My Favorite Photos

[Jim Kenney]

My Favorite Photos

by Jim Kenney


Part 1 - Scenery (I hope to post several additional batches of favorite ski photos over the next week.)

This is not a traditional trip report. I wasn't sure where to make this post. I guess you could call it a photographic compilation of many of the best ski days/trips of my life. It's also something of a celebration of thanksgiving as the winter of 2016-2017 represents my 50th consecutive season of skiing. What follows are some of my favorite photos. A few are nice images, but I’m not a skilled photog. Most are included here because they captured, however inadequately, a great personal ski memory.

My ski photo library is largely the result of the advent of digital photography. My onslope photos prior to approximately year 2000 are far and few between. But since then I’ve been snapping away with various inexpensive point and shoot digital cameras. Even a hacker like me can get a couple of keepers if I keep shooting 100 photos per ski day all season long.

I’ve divided this report into groupings of ten photos and tried to give each group a theme. The chronology is all mixed up, but I hope a few strike that common chord we all share, the joy of skiing. If you recognize the subject as yourself or a friend – thank you. Invariably, it is the people I ski with, not snow or even mountains, that provide my strongest inspiration.


My favorite scenic photos (all photos provided by Jim Kenney):

1. January 2010, would you believe this eerie lighting occurred on my first ride on the iconic Mad River Glen, VT single chair on my first morning ever at the resort? MRG is so good I returned again in 2011 and 2013.

2. In February 2003 I took a great ski trip to Austria and skied five different ski areas in the Province of Salzburg. I was using a very archaic and low resolution digital camera at the time and this photo is the old tram at Zell am See, a beautiful lakeside ski area reminiscent of Heavenly, CA. My camera didn’t do it justice, but the scenery in the Alps tops just about anything in the US, no lie.

3. This is the hike-to terrain of the Highline Ridge at Taos, NM, January 2012. This was before they built the Kachina Lift and the short hike to Highline Ridge really made you feel like you had entered a different world, a seriously double black diamond world.

4. December 2012, this is the mind blowing scenery of the backside of Mt. Bachelor, OR. On this particular run we used the backside catch line to connect with a trail all the way to the base of the Northwest Chair skiing about four miles and 3300 vertical feet.

5. December 2013 Aspen Highlands, CO; you never forget your first close-up view of Highland Bowl. From this point where the snowcat drops you off it’s about a 600’ vertical climb to the 12,392’ summit at center right. There ain't no way down but steep in Highland Bowl.

6. This is close to the highest lift served point (elev 4386’) at Whiteface Mountain, NY in late March 2014. The near ski run is Upper Skyward. It was used for the Ladies Downhill course in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

7. Rose Bowl Liftline, Beaver Creek CO, February 2015. Not too shabby

8. Le Massif, Quebec, late March 2008 with a singular mountain-maritime setting on the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The river is 15 miles wide at this point and the shoreline was littered with blocks of ice the size of 18 wheelers!

9. The one and only Pallavicini trail pod at Arapahoe Basin, CO, March 2015. The Pali Chair (center right) rises 1329 vertical feet and serves some of the burliest bump runs on the planet.

10. March 2012; the upper mountain views from Saddleback, ME are among the prettiest in the East. My camera was on the fritz this day, but I got one decent shot of the lake country scenery before it froze-up. This beautiful ski area has got to be brought back from the land of the lost!!!

Look soon for Part 2 - People

 

[Phelmut]

Those are incredible pics, especially the one skiing above the clouds at Bachelor. Waiting on part II.

 

[KevinF]

Nice work! Your MRG photo is amazing... captures so much in that picture!

 

[Jim Kenney]

Part 2 – People

These are some of my favorite photos involving folks who were either strangers I bumped into on the slopes or acquaintances I met for the day. I took their photo because I thought they and/or the terrain was interesting. (All photos provided by Jim Kenney)


11. This shot is from Snowbird, UT, January 2016. The fellow in green was a nice guy who was introduced to me by my son earlier in the day. He’d only been skiing four years. The very steep chute he is dropping into came to a pinch further below and was quite rocky. It’s in between Great Scott and Upper Cirque. I did not follow and took the wider route down Great Scott. Snuck a self portrait into this photo

12. Wildcat, NH; I met this gentlemen for about two minutes on March 2, 2010, just long enough to ask if I could take his picture. I thought he looked like an awesome representative of those who patronize an anti-resort like Wildcat. I believe he said he had driven over from someplace close in Maine. I’m told he has an unusual set of bindings. This was not long after a big Nor'easter dropped 54" of wet snow in one week on Wildcat. Beautiful 6,289' Mt.Washington is in the background.

