to Mount Lemmon. It started with a good amount of vertical climb through the saguaro forest. We gained elevation pretty quickly, and the desert shifted from gigantic cacti to highland desert with lots of yellow and orange flowers. We had no idea what the end of the trail was and joked about the chance that it was just a sign, as this had happened to us recently. As we got to the distance AllTrails gave us for the hike, we noticed a little creek and a trail running along it. We decided to check it out to find a shady place to have lunch. We ended up walking into a desert oasis cut into a tiny slot canyon hidden in the rolling hills. The best part, no one was there! We hiked around the different levels of the canyon, took tons of pictures, and reveled in our hiking surprise. We didn’t have a ton of time to hang out, as we wanted to head up to the top of Mount Lemmon after our hike, so we eventually pulled our things back together and worked our way back down the trail to the car.
Once back at the car, we made our way up the Catalina Highway to Summerhaven at the top of Mount Lemmon. We unfortunately were just too late to get cookies at the Cookie Cabin, but ended up getting some snacks at the merch shop up there. We took some pictures up at the ski hill and threw a couple of snowballs before heading to the next location on the adventure. We planned on finishing our night at Windy Point for the sunset. This is an epic pull-out on the Catalina Highway. The views up there have cliffs overlooking several mountain ranges, vertical hoodoos, and Tucson spread out in the valley below. We got there just in time to find a great spot to watch the sunset over the mountains on the horizon. The light was so radiant, it feels like you are bathing in the sunset. Absolutely beautiful! We took a moment to stage some photos for Amy and Will. They are engaged and working on planning their elopement or wedding, so we got Will to drop to a knee, and the photo was ON POINT! We probably confused some people, but we had some good laughs over it. As we walked back to the car, we came across a man who had a gigantic telescope set up. Tucson is known for its dark skies and the astronomy that happens here. We asked him what he was looking at, and he said “Jupiter.” He then asked if we wanted to look. CRAZY! We could see the eye of the storms on Jupiter and the striations of the colors the planet displays. Never did I think I would be able to casually look at Jupiter with such clarity. We wrapped the night up at home tossing a pizza and telling travel life stories. What a great day!
Early the next morning, I had to hop in the car and drive up to Mesa for my flight to Montana. This was a solo trip, as Amity had to work and didn’t care about skiing this winter as much as I did. I have done this flight before, and it is wild to go from the desert heat to the middle of winter in a matter of three hours. It’s the closest thing to time travel that exists! While I was flying to Montana, Amity and the crew went over to the Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park. They reported that it was very informative, but were let down that all of the animals were either not there or stuffed. The only live animals they saw was a Javelina, snakes and some spiders. Glad they got to go see Saguaro National Park; even if the museum is a little underwhelming. Once I landed in Montana, my mom was waiting there to pick me up. I was so happy to see her and give her a hug! We quickly grabbed my bags and headed to the house in Whitefish. I had some work to do, so I figured I could just set up shop in the kitchen and get it done quickly. While I was working, I got a phone call from Delta Airlines. I didn’t even fly with them. They asked me to check my bag, as I might have grabbed the wrong one. The moment I saw the bag, I realized it was a 185 cm length bag and mine is 205 cm. Such a rookie move! I was just stoked to be there, saw a bag that looked exactly like mine, and off we went. I had a quick drive back to the airport to return the wrong bag and pick up my real ski bag. Good thing I was not planning on skiing the first day. After getting everything squared away, I had my mom drop me off at Craig and Amy Moore’s house. I was staying with them, and it was nice to make it to the final spot on my day of travel. I was able to get unpacked and situated just in time to head out to meet up with my family for dinner at Last Chair. Whitefish is currently in another transitional phase with several businesses closing, Last Chair is one of them, and I am very happy to be able to have one “Last Chair” before they close. Everyone but Shane was able to make it. It was great to have dinner with my mom, Tori, Cadence, Cassie, Evie, Brady, and to meet Brady’s girlfriend, Chyanne. Following dinner, Tori and I went to see Shane at his bartending shift at the Remington. It was a great way to get back into Whitefish and see the family right away! Bonus points; Craig waxed my skis while I was out for dinner!
The next morning, we made our way up to go skiing. It was a little weird for there to be a lack of stoke to go skiing. The snow levels have been so low all winter that the general feeling was there was no reason to rush up there in the mornings. Once we got our gear on, the vibe shifted, and it was time to ski! By the time I had put my second ski on, I was 100% back and ready to ski like I had been all year. After making a mandatory stop at the Jesus statue on the mountain, we got after it. My first run felt so good—to go fast, get an edge in the snow, and make some beautiful turns. I was personally taken aback a little bit because I thought the skiing and snow were great! Maybe it was the three months of skiing on the East Coast that changed my perspective, but nonetheless, I had a blast skiing! Last year we rarely skied at places where we had been before, so being at a resort that I know inside and out was radical! Not only the skiing, but knowing the faces and people around the resort that we saw throughout the day made it even better! The best turns of the day came after doing a quick hike up to the radio tower and dropping off the backside into The Green Mile before merging back into Gray Wolf. We also took the opportunity to go ski my dad’s run, Rad Jack, before the day was over. The first day of skiing was just like getting on a bike that allows you to go 60 mph and feel as free as a bird! That night, Craig, Amity, and I stopped by the new Taco Tuesday event at the VFW, which I have never seen that bar so busy on a Tuesday!! Tacos were good and cheap! Afterwards we went to the Remington for trivia night and met up with some friends I was excited to see. Bobby, Mike, Fio, and I did not do that well in trivia, but we did beat Craig, Amy, Tori, and Shane!
