Bluebird day of happiness
Mood:  happy
Topic: shred report
New snow: 7"
New snow since xmas: 90"

Today is Thursday. I don't do the report on Thursdays. Only this week, I did. My fellow snow reporter was unfortunately injured and won't be working anymore, so I was asked if I could cover her shift. Had to shuffle the rest of my schedule around, but I made it work. I'm good like that.

They set us up on a new computer, which is great because we have our own computer, but also meant that it took some time to organize everything and sort through all the emails and all the other fun stuff ya get to do when ya get a new computer. So I took my time getting out of the office, then I took my time getting breakfast, then I took a run over to teewinot to go to the MOB building and borrow Erica's backcountry gear.... she gave me a transceiver for xmas, but I haven't gotten around to buying a shovel or a probe or trekking poles yet. So she sent her stuff in with Matt and I went over to meet him, and caught him just before he left on a delivery. Great timing! For some reason, he didn't think I'd want probe POLES because they were probe POLES, not a PROBE. Ummm..... so nothing is better?? whatever. Not like I found anyone to leave the gates with anyway. Not that I NEEDED to leave the gates - the snow was fantastic!

Yes, all the snow fell while the lifts were still open. But sunshine and inverted temperatures made the day beautiful, and before long I realized that there were still tons of untouched lines to hit. I went over to Thunder by way of the trees, and ran into some tourists. No, I didn't run them over - I rode up the lift with them. Two were beginners on their first blue run of the day. One was the "teacher" and he decided to take a run with me and meet them at the bottom. We took Rawlins bowl, and it was SICK. There were places where the snow was up to my waist, and untracked. We found an awesome cornice and dropped it, then we carved down to the traverse. Instead of taking the switchback, we traversed into JAWS, right past the nasty warning sign with black diamonds all over it and a 'caution you are entering JAWS' statement. I'm sure my friend wondered where I was taking him, but he trusted me (I can't imagine why....) and we hit some nice powder surrounded by some nasty rocks. He decided to wait for his friends at the bottom, and I went ahead into the line.

As the 4 lines merged to 2, then one, I saw a familiar face joining in behind me - PETE from the colosseum! (see link for colosseum on sidebar.) My original plan was to head over to Sublette and hike headwall, and since Pete was going over to Sublette I decided to follow him. Not surprisingly, he RIPS. I was hauling ass, and I could barely see which way he went. Luckily he was with a posse, and I managed to stay somewhere in the middle of the group and Pete stopped to wait for the stragglers. He's nice like that. Anyway, I rode up sublette with them, and Pete said he was going over to the Hobacks to hit the woods just above cheyenne gulley. I decided to follow. I'm sure headwall was awesome, but I really don't care that I didn't get to find out because the run we took was INSANE! I tried not to drop too far off the ridge into the gulley because I didn't want to get stuck, but next time I'll probably be a bit more adventurous. Apparently everyone shares that fear because the deeper we dropped into the woods, the deeper the snow got. And the fewer tracks we saw. About halfway down, I had to rest, and I think that was the point where I lost Pete and company. I know he dropped farther down into the gulley, but I also know HE knew where he was going, and he's a bit taller than me so he wasn't as buried as I would have been. I wasn't surprised that they weren't at the bottom when I got there. I did meet some guys from Minnesota at the bottom, part of a large group, the rest of which was waiting at the top of union pass. I rode over to the gondola with them, but we didn't actually get to take a run because they were short one member of their posse and went over to the tram line to find him.

