via Music Festival Junkies

via Art of FLIGHT

Apparently, a bunch of Hooter girls go to Aspen and do stuff in bikinis. I feel like I missed Christmas. I saw nothing like this on the Aspen stop of 100 Days Of Winter unless you equate hotties wearing no clothes to a dude passing out in the back of his Honda Element after eating an entire grocery store chicken.

via Spike TV

Call me old-fashioned, but I still think that if you consider Twitter to be a viable source of news, than you’re a fucking moron. Which is way I wasn’t surprised to find that the reported death of Neo in a snowboarding accident in Zermatt was a fabricated tweet. The celebrity fake death from a skiing/snowboarding accident is courtesy of a spam site called Global Associated News (I’m not including a link), which also claimed that Eddie Murphy died at Zermatt as well.

Checking out Flathead Lake on a cloudy day

On a grey bird Sunday, we shook off small hangovers and embarked on the the 14 mile trek from the shores of Lake Flathead to the heights of the Blacktail Mountain Ski Area.  It’s certainly an incredibly scenic and twisty road — which begs the question how accessible Blacktail is during a powder storm. Not a problem for the crew today with just a dusting of an inch accompanied with grumblings that Whitefish, just 45 minutes up the road, got half a foot.

A blustery wind greeted us in the parking lot which did little to alleviate stuffy heads, but we immediately found  protection on the northern facing slopes — a fact that Blacktail brags about on their trail map. With only a few hours before heading back to Bozeman, we didn’t get a chance to fully scope out the entire area (then again, I rarely do), but like most of the family hills in Montana, there’s a firm sense of community in the lodge and on the slopes.

We spent the bulk of our time farming out the leftover snow on top of the Thunderhead Double. Head over to The Glades, Badrock, and Pocehlon’s Powder for some trees. If you want to stick to the top and the aforementioned trees, there’s even a midstation (load-on only) on the Thunderhead and for those seeking to show off for a crowd, check out the lower liftline. It’s still a bit sparse, but has more than enough rocks and jibs to keep it interesting.

Blacktail’s size as we kept discovering is deceptively large with super long and nicely steeped intermediates that provide a decent run. Its best feature, however, may be the shortened week. Only open from Wednesday thru Sunday, I can only imagine that early week storms must turn this place into an absolute playground of powder. And after Whitefish, the chill atmosphere and smaller crowds were a perfect fit for some lazy Sunday turns.

Welcome to Blacktail

TSJ Ticket Tips: Pick up cheap lift tickets at Costco in Kalispell (we paid $27/ticket). Ski half price with any Montana season pass. $25 lift tickets on Thursdays.

Apres-Ski:
Tamarack Brewing Company
Lakeside, Montana

Actually, our apres-ski included two cases of beer as we made the six hour journey back to Bozeman, but our local guide told us that this was the place to tie one on after a day of shredding Blacktail. You can’t miss it right on the road up to the ski area.

Romance is in the air at ski areas this Valentine's Day.

Valentine’s Day is a big deal here in the mountains. It reminds us of our loved ones and…and…who am I kidding? It takes place on a random Tuesday, which is essentially a Saturday for ski bums. Not to mention, there’s like one girl for every eight guys so most of the time you can just ignore it.

That still doesn’t mean that ski areas are going to forget about it. We’ve rustled up a few deals for this year’s Cupid bacchanalia and we’ve broken it down for all stages of a relationship.

For Those Of You In The Hunt
Bear Creek Mountain, PA 

There’s no better place in the world to throw game at a girl than on a chairlift. She literally can’t escape unless a sixty foot free fall was her Valentine’s Day wish. Here’s hoping that Bear Mountain’s Ski Lift of Love comes out injury free. It takes place on Valentine’s Day from 6 to 10pm and features two “singles” lines — one for men and one for women. You still have to pay for a lift ticket, but isn’t that a small price to meet the love of your life?

For Those of You Dating
Mad River Glen, VT

Let your inner exhibitionist out at Mad River Glen. When your and your someone special kiss in front of the counter guy, lift tickets are only $14. You only have to kiss. Don’t let them talk into anything else freaky.

For Those Of You Ready to Take the Plunge
Loveland, CO

On the opposite end of the spectrum from singledom is Loveland’s 21st Annual Mountaintop Matrimony in which couples get married in a mass wedding on the slopes. Is it worth it for the 2 for 1 lift ticket that couples receive? I’ll leave it up to you.

For Those of You That Are Hopeless
Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, CA

If you don’t have a honey to smooch, there’s still a chance of scoring a sweet $14 ticket through LiftTickets.com. Act fast though because when this deal is done, you’ll have no cheap tickets and no girlfriend. Bummer, dude.

On a weird side note, I found this photo on the Tataouine Tourism website which is the place where they filmed Star Wars.