Huckfest Mood: on fire Topic: shred report
new snow: 1" conditions: machine groomed
My reaction was similar to that of others around me: Hey, it's not as bad as I thought it would be! The groomers did a nice job of chopping up the ice so we would have piles of loose granular to ride through. Not much frozen granular, which was what I was expecting. Did a couple of cruisers down AV and decided to check out the huckfest. noticed there weren't many girls there, and that most competitors were local kids, not seasoned pros. Decided, "what the heck? it's better than sitting around watching..." so I entered.
First couple of practice runs were not great. I think maybe I got about halfway up the wall. the tranny was loose granular, but the side walls were a little icy. Even if I wasn't on a rock board with mangled edges I still would have been challenged by the conditions. Decided the only way I was going to get my muscles to behave themselves was to hike, so hike I did.
hiking helped. my first run (at this point the contest had begun) I dropped in and promptly ate it on the opposite wall. I managed to pull together a run that felt better than my practice runs, but certainly not good enough to earn many points. the second run was considerably better. I managed to pull of a couple of mute grabs, a couple of indy airs, and a couple of methods. then I got ambitious and tried an alley oop at the bottom. I hit a patch of ice, didn't spin at all, and went down. I came in 2nd by one point. 2nd. Out of 2. i still won a really cool hat, though, and I got to ride in the halfpipe all day, so it was certainly worth the $10 entry fee.
After the competition I headed down to the little terrain park. kinda hit the rail, but wasn't lined up very well so I wasn't on it for very long. I did manage to stay on my feet. Then I hit all the little kickers on the left side. Feeling pretty confident I made my way over to the big park. Hit the first jump and didn't quite clear it. That was as big as I was willing to go. Elegantly avoided the other obstacles and got out of there.
Ahhhh. the satisfaction of competition. once the adrenaline wore off it felt really great. great enough to go home and lift weights. i feel so strong.
Inversion again Mood: irritated Topic: shred report
new snow: 0 conditions: bulletproof
took the gondola and zoomed over to AV. crap. took AV. crap. pipe was closed. park was closed. went through it anyway (after obtaining permission and waiting for the groomer to say it was clear, of course, and I had to promise not to actually go over the jumps. Not that I wanted to when it was BULLETPROOF.) Best run all day because the groomer had just been there. soft, loose-granular corduroy. whoop-dee-doo. can you hear the sarcasm? you know it's bad when you start thinking that you could be cleaning your house. at least it's not summer. at least i can actually GO to the mountain. It was probably be decent around 2pm once it softened up. I wasn't going to wait around, though. bailed.
Night skiing at the King Mood: caffeinated Topic: snowboarding
new snow: 0 conditions: spring conditions
bluebird day but I had to work. got off at 3pm-ish and quickly geared up. went to the king with my friend in the neon unisuit (see January 15th post). It was his last day, and he wanted to get some more skiing in, and since it was so nice out we couldn't resist.
Snow King was unusually soft, with mush that you normally don't see until spring. We made it just in time to get onto summit chair before it closed for the day. Since we knew we wouldn't make it down in time for another run anyway, we decided to stop and take some gaper shots. digital cameras rock. my friends style might be from the 80's but his technology is state of the art. Note to self: get a Sony T1 instead of drooling over it every time you go to Staples. You know you want it.
Selected Belly Roll because it was there. mostly hard packed moguls. not my favorite, but cake for an east coast skier like my friend. took more pics and even a little bit of video on the way down. got to the zig zag traverse and headed over to bison, which was mush-powder and quite lovely. discovered there was no way out but through the race course, so we carefully traversed across it when there was a break in the traffic. yikes. hit cougar again then headed over to rafferty.
Two really nice kickers with fresh mushy landings were right in the middle of the trail under the lift. woo hoo! and i was riding with a friend who not only had a camera, but actually knew how to take a picture in which the subject of the photo (me) was actually IN the shot. so of course we stopped and set up and shot some video. Oh, and to the kid who threw the snowball at my from the lift - HA HA! Ya missed!
took a few runs over there and took a few more photos, then headed back to the car since I had an important meeting. if only life could be free of all obligations. ah, well. live to dream.