13. Blue Knob, PA; this is from the EpicSki/DCSki Gathering in late February 2010. That month featured the best conditions I’d ever seen in 50 years of skiing Blue Knob. The lady (Vivian?) in the photo came to ski with the group for the day. I had never met her before and this was a quick picture I snapped over my shoulder riding up the lift. She’s doing a good job on Extrovert Trail, one the most challenging runs south of New England.

14. Cherry Bowl Glades, Timberline, WV, January 2016. This is a fellow named Matt who was introduced to me by Pugskier JohnL minutes before this photo was taken. The tracks in the foreground are mine We are skiing 28” of new snow from Winter Storm Jonas. Yowza!

15. March 2015, Starfire Trail at Keystone, CO. I met the fellow (Tom) in the photo for the first time earlier in the day. He came from Alabama and was still recovering from a broken arm, but nothing was going to stop him from logging some great Colorado ski time. I skied with him a day or two later at Breckenridge, nice guy.

16. January 2009, Inauguration Day. This is another photo from Blue Knob, PA. Blue Knob in Western Pennsylvania is the first place I ever skied in 1967 and I have hundreds of ski days there. This shot captures a lot about the character of the place. They have some challenging runs and it used to be crowded, but not so much anymore as owners never had the capital to modenize the infrastructure. Sports jackets are welcomed and BK is definitely in Steelers Country. I also found it interesting how large the gentleman is in the photo. He could be an offensive lineman and takes up most of a double chair.

17. Arapaho Basin, CO, March 2015. Two guests enjoy a Bacon Bloody Mary on the deck of the Black Mountain Lodge. Constructed in 2007 at an elevation of approximately 11,500’, this restaurant/shelter has one of the most awesome alpine settings of any on-hill dining option in Colorado.

18. This is from Mt Bachelor, OR in late December 2012. This is at the top of the Northwest Chair with a view of the Sisters Mountains in the background (~10,000’). These were just two random guys, but I liked the mix of clouds and late day shadows.

19. Jackson Hole, WY, February 2015. This is from the Hobacks. I met this fellow Patrick for the first time earlier in the day. We were participating in a big Gathering of online friends. He was from Massachusetts if I remember correctly and quite comfortable in the offpiste.

20. Hunter Mountain, NY, late March 2014. I met this friendly 75 year old stranger (Bob) and skied with him a couple of hours this day. He’d been skiing Hunter for 50 years and had a bunch of great stories, a big fan of Izzy Slutzky. This is scenic Jimmie Huega Express trail.

Next up Part 3 - Friends

 

[Philpug]

Wow, I can't believe how many of those pictures I recall the area. Thanks @Jim Kenney

 

[Jim Kenney]

Part 3 - Hanging out with Friends

It turns out I have dozens and dozens of photos of ski friends that bring back tons of great memories. This batch involves folks in sort of a static mode, hanging out or having fun rather than ripping down a hill. I will have to do a another set of friends in action on the slopes.

My favorite photos of friends hanging out (all photos provided by Jim Kenney).

21. Bad Hofgastein, Austria, February 2003; this is my buddy Dave who no longer skis much. He and I met in high school and first skied together at around age 20 in the early 1970s. We took a great ski week together to Austria in 2003 that combined skiing with fantastic cultural touristy stuff in the city of Salzburg. Near the end of our day at Bad Hofgastein we made a five minute walk/climb to get to the very top of a local mountain called Stubnerkogel (elev 7370’) where I took this photo of Dave with the beautiful Gastein Valley in background. Then we skied 3500 vertical feet in one last, continuous run. Dave's wearing a fartbag and a Redskins hat, God love him

22. Arapahoe Basin, CO, March 2015. This is Michael R scoping out Zuma Ridge on the backside of A-Basin. Mike is about half my age, but if you ski with him on an extra patient day he doesn’t mind waiting around for old guys to catch up. Mike is known to ski just about any where. Keystone and Breckenridge are both visible in the center background.

23. Aspen Highlands, CO, February 2016. Highlands is super scenic and it’s hard to take a bad photo there. This is a close up of Rainbow Jenny on the hike up Highland Bowl. Jenny loved that place and unlike myself, made the full hike several times if I recall correctly. Doing the climb and making a successful descent is a terrific accomplishment for any recreational snowrider.

