Spring Is Here

As the snow retreats further and further toward the sky, I am sadly resigned to the fact that the winter is over. Granted, there is still some excellent riding to be done in the mountains, and every little rain storm in the valley means good solid snow at 10,000 ft, but most of the resorts are closed (Snowbird being, to my knowledge, the only Utah resort still operating), and a lot of my friends that I normally film with have fled the state, or are in summer-mode, pulling out their longboards and their slack-lines and chomping at the bit to go backpacking and rock climbing in their Chacos.

When I was growing up, I did a ton of backpacking and bouldering with my family, and spent a lot of time in Southern Utah and the Wasatch exploring trails and ravines and various aspects of the wilderness lifestyle. I learned early on how to efficiently pack, how to set up a tent, how to choose non-perishable foods that are high in protein for camping, etc. When Jr. High and High School rolled around, however, my family kind of stopped doing these things together, and none of my friends were interested in doing things other than jumping on the trampoline and going to the public pool (which is rad, by the way. That's not meant to be derogatory).

My major regret is just that my social circle moved away from the mountains if it wasn't snowboarding, and I just didn't spend that much time doing outdoor activities in the summer, and busied myself with working and attempting to save money so my winters could be more enjoyable. I remember waiting for the 50% off sales at Milosport so I could buy all my gear for the next season.

With that rather long preface, you can understand why the diminishment of Spring, and the approach of Summer has always been something of anathema to me, and I usually spend my summers counting down the days until the snow starts to fly again. I hope to make an emotional transition this summer, though. I'd really like to have the same passion for the mountains in the Summer and Fall that I do in the Winter and Spring, and I've been taking steps in the appropriate direction to reignite that love I used to have.

Last Sunday I went for a walk with my friend Erin McMullin down by Utah Lake. She's been my friend for about a year and a half and she's always keen for a good adventure, so we went and watched and listened to the images and sounds of Spring pushing its way into summer. I've never taken pictures of the reeds down by the lake, and I'm super stoked with how these ones turned out. Enjoy, and get stoked because I hope to have my blog filled with impressive images of God's handiwork all Summer long.