Blast from the past Mood: bright Topic: shred report
new snow: 3" conditions: powder & packed powder
snow was the consistency of salt today. easy to carve through and light, but slightly unnatural feeling. we'll take it any way we can get it.
my friend from high school came to visit me. he managed to navigate the mountain fairly well considering he hasn't been on his skis in about 8 years. which explains his neon yellow and purple unisuit. note that I said explains, not excuses. not that i'm one to talk since i sported a beanie with holes cut out of it and my pigtails sticking through it until i finally decided that safety was more important than style (or lack thereof) and started wearing a helmet.
we spent the morning on casper, then headed over to thunder to see more of the mountain. it was getting pretty thrashed by then, especially since my friend is not as enthusiastic about dropping into the woods as I am. We finally decided to call it quits and headed down Sublette Ridge so my friend could experience a Jackson Hole black diamond. Conditions were fabulous. Apparently everyone was staying on the upper mountain (as usual) because the snow was fresh and soft. all in all, a great way to end the day.
16" at the summit but 1/2" at the base. Hmmm, can we say WINDBLOWN?
got off the gondola and hiked straight up the stairway. since i'd never done casper bowl before, and since i heard the crags were sketchy if you don't know where you're going, i decided to use the first entrance to the bowl because someone on the lift told me it was a bit more obvious where to go after you passed through the gate. don't know why i was tripping - it was EXTREMELY obvious. It was also extremely FRESH. One other track down the chute, and the powder was amazing. Yes, it was wind blown, but it was also soft and deep. floated all the way down to the traverse.
SMACK. Solid corduroy. Not exactly a smooth transition, but on a bluebird day it was not at all a surprise. For the first time this year, I could actually see where I was going. Joy. crossed over into sleeping indian woods, once again an abrupt transition, but this time into soft powder. Not quite as deep at the lower elevations, but fun to spray nonetheless. took casper lift and went into moran woods. the upper part was sweet, but once I decided to head over to AV I was greeted by a lovely orange fence due to yet another race event on moran. followed the fence all the way down to south pass traverse, which was the first opportunity to get out of that gully. sheesh. swung by the pipe. CLOSED. went down to the lift. CLOSED. AV down because of high winds, but sublette was still running. Hmmmm.....
waited in a long gondola line - apparently they're not counting to 8 anymore because for the second time in one day I was in a not quite full gondi car. they're too nice. you can meet your friends at the top. but whatever. at least it was comfy once I finally got in the car...
tried to stay off the groomer as much as possible on my way over to thunder. took the usual route. then took the usual route through the trees to sublette, dropping down the face as soon as the closed signs were out of sight. much higher on the face than last week. awesome fresh. got off the lift and hit tensleep bowl - totally windblown, totally awesome. whipped across the traverse, unstrapped, and was hiking yet again.
after hiking the stairway, pepi's bench was cake. got to the top and climbed up onto the rock at the very summit. dropped down into sick turns, only a few other lines, but halfway down my boss called. i am such a gaper. stopped to take the call. NOBODY came down anywhere near me the entire time. guess they all went over to the crags.
finished headwall and went straight down the gondola line. powder all the way. the groomed slopes were total crap, but anything between the trees caught all the snow and was just fabulous. hit the kiddie park on the way down.
still had time to get home, work out, and shower before I had to be in the office. life is sweet.