24. February 2015, The Canyons, UT. 2015 was a weak year for snow in much of the west. This was a sunny day at the on-hill Tombstone Grill with two very fun friends. We did our best to invoke the gods of winter.

25. Jimmy in ski school uniform at Timberline, WV, January 2016. The force is strong in this one! Jimmy didn’t start skiing until well into adulthood and then dove into instructing even later, but what better way to share his intense love of our sport.

26. This is the DCSki/EpicSki gang at Blue Knob, PA poised at the top of Stembogan Bowl. It was our first overnight mid-Atlantic “Gathering”, February, 2009. The conditions sucked, but I knew I'd found my TRIBE because we had a really great time anyway.

27. This is one of my best boyhood friends Tiff on left and me on the right at the summit of Blue Knob around 1970. Tiff was a good skier and on quiet days we used to tuck the mountain nonstop from top to bottom (1082’ vertical). A couple years later he joined the Navy and I went away to college and we kind of lost touch.

28. Another shot starring Ullr with L-R: Gary, JohnL, and Brian. This was taken after a nice lunch in the Alpenhof Lodge Bistro at the big gathering at Jackson Hole in February, 2015.

29. The Fischer contingent, February 2011 at Blue Knob, PA. L-R: myself, John Webb and Old Boot. Old Boot is a hoot and I look forward to seeing him at Whitsler-Blackcomb in March 2017. It is possible this photo came out of Laurel Hill Crazie's camera. I'll post a good action shot of LHC later.

30. Sugarloaf, ME, at the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel's 30 person hot tub, L-R front row: my son, TonyS and KevinF. This was at the 2014 Maine Gathering in mid-March, but the temps were in the single digits. The Hotel was an uncustomary lodging splurge for me, but 30 minutes in this excellent hot tub after a chilly day was worth the price of admission

Next time Part 4 - Friends in Action.

 

[Jim Kenney]

This is hard, so many photos, so little time. These are mostly recent photos of friends in action. I have learned over time that I can get better action shots using the "sport/rapid fire" setting on my inexpensive digital camera. It means culling through hundreds of photos at relatively low resolution, but a better chance of catching an interesting picture of someone in motion.

Friends in Action (all photos provided by Jim Kenney).

31. Snowbird, UT, April 2016; this is TRomano in the Rasta Chutes area off the Little Cloud Chair. He was skiing strong this day. It was eight years since I’d last skied with him.

32. Mad River Glen, VT, early March 2013; this is MikeS skiing beautifullyon a steep, narrow section of Paradise. It’s one of the great tree runs anywhere in the US. Tight shots are about all that’s possible on this terrain.

33. Snowbird, UT, April 2016; Adam on Red Lens Line. Adam is a PSIA Level III telemark instructor at Timberline, WV and he knows tree skiing!

34. Jackson Hole, WY, February 2015; this is SpikeDog ripping it up somewhere beneath the tram. Something about this cool photo looks very old school to me.

35. Aspen Highlands, CO, February 2016; I took a little gasp when I first saw this photo on my laptop during the flight home from the Aspen Gathering. It’s among the most beautiful scenes (Pyramid Peak & the Maroon Bells) I’ve ever captured from a ski slope with a point and shoot camera. John Webb on Deception trail in Olympic Bowl at Aspen Highlands.

36. Vail, CO, February 2015; Fatbob leads Michael R down Ramshorn Trail, a beautiful Vail frontside groomer. It had been a cloudy, snowy day and this was one of the first times the sun started to peek out. Trail had a couple inches of hero powder on it. (Better powder shots coming next part.)

37. Jackson Hole, WY, February 2015; this was at the Gathering. Tricia in her happy place!

38. Jackson Hole, WY, February 2015; Jasmine found her happy place there too!

39. Timberline, WV, February 2014; a gang of mid-Atlantic Gatherers on edge of Off the Wall trail. Jimmy, JohnL, Deann, Laurel Hill Crazie and other familiar faces are in this picture. Nice view of Canaan Valley in background.

40. Sugarloaf, ME, March 2014; this is TonyS in a gladed area between trails on the upper mountain. It’s fun to watch Tony ski and he's a fine representative of the great state of Maine.

Next up: Part 5 - Friends skiing Powder

 

[Philpug]

26. This is the DCSki/EpicSki gang at Blue Knob, PA poised at the top of Stembogan Bowl. It was our first overnight mid-Atlantic “Gathering”, February, 2009. The conditions sucked, but I knew I'd found my TRIBE because we had a really great time anyway.

