New year, old story, new wrinkles

Just got back from Mammoth, where Wendy and I spent New Year's Eve. I could blabber about how we enjoyed fresh snow and surprisingly few lines in the most awesome of settings, but the main thing was getting to spend time with my family.


While I have a most incredible career doing stuff I love, being on top of a mountain with my wife (above) and brother Greg and sister Angelyn (below) is an unmatched feeling.


Can't forget Dad, who got addicted to skiing in the late '70s and started our family trips to Big Bear and Wrightwood, and eventually Mammoth. He still rips it up (below).


I have to admit that as great the trips have always been, they were getting a bit routine. Although Mammoth has a famously huge assortment of lifts and trails, we know our way around the mountain a little too well now: where the snow softens first, how to get away from the crowds, which lifts are sheltered from the sometimes brutal winds, which bathrooms are the cleanest... But making things new is the addition of our kids. (Thanks, Mom, for holding down the fort at the condo!)


Above, Angelyn's daughter Lucia and Eloise on the road. Below, on their first chairlift.


Everyone else calls this building the Canyon Lodge, but Eloise will always know it as Warming Hut 2.


Eloise gets a taste of shredding.


Greg's daughter Saoirse and Lucia making snowpeople.


Hopefully lift tickets, lessons, and gear won't get too much more expensive by the time the girls finally hit the slopes...