It’s a common misconception that I’m obsessed with skiing during the winter.

Alright, it’s not really a misconception at all, because it’s true. But, I am able to, occasionally, pull myself away from skiing and have some other fun in the snow. This weekend was one of those.

A couple of my friends from college were in town this weekend, and they aren’t much for the backcountry skiing, so we found some alternative means of entertainment.

They were supposed to arrive in flag friday morning, but due to a snafu in their flights (and a night spent in minneapolis as a result) they didn’t roll into town until friday mid-day. Andy brought along his snowboard, and we were supposed to hit up snowbowl friday (and attempt to avoid some of the weekend craziness). Instead, we decided to try to brave it saturday. Unfortunately, after making it up to mile marker 4 on snowbowl road, we noted the bumper-to-bumper traffic, tucked our tails between our legs, and retreated.

Fortunately, there was fun to be had in my very own front yard. We hauled out some shovels and set to work building a nice little run in and out of the corner of my roof.

Who needs a ski lift when you’ve got a ladder?

After hucking ourselves off the roof of my house for an hour or so, we booked it down to sedona for some food, a little hike, and a visit to the page springs winery.

I will admit, I got a couple halfway decent pictures in red rock country, but really, most of the time behind the lens was spent playing with Nic’s wide angle lens on my camera, which resulted in a lot of pictures resembling this:

Today we got a late start, ate some Martannes for breakfast and then embarked on an epic afternoon in the snow at a spot I’ve scoped out a couple times. This spot has a nice run-out, some great steepness, and enough length that it would probably be considered a ski run in some midwestern states.

We proceeded to embark on such activities as R-rated ‘snow-woman’ building and extreme sledding.

That would be Andy and I in the sled, and yes, we landed it. It was up there as one of my crowning achievements for the winter.

Needless to say, even though there was a lack of skiing, I still got a lot of good winter fun in this weekend. I hope you all did too.