I remember that day. It was a spur of the moment trip for me. I recall leaving Wicks after work and driving straight to Blue Knob. We stayed up a few hours drinking and talking skiing then hit the slopes. I recognize a few in the picture, @JohnL @John Webb @Freaq @Gary Stolt @Josh Matta Telerod and I am sure i missed a few. Maybe @Jim Kenney can fill them in.

 

[Jim Kenney]

I remember that day. It was a spur of the moment trip for me. I recall leaving Wicks after work and driving straight to Blue Knob. We stayed up a few hours drinking and talking skiing then hit the slopes. I recognize a few in the picture, @JohnL @John Webb @Freaq @Gary Stolt @Josh Matta Telerod and I am sure i missed a few. Maybe @Jim Kenney can fill them in.

Phil, here is a little better copy of that photo from 2009, Blue Knob, PA and from right to left: JohnL, Jimmy, maybe young David from WV, ?, either Pierre or Gary in red, Bumpfreaq in famous orange pants, PhilPug, Josh, guy from NY that I never saw again, Telerod in black, and I think that is Charles (crgildart) at the far back left. We stayed at a house just to the left of the one in this picture. It had a very tricky and slippery access road - not to be attempted with bald tires in winter.

 

[SKI-3PO]

I'm pretty sure that's my gray helmet to the left of @Gary Stolt. I don't see @John Webb - is he off looking for his car keys?

 

[Jim Kenney]

I'm pretty sure that's my gray helmet to the left of @Gary Stolt. I don't see @John Webb - is he off looking for his car keys?

Yes, that must be you! Taller than the others and that must be Gary in red. Some folks came from a long way for that gathering including Freaq & Gary. John found his keys on the side of a trail late in the day, very lucky.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Part 5 - Friends skiing Powder

I enjoy capturing images of friends on the slopes. Many folks do not have photos of themselves skiing, and in the mid-Atlantic even fewer have photos of themselves skiing powder it's so dang rare here. It is my pleasure to share them when I get some and these are a few of my favorites. Think snow! (All photos provided by Jim Kenney unless otherwise noted).

41. My good buddy Laurel Hill Crazie at Blue Knob, PA on February 8, 2010. I didn’t quite get all of LHC in the photo, but I got enough to prove we had a friggin’ great powder day together! LHC and I have both skied Blue Knob for decades and I think he’d agree February 2010 was probably the best month of skiing we’ve ever seen there. That was the year of the mid-Atlantic Snowmageddon when even urban areas like the Wash DC suburbs got 40” of snow in an eight day period in early February.

42. Sugarloaf, ME, March 2014; this is MDF with a nose for powder! It was a few days removed from a fresh snowfall, but MDF found very tasty leftovers in this glade near Upper Bubblecuffer.

43. Copper Mountain, CO, April 2009; this is Mr. Vertical entering the Enchanted Forest. He and a friend (Alta6) noticed my son and I eating lunch in the mid-mountain Solitude Grill and asked us to come ski with them. None of us had ever met or communicated online before, but they saw posts we’d been making on Epic about our trip and remarkably recognized us in a crowd at the grill. This was one of my earliest experiences with the power of the internet to bring friendly strangers together to ski. We had a great afternoon with them in spring powder conditions.

44. Timberline, WV, January 2016; this is JohnL in Cherry Bowl Glades. This was the weekend that Winter Storm Jonas dumped 28” on the area. This snow had some water content and was not feather light, but John handled it well even in tight glades.

45. Spruce Peak at Stowe, VT, January 2010; this is Josh Matta storming through gladed terrain on Spruce Peak. Josh knows how to milk every drop of fun out of Stowe and this day he showed my son and I an unexpectedly challenging side of Spruce Peak. (IIRC photo taken by Vince Kenney with Josh’s camera.)

46. Mad River Glen, VT, early March 2013; this is SKI-3PO at a “New England Gathering” day when the group went to MRG. This is another example of how fun leftover powder can be. This wasn’t a big fresh snowfall day, but there is often good stuff to be found off the beaten track at MRG.

47. This is Michael R on No Name trail in Olympic Bowl at Aspen Highands, February 2016. This was from the Aspen Gathering. The area had received 40” of snow in the prior week. There was tons of loose snow on this trail and Michael did his best to slay it!

48. This is Dr. David at Timberline, WV and this was also after Winter Storm Jonas in January 2016. This was one of those photos I didn’t know I had until weeks later when I took a close look at all the digital images I had from that weekend.