Making friends Mood: chatty Topic: shred report
new snow: 14" conditions: powder
Never Summer is here! I knew they were coming (see blog posting 11/12/04) but it's still exciting. Of course, i've already demo'd the board i want, but that's irrelevant. they're cool.
wandered over to the gondola. riding up i met 4 guys on a trip with their ski club from minnesota. they asked me where was a good place to go. hehehe. little did they know what they were getting themselves into. I told them I'd show them around. little did i know what I was getting myself into...
headed over to casper because we heard sublette was down which meant thunder would be a nightmare. Casper Woods - absolutely phenomenal. waist deep. couldn't even traverse in far enough to hit air bowl. came down onto liftline and zoomed to the chairlift. took some runs through moran woods and found my favorite powder field, deep and mostly untouched. jumped off all sorts of rocks and kickers. it's amazing what a little encouragement from your friends does for your desire to huck yourself....
decided to check out thunder, just to see something different. dropped off ampitheater traverse into some sweet fresh powder. unfortunately, we hadn't traversed quite far enough and wound up on the wrong side of dick's ditch to make it to the chair. since none of us really wanted to go down to the base, we decided to try and make it across the gully. yeah, not. Lost all semblance of speed (but hit some nice pow) and wound up hiking the last little bit. didn't take very long, and was acutally kinda fun. waited for about 20 minutes at the bottom of thunder... maybe longer, time flies when you're with other people... anyway, didn't want to do that again and noticed that sublette was open so we cut through the woods and went over there.
Sometimes, it just amazes you what modern technology can do. Wind was insane, but the lift was still running. yay. until we got to the top and had to RIDE in that wind. yikes. decided NOT to take that lift again. Since we were going all the way down to the bottom, I suggested we hit the hobacks. We traversed way in, almost to the boundary. If I hadn't seen the signs, I would have thought we had inadvertantly passed it, because there were no tracks and no people. just fabulous snow. deep and steep, just like jackson is know for. We took our time getting down, laying out some fabulous turns and hitting a few jumps and enjoying the scenery. and of course, spraying each other with snow. you know how it is when you ride with a posse. made it to the bottom and had lunch at nick's. i don't know what went on after that because I bailed. but if i see any minnesota stickers (november snowboards, or maybe their ski club logo) in odd places around town, i'll know who to blame. and i'll know who won the scavenger hunt.
Epic Day Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
new snow: 14" conditions: powder
As usual, took the 50th gondola car up and noticed that casper was still deserted. the woods on casper traverse were so deep I couldn't even get all the way over to air bowl. the snow was so good i went straight down Liftline carving graceful turns through the foot of new snow on top of the totally flat groomed run. rode straight through the liftline without unstrapping because there was nobody there. took runs all morning over there and the snow was absolute heaven. Coming down sleeping indian i keep having to lean all the way on my tail to keep the board afloat, there was so much snow.
riding through the liftline does have its hazards. there was this skier who I thought was going to stay on the right side because that's which side he was already on, but he cut over in front of me as I was coming around. I shouted something to the effect of "hey, whoa, coming around ya...." and when he turned I realized it was a friend of mine. that's jackson for ya. i apologized and it's all good. didn't actually hit him anyway. later on that night, i almost ran him over again, this time with my car, in the parking lot outside chinatown. small world.
Around lunch time I decided to head over to thunder and sublette. sublette was down due to wind. yikes. at least i assume that's why.... anyway, did laps on thunder but the line was really long and the surface was pretty shredded. I did find some good powder in the trees. Eventually my legs were toast (though I lasted much longer than I thought I would thanks to the knee brace my roommate lent me. stoke!)
Took my final run down the woods to the left of Laramie Bowl, which were awesome, and went straight off sublette ridge when I got to the bottom. tried to stay on the ridge line as long as possible, then decided to drop down when I thought I recognized the gully. Yeah, apparently I forgot how far over I was and neglected to notice that the Tram towers weren't directly above my head, because I dropped into a gully that was closed halfway down. Luckily I saw the signs just in time to cut across and traverse through the woods. Dark and eerie, and the wind was blowing snow out of the trees so there was this hazy atmosphere. it was weird, but really cool. bright enough to see, but I felt like I was night skiing or something. wild. Anyway, it was pretty rocky and exposed, so I kind of sat down and edged gently across it, but I managed to make it out of there without having to unstrap or hike, and without killing my calves either. Got back up on the ridge and stayed there until I could see the trail leading to union pass lift. Unfortunately, as I tried to maintain speed, I did not see the sketchy mogul in time to avoid catching unwanted air and totally eating it. Ah, well. Fortunately there was still enough downhill left that I didn't have to hop or unstrap. Not that I would have - it was so deep down there. knee to waist deep that entire face. fabulous. ahhhhhh.
