The Monday morning after a sick ski trip is always a tough one, but the bigger the adventure the more challenging the re-entry. So after ten days in Iceland, three days of spectacular lines at Arctic Heli Skiing and a forced Friday night layover in Reykjavik due to the re-eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, I still feel stuck back on that volcanic island even though my ski bag and my skeleton made it back safely to Seattle.

By our third day in Iceland, the fog finally lifted to reveal what we'd hoped to see. With steep, snowy mountainsides, pastoral fishing villages and lines that skied directly to the sea, our long trip to the Troll Peninsula finally delivered on the promise of twenty daylight hours and a sky that remained dusky until dawn. We'd landed to rain and gloom in Reykjavik with Europe still reeling from the volcanic panic that shut down the continental airspace and stranded travelers around the globe...

It's been years since I wished for a rain day. But after four consecutive days at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, a grey day focused on recovery is what my legs and my liver really needed to make it through the rest of this week. And to be honest, a break in the perfect spring weather was my only legitimate excuse to slow down from a nonstop string of cultural stimulation, harmless flirtation and late nights of bar time in the village...

Longtime Mt Baker local Rene Crawshaw was an integral part of pulling of the seemingly insurmountable course build and maintenance at Cypress Bowl during the Olympics. But they did it--and here's his story.