49. Sierra at Tahoe, CA, January 2013; this was a friendly mountain ambassador we met in the glades at S-A-T named Ed. He gave my son and I a free 2-3 hour tour of the mountain including a lot of great tree skiing in one foot of fresh overnight snow. Ed was a strong skiing 66 year old and had been skiing S-A-T for 50 years.

50. This is Rudi Riet at the mid-Atlantic Gathering at Blue Knob, PA in February 2010. He's on a narrow, steep little trail called Shortway that is loaded with powder bumps. Rudi is a fantastic skier and I don't think gets to Blue Knob very often. He nailed it this weekend because this was actually about the best conditions I've ever seen in 50 years of skiing there. Shortway doesn't have snowmaking and some years it doesn't open. It never has coverage like this!

Next up Part 6 - Family Photos

 

[mdf]

Thanks for the photo! I remember that day. It was a narrow lane that had somehow been missed. If I remember correctly, I startled you by dropping in behind you when you thought you were on the edge. But you still got the shot!

 

[Jilly]

Love these pics. What camera and how do you carry it?. I'm wondering which one to take to WB in March. I've got a Nikon D3300 or the Sony point and shoot which fits into a interior pocket.

 

[mdf]

My avatar was shot by my son using a DSLR with big glass. It is better, but is it enough better? Arguments for a small, waterproof point and shoot (a decent one, though): Most pictures will be viewed at low-to-moderate resolution on a screen. You aren't going to be making 8x10 prints. Ski photo days have tons of light (storm photography is hopeless even with a magic camera&lens). Bokah is rarely important (my avatar may be an exception). Photos that get taken are better than the ones that don't when the camera is back in the room.

edit - checked again, and the guys in the background are in focus.... so much for bokah!

 

[Jim Kenney]

"Photos that get taken are better than the ones that don't when the camera is back in the room." MDF

So true. That is my primary secret. I snap a lot of shots.

Besides being a fun memento of my ski trips and adequate for sharing via the web, the photos help me recall lots of great details when I write reports after I return home. My camera is a Nikon CoolPix L610 that my family got me for Father’s Day 2013 for about $150. It's pretty small and I can whip it out of my pocket all day long. I use lithium double AA batteries for trusty operation in winter. However, the typical smart phone from 2016 probably takes far better images. (I don't have a smart phone.) Another of my very rudimentary secrets is that for the promising photos I will take the time to “correct” them a little bit with Microsoft Office Picture Manager through cropping, rotating, brightening, and so forth, but I am far from a pro at this.
MDF's son is a fine photographer with a great set-up. He has taken some stunning images of his dad and others and this can be another perk from attending the Gatherings! You might go away with a keepsake image.

 

[Jilly]

That makes me feel better. I didn't really want to lug the Nikon out west. I've enough other stuff as I'm still at work when I'm playing.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Part 6 - Family Photos.
This is where it could get exceedingly boring if your last name isn't Kenney, but if nothing else this post will serve as a mini online family ski photo album. I've arranged these photos from earliest to most recent. All photos provided by Jim Kenney.

51. This is quite early in my ski career, Camelback, PA, December 1968. I am on right. My oldest brother in center had just returned within days of a tour of duty in Vietnam as a 2nd LT in the USMC Infantry. My Dad got the great idea of welcoming him back with a family ski trip at Christmastime. My Mom and sister came too. I didn’t know much about it then, but my brother saw intense combat in Vietnam and complained of being cold the entire ski trip because he was used to tropical heat. My other brother at left was the best skier of the bunch. You can’t see them too well, but his black skis are a brand new pair of the legendary Head Standards, one of the first popular skis made with metal. We are all in leather ski boots and I believe my brother's in the middle were lace-up.

52. This is my Mom and Dad skiing at Killington, VT in April 1976. I believe I took this photo. We were in the Boston area for the wedding of a cousin and the three of us made a side trip up to the King of Spring for a day of April skiing. I’ll always be deeply grateful to my folks for encouraging me to ski when I was in my early teens in 1967. They started skiing a year later when they were both close to age 50. They caught the bug in a big way and within a couple of years built a ski cabin near Blue Knob, PA. We visited it many weekends each year from approximately 1972-1987.

