I smell snow Mood: on fire Topic: snowboarding
80 degrees and I'm walking down the street, not a cloud in the sky. I can feel it coming. winter. I can smell it in the air. anticipation. Then again, maybe sleep deprivation is causing hallucinations. Working double shifts all summer sure takes it out of you.
Got a lovely surprise in the mail today - PPLT prices for lift tickets this winter. That's the beauty of working in a hotel - they offer special package rates to your guests. Lift ticket prices went up - no big surprise there. Should be an interesting winter since they announced the closing of the tram. Not like I ever took it anyway, but it kept everyone else off the other lifts. As for me, I'm all about the hiking this year anyway. I think a lot of the locals are saying "great. more powder for the hardcore. less tourons stealing our freshies." or maybe those are just the voices in my head.
Either way, winter is on its way. not long now. here's hoping mother nature gifts me with snow before my birthday again this year.
The mountain was visible through a hazy curtain of snow this morning, with the full moon peering out through the clouds above like something out of a fairy tale. Yesterday's conditions were also legendary, with deep powder all over the mountain. When I got off the Gondola for my first run, I noticed that Headwall was open. I also noticed that there were no footprints on the bootpack leading up toward Casper Bowl. After and exhausting trailblazing effort, I found myself at the first entrance into the bowl, half buried in snow. Just the way I like it. Despite my early morning duties, I very rarely get first freshies, but floating through that untouched powder made me anxious to experience more. So a few lifts later I found myself hiking Pepi's Bench for a run down Headwall, which was also phenomenal. Of course, a few people had beaten me to the snow, but there were still plenty of lines available that hadn't already been poached. All in all, a fabulous day.
Gotta love spring break Mood: mischievious Topic: shred report
new snow: 10" conditions: powder
The weather channel didn't predict this. chance of snow showers, yes. ten inches of snow, no. (on top of nine inches that fell yesterday - sweet!) Of course, that's at the top. Mid got 5 and base got 1. So don't go all the way down. remember that.
Oh, did I forget to mention the 60 mph wind at the summit? sorry about that. 9:30 am the gondola had not yet opened. we hear the announcement: tram, down. sublette, down. thunder, down. Hmmm. guess I'm going to casper. thought about teewinot to a.v. instead of waiting for the gondola, but remembered where the accumulation fell and waited it out. didn't wait long.
Took the gondola to casper, because there really wasn't any other choice. Casper woods were fantastic. Not quite as fresh as they usually are, but certainly nothing to whine about. Had to stay light on my feet, though, because 3 weeks of no snow with 19 inches of powder is still sketchy if you don't watch what you're doing. Especially as you descend to lower elevations. Took a few crowded runs on casper, and heard the announcement that thunder was opening up. Thought about heading over there, but a light bulb appeared over my head. Hmmmm. what if i take another run here? wonder what the lift line will look like? hehehe. Lift line? what lift line? there were 3 people milling around at the bottom of the lift when I finished that run. righteous.
Eventually, I decided that enough time had passed to safely traverse over to thunder and not have too much of a crowd to contend with. Got into the singles line, and a strange thing happenned. I had already joined a party of 3 and was most of the way from the alternating ski lines gate to the lift, when one of the lifties shouted to the guy on the end of our group, and he was all "oh yeah, there's only 3 of us.... come with us..." even though I was obviously already lined up to go on the chair with them. derrrrr. anyway, the lift line traffic guide timidly asked me if I was solo, which should have been obvious due to the SINGLES LINE I had just emerged from. So the next group out of the gate only had 2 people. I moved back to join them, and the guy behind me in the singles line made it 4. OK. got that taken care of. didn't even have to jump out of the way of the chairlift.... hehehe.
Funny how fate steps in and takes care of things for you. I started talking with my new friend, who also thought the scene at the bottom was a bit ridiculous, and we wound up taking a run together. This kid RIPS! Say what you want about east coast college students on spring break, but he was way cool. We traversed over as far as possible under the bottom of expert chutes. The snow was phenomenal. As we traversed, I noticed the snow chunking out under us (not that I was all that keen on heading out of bounds anyway, but that pretty much quashed any hopes of headwall opening up.) Once we started down, though, it was smooth sailing. Totally fresh, totally floating. beautiful. Took another run with my east coast friend. His name was Fitz. Appropriate person to celebrate St. Patty's Day with, don't ya think? While riding up the lift and discussing which run to hit, we noticed that Sublette was moving. And there were people on it. Hmmmmm. 3 guesses where we went.
