3wing - Mark and Liz Ewing's Blog of Life in Crested Butte, CO

Out of Contact

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:57:00 +0000

We STILL don't have internet the house.....we're sorry we've been out of contact! We have tons of photos to post of all the fun things we've been up to these first few months in Courchevel.

My family was here to celebrate x-mas and New Years with us. We even went to the forest and cut down a x-mas tree for the American Cave. (It's called that b/c two windows open into a parking garage but it is nicer then we had expected) We skied a ton and ate lots of great food. Loads of Cheese!! It was a great time! My mom and Katie and I checked out all the shopping and skied too! Katie was an amazing skier for it being one of her first few times!! We all "apres skied" with a drink at the base area and took in the sights. My Dad perfected his powder skiing and the boys skied across all 3 valleys with Mark on the last day and had amazing powder turns! We all went to a huge New Years bash out on the piste/snow with fireworks and all! They even tried Mark's crepes!! (It's a skill he is still perfecting!)

The Frenchies have been taking good care of us and showing us around. Mark's french is coming a long well because he speaks it all day while I speak to Charley most of the day. I want him to practice with me when he comes home but he just wants to "speak normal" after the long day. I like go up to the top shack and hang out with the patrollers to practice my french. Last time I was there one of the frenchmen, Cyrille, was my french to french translator.....he translated my poor 3rd grade french to actual french for the other patrollers to understand!

Mark has been busy at work "testing all of the slopes", making sure the poles on the sides are lined up and straight and doing rescues too. He called his first helicopter last week for a serious head injury. He has also been introducing the patrol to new music! He's been speaking french on the radio too!! I have yet to babysit again since the first experience....I'm still recovering and the skiing is getting better......

We've found a great bar with cheap beer that lets us bring Chubbly Hambone (we've renamed Charley) with us to the bar. I think they are more excited to see Chubbly then us! The bar is full of British workers which is nice for us to come and speak english to. We've instilled weekly family dinners with everyone there. I've found ski partners too for when Mark actually has to work.

So Chubbly/Charley is having a great time. The name stems from the many times I've returned from a walk or a ski with her and a very nice frenchman gives her his leftover ham sandwich. This happens often!! Charley gets to ride around in the gondolas with me to the ski du fond (x-country skiing) pistes.

We've been skiing a ton and even went ice climbing with a few of the patrollers (check out the photos!). One of the patrollers took me on a long ski tour in the national park on his day off. This past weekend we went with two other couples to a back country refuge. Think hotel that you have to ski 3 hours to. Nothing like the huts in Colorado. There was a chef and a sauna and plenty of wine!! We couldn't bring Charley to this hut unfortunately so a friend stayed at our place and hung out with her, but we did find Tommy the St. Bernard when we arrived at the hut. It couldn't have been more fitting...a huge St. Bernard in the Alps....I don't think he would be up to wearing the barrel around his neck and tromping through the snow....he really like to sleep more then anything! We had a great time! The weather was very foggy on the day we left so we were unable to ski anything steep before we left for the tour out.

We're heading to a friends for raclette dinner, which is this great combination of cheese and potatoes and ham and cornchons (small wonderful pickles). These are the staples of Savoie (the region we are in) meals and we're not complaining!

We'll be in touch and posting more....we promise!

Here's a link to more photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/France120902#

**FINALLY WE HAVE INTERNET FROM HERE ON OUT!!**YAY!!

Snow and Snails!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Here are some fun photos from the last few days! Hope you all are doing well!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/SnowAndSnails#

Liz had her first successful trip to the grocery store by herself today! Driving stick in the snow in France in the alps ALONE! I'm proud of her. We had a bottle of champagne upon her return (to lower her blood pressure)!

rain low = powder up top...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:44:00 +0000

The rain I complained about the other day was powder up top. Yesterday was an incredible day of skiing with a guide to show us where all the good spots are!! Still in shock that we live in France... Pictures coming soon!

Powder! Rain :(

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Opening day for the season was on Saturday... it was an incredible powder filled day. Not a bad 3rd day of work here in France!! The French people have all been very welcoming and friendly - especially those patrollers that have done the exchange before... being that they know exactly how hard it is to come here and not understand 90% of what is being said. Even though I feel like I've learned a good bit of French in the past few months of studying - nothing could have prepared me for how quickly they speak and link words together... It's slowly getting better but I definitely come home from work everyday mentally exhausted from simply trying to comprehend what they're talking about! Definitely thankful for the few that are willing to speak english with me and explain what the boss just told me to do ;)

It's quite different here with no ropes and few rules. Despite opening with only 4 official pistes (trails) - the entire mountain is open for people to ski - albeit at their own risk. With no ropes you can just drop off the side of a trail and ski powder down to the next maintained piste... so different - and so fun!