At the top of the gondola, I encountered my long lost friend Deb. I met her way back when she worked at Casper, which was my first winter - five years ago. I met her again the week before xmas at my neighbor's party because she happened to be associated with them in some way - that's jackson for ya - 2 degrees of separation. Anyway, she's in real estate now, but she also hosts a weekly show on channel 13. She had a huge tripod strapped to her back. I would have taken a run with her, but she and her cameraman stopped halfway through casper woods to shoot their footage in the deep powder. Once again, I was up to my waist. I meandered down towards air bowl, and this time wound up on the LEFT side of it. Wow. I never traverse that high! Dropped into it, but it was pretty skied off. Scratchy at the top, carveable sluff at the bottom. Made my way out of there and stopped at casp-gnar for a delicious lunch (blackened salmon AGAIN.) At this point, it was almost 1:30 and I had to be at work at 3. My original intent had been to take a shower, but I didn't know if I'd have enough time (turns out I didn't, but don't worry... I'm not a dirty girl tonight, I took a quick bath and cleaned my body without having to spend an hour styling my hair.) Anyway, I cut through the park, missed the first rail because I wasn't lined up right and I didn't have enough speed, avoided everything else, and cut down to the kiddie park. This time I hit the rainbow and the rail, then the jump, then cut over to take the other rail.... but it WASN'T THERE! Ah, yes, I remember now. They reshaped the park the other day. hmmm..... maybe in a day or 2 I'll try one of the rounder rails - they're looking much more approachable now, and I need a new challenge. But for now, I sped to the bottom and realized I was on the wrong side of the gondi... again. Cut over to kids ranch, walked around the building and down the driveway, and managed to get to the parking lot without having to go all the way down to nick's and back up. whew. what a day.

King of snow
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: shred report
New snow: 15" (JHMR)
New snow: 10-12" (Snow King)

Ah, the joy of Tuesdays. Especially when it snows. Yaargh. But I was prepared - I knew we were getting a huge storm, and I packed all my gear the night before, so at 3pm when my replacement came in to work (which just happened to be Erica) I was ready to bolt. Six blocks an five minutes later I was on summit chair, heading up the king. Expedition was pretty tracked up, but I wasn't worried. See, there's a trick to snow king. If you can ski it, there will be powder. But ya gotta be able to do it. Being able to navigate through tight trees is the key, because most people don't bother. Most people didn't learn to snowboard in Vermont, where sometimes the ONLY way to get powder is to go through a tight tree run. So I wasn't phased. I WAS waist deep in powder in some spots. Luckily, most of the upper mountain is very steep, so momentum wasn't an issue, until I dropped onto the traverses. Which you literally have to do at snow king because there are rocks just above each traverse. so you jump over the rocks, land flat, then glide over and drop off the other side of the traverse. Except today. Today, you dropped onto the traverse, landed in a pouf of snow, and stopped. I had to hop my way across the traverse - only 3 feet, but still challenging when the powder is that deep. But the snow was great, and then at the bottom where it was tracked, it was still super soft - the type of moguls you can carve through, not the type that have any type of packed surface. I took my second run down bearcat, which was a bit more tracked, but still soft, and there were fresh lines through the trees on the side of the run. I got back on summit chair, and noticed it was five minutes before 4pm. Which means that by the time I got to the top, summit chair would be closed. Ah well. One more run through the trees, then another run on cougar, and it was time for dinner. The snow was good but the sun was setting and the light flattened out under the halogen illumination.

Teton Thai, here I come!

Happy New Year!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: shred report
New Snow: 11"
past 7 days: 57"

Yes, that's right. 5 feet of new snow. Apparently that's enough to get Erica's attention because she called me to let me know she was dropping Joshy off at daycare. And meeting me at the gondola. NOW. Of course, my cell phone battery was dead so I told her to text me as soon as she had moved her car and gotten back from the ranch lot, which didn't take very long. I msg'd her back and wandered over. She was saving me a spot in line. What a sweetie. I asked her if she wanted anything from the coffee shop (there was no WAY I was waiting in line without at least 4 shots to jump start my engine.) I got her a brownie and returned to line. Of course she was in the middle of the pack so I had to climb over the fence (which impressed the throngs of skiers whose equipment was undisturbed by my antics.) The gondi opened on time and we were at the top within 10 minutes.