Cut through the trees down the southern facing slope. Since the wind had come (at 60 MPH) from the North all night, the snow was soft and light and deep. wheeee. cut under sublette to the moguly jumps. Got to the bottom and low and behold, ran into Fitz's Dad. Coolness. Took a run with him (even though he was on skis) through Bivouac woods. more great snow (although a little sketchier than I prefer, probably should have cut in a little farther down.) Took another run with both of them, cutting into Tensleep this time. Papa Fitz was heading to the bottom to meet a friend, so we tucked and made it across the evil flat at the bottom of Tensleep bowl. Traversing into the Cirque, we didn't go far. The snow beneath us was virtually untouched. We couldn't resist. And it's a good thing we didn't. That was probably the best run I took all day. deep, steep, and fresh. what more can you ask? How about a cool cat to ride with.... oh, yeah, had that too!
Took a few more runs on thunder and decided to call it a day. Thought about hitting the lower faces, but Fitz had seen them on the way up and they looked sketchy. As I traversed around past Dick's Ditch, I saw what he meant. yikes. continued over to gros ventre and passed the mid-mountain mark. night and day. the lower faces redefined crap. Definitely not what I would call spring snow (which was what I expected with 40 degree weather at the base.) Oh, no. This was loose granular at best. aka crap. unbelievable crap. Not that I care after such a phenomenal day, it was just a shock.
Chilled out in the VC with my new found friend. He decided to head back out until the lifts closed for the day. Of course, when I met up with him, that was his second run of the day, so I was just a wee bit more tired (not to mention the effects of my cumulative lack of sleep.) If you're reading this Fitz, I'm glad I met you and I hope our paths cross again someday. If not, have a nice life, and may you be blessed with many powder turns and face shots. L8r.
Has it really been that long? Mood: irritated Topic: shred report
new snow: 0" surface: spring conditions
Amazing how NOT bad it was today. But as usual I'm getting ahead of myself. Got a rather lazy start this morning. I was supposed to meet a friend at 9 and was worried that I might miss him because I was not my usual prompt self. That's not entirely accurate. I was early, I just wasn't ready. Went into Hole in the Wall because I know they have a bench in there and I needed someplace to sit down and braid my hair. I am such a girly girl sometimes. But seriously, if I don't, it flies into my face and I can't see where I'm going. So it was necessary. really. By the time I finished that, I realized it was already 9. Went outside to look for my friend (I'll call him Dan, because, well, that's his name.) 9:15, still no sign. called his cell and he told me he was in the parking lot. asked if i wanted to get a coffee before we hit the slopes. and here I was all stressed about delaying his first run. guess I'm just a natural born drama queen. The fact that I've written an entire paragraph about this incident certainly supports the case.
Took our first gondola at about 10am. we figured the slopes would have softened up by then, and we were dead right. Perfect spring corn snow. Soft and carvable and springy enough to land anything. I immediately searched for something to huck myself off of. Not much on Liftline, but I knew I'd find something. took a few runs on casper, then headed to a.v. Moran was roped off most of the way down due to a competition. the halfpipe was also closed. wwwaaaahhh. perfect halfpipe conditions, too. Ah well. another day. worked our way over to thunder and then sublette. sunshine and spring snow, and 40 degree weather. yummy. got so carried away I didn't even notice what time it was until about 1:15. And of course, I still had to work out, shower, and be at work by 3, so I totally had to bail. Flew to the bottom at mach speed.... well, OK, for me that's really more like semi-fast. Got everything done and made it to work on time, so it's all good. Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something? Did I leave something at the moun... DAN! Oh crap! wait.... he drove his own car. whew. it's all good.
Almost powder Mood: chillin' Topic: shred report
new snow: 10" conditions: powder, packed powder
10 inches is 10 inches. except of course, when 5 of it fell yesterday while the lifts were open. So there was powder, but if you hit anyone else's tracks it was pretty scratchy. Still, there was plenty of softness, and I seem to be able to find the fresh when I want to.
