Summer is tough. Winter is easy During winter I know exactly what I ‘m doing everyday: snowboarding. I might not know where, or when, or with whom, but no matter what I am going snowboarding.

Summertime leaves me with long sunny days that need to be filled with something. I resort to mountain biking, surfing, climbing, wake surfing and skating hills. The feeling of chasing my buddies down a rocky single track on my bike, catching a good wave surfing, bombing down mountain pass on my skateboard or leading a new climbing route are fun for awhile, but I would trade them all in for a day of snowboarding.

By the time September rolls around the novelty of all these sports has worn off. Pavement hurts to much, the waves are overcrowded, the bike trails are covered in a foot of dust, and the boat wake is too small.

I find myself daydreaming of snowboarding and standing on top of peaks looking down lines. My daydreams do not include long lift lines on a powder day, high avalanche danger, wind-scoured peaks, or countless days when I am holed-up in a cheap hotel room waiting for the weather to break.

It is the days like when these photos that get me threw the never ending summer months. Having your stomach knotted with fear, breathing through that fear, dropping in with total confidence, seeing nothing but the task at hand, flying out the bottom with uncontrollable joy and relief, and then looking back at your track and being totally content for a moment.

No matter how hard I try I can never totally duplicate these emotions in summer. So here is a little teaser to get you threw this last stretch. One month and counting until life gets easy again.

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Bottomless pow. No exposure, stable snow and not a breath of wind. No warm up needed to rip these.

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The view from the top. So many options, not enough time. First I need to get my glove.

jeremy jones

The weather came in as we were getting set up to ride these lines. This face had me pacing the lodge for ten days hoping for a break in the weather that never came. It is beasts like this that get me adding an extra loop on my bike ride or an extra set at the gym.