Since we had beaten most of the crowd, we decided to head over to thunder by way of the gully. Super fresh and super deep. Then we cut down the upper part of Dick's Ditch, carving turns and catching face shots. From Thunder, we decided to take a run down Paintbrush into the mushroom chutes. Once again, we had beaten the crowd and found fresh lines. We took Thunder again and decided that Laramie bowl wouldn't be its usual pile of moguls because it was still early and the new snow was deep. We were right, but the snow at the bottom was thick and heavy, so any ideas about the hobacks were quashed right there.

On our way up Sublette, we met some idiots from malibu who trash-talked the JH daycare, sending Erica into a paranoid fit about joshy getting sick from being there. I don't know why she gave any credit to the opinions of people who would prefer their child get measles (which could kill him) than autism (which has not been conclusively proved to be an after-effect of vaccination.) I didn't know it was legal to refuse to vaccinate your kids. Someone needs to charge them with child endangerment.

In case you haven't already guessed, I've completely lost my patience with gapers. ALL OF THEM.

After our grueling ride up the lift, we headed straight down the face to pepi's run / bird in hand. We took bird in hand and traversed high, but I noticed an untracked line through the trees and detoured straight through it. Sick, steep, and untracked the entire way down. We hit the traverse and were back at Sublette, this time riding up with a local who was also a parent. He and Erica discussed their children, and child care issues in Jackson, and various other parental topics. Just as we were about to get off the lift, he mentioned where his son goes to daycare - which is the same place Erica takes Joshy (when he's not at the kid's ranch). What a coincidence.

We decided to take one more run on Sublette before heading for whiter pastures, and selected bivouac woods. By this time we had lost our "jump start" and there were a good amount of people and a good amount of tracks, but there was still fresh snow to be shredded. One more ride up Sublette, and we were off to Expert Chutes / Cirque. I keep staring at the trail map, but I'm still not sure which run goes down the chute between the rocks. Well, whatever it's called, it's the one I took last week with Taylor, and we took it again today. Sketchy, but totally fresh. We decided to bypass Thunder and head straight to Casper restaurant to beat the lunch rush (and to make a quick pit stop.) Our original intent was to stay on the high traverse, but when I saw a completely untracked field I hollered to Erica to cut down instead. For powder like that, I'll take the long, flat traverse and cut across liftline and go into casper from the lower level. Oh, yeah. Plans change. You have to adapt.

I emerged from the stairway to find Erica with Matt - apparently he was on a lunch and ski break - our timing had been perfect. We ate a leisurely meal, warmed ourselves in front of the fire, and headed back out for some runs on casper. Erica was excited because she never gets to ride with Matt. We headed into Moran woods and discovered the snow over here was light and soft, "cowboy powder" as we call it here in wyoming. If we were in utah, we'd call it champagne powder. But we're not in utah. Thank heaven. We took another ride up the chairlift and another run down moran, but somewhere in the woods, Matt took a different line. We saw freshies and leaped off the traverse that would have taken us back to casper, cut through another previously ignored open powder field, and found ourselves at the bottom of Apres Vous. Both our cell phones were dead, and Matt always leaves his in the locker room anyway, so we assumed he'd figure we got lost and head up without us. Which is almost what happened. I guess there were a couple of girls dressed in similar colors to my and erica's jackets. So he thought he saw us get on the lift, and followed us up, figuring we'd still be strapping in when he got to the top. Of course, when he saw the girls at the top he realized that I probably hadn't traded in my snowboard and learned to ski, and that the other girl was very clearly NOT the mother of his child, so he enjoyed the rest of his break without us.

Meanwhile, back at AV.... We stopped at the top to ask ski patrol when saratoga bowl would be opening. He informed me that they were just finishing putting up the last of the fences, and the bottom was open but he didn't know if there had been time to pull any of the closed signs yet. We skirted the boundary until we didn't see any more signs, then cut through the woods into the lower part of Saratoga Bowl. Holy crap it was good. First freshies of the SEASON, so you know it was deep. As we got lower, I knew we weren't at the boundary yet, but I also knew there wouldn't be a lot of tracks out and didn't want to get stuck on a slow powdery traverse and not be able to cut downhill if I lost momentum. I told Erica we needed to start cutting back before we hit the boundary (especially since I wasn't sure quite how "finished" ski patrol was and which fences weren't in place yet.) In retrospect, I probably should have been a little more calm in my delivery, because Erica got very paranoid and started yelling "where are we", especially when the track she was following was not ski tracks, but footprints. Eventually, we had traversed far enough around to see the cat track, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Our legs were burning and we knew it was definitely our last run. What a way to end the day!