We've been bad and haven't brought the camera with us the past few days. We'll be better I swear!

Today is my first day off and it's been nice to sleep in, relax, and get caught up on everything. Just found out though that I have to work on my Sunday (tomorrow). Merde!

Did we mention that our cheese bellies are quickly growing!!

New Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:02:00 +0000

Here are some new old photos from the Fall in CB.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/FallInCB09

And here are some new photos of the last few days here in Courchevel. If you click rapidly through the last few you'll see how crazy the tiny little airport is here!! Taking off from a cliff has got to be a rush (I'm hoping to get to fly while we're here). What you see is what you get with this runway - there are no go arounds or aborted takeoffs...

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/France1109#

We are off to make some Chicken Cordon Bleu!

Our First week in France and change of address

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:05:00 +0000

So we made it!! We currently don't have internet at our house yet. So we're sitting in an ATM booth using the bank's free internet afterhours... classy.

Last night was our first night in our apartment despite being here for almost a week already!! Mitch has taken great care of us (he was the French patroller that came to America last year). Our first stop on the way home from the airport was at his bootleg distillery for some traditional French spirits... whooeee!! Welcome to France!

Charley loves everyone and everyone loves Charley (as per usual) - she fits right in and loves the French lifestyle and the French dog food... and Sausage... we think that everyone remembers her more than they remember us.

We spent this past weekend at the Grand Opening for Les Trois Valees (The Three Valleys) which was held at Val Thorens (the highest of the 3 valleys). In a few short weeks we'll be able to ski there from our front door... and it was over an hours drive away!! Craziness. The size of this place is mind blowing and we haven't even begun to see a fraction of it. The party was ridiculous... we may be getting too old for the French nightlife... or at least that's how we felt on Sunday morning!

The food and the wine have been spectacular along with everything else! We miss you all and will update you again soon!

Here are some pictures - let us know if you can't see them:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161922&id=736829364&l=5eedd02fdc&

We made a slight change to our address...

Mark and Liz Ewing
Chalet S3V
Rue De Cospillot
73120 Courchevel
Savoie, France

Address in France

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Hello all - in case you wanted to send us anything while we're in France... here's our new address:

Mark and Liz Ewing
Chalet S3V
Rue De Cospillot
73120 Courchevel
Savoie, France

Hard to believe we're leaving on Monday!! We love you all!

Off we go

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:33:00 +0000

The photos above all came from Tom (the ski patroller that went to Courchevel last year).

Yeah - Facebook has ruined our blog... which is no fun cause you can't look back in the archives of facebook and read everything... we'll try to remedy that while we're in France.... speaking of:

11 more days till we're off to France for the ski season! Hope you're all doing well and are well into the planning stages of booking your trip to come visit us in France!

Life has been good here - we're both currently unemployed as we pack up our lives and our dog and prepare for an incredible 6 months overseas! Halloween was a blast - started the day off with some powder skiing in the backcountry followed by an evening of ridiculousness!

Check out these if you haven't before:
http://www.courchevel.com/
http://www.courchevel.com/img/plans/plan_pistes3v.pdf - ski area map - woot BIGGEST IN THE WORLD!

Here are some fall photos if you haven't seen them already:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33520

Our email addresses (and facebook) will remain the same - our phone numbers will be turned off for 6 months - but we'll have skype. Our username is mark.h.ewing - and we'll eventually have a land line as well.

I'll post our address on here as well so you can all send us care packages of fun American things that we miss... who knows - maybe you'll get a fun care package back with fun French things!!

We'll miss you all!!

More pics

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Here are a few more pics from bike patrol:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037096&id=59701208&l=581e592937

Can't believe it's almost September! Summer went quickly!

Whew it's been a while

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:06:00 +0000

So yeah - summer is almost gone. Our year anniversary has come and gone (can you believe it??)... the car has been covered with frost every morning... the days of flippy floppies are over. The biking has been incredible. Rafting has been fun. Work has been good - hard - but good. No one has gotten too incredibly hurt on the mountain which has made patrolling good... and the crazy wood features and fun trails have made patrolling incredible!

Here are some photos from the other day at work...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28365&id=1528307561&l=bee75b6035

Charley is doing well - our French is SLOWLY coming along. We went to the rents new beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in July. It's a gorgeous house on a beautiful stretch of beach. It's so much fun to see their dream come true! The entire family made it down so that made it even more special.

