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Welcome to our wedding Homepage! I took a little time
to put this together so we could have something digitally to remember. Since I'm still playing around all day on the Internet,
I thought I'd use a quick template to help everyone with directions, reservations and
lodging for the big weekend, and I've even listed some activities that are going to be taking
place beginning Thursday, Sept 18th. You can be a part of this by simply submitting your entry to the
post board...which will hopefully fill up and be a great part of our wedding memories. And don't
forget to check out the photo gallery. There's over 30 images that we've scanned and posted.
I figured there would be some folks from both sides of
the family and friendship circles checking this out so I thought I would add a little about us both and how we managed
to stumble into each other's lives. Danette grew up north of Salt Lake City in a small town called Smithfield.
She went to college at Utah State University in Logan. She graduated in 2001 with a degree in Geology. I must say since we've
been together I've learned a ton about orienteering in remote areas, dry-camping, scientific field work, and slowing down a
little in the middle of no where just to look around a bit. Danette was exposed to Alta at an early age thanks to her
Aunt Laurel. When she finished school she decided to spend an entire winter in the canyon to get her first 100-day ski season.
Little did she know that I'd been secretly plotting a mission to get her to come ski with me!
We'd known each other for sometime (I was already in my
senior year at the University of Alta when we first got together), but only casually, and I always wondered if she would come
and stay, and if we would have the opportunity to get to know one another better. Well she did and I was koo koo over her for the first couple
months and never said a thing. When we finally went to an ACE-sponsored event together
(thanks to her initiative!), I came out with it, 'that I'd been waiting for her to come ski for a season ever since we'd met three
winters prior'. That night was perfect. Before the event we took a walk up to the end of the road. There were powder crystals everywhere
from the past 24 hours. The road wasn't plowed yet, the sky was clear with a big moon, and the cold smoke was swaying in the
breeze, circling around us. And so it all began with our snowy moonlight walk...
I moved to Alta after graduate school in 1998. I was (kind of)
an entrepreneur in Ithaca, NY, trying my best to learn about the new Internet industry. It wasn't going too well, so I decided
to visit Fish in Utah and go skiing one January. I couldn't believe my discovery. I found powder snow so deep and consistent that
I was lost trying to turn, let alone keep up with the locals. There were huge mountain passes, the bluest skies imaginable, powder
days, backcountry shelters, natural hot springs, vast deserts, avalanche beacons, hedonists, thinkers, musicians... Before I knew
it I had my Honda Civic packed and I was on my way west. I explored the whole of the Alta Ski
Area my first summer (and season) in the canyon. I memorized every fall-line without the snow. I was obsessed with the Wasatch.
I learned about mountain culture and committed myself to an active and healthy life of discovery and adventure. I recognized right
away how fortunate I was to have been blessed with the ability to reach mountain tops and remote desert areas through my own power.
I began to give thanks everyday I spent in the outdoors. A symbolic and fully spiritual recognition that I've been given this
ability to climb and ride and run and laugh and carve...expressing myself more clearly then ever through my movements and
relationship to the terrain.
Our Best Friends
Danette has a Kuvasz (Hungarian working dog) that found her
on a geology field trip in a very remote section of southern Utah in May of 2002. She was not trustworthy of humans, scared and
skinny; yet with it enough to sense Danette's kind nature and willingness to help. Adah lingered around the
camp for a couple of days, eating scraps and following the students around as they did their work. Through her good sense and
persistence, Adah found her way into Danette's heart and our home as one of two rescued dogs that are truly special to us.
Chip is the other crazy K9. He came to me through a friend who took him far away from where he was abused
and neglected. Cree knew he couldn't have a dog but couldn't bare to leave him behind to be euthanized. Once I saw him in the
spring of 2000 I knew he needed to be saved. He's become the most loyal and intelligent dog I've ever known. Danette and I sat
one day and thought about Chip's vocabulary (as either single words or a phrase of words together that
mean an action), and I think we topped out somewhere around 70 or 80 commands! What's nice is that Chip did all the hard work when
the 'puppy' came and joined us (Adah was about 6 months old when Danette rescued her). Adah looked up to Chip and followed his every
lead... and as such a good dog, with such a large vocabulary, she learned through following his repetition. She associated every
action he made with what command we gave him in no time. If you come to the wedding you'll get to meet both Chip and Adah. Along
with Bailey and Kevin, they're part of our wedding party!
Well I'm sure I could go on and on and bore you more...but we've got a wedding to continue planning. I hope to see you all in
September, but we understand that Utah is very far for some of you and we all have lots going on. No pressure, but
September is a magic time in the canyon. Aspens will be yellow, the sky will be blue and the nights will be crisp and cool
as our Alta winter will soon be returning ;-).
Best Regards, Gary Brian
Click image above to see a photo of Mt Superior
and the Peruvian Lodge blanketed
in our sacred Utah Powder!
© 20 Sept 2003 Chip & Adah. All rights reserved.
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