Started off slow with a triple macchiato and a bit of shopping. Finally went up the gondola around 9:30 and bombed into the woods. First tracks through air bowl. And only tracks when i went up the lift again and scoped it out. That's pretty cool. Went into moran woods and sleeping indian woods to find no tracks. went over to saratoga bowl and found myself at the ski area boundary. whoops. don't usually go that far. long, grueling traverse back out, but it was way worth it because the powder was faboulous. Unless you crossed someone's tracks.... which there weren't vary many of so that was cool.
traversed all the way over to sublette, but didn't take the chair. went straight down sublette ridge, which was some of the best powder i found all day. Of course, about halfway down it got pretty heavy due to the warm temperatures, but there was still plenty of untracked snow to destroy.
Eleven inches and counting Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
new snow: 11" conditions: powder
I have the coolest boss in the world. See, on Mondays, I work 8 hours. Doesn't really matter which 8 hours as long as I finish what needs to be done. When I told her that we were going to get a huge snowstorm, she told me that by all means I should go snowboarding. I love my job.
www.trapperinn.com
shameless plug, I know. but they deserve it. Anyway, we had 9" at MID mountain when I got in at 6, and it was at 11" by the time I left at 8... well, really more like 8:30 or so because I had to get dressed and everything after I got off work. (my other job, www.jacksonhole.com/snowreport.asp just in case you don't know who I am. Incidentally, all reports posted HERE are my opinion and in no way reprsent the policies or opinions of jhmr.) Ok, now my a** is covered.
isn't this supposed to be about snowboarding? sheesh. way off topic. where was I? ah yes, the gondola line. and it's 9:15. And there are still a hundred people in front of me. Which is my fault because I'm the one who told them how much snow we got. And I don't care because I know where the powder will be. Didn't even strapped in, headed straight for the stairway and the first entrance to Casper Bowl. Phenomenal snow. 3rd track through the chute. I couldn't even turn because the face shots were obliterating my view. Fabulous run. Wanna see?
Cut over into sleeping indian woods and sailed to the bottom of casper lift. Spent the rest of the morning on casper and met some really cool people. Took a run with Dave from Vermont who works for Winterstick. That guy RIPS. We tore down through Moran Woods through the powder field no one ever hits because the drop in too early, seduced by the pristine snow on the way across the traverse. Wandered over to thunder and hit the south facing tree line on the way to sublette. oops. south is bad. rock garden. very sketchy. made it to sublette and had intended to check out the hobacks, but decided they might be a little too exposed and not quite covered enough. Went the other way into tensleep bowl instead. Great snow all the way down through the cirque and in the woods above thunder. Made my way back to the gondola line. At this point it was getting late, and while I didn't have to be at work early, the later I got there the later I would have to stay. Besides, I was already feeling the burn and my legs were just about toast. or maybe jello. jello on toast. yeah. mmmm. wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, gondi woods. wasn't really quite as smooth as I needed it to be based on my exhaustion level (fueled more by lack of sleep than physical fatigue). Found myself on the left side of Gros Ventre in semi-fresh powder right along the tree line. got to the big mogul field at the bottom and decided to cut over to the groomed part of the trail, but I had already missed it. Which was a very fortunate thing. I cut through the woods to get back over to gros ventre and found a steep, open, COMPLETELY FRESH tree line! It was SICK. I've hit the woods on the other side of gros ventre before, and they're usually fun and abandoned, but this was unreal. I can't believe I've never been through these woods! Anyway, took that down to the lower part of Gros Ventre and across the traverse to the base. Unstrapped and was off to work. Happy Valentine's Day to me. Snow gave me some good loving today.
Lazy start to my morning - I hung in the office until after 9am and moseyed my way onto the slopes. Of course, I did have to reassemble my board and alll - after the demo on thursday i figured, hey, why not get my board tuned? the bindings were already off, after all. So I dropped it off and forgot about it. Picked it up friday and left it in my car. So that's what I was doing instead of hustling my way out to the ranch lot.
excuses excuses. but it explains what I was doing at the base area just after 9am. the first tram had left, and there was NO ONE in line. Not one soul. So I decided this would be an opportunity for me to actually take the tram for the first time in 2 years. at least. I can't even remember the last time I took the tram. So there I was, first in line, waiting for the tram. waited maybe 10 minutes before they let us on the dock and the tram arrived. shuffled in with the herd. ah yes. this is why I never take the tram. it SUCKS.
After a sardine-crunched ride to the summit, I decided to go inside corbet's cabin to assemble myself. There certainly wasn't any room in the tram to even pull my goggles down from my helmet over my eyes.... anyway, 2 minutes later I was strapped in and ready to go.
