I had a few reasons for heading into the mountains this week. First, we got nearly two feet the end of this past week. Second, some friends were in town (Breck). Third, I had to get out of town for a few days. We just finished the last issue of the year, and I needed a break. Snowboarding is good for that. I ended up meeting up with the Union/Capita/Coal/Defcon dudes. Their sales meeting is going on at Breck all week. Here’s Jonas Carlson, photog Joel Fraser, TJ Schneider and Dan Brisse. TJ, stoked on the fresh snow. Saturday was his first day of shredding for the season. He and Joel had left Vancouver early last week, and the trek to Breck took them five days. Floods, snow storms and pink eye got in their way, but they finally made it on Friday evening. Dustin Craven and Joel Fraser. Sunday was tracked out, but we still had a lot of fun. We rode ALL day…shredding. So much fun. It was a great day, weaving through trees, olleying stuff and floundering in the snow. Afterwards, we headed over to an Oakley autograph signing. On the way, we ran into Cole Barash, photog extraordinaire. Here he is with his best friend. It was cold as shit out, so of course the digi fogged. Maybe it was just Marie-France. Finn friends Lauri Heiskari and Eero Ettala. Little kids…stoked. They stopped when the line was gone. That took a while. Gretchen. Laura Hadar was getting all artsy on her posters, hand numbering and adding some extra flavor to them. Danny’s got lots of fans. Eero in trouble. Oakley’s Chris Hotell. TJ’s eye HIV. Dustin Craven, stoked as usual. Good boy. Oakley had a video dude documenting the whole evening…even the Guttermouth show. That’s right. Oakley had booked Guttermouth to play at Cecilia’s after the signing. Oh man, what a show. Ha! I just noticed that dude’s “bird” finger has blood on it. I wonder if he punched this one crazy chick in the face. Andy Warhol was serving up drinks. Ninja, Brian Knox and Andreas Wiig were in the house. Joel Fraser and Union’s George Kleckner. Union’s main man: Martino Fumagalli. Oakley’s Matty Swanson, absolutely stoked on Guttermouth. When the show started, the pit erupted like a brawl. It was going to be a good set. Between the whiskey and other substances, tempers were raging. Some poor dude got kicked in the eye hard by Guttermouth’s lead guitarist. Take no prisoners. This dude in the red shirt was trying to molest each band member. It was pretty creepy. Big fan, I guess. After a pretty late night, we awoke to bluebird skies, and really cold temps. The weekend was great. Good riding, making friends, hanging out with old friends. The whole area got some snow, even near the office. My drive in this morning was great. Snow everywhere. I hope winter starts picking up. By looking at the weather, I think it is. Later this week, I’m headed to Telluride for four days. Should be good.