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August West presents:

The Life and Times of a Modern Day Ski Bum

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning..."
"And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave..."
"So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

Hunter S. Thompson

R.I.P.

This is my friend Joel and I standing in front of a Collegiate peak, I don't know which one... Mt. Harvard, Mt. Yale, Mt. Princeton....??? Who knows... they're all 14,000 ft. or so... Next... Here we are at the summit... PHEW! What a view... It's hard to imagine the world as a finite place from up here !... Finally, Here we are at the bottom... That was a hard day, but totally worth it... This is the kinda' shit we consider fun out here in Colorado...

My Sno-Cat Trip on Chicago Ridge ( 2000 )

Here's the Cat in front of Ski Cooper's Base Lodge... It's just sitting there idling waiting to take us up on Chicago Ridge.

All the talk in the Cat is of past ski trips, the weather, business and investments... The guy in the orange is one of our guides, John... A true Old School Ski Bum... from Vineland, NJ of all places... All these guys who paid $200 a seat are wondering who the hell this guy from the rental shop ( me ), who got on the cat tour for free, thinks he is !?!?...

Here's the view from inside the cat... the trees are actually growing straight up... to give you an idea of the angle of ascent.

Here's the view from the cab... getting out on the blades of the tracks was a real bitch... slippery and sketchy... I thought I'd slide off and catch my legs on the blades for sure... but I didn't.

This is Eric, our driver... as it's a powder day he's a bit bummed to be the one stuck behind the wheel... he'd much rather be guiding / skiing...

Here are some of my tourmates unloading and getting their poop in a group...

This is the view from about 3/4 the way up Chicago Ridge... what a beautiful day... The ski slopes off in the distance are the back side of Ski Cooper.

Here's Me... Nice pose huh ? You'll come to notice that this outstretched arm thing is a habit of mine... I guess I was a bird in a former life or something.

A shot of the cat backing away from the descent area...

This shot is of our guide, Chris, instructing us on how to cross an avalanche zone...

Monarch Road Trip ( 2000 )

GREAT - GOOGLIE - MOOGLIE....!

Me and Da' Boyz ( Smokey & Vince )... after a little session in the trees... !

Exiting the trees... See... The outstreched arms again ! What's up with that ?

This shot is me trying to catch some air off the cornice... ( NOTE: The BIRDMAN is again trying to fly ) This power tower thing hummed,crackled and buzzed the whole time... We thought we'd be electrocuted at any given moment !

My old place in Leadville, Colorado.

The view from my balcony. God I miss my old apartment !

w_addison_1060@hotmail.com

Kalalau, Kauai... Been There, Done That !

Check out some vacation pictures of the Big Island and Kauai...PHOTOS... You gotta' scroll down once you get there...

"I don't know, it must have been the roses...
The roses or the ribbons in her long brown hair...
I don't know maybe it was the roses...
All I know was I could not leave her there"

Links:
Copper Mountain Pictures
MY RESUME
August West's Grateful Dead Tape List
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Grateful Dead Setlists ( '72 - '95 )
MULLET MANIA !