The morning of daylight savings is a doozie of a time to hold a slopestyle competition, but add in warm weather and torrential downpours, a dearth of organic coffee at Starbucks, and a late night the night before, and you can understand my reticence to attend Mamafest at The Summit at Snoqualmie this weekend. Luckily, what began as a most difficult day turned into a fantastic event for snowboarders and skiers alike, all while raising money to support breast cancer research and educating people about the importance of regular breast self-exams.

The local heavyhitters were in full force, participating in the slopestyle event as well as holding down the tents, getting kids excited to try out the new 2008 snowboard gear. Among those in attendance were Ryan Schmeis of K2 Skis, Andy Heinzle and Kyle Phillips from Roxy and Mervin Manufacturing, and many more.

Despite the early rains, the skies parted for a few hours in the early afternoon, giving respite to those sporting plastic garbage bags and marking the beginning of a heated rail and garbage can bonk session near the main lift entrance. Riders were treated to an afternoon performance from local hip hop artist Macklemore, and scurried to buy lottery tickets in hopes of being the lucky recipient of a cornucopia of possible prizes from supporting companies.

Thanks Mamafest attendees for making this year's the largest and most successful one ever!

Seattle, WA – Seattle’s Fremont district, known mostly for hippy sculpture, condos and naked bike rides played host to The Ski Journal’s local kickoff event sponsored by funny feelings LLC, Evo, K2, Orage, Full Sail, The Summit at Snoqualmie and attended by subscribers, friends, and alpine celebs.

With festivities getting going post-post happy hour, arrivals were greeted with comp beverage tickets, the progressive beats of dj Rad'em and an impressive K2 retrospective art show, documenting nearly 40 years of American ski history. With original artwork from ads featuring freestyle genius Wayne Wong, Lake Placid-era Mahre bros, and modern original graphics by contemporary K2 artist, Ryan Schmies, serious magic was in the air. Also included: Original proofs of the legendary “Chew K2” barn sign photo ad campaign featured employees of The Seattle Splendid Sign Company looking like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention proudly gesturing to the Stevens Pass landmark.

And the art wasn’t the only thing to feature both veteran and youngster with EVO and K2’s own Bryce Phillips, fellow alpine athletes Patrick McCarthy and Sean Genovese, funny feelings LLC edit crews: Gunderson, Laing, Kris Kaiyala and The Jerk, to the VIP guests of honor: Powder’s original founding publishers, David and Jake Moe blessing the event with their attendance. With his trademark beaming grin, David (AKA Captain Powder) reminisced about early Sun Valley days and made plans to ski with the TSKJ crew at a later date.

The evening’s highlight came when punk rock veteran and snowboard photographer Josh Thompson won a pair of Pep Fujas’s signature Fujitas skis in the evening’s drawing. Turning to the cheering crowd, he held a PBR in one hand, and his new sticks in the other declaring: “I’m a skier now, bitches!!”

It wasn’t until everyone around me started undressing that I got nervous.

Being the ski-racing neophyte that I am, I showed up at the starting gate of Whistler ’s 22nd annual Peak-to-Valley Race on Feb. 3 in my usual brown baggy ski pants and blue puffy jacket. It was windy and snowing. I’d heard from locals and competitors that survival was the biggest factor in finishing the race, and you might think so too considering the following: 180 GS gates spread along a 5 km race course from Whistler saddle to the base of the Creekside gondola. Survival. I took the mantra literally. With warm, regular ski clothes I’d be slow, but at least I’d survive.

What made me nervous was that underneath their jackets and pants, these people were wearing tight downhill suits. Some of the suits had national team names on them like “Russia” and “Canada.” Clearly I was in trouble here. I reluctantly took off my jacket and pulled bib number 145 over my fleece, figuring the move would shed a few seconds. It didn’t. I got smoked by more than two-thirds of the field, including one Hilary Lindh who completed the course a good 90 seconds faster than I. Let’s hear it for racing against Olympic silver medalists.

The Peak to Valley is a team event (at least one of the team members must be of the opposite sex), with two members racing the first day and the other two on the following day. Given the mixed bag of racing skill on our team, after much debate we settled on the name Team Shmooks (Team Creampuff was a close second). My wife’s sister and her husband are former collegiate racers, while my wife and I are life-long freeskiers, and judging by the video footage we saw of ourselves in the middle of the course, we’re likely to remain well off the racing circuit for a long, long time.

While Team Shmooks’ overall performance will go down in Peak-to-Valley lore as pretty much forgettable, the event—and its swanky mountaintop after-hours dinner awards reception—were anything but. In fact, even though our weekend ended with us stranded on the Sea-to-Sky Highway for seven hours behind a landslide, we pledged to be back next year— squeezed into downhill suits all around and primed with off-season gate training.

Forget survival, next year Hillary will not beat my ass by more than 80 seconds.

Las Vegas, NV – With breakbeats and beers, journal publishers funny feelings LLC officially launched their newest product at the SIA tradeshow at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Partnering with Orage to host the event, several hundred people enjoyed Pink Floyd colliding with Public Enemy courtesy of DJ Toddy Flores as well as several kegs of barley-based joy while Theory 3 Media’s latest video teaser for next season’s “PNW” release looped. Attendees included pro rads Bryce Phillips, Anthony Boronowski, Lynn Kennen and others, as well as heads from Cloudveil, Evo, K2, Spacecraft, Helly Hansen, TWS, and of course The Ski Journal crew.

Praises, toasts, and accolades were handed out by the hardest of critics and all agreed that a new day was dawning for ski media. See for yourself and Subscribe today -- become a part of skiing’s new true voice -- skier-owned and based in the mountains.

Mt. Baker, WA – After months of late nights, anguished photo edits and weighing every adverb, Award Winning journal publisher funny feelings LLC is proud to announce the premier issue release of The Ski Journal. Featuring global adventure, individual icons, amazing landscapes, big personalities--and a refreshing lack of advertising, The Ski Journal is skiing’s new true voice and only coffee-table publication.

Issue #1 features a full interview with skier’s skier Eric Pollard, and a special report on “The Fight for Day Areas” examining the changing dynamics of regional resorts via Bridger Bowl, MT Alpental, WA Mad River Glen, VT and Powder Mountain, UT. Additionally TSKJ’s first photo Gallerie features previously unpublished works by the late master mountain photographer Carl Skoog. Plus historical maven Dick Barrymore, the up-and-coming Wells Bros of NZ, and synchronized farm skiing.

TSKJ is available in limited editions at select retailers, bookstores, and online, drop in here to subscribe and secure your complete collection starting with issue #1: Shipping now.

Thanks and enjoy your turns.

With editorial and photography fine-tuned and ready to go, and final layout tweaks happening at this very moment, it's only a matter of days before the first-ever issue of The Ski Journal goes to print. How excited are we? Even the publisher's dog is doing a happy dance in anticipation of getting TSKJ out to subscribers and onto newsstands and into the hands of skiers and mountain lovers everywhere. The Ski Journal will be different than any ski magazine you've ever seen. If you don't have a coffee table to set it on, you better get one now. (Porcelain bathroom accoutrements are OK too.)

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