Trail blazin'
Mood:  energetic
Topic: shred report
New snow: 9"
48 hr snow: 24"
72 hr snow: 34"

Wow. That's a lot of snow. Everyone headed over toward Thunder, so I took Casper woods. The snow on that side was incredible. I cut through the woods onto sleeping indian, which hadn't been groomed. It didn't matter. The snow had filled in all the moguls, leaving a soft, open surface the whole way down. I took a couple of runs down through Moran woods, where most of the rock drops were missing. There was so much snow they were moguls now. I was FLYING. I got cut off by a gaper kid so I cut down earlier than I usually do and found a different line through the trees. Apparently no one else drops through Moran from there, because it was completely untracked. Oh, yeah. Loving it.

My original plan was to head over toward Thunder and Sublette around 11 AM when all the gapers would start thinking about lunch. Since I didn't feel like traversing, I took a run from Moran woods all the way down past the traverses to AV, then followed Moran trail to the bottom. I wasn't expecting the lower trails to be good, so I wasn't disappointed when they were a bit crusty. Not quite frozen granular, but definitely big cookies. Yikes. Not a good surface to learn on - I pity all the beginners today.

Took the gondola back to the top, and was on my way over toward thunder when I noticed the sign next to the boot pack. Headwall OPEN. Casper Bowl OPEN. Crags CLOSED. Wait, WHAT? Casper Bowl is OPEN? Holy crap. Two minutes later I was hiking up the stairway. I huffed and puffed and a whole bunch of people passed me, but none of them stopped at the first gate. I decided first freshies through the chute would be nice, so I strapped in and started blazing a trail.

35 inches of untracked snow is awesome. Unless of course, you have to traverse across about 20 yards to get to a steep chute. And the snow is thick and heavy. Not quite cascade concrete or sierra cement, but pretty darn close. I was buried past my knees, and my board refused to float, no matter how far onto my back leg I leaned. I inched my way across, hopping and pushing and shoveling snow out of the way with my hands. My legs and feet were burning by the time I finally made it to the top of the chute, but no one had snaked me so I was happy. My goggles were completely fogged so I tried to manage without them, but face shots tend to make your vision cloudy, even WITH goggles so that didn't last very long. But the snow was great, and there were no moguls, or even any tracks, so I just cruised. The lower part of the bowl (which is accessible from the gondola) was a bit less fresh, but still wonderful. At this point I really couldn't see anything and the light was very flat so even what I could see could have been a mogul or a powder field and I wouldn't have known the difference. By the time I got to the bottom I melted into a heap next to my board. Didn't make it over to Thunder or Sublette after all. Ah well, there's always next year!

Gape-O-Rama
Topic: shred report
Mood: Sleepy
New snow: 15"
New snow (past 48 hours): 25"

Add another inch to that before the lifts opened. Add thousands of gapers. Add a haze of fog from mid mountain to the top of thunder. Stir it all up and what do you get? Cream of potato soup.

OK, so the cream of potato soup thing is a private joke that I need to explain. While riding up casp-gnar today, a skier compared the weather to split pea soup. I corrected him, saying that split pea soup was green, and that today was more like cream of potato soup, especially with the mashed potato surface from the throngs of skiers. Yeah, it's not THAT funny, but we were remotely amused at the time.

That happened to me on my last run. As usual, I've skipped ahead to the ending. Sorry. My bad.