Following the beach we went to Melissa and David's wedding in Cleveland and had a blast with them and all of Liz's family. There are 11 Rancourt siblings!! Whooeee that's a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins for me to remember!!

Liz's clinic sold - she now works for the leading orthopedic doctor in town and is getting all kinds of great experience. She has begun the process of signing up for prerequisites for her masters of nursing program - they will be distance learning (online) classes - really distant... in that she'll be taking them while we're in France.

Life is good - we hope you all are good as well!!

Netflix Friends?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:53:00 +0000

Anyone want to be friends on Netflix so we can see what everyone is watching?? Come on--- it'll be fun!

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P6HT6V35dIwCmELdpyUn

Whitewater Rafting!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Here are some photos from yesterday morning on the river - I've been giving out free rafting to anyone that can make it up here - so GET UP HERE! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21488&id=1528307561&l=2263a5fd93

I decided to take the job as the Mountain Bike Patrol Foreman - so that should be fun. Hopefully I'll have some time to raft still cause it IS FUN!!

A few pictures and a short update:

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Photos from our snowmobile skiing mission up to Irwin in late April - it was a blast - and a great way to celebrate Carson's birthday - and my birthday - cause the entire month of April was devoted to that...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20886&id=1528307561&l=36101198c6

Here are some photos from our Cottonwood pass ski trip this past weekend... it was horrendous skiing. The pass officially opened this weekend - but much to our chagrin - it appeared as if the pass had actually been open for a few weeks - simply without the "official" accreditation which meant we missed out on all the snow... I think we had to ski it just to justify the drive...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20882&id=1528307561&l=cb02658073

Here's the latest:
There's turmoil at the medical clinic where Liz works - let's all hope things start to turn around - Liz would be happy to give you an update. I've been taking a whitewater rafting guide school for the last few weeks - it's been a blast - now it's time to make some money doing it... although I've been offered a position on Mountain Bike Patrol for the ski resort - which would be fun - and it's 40 hours a week - compared to the lowly status of 1st year river guide wherein I MAY get 2-3 days a week of work... tough decisions I tell you.

Charley is doing great - we're doing great - the rain has been relentless the last few days (which makes for cold soggy rafting) but it makes our garden grow (as long as it doesn't turn to snow) - Life is GOOD! Come visit us this summer!

Turning 30 and the last few weeks...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:31:00 +0000

It's been a fun last few weeks here - skied the Red Lady, went to Moab with a fun group of people, acted as ski patrol for the latest Matchstick Productions Ski Movie (they built a huge jump on the mountain), and just got back from a birthday weekend on the frontrange!

I've posted a bunch of pictures on our picasa page - check em out:

Skiing Red Lady:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/RedLady0409#

Our Moab Trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/Moab0409#

Patrolling for the MSP Shoot:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/MSPPhotoShoot42009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvd0uGBkNirWA#

Off to France next ski season!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:12:00 +0000

We had our end of the year banquet the other night - Liz had to hand over her Part-timer of the year trophy to the new part-timer (Matt Brown) and I was awarded the rookie full-timer of the year - fun stuff. Had some stiff competition including one of our new avalanche rescue puppies.

I was asked by patrol to represent Crested Butte on our ski patrol exchange with Courchevel in France. We send a patroller there for a season - and they send one here. We're working out the details - but it sounds like Liz and I are going to France for all of next ski season!!! So get your passports and come visit!!!

As of now Charley is coming with us - apparently the EU is quite dog friendly - (ie allowed on all trains and most restaurants - no quarantine either!!) The place that they put us up in is apparently a 2 bedroom apartment at the base of the ski area so it sounds like we may have a guest room!!!

We'll keep you updated!

Another Season Ends...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:22:00 +0000

How quickly the season flew by! Here are pictures from the last day of the season - it was a blast - I took the day off and we did it up Crested Butte style!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17097&id=1528307561&l=d4c450dca7

The Elk Mountain Grand Traverse

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Here are some photos from our stint up at the Friend's Hut - 13 miles of slogging through 20" of fresh snow to be the medical support for the craziest ski race of all time... it's a 46 mile backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen - starting at midnight and going until the last teams arrive in Aspen - the winners made the trip in just over 9 hours this year... incredible!

We skied up a few days early to help set up and to get some backcountry laps in - we broke trail through deep powder only to have the winds scour everything the first night we were up there - leaving us with breakable wind crust (not the best skiing). We still had an incredible time - enjoy the pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16581&id=1528307561&l=feb2a93423

A video

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Here's a video from that day on Whetstone:

Remember to look at http://www.mark-ewing.com if you can't see the video in the email that this blog sends to you.