Wind was unreal. vertigo set in and I was so blinded by the blowing snow I couldn't tell which way was down. Gravity had other plans, so despite my befuddlement I descended into rendezvous bowl. The snow was FABULOUS! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't see it either, but that really didn't matter because it was so soft. About two thirds of the way down I regained my ability to navigate and floated down to bivouac woods. Which were also great. Took sublette back up and decided to check out cheyenne bowl. BIG mistake. Central Chute was closed, which meant I had to hike back over to r-trail because I couldn't see the closed sign until it was too late to cut back. Ah well, not like it was FAR or anything, just annoying. Hit bv woods again, then crossed over into the bottom part of bird in hand. When there's that much wind blown snow on the northern slopes, it has to come from somewhere.... namely the southern facing slopes. Cut right back down onto the trail because bird in had was crap. Cruised over to thunder to check out paintbrush woods and the mushroom chutes. North facing. yummy. meandered over to casper and spent the rest of my time in moran woods. ran into the guy from wildernest sports who sold me my goggles. took a run with him to the bottom, then hit the gondi for my last run. Came down throgh the trees under the liftline and by the end my legs were toast. all in all a great day on the mountain.
So I guess they really did get 5 inches of snow the other day. I noticed some of it was still on headwall but I hiked about 3 feet up and discovered it was not nearly as soft as I had hoped due to the melt/freeze effect. decided to stick to the groomers. but I'm getting ahead of myself.
today was 'employee demo' day for my department, so I decided to take full advantage of my enslavement and check out the only remaining board on my hopefuls list, the salomon ivy 154. which lucky for me was IN at the rental shop. woo hoo!
intended to hit the halfpipe, but of course it was being groomed because it's thursday. derrrr. i knew that. which is why I didn't zoom down werner but instead paused at the top of south pass traverse to check my theory. didn't quite feel comfortable with the stance, felt a little off balance. either I wasn't on the sweet spot on the board or my stance was too narrow, or maybe the board was just too short for me. hmmmm. the never summer 154 didn't feel too short...
so after my nice cruise down from the gondola to the closed halfpipe, I continued cruising to the base. hopped on eagle's rest to hit the mini park. mini park is fun. wheeee. especially on a board with pop. not quite as much pop as that never summer board.... you can see where I'm going with this.
decided to take another cruiser from the gondola. went all the way down gros ventre, which i never do. that's actually a pretty cool trail. not very steep, but good on a day when you want to stick to groomers. the snow actually wasn't too bad. kinda like a decent day in vermont.... not the pow we're used to getting here, but certainly carvable and a good surface on which to test the functioning of a new board. not a cloud in the sky either, and for once I remembered to wear sunblock. so i was a happy camper. except for the halfpipe issue. which i'm over. no really, over it.
so yeah. I'm going with the never summer board. somehow i don't think anyone who has ever read my blog will be surprised to hear this. i know i'm not. I just needed to be sure. now i'm sure.
Misadventures at the king Mood: incredulous Topic: shred report
new snow: none conditions: loose and frozen granular
2pm decided to go hit the halfpipe for the afternoon. pulling out of the parking lot my soon-to-be-ex-roommate was pulling in, snowboard gear atop the car and in full regalia. and with his skier girlie in tow. Actually, she was driving, so it was more the other way around. Whatever. trivial extraneous information.
thought it might be fun to go with them to snow king instead of by myself to the village. they both rip, so it was a blast riding with them. Conditions were very scratchy from the summit, and only the groomed trails were really decent. Every once in a while we'd hit a nice patch of snow, but then we'd find ourselves on icy thin cover, so there was no safe bet except the corduroy.
Rode all over for the hour and a half the lifts were still open. It was just about 4 and the lift was still spinning so we hauled a$$ to the line and just made it. The liftie was already putting the seats up, and told us we lucked out and this would be last chair. He then proceded to put the chair up right behind me instead of bumping it. nice move. there is a possibility I could have contorted myself and put it down while in the air, or just hung on until i got to the top, but fortunately I didn't have to. He managed to stop the chair before I was too far off the ground so I jumped down, he flopped the seat back down, and then I jumped back up. nothing like adventure to end the day right. ;)
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.
on fire
lazy
mischievious
irritated
chillin'
celebratory
incredulous
caffeinated
bright
energetic
chatty
happy