So I didn't dally, but I didn't hurry. The tram line was all the way through the maze, out around the building, and wrapping around Nick Wilson's at 7am. I could see it out my office window. Excellent. That should keep some of the gapers off the slopes until 10:30 or so. The gondola was also packed, so I got myself 4 shots of espresso in the Bridger center, which was just about enough to make me feel as though I wasn't asleep anymore. Not quite energetic mind you. Yes, I had already been up for 4 hours. Yes I had already polished off 16 oz of regular coffee that my programmable coffee maker was kind enough to prepare this morning. (side note - how did I EVER live without that thing?) I have a caffeine problem. Shoot me. (preferably with a camera.)

I knew everyone would be heading for thunder, but with 24 inches of fresh off sublette I didn't really care. Sure enough, the lift line was annoyingly crowded. At least I had found some nice, soft powder in the gulley at the top and in the trees on my way down. I traversed higher than I ever have before, because I had to cut down due to a "closed area" sign I never knew was there. Several, actually. I guess there are some cliffs back there.

Took one run down thunder toward sublette, through the woods. Again, sick amounts of snow. And this was OPEN yesterday. This is going to be worth it, I can tell. And sure enough, another mess of people awaited at the sublette. I looked at the clock as I reached the top. It was 10:30. Holy crap. Thought about taking the hobacks to avoid the line, but knew I wouldn't come back if I did, and also knew bird in hand was going to be insane. Dropped down the face toward pepi's run - FINALLY it was open! No more nasty traverse! Dropped into the woods and confirmed my suspicions. 2 feet of untracked powder. Gave myself some face shots and noticed a huge mound of snow to my right. Traversed over to it and discovered that I was standing atop a cliff. Whoops. Where did that come from? I don't remember seeing that on this run before... found a way to traverse back the way I came. Had to jump over some tree branches and drop about 2 feet, which in 2 feet of powder is nothing. Literally. Headed back to the lift. The singles line went about 20 vertical feet up the hill. I was NOT about to hike up just to wait in line. Some people get annoyed when you're by yourself in the main lift maze, but it all works itself out by the time all the lines alternate and merge, and you always wind up with the right amount of people before you get on the chair. Decided I wasn't going to wait in THAT line again, so I headed for the hobacks.

Yeah, that was the right decision. Traversing in there were a whole bunch of gapers. One woman skier was whining because her group had traversed in too far, and she didn't like the south hoback, she wanted to take the north hoback. Get me out of here. 3 turns later I was in the woods and they were nowhere in sight. Tore through the powder, got more face shots, and hella speed. I found myself on top of one of the ridges in an open powder field that was mostly untracked. Floated down, until I heard someone yell "whoa" from behind me. I noticed a ski patroller coming down parallel with my line. I was on the right, and he was on the left, and I could tell he was trying to cut right while I was just going straight. I had slowed down when he yelled at me, so he sped up and cut me off, then he made HUGE turns back and forth. I'm sure he wasn't purposely trying to be obnoxious, and 'whoa' was just the first thing that came to his mind when he noticed there was another person coming down the same line, so I suppressed the urge to huck something at him and cut left. Ahhh. powder. that's better. wheeee. wheeee. CRUNCH! Yikes. The bottom of the trail was just a bit crusty, but I managed to make my way back down to the traverse and over to union pass.

Have I really only taken 4 runs? It's almost NOON! At least all the gapers took a lunch break. Gondola line wasn't too bad this time. cut into the woods below casper traverse. Guess no one's been here. Didn't quite cut high enough to hit air bowl, so I came down through the trees instead. Found a steep, narrow chute between two small cliffs. Pointed it and floated. Nice! Didn't see one other person until I got to ampitheater traverse.

