We came out to ski on Thanksgiving, partly because employees are going to be blacked out for the next two days. Warm day, decent snow, small crowds.

We came out on our day off for a few runs. Pinball opened, so Northstar has doubled their number of runs to two.

We got a few runs in before work. Nancy wants to tele more this year—we’ll see how that goes.

We got out for our first day of skiing this year. The ski area opened a few days ago but employees were blacked out through the opening weekend due to larger than expected crowds.

There’s only one run open—Skid Trail to Lumberjack. Still, turns are turns.

We set the traps last night and two young adult bears. Mario (with his dog Villa) is trying to rotate the radio collar on the bear by poking it with a stick.

I had to help him, and after 15 minutes of breaking sticks and pissing off the bear we finally got the collar into place.

We tried riding Hole-in-the-Ground, but we got too late of a start and there was too much snow on the trail to push through.

We rode to the top of Andesite Peak and then turned around to ride the Summit Lake trail.

Cruising down from Andesite Peak.

The Summit Lake Trail was clear of snow. We rode to Summit Lake, and then I rode back through a bunch of snow to Soda Springs to get the car while Nancy continued on down Negro Canyon.

We rode the Sawtooth trail, adding the Two Beavers and a Bear loop as well. The trail was bare of snow except for some sketchy ice ruts on Two Beavers.

We’ve had a ton of bear activity at Northstar this summer, so we’ve been assisting Fish & Wildlife with setting the traps.

Here’s our manager attaching a plastic bottle stuffed with food to the wire that springs the trap.

We performed a bear aversion by releasing it from the trap with a couple of Mario’s dogs chasing it. It’s always fun to see what the bear will do when he takes off running.

A National Geographic cameraman filmed the aversion for the “Wild Justice” series.

I’m close to finishing getting the wood in. I’ve got twelve pallets stacked five feet high with firewood.