First bluebird day of the new year Mood: happy Topic: shred report
new snow: 3" conditions: packed powder & powder
late start this morning - i was supposed to meet a friend but we've been playing phone tag all week so i thought we missed each other, but we finally made contact and met at the bottom of the gondola. quarter of noon. so the groomers were looking a bit torn up, but do-able. lots of moguls and packed snow, not to mention the human slalom at the top of ampitheater. took thunder to sublette and dropped bivouac cornice into soft freshness. the trees were so nice we decided to hit them again, then we checked out alta 2, which had seen a bit more action, but was still pretty nice. went over to casper and hit sleeping indian woods. apparently no one else knows that run is there because it was virtually untracked. always is. took another casper run through moron woods, parts were moguly but other parts were soft. went over the the halfpipe, where some exclusive competition was taking place. waaaah.
i suppose i'll survive. time to go get ready for work anyway. sour grapes.
Glutton for punishment Mood: energetic Topic: shred report
new snow: 4" conditions: powder
didn't ride yesterday - too exhausted. lifted weights instead. woke up this morning feeling like i'd been run over by a truck. the light cowboy powder that whooshed off my windshield at the mere thought of windshield wipers was enough to make me forget all about that.
well, ok, that and my coworker reminding me that the whole point of being in jackson is to get on the mountain when the snow is good. carpe diem.
finished the report - the instruments were still only reading 4" despite the fact that there were at least 3" on my car this morning. I bet if I were to stand underneath that machine it would tell me I'm about 3'9" tall. that was definitely the deepest 4" i've ever seen. maybe it's because it's 4" on top of 3" on top of 13" on top of 8" on top of 9". or maybe it's just the wind.
had to be at work by noon, so I figured I could either do laps on sublette or hike headwall once. rode down to thunder from the gondola and was falling all over myself. literally. couldn't seem to make the board go straight. no, wait, the board went straight, but my body went straight in the other direction. that's more accurate. rode over to sublette and was still riding like crap. decided I must be really tired. guess i better go hike for a while. that'll wake me up.
ludicrous as that logic may sound, it actually worked! headwall was SO worth it. by then it was starting to get tracked, but still plenty of freshies and face shots all the way down. deep enough not to hit the moguls underneath. Followed that up with a run down lower faces just below Thunder and was burning by the bottom. Of course, by then it was time to head back to town anyway so my exhaustion was timed perfectly. what does not kill you makes you stronger.
What a way to bring in the new year Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
new snow: 13" conditions: powder
seems like i can't even ride the shuttle bus from the parking lot without running into people i know. particularly convenient when that person is a fellow female snowboarder willing to hike headwall with me first thing in the morning. Of course, it takes a couple of runs to get over there...
started down the traverse and decided to drop off through the powder between the zig zags. light and soft and perfect. took the steep trail down off the traverse and it was fan--tastic. from thunder, took laramie bowl, usually a mogul field, but today a fabulous powder area. that took us to sublette, traversed through tensleep and above cirque, and we were on our way up.
gee, this was much easier on thursday. amazing the difference 21" of snow can make...
headwall was completely pristine. there were 2 other tracks down the face we selected, so I just laid out floaty turns the whole way down. this is what snowboarding is all about. I could have sworn there was a groomed slope beneath the 3 feet of powder because the entire run was nothing but smooth. gorgeous.