Casper lift had a steady stream of people, but no significant wait. Especially since there was no one in the singles line. Found some great powder and some seriously tracked powder in moron woods (no that isn't a spelling error, it's a JOKE.) I took 3 runs, and just as I was getting in the liftline again I changed my mind and dropped off Jackson Face in search of powder and a shortcut home. Mistake of epic proportions. Holy CRAP is this even the same mountian? Or did I take a wrong turn and end up on snow king? Icy hardpacked lumpy moguls. I guess I should have known better. Ah well, at least I was able to traverse across high enough to cut onto the lower part of sundance right above eagle's rest. Which made it possible to cut down the snowmobile path before the teton club bridge and ride into the cody lot. I think that's enough swimming in cream of potato soup for today. I need a shower.

L'chayim
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: couch potato commentary
New Snow: 19"
New snow in the past 3 days: 31"

Yeaaaaaaah! Hell week is over. Goodbye to the evil "r" word, hello SNOW! I am working a double shift today (just like yesterday, and the day before that.... and of course on Monday I worked 12 and a half hours between 2 of my 3 jobs...) But I'm not jealous. First of all, I now have the money to pay off the credit card on which I just bought new snowpants and a new snowboard jacket. 686 all the way baby. Second of all, I know there will be powder tomorrow. How, you ask, do I know this? hehehe.... The answer is at this website. Thunder, Sublette, and the Tram are all closed today. Which means there will be freshies tomorrow. Hooray for the wind! And the sky's looking pretty gray, so maybe we'll get even MORE snow. Either way, I'm fired up!

Channel 8, I'm sorry I doubted your report yesterday morning that we would get a foot and a half of snow. I fell asleep in front of the TV, which was apparently on ABC for some reason, and when I awoke the weather report was just starting. I was only half conscious, but I remember thinking I must still be asleep because the national weather service only predicted 1 to 3 inches. But KIFI knew what they were talking about! Way to go!

18 hours until I'm at the JHMR doing the ski report. 18 days until I get my new board. For those of you not fluent in Hebrew, 18 = chai = life. Halfway through Chanukah and we've already gotten 31" of snow. Life is good.

Brain Bucket
Mood:  lucky
Topic: shred report
New snow: 0"
Surface conditions: loose granular, spring conditions

My day started rather mellow, with only 16 oz of coffee (I spilled the rest when I knocked over my coffee mug before I left the house this morning. I am such a klutz sometimes.... hmmm... looking back now, I guess the rest of the day's events shouldn't have surprised me, but I'm getting ahead of myself.) I took my time getting dressed and organized, and at 9am I was hanging out in JH Sports getting a double espresso. ten minutes later (due to socializing and caffeine consumption) I was on my way up the gondola.

I cruised down to casper. Last night, I had heard a rumor that there would be bacon. I didn't believe it at the time. I wouldn't believe it now if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Not only was there bacon, there were PANCAKES! With banana slices! OMG! This really is "the best lift on the mountain." Credit for that quote (and for its validity) goes to Lucas. You RULE!

Decided to check out the park, which wasn't quite open yet. P&P crew was hard at work, though, so I knew it wouldn't be long. I meandered back down to JH Sports to socialize and drool over merchandise. By the time I got back on the slopes, stinky britches (aka the beginner terrain park) was open. After a couple of runs I checked to see if AV was open, and discovered that it IS possible to traverse over to antelope flats from the bottom of Rodeo Grounds. You can't get there from Hanna, but you can get there from the park. So much better than last year.

A few runs later I got off teewinot and lazily glided in the direction of s.b. I decided to ride fakie, just for kicks. wasn't even going fast. 2 turns later, I caught my heel edge and went down. HARD. Since I was going slow, all my momentum (both vertical and horizontal) went straight down. Thank GOD I ride with a helmet because I smacked my head pretty good. Now I know why they're called brain buckets. If you don't wear one, you won't have any. For a long time I let "style" dictate my choice of headwear, opting for a beanie that I had customized so I could stick my pigtails out through it. I was known for that hat. It's how people recognized me. I was often heard saying that when they made a helmet I could stick my pigtails through, I'd wear one. Then I moved HERE. This mountain does funny things to you. I started riding faster. I started going bigger. I started wearing a helmet at JHMR, but not at snow king, because it was "only" snow king. Two years ago, on the day after thanksgiving, I was riding down a sheet of ice (aka "only" snow king) and I caught an edge. I landed on my back and momentum carried me a significant distance down the slope. I had to hike back up for my hat and goggles. I was out of commission for about 3 weeks. I was lucky it wasn't the entire season. I was lucky I didn't crack my head open. That was the last day I ever rode without a helmet.