The second day of skiing, Ray Pitman and Kevin Wise joined Craig and me for a bro ski and snowboard day. Yes, we did let snowboarders join us for the day! We are inclusive! Kevin hadn’t snowboarded all year and killed it! At one point, we were flying down a run, and I did a shoulder check and could see Kevin’s flaming purple snowboard suit flying right next to me! I was stoked for him! I really enjoyed spending the day with them and catching up on all the new things going on in our lives. We rode every area of the mountain that day. I even got Craig to go into the Base Lodge. I had to stop by there and up at the Summit House to say hi to my old coworkers. We planned on wrapping the day up with Frabert at the Bierstube. Frabert is the mountain’s “Jackass of the Week” award event sponsored by the ski patrol. It’s the oldest tradition on the mountain, and not only do they give out this award, but they also give out a free keg of beer for the locals to enjoy. I have been going to these since I was a child. As we walked in, I immediately saw some friends I was hoping to run into, and then realized there were more and more people there I was not expecting to see. Then I saw my sister, Tori, walk in with some balloons and realized they had planned a surprise birthday party for me at Frabert. I barely had enough time to see everyone, say hi, and share in the stoke before I saw that the balloons had moved. They were now behind the bar, next to where the Frabert winner stands. That was the moment it all sank in that my stupid ski bag move at the airport was going to come back to bite me! I had recently told Will Buck all about Frabert on our hike in Tucson and that it was my life goal to never win Frabert. I totally jinxed myself! The patroller who told the story did a great job of highlighting my stupid moments and the fact that I have been coming to this event since I was a toddler. The bar was packed with friends and family, and I proudly walked up to accept my “big award!” The prize was a razzing from everyone there, a chant, and then I had to chug a 40 oz chalice of beer. The chant goes, “Here’s to Frabert, who skis so fast! He leaps over moguls and falls on his ass!” And with that, I did my duty and chugged the beer! A slight drip missed my mouth, but overall I CRUSHED IT! To the point that I got compliments on it for the remainder of my trip in Whitefish. With my dad being the first Lifetime Frabert Award winner, I HAD TO! All in all, I was not expecting a surprise birthday party and couldn’t have been happier they pulled it off. Kudos to Amity for all the behind-the-scenes work—she wasn’t even there for this trip! There wasn’t much going on later that night other than playing with the Moores’ pets, Wally and Marley!
The last day of skiing was a really slow effort to get up there. The snow was pretty firm, and we had some morning work to do. Once we got up there, Craig got called into some work stuff. I ended up skiing most of the morning with Big Dave. He told me that day he has had a goal to ski Connie’s Couloir every day. With the low snow levels and hit-or-miss ice, I was slightly hesitant to go in, but overall it was pretty good! Craig eventually met back up with us, and we took a few more laps before we felt like we had skied everything worth it. We made our way down into town and decompressed that afternoon. I didn’t have much planned for the last night but did want to get a chance to see an old musician friend who was playing at the Great Northern Bar that night. We made a quick stop there, chatted with some old friends, before heading over to the Remington to meet up with Tori and see Shane one more time before I left.
It was truly amazing to get a quick trip up to Montana, see family and friends, as well as rip up the mountain! It’s one of those places that is like hopping back on a bike after a long time away. It feels too natural and welcoming! I am grateful for all of the people I got to see while I was there, everyone who made it to the surprise party and everyone who conspired together to give me my first (and hopefully only) Frabert Award! It was a fantastic trip! The last activity in my plans was breakfast with my mom at the Buffalo before my flight. This has become our tradition when I am in town. This time, we had a couple of friends join us. Brian and Ashley Seefeldt were not able to hang out during the week, outside of seeing Ashley at Frabert, so it was only proper to have them join my mom and me. Brian hooked me up with some fresh gear from Willie’s Distillery, along with the first couple of mini bottles of their new tequila to make it this far north in the state. I am proud to have it and excited to bring it with me down to the desert. As we walked out we saw someone’s ski bag outside of the restaurant. We all laughed at the idea of me taking this bag too. As all great trips go, it has to come to an end. The good thing is, all I need to do is fly back to Mesa, drive the short distance down to Tucson, and the next day is my actual 40th birthday, and I get to celebrate it with my wife, AMITY!!! I would be a liar if I said we didn’t have something big planned next! Thanks again, Montana! You make a man feel so welcome and stoked on life! Until the next time we are both back in Montana this spring, Live Rad!