4 years at this resort, and i never knew there was a bathroom at the bottom of thunder lift. ya learn somethin' every day.
went back to sublette. cheyenne bowl / bernie's bowl was superb. i didn't even know it was open. pepi's ridge to bird in hand, found some powder in a nice untouched tree line. most of it was just slightly covered rocks, so a little sketchy, but navigable nonetheless.
decided it was time to head home, but not without hitting the hobacks first. at that point, a bit tracked. Of course, there's still plenty of powder if you just leave the beaten path (and it was rather beaten). by the end of the run, my legs were burning and i was completely exhilerated. great start to a great new year.
good thing i know village road so well i could drive it with my eyes closed because that's just about what it felt like. the spinning snow practically gave me vertigo, and the snow covered roads were smushy (but luckily, not icy.) maniacs tailgated me the whole way - chill out people, you don't need to cause an accident just to wait around in the tram line for 10 extra minutes. (keep in mind this is 5:30 AM.) when they finally got around to passing me, the powder spray behind them completely obscured any semblance of visibility.
so you know it's going to be a good day.
huge crowd at the gondola by the time I got off work and into the line. I don't know if the rich, irate guests threw a fit last year about not getting to ride the lifts with their companions, or maybe the gondi just has some new staff who haven't learned how to count to 8 yet, either way, this is the 2nd day in a row I left a huge line to get into a gondi car with only 6 people in it. no wonder the line is moving so slowly this year. of course, once in the thing, the space is nice.... anyway, as usual the entire mob headed to thunder so I went the other way. took casper traverse to air bowl and only saw one other track. crossed over through the woods, blazing a trail between the trees, and landed on sleeping indian. again, 2nd tracks. someone's been reading my blog.
took 4 runs on casper before I had to wait in line. hit all the trees, including the ones I don't usually hit, and went all the way down the gondi line to the bottom. this time up the gondola, had only FOUR people in the car. what are they thinking? went over to thunder and took some face shots down upper tram line. it got to the point where I didn't want to turn because i know there are a bunch of really big (and still closed) cliffs and the powder spray (like the spray from the cars) completely blinded me. oh, gee, i think i can tolerate this insane amount of snow...hehehe...
got into a spat with thunder chairlift. my binding lost the fight. crap. ah, well. I didn't really need a highback today anyway.
went over to sublette and hit bivouac woods, which at that point was getting tracked. still pretty fresh, because there are trees, but not nearly what i had expected. by this point my legs were burning and i kept having to rest. zoomed past the lift, took the shortcut down the traverse, and zoomed past thunder into GV woods. soft. ow. must rest. finally made it to the bottom. headed into the shop for a quick duct tape repair of my binding until the new part comes in sometime next week. If it can't be fixed with duct tape, it can't be fixed. works for me.
It's about time! Mood: cheeky Topic: shred report
new snow: 9" conditions: powder
thursday. the only day of the week i can sleep in. i must have a sixth sense because the silent sound of snow settling on the surface was all it took to get me out of bed. grabbed some grub and i was out the door. going 20 miles an hour all the way to skyline village. typical, on a snowy morning, and not entirely unexpected. made it out to the village and parked at the very end of the ranch lot - again, not a surprise.
bypassed the tram and went straight for the gondola. that line moves pretty fast though, so I was at the top in no time. went straight for my favorite gully which is certainly not a secret. lots of tracks, but still lots of pow so it's all good. played on the sides near the bottom of mushroom chutes, and that was fantastic. wish i could say the same about the lift line at thunder, but alas. apparently the concept of alternating lines is just too complicated for the feeble minds of some. all i can say is, chill out people. there's plenty of powder up there, and waiting one more chair isn't going to change that (or the fact that there are still 200 people already in front of you.) sheesh.
powder on thunder was pretty good, but i had a feeling it would be better up higher. besides, a little birdie on the gondola had mentioned that headwall might be opening in a couple of hours, and I wanted to be on Sublette when that happenned. besides, i couldn't handle another wait at the bottom of thunder. Bivouac woods was fabulous, as was pepi's ridge / alta woods. decided to traverse into tensleep bowl to see what was up. only half of it was open, but it was powdery and soft. managed the traverse with minimal hopping but no unstrapping. since headwall was open and cirque was looking a bit rocky.... well, i would have hiked anyway.