Some Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Here are some photos from last weekend's backcountry ski trips:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/SkiingMtWhetstoneBackCountry031609#

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/CoonAndWolverineBasinsBackCountry031709#

Interesting Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:41:00 +0000

If you pay attention at all to the stock market...

Ross and Meghan Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Here are some photos of Ross and Meghan's visit to CB:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/MeghanRossSkiVaca#

We had a blast with them - incredible weather and great snow - it snowed two nights and we had blue bird days every single day!!

Sorry we haven't been updating the blog lately. Busy busy busy!

Update:
I passed my explosives exam.
Patrolling has been incredible. Went to A-basin on patrol exchange - which was a lot of fun.
Liz and I are doing great - life is good here in CB!
Charley is a happy dog.
The season ends in early April and I have no summer job lined up yet... yikes.
Liz and I are doing the medical control for the Grand Traverse again this year - which will be fun.

Hope you all are doing well!

In-sync days off!! Finally!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:45:00 +0000

SO, Mark and I finally had a day off together and guess what we did.....we went backcountry skiing!
We had friends staying in the Gothic hut near our house who invited us to come and spend the night and ski with them. We left promptly at 5:30 pm after work and had a wonderful 3.5 mile ski into the hut in the moonlight. It was quite a surprise to everyone at that point because they figured that we were not coming. The night was spent helping the crew that had been there for 3 days finish their food and drink so they did not have to carry it out. We did a good job of that! We spent time with Jessie, Liz's Boulder roommate (she introduced Mark and I), and met other great people. We crashed that night in a pretty posh "hut" if you could call it that! Normally the huts we have been to in the past have only a wood burning stove, no running water. This place had a stove, microwave (gasp!), in floor heat and a shower. It still had an out house, sorry no heated seat!
This morning we skied out and hiked up Snodgrass mountain for some fresh powder turns. It was great! It was a refreshing little get away. Now back to work tomorrow. Here are a few photos! More can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12032&l=6971d&id=1528307561 Let us know if the link doesn't work. Love you all!

Happy New Year - a tad late.

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Things here are good - patrolling has been fun - though full time on the hill can be pretty tiring at times. We had a great New Year - The Heard played (they played at our wedding) at the Eldo here in town - here are some pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10313&l=8f9fe&id=1528307561

We're lacking a bit of snow lately - but that's typical for January - looks like the weather is supposed to shift for the weekend which will be nice. Despite our lack we still have around 3 feet or so on the ground still... good stuff.

I'm contracted to take some photos from a helicopter of the X-games in Aspen this weekend - that'll be fun.

I take my blaster's certification test on Thursday - hopefully I pass.

IPS has downsized again - it's a bummer to hear how the economy is affecting everyone and everything - hopefully this new administration will be able to right this slowly sinking ship....

We're doing well - and we hope you all are too!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:05:00 +0000

With the addition of Facebook and it's simplicity of use - our blog has fallen by the wayside - and we apologize!

We've been doing well - we had a great Turkey Day here in the Butte and we're coming up on Christmas here with the local family of friends.

We made it back East for an early Christmas and East Coast reception with those that couldn't make the haul out here for the wedding. We had a blast with everyone and were so happy that everyone came to see us! Christmas was fun with the family - getting to hang out with my brother and his family was incredible - my two nieces are growing up so quickly!!

We made it back despite all the snow and we're getting back into the winter grind. Patrolling has been fun - though I did have an exciting first week of work which included flipping a snowmobile (with our paraplegic Dispatcher holding on to the back), helping with a broken Tibia, a broken spine, and finally getting caught in an avalanche. I figure I'll get the worst of it out in the first week!! There are some pictures posted of an avalanche route from last year - and the slide from this year.

The story of the slide - My route partner and I set off a large explosive at the top of the run which produced no results in the snowpack. We then started ski cutting the slope - on my second cut across the slope - the entire chute ripped out above and below me and swept me to the bottom of the run taking me beneath a tree which you can see in the photos at the bottom of the chute. I was left at the bottom with one arm and my head above the snow debris. Scary stuff.

We've been getting pummeled with snow which is great! Liz and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary the other day - fun stuff!! Now I'm off to shovel the 5 foot berm that the snow plow created!!

We love you all! Merry Christmas!! Come visit - flights into Gunnison are dirt cheap right now!

The pictures can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/Teo2March08#

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/ElevatorShaftSlide122008#