53. This is from Hunter Mountain, NY, March 1985. Taken at a low angle by a pro photographer, he gave me more "air" than I deserved, I was only about a foot off the ground. Funny how the bright colored “skittles look” has come full circle

54. Here's a fairly old one of my son and youngest daughter in December 2002. This is at Wisp, MD with one of the prettiest views in mid-Atlantic skiing. That is 4000 acre Deep Creek Lake in the background. This was the morning after a snow and ice storm left a shimmering coat on the trees. My young daughter said the world looked like a winter scene out of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. She always was a good reader from a young age and is now studying at UCLA Law. My son lives and works in Utah and on weekends is a PSIA L-3 instructor at Snowbird. This was a long (3 hrs each way) dad-only day trip we made together and the kids are dressed in hand-me-downs from head to toe piece, including skinny skis. My daughter's goggles are upside down.

55. This crummy low res picture was taken at Eldora, CO a few days before Christmas in 2003 and includes my wife and our four children. If I had known this was the closest I’d ever get to a photo of my entire family together on the slopes I would have handed the camera to a stranger to get me in it too!!!

56. This is my nephew and my son at Keystone, CO in April 2007. We caught about a foot of spring powder on that trip and the boys and I walked up beyond the summit of The Outback where they literally acquired their first taste of side country in an area called Puma Bowl. That's Breckenridge in the background.

57. My son and I stopped for a photo op on the short hike from Cannon Mountain, NH to Mittersill in March 2010. This is before they installed a new lift in the Mittersill area. Cannon is ruggedly beautiful and Mittersill has a fun side-country feel to it.

58. This photo of my son was taken on New Year’s Day 2013 at Homewood, CA. This is at an area called Quail Face at the far southern edge of the ski area and we are about to ski a steep slope called Main Cirque. To get there we had to take a long, tree-lined cat track requiring a few short herringbone climbs. It was just enough trouble to keep out the riffraff. When we made it to the ski area boundary at the end of the cat track a view opened up of Lake Tahoe that was absolutely jaw-dropping and we had it all to ourselves.

59. This is me and my three daughters at Keystone, CO in mid-March 2015. I skied with them four out of five days and it was the first time I’d skied with the three of them together in close to a decade.

60. This is my wife at Beaver Creek’s McCoy Park Nordic trail system in March 2015. Best thing about McCoy Park is the setting at about 9800’ above sea level. It’s hard on the lungs if you are not adjusted, but it’s very scenic and has great snow preservation into late spring when other lower Nordic tracks are toast. You use the Strawberry Park chairlift to gain access to this terrain.

Next up: Part 7 - Family Action Photos

 

[Jim Kenney]

I think I found a better resolution copy of this photo and I'm going to post it here for posterity.
50. This is Rudi Riet at the mid-Atlantic Gathering at Blue Knob, PA in February 2010. He's on a narrow, steep little trail called Shortway that is loaded with powder bumps. Rudi is a fantastic skier and I don't think gets to Blue Knob very often. He nailed it this weekend because this was actually about the best conditions I've ever seen in 50 years of skiing there. Shortway doesn't have snowmaking and some years it doesn't open. It never has coverage like this!

 

[Jim Kenney]

Part 7 - Family Action Photos

I have done a lot of ski travel with my son over the last decade. In fact, he and I have visited approximately 60 different ski areas since January 2008. Generally, I think the most interesting ski photos have humans, snow, and scenery all in one shot. In that pursuit my son has often been the default action figure He’s also taken some fun shots of me. I need to get more quality shots of the rest of the family, but I just don’t have the same amount of slopetime with them.

Family shots from a variety of ski areas around the US. (All photos provided by Jim Kenney.)

61. This was taken in January, 2013 on the backside of Alpine Meadows, CA. Alpine Meadows is noted for side-country. Everything you see in this view of the South Face is “in-bounds” provided you’ve got high speed quadriceps.

62. I absolutely love Wildcat ski area in NH. It’s not the biggest, it’s not the baddest, but it’s among the prettiest and if you hit it in good conditions you’ll wonder why as an Easterner you ever needed to get in an airplane to go ski. This is from March 2, 2010 was a superb day with the stuff that skier’s dreams are made of: great packed powder snow (54” in the previous week), no crowds, 40-45 degree temps, no wind, and tons of sunshine.

63. This is my son on High Rustler at Alta, UT, January 4, 2011. It was our first time at Alta. During one of our last epic runs of the day we pulled off to the side of a trail and I said a quick prayer out loud - thankful for a VERY good day I'll never forget.

64. Here he is skiing in a grove of aspens at where else, Aspen Mountain, CO in late December 2013:

65. From Sierra at Tahoe, CA, early January 2013; perhaps my favorite ski photo of my son. Wonder why?

Will finish the next five later.