worth it. SO worth it. headwall was pure bliss, made even more exciting by the sheer exhileration that hiking always brings. for the first time ever, i managed to hike up without having to stop and let people pass by me. that's a good feeling. anyway, despite the few rocks at the top, which were obvious enough to avoid, total face shots in knee deep powder the entire way down. Lo and behold, it dropped me in my favorite gully near the top of the gondola, so I decided to stay on the gondi line for the remainder of the run. as always, the further down you get, the less tracks there are because everyone drops down, seduced by the steep powdery slope. eventually, I too laid down some nice turns through the fresh snow, but the last part of the fall line (just above sundance trail) got a little sketchy. As in, slightly covered rock which exposed itself as I rode over it, causing me to fall and hit my quadricep on the other part of it. evil rock. luckily there was enough snow (and enough flesh on my thigh) to result only in a bruise, but it's going to be a big one and it's pretty sore. ah well, it was my last run anyway, since i had to be at work. didn't really affect my riding for the last little traverse back to the tram, so i'm sure i'll be fine, just a little purple.
went home and stuck to my strict regimen of lifting weights. still was showered and ready for work with time to spare. I feel so efficient today. can't wait to do it all tomorrow.... wait, I don't have to work tomorrow.... woo hoo! happy new year. as i told the guys who shared the lift with me, I don't want to see the sun till 2005. keep snowing. keep snowing.
Brrrrrrr Mood: cool Topic: shred report
Temperature: 0 New Snow: 1 inch conditions: powder & packed powder
ever grateful for the gondola, rode up without the biting cold wind for my first run. hit my favorite gulley, which had a couple of inches of powder over a hard packed mogul layer. still pretty good riding, but you get going really fast without trying. zoomed over to thunder - there were snow guns on ampitheather and the snow under them was great. buttery carveable corduroy. same for the rest of ampitheather, only without the visibility limitations. the woods between grand and laramie bowl looked pretty fresh. as with the gully, nice powder over a hard layer that quickly gave you speed. by this time my toes were numb and I was thinking about all the errands I needed to finish when I got back to town (never a good thing to be concentrating on when you're riding.) Decided to check out the halfpipe, which was recut yesterday, so I traversed all the way across the mountain. BIG mistake. still sore from my weightlifting adventure a couple days ago, my calves were completely burning by the time I made it to Apres Vous territory. As expected, the pipe was in good condition, but the sidewalls were a little scratchy and my edges just weren't sharp enough to hack it. bailed.
Hiking the pipe Mood: energetic Topic: shred report
New snow: 0 conditions: packed powder
Started off with a couple of corduroy cruisers with a new friend (who happens to be the roommate of an old friend.) Upper mountain was nice and toasty, stayed on the groomers on Thunder & Casper, then he went to work and I went to the halfpipe.
Electrical problems had temporarily downed the rope tow, but it takes a lot more than that to get ME down. Decided to hike, and it was the best decision I made all day. After 3 runs, I shed the jacket and made the entire operation more comfortable. They got the lift working, but I didn't care, I just kept on hiking. I've discovered that I ride so much better when I hike. I actually made it out a couple of times today, and I did a little alley-oop at the bottom (although I ate it hard when I caught my heelside edge, but i landed it the other times.)
As if that wasn't enough exercise, i went home and worked out. GRRRRRRR.
Halfpipe days are here again! Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
New snow: 0 Conditions: packed powder
It's open!!!!! The halfpipe is open. Earliest halfpipe in the history of Jackson Hole. Nothing like a new record to start your day off right.
Actually, I took a couple of cruisers to start my day off right - the upper mountain was sunny and the grooming was immaculate, as usual. After a few runs I was feeling dehydrated so I zipped over to Casper for some much needed water. Enough screwing around already. Time for halfpipe!
Perfectly groomed packed powder, completely smooth transitions, and if that's not enough for you, there's a rope tow to get you back to the top. I love what they've done to the entrance - it totally improved the traffic flow (although I have it on good authority they really did it to make it easier for the snowcat to turn around.) There are 2 shelf platforms, then the usual sloping drop in, so you can get enough speed and drop in like a wuss or drop in from the highest point. I'm about 2/3 of the way up the wall right now, which is better than last year, but not quite aggressive enough. I'll get there. I made it to the top of the wall a couple of times, and maybe made it out once. I definitely notice a huge improvement due to the fact that I've been skating all summer.
Aerial Tram & Sublette open Mood: chillin' Topic: shred report
New snow: 0 conditions: Powder/packed powder
Tram line was insane this morning. I guess that's why there was no one on the gondola. no messing around for me, blasted ampitheater to Thunder, flew down Grand to Sublette. Took the first run down bird in hand - the top was floaty and perfect, but the face was crust. yikes. Decided to try the other side of cheyenne bowl and hit bivouac woods. superior. Total powder, all sizes of rock drops, spent the entire morning carving turns around the trees.
The halfpipe is opening tomorrow and I decided to check it out. Met the entire crew (you guys ROCK!) and got a good look at the pipe. Perfectly shaped and just as big as ever - this is going to be the earliest opening in the history of Jackson Hole. The setup has changed a bit, with the entrance a bit more graded so you can just dive right in instead of hiking or traversing up the shelf and dropping a quarterpipe to get to it. Plus the area where you offload from the rope tow gets you right in the pipe instead of having to unstrap and climb like last year. (Did I mention pipe and park crew ROCKS!) Helped JP measure the tube - FYI it's 375 feet long and 17 feet high and 50 feet across. approximately. I was actually holding the end of the measuring tape that said zero, so I'm going on hearsay and memory. Can't wait to hit it tomorrow. 11 hours and counting.
Thunder opened yesterday - my roommate and I decided to check it out today. After a lazy start, got to the mountain at noon-ish. Headed straight to thunder. yummy. took the little gully from the gondola and it was still fresh, then hit all the little rock jumps at the bottom of paintbrush. Since it was mostly untracked, it was still soft - not enough warmth to melt it so it froze into crust. Took a few runs through the woods off grand and cut under sublette chair to the roller coaster liftline. Had a blast, left early to go to work. c'est la vie.
who needs to see anyway Mood: lazy Topic: shred report
New Snow: 2" Surface: spring conditions / wet snow
driving to the village it was raining. kept an eye on the thermometer - it hit 34 as i pulled into the parking lot. at least it's snow up on the mountain.
visibility was nonexistent. although 2" fell overnight, it was still rain at the top of AV. Of course, that means there was NO ONE at the mountain and NO WAIT at any of the lifts, and, oh yeah, CASPER opened today! Hmmmm..... sometimes even the rain works in your favor. even if it is coating my goggles with a layer of water so I have to keep smearing them with my specially designed goggle-wiping mitten. gotta love kids gear. (yes, i have little hands... and little feet.... and i'm 5'2".... any other questions? don't go there.)
Thought about taking a run down AV but couldn't resist the lure of Casper. to my surprise (and joy) not only was the lift open, but ALL the trails were open, including moran woods, the gondi line, and gros ventre. blasted a few runs down sleeping indian woods. the snow was wet and fresh, which is second only to powder for a landing pad. hit lots of small jumps and tore through the less bumpy areas like a maniac. took another run straight down the lift line through the steep powder field above the race course that normally drops you right into a fence when NASTAR is in full swing. Luckily, the course isn't open yet, so there aren't any fences and you can rip through the woods and still get back onto the trail instead of getting stuck in the flatter part of the woods.
Decided to venture into casper restaurant to use the facilities, and discovered that since the staff was there training anyway, they had decided to serve the food they were preparing instead of throwing it away. yum. my favorite on-slope restaurant. a lot of the staff from last year returned, and those guys are a blast.
timing is everything. on my way out the door, a kindly gentleman made a comment to me about how it was a 'good thing we're here.' I inquired further, and he told me that AV was down due to mechanical failure (again.) didn't feel like doing laps on teewee again, so i made sure i didn't miss the last traverse back to casper.
spent the rest of my day doing laps in moran woods. there's an 8 foot cliff drop that i don't remember (because it's probably filled in after a couple of storms....) which I inadvertantly plummetted. I noticed what it was just in time to jump out off the lip instead of carving down its face, but it was already too late to adjust the position of my body. (perpendicular to the jump due to my trying to stop and see what I was standing on top of.) Had I intended to go over it, I probably could have navigated my way through the landing, which was totally soft, but also totally wet mush. since I didn't land gracefully it sucked me under. I made a lot of noise so no one else would decide to hit the drop while I was extracting myself from the quagmire. only one rider came down (again the rain working in my favor) and she wasn't really interested in dropping an 8 foot cliff - besides she saw me yelling and waving and figured out what was going on. I really love it when people remember to take their brains with them in the morning. Thanks chica, whoever you are.
eventually, my body was telling me it was time to go home. I decided to make my last run a good one. besides, i've had enough of lower moran & lower werner for a while. I traversed over to the intersection of ampitheater and croaky point, and dropped into the trees. there were only a couple of other tracks, so it was pretty much an open field for most of the descent. that dropped me onto upper sundance, which i crossed over to hit gondi woods. the fall line sends you right back out onto sundance, but i unstrapped and hoofed it up the traverse to drop back into the woods. i followed the liftline down. it was so thick that I had to stay close to the other tracks so as to not lose momentum, and before long it dumped me down a steep face of fresh snow back onto sundance trail. by then my legs were jello anyway, and i was too tired to bemoan my exodus from the ungroomed terrain. carved my way through soft corduroy (mostly untracked) and crossed over the teton club bridge to come to a stop in front of the v.c. what a fabulous day. sleep will be good tonight.
powder to the people Mood: chillin'
got the ski report this morning via text message on my cell phone. 17". 'nuff said. i was outa there so fast i forgot to take my phone with me. i never do that. except for today. so i guesss i do that sometimes.
mechanical failure on AV started the morning off right. I took several lovely runs on teewinot, and was about to bail when I noticed that AV was finally loading people (10 AM-ish.) after an unusually long wait in line (though not unexpected) was finally en route to the top.
first run down av more than made up for the wait. so much so that i didn't even mind waiting in line again. i cut into the trees and found a lovely steep untracked area, which i proceeded to tear through. 3 runs in a row.
as i reached the top of the lift a few runs later, i noticed that ski patrol was replacing the 'closed area' signs with 'caution' signs. teewinot face was officially open and i was one of the first 20 or so people officially on it. that of course, doesn't take into account all the poachers who cut through it earlier (some of whom got chased and threatened by ski patrol. i actually know more than one person who has had their pass pulled for such behavior.) the snow was heavy, wet sludge, but it was incredibly fun, and the coverage was good except for a few twigs here and there. I went over this one rather large mogul / kicker / roller near the top of a.v. and some people on the lift started whooping at me. probably people i know. in fact, now that i remember, I think i did see some guys i know about 10 chairs behind me when i was getting on the lift.... anyway, it was still pretty kewl. I feel like I'm going bigger than last year, at least. and isn't that what it's all about? progression.
mmmmm... powwwder Mood: chillin' Topic: shred report
major snowstorm hit jackson yesterday - we already had a foot this morning and another 12 inches fell during the day. so it probably won't surprise anyone that i went to snow king after work.
took 2 runs down cougar, hitting the untracked powder on the sides of the trails, but the coverage was sketchy at best (even theough the powder was soft and light.) then i headed over to elk (or whatever that other trail is that's open) because the ski racers were done with it. Of course, they only use one little part of it, and the rest was mostly untouched (due to the racers clogging up the trail all day) so the left side was phenomenal. go figure - when it's snowing and blowing all day, the gulley is where the powder is... who woulda thought? took the rest of my runs throught that fluffiness, until finally the sun was setting, the temperature was dropping, and my not-so-waterproof snowpants were starting to soak through. headed home thoroughly satisfied. boo-ya!
on fire
irritated
caffeinated
bright
energetic
chatty
celebratory
happy
cheeky
cool
chillin'
lazy