Anyone who thinks they don't need a helmet because they're just beginners is wrong. Anyone who thinks they don't need a helmet because they're too advanced is wrong. Anyone who thinks they don't need a helmet because they're not beginners but they're not trying anything "dangerous" should think again. You can fall anywhere, at any time, fast or slow, jumping or carving, and you can hit your head REALLY HARD. I've fallen over cliffs and it didn't hurt as much as my spill today. Be smart. Wear a brain bucket.

While I'm ranting about safety, I might as well add one other thing - terrain parks are there to make everyone's experience more FUN. You don't have to hit the jumps to enjoy watching other people do tricks. There are lots of riders and skiers who come into the terrain park just to watch their companions (or take pictures of their companions.) No one has a problem with spectators. But please, please, PLEASE remember that you ARE in a TERRAIN PARK! Rules of etiquette apply that are not necessary on ordinary trails. First of all, wait your turn. Second of all, if you go partway down and stop to watch, WAIT YOUR TURN before starting again. Don't start down the trail while someone else is dropping to hit the jump/rail/obstacle that you are near. And whatever you do, DO NOT EVER cut under the landing! Parks are built specifically for people to JUMP, and designed in such a way that the landings are the proper steepness and length. Unfortunately, the "proper angle" means the landing is often not visible until you are in the air. Newsflash - you cannot STEER while you are in the air. Cutting under a jump (or stopping under a jump) put you and everyone coming over the jump at risk. Be safe. Stay off to one side or the other.

Yes, I had a near miss in the park. Luckily I saw her in time to yell "watch out" which gave her time to steer back the other way while I landed and carved away from her. I supposed I could have screamed profanities at her, but that wouldn't have made either of us feel better and it certainly wouldn't have prevented the problem. I stopped, spoke with her (and her mother, who she happenned to be FOLLOWING at the time) and explained the safety risks of cutting under a landing. If you ever have an encounter, PLEASE educate people. It helps them, it helps you, and nobody goes whining about the obnoxious unsafe snowboarder they met in the park.

One other thing today worth mentioning - I finally got to go into rodeo grounds. First run I wasn't lined up properly so I avoided hitting that first rail. Second try I nailed it, but I can't claim it yet because that was my last run of the day, and as I mentioned before, JP says you can't claim it until you've done it 3 times. So next time I ride I'll have to take at least 2 runs through the park and I'll be able to tell you all about it.

Merry Xmas. Since the sun has now set, Happy Chanukah. Have a glorious and SAFE holiday. Peace.

Twas the day before Xmas...
Mood:  party time!
Topic: shred report
New Snow: 1"
New snow in the past 48 hours: 8"

Yeah, I missed the powder day. Although I wasn't as sick as Erica, I was definitely down for the count. I'm surprised I managed to get anything done what with how loopy the antihistamine made me. But that was yesterday. Today the sun is shining and the air is warm and I spent the entire day on the mountain. Life is good.

Wandered around looking for powder but didn't find it. Tower 3 chute was crusty and windblown. Guess I need to find something facing south next time. I meandered over to Sublette, where I met a lone snowboarder with no particular itinerary. I befriended him and we rode together all day. His name is Taylor, he's from Atlanta, and he's very cool. We took a run down Bird in Hand, which was powdery and fresh at the top (due to wind from the northwest) and crunchy at the bottom (also due to wind from the northwest.) It's so convenient knowing which way the wind came from all night (when I actually stop to think about it for a minute.) We decided to head over to Cirque for something different. On the way, we hit the windlip at the bottom of Tensleep bowl. I whipped out the camera and snapped this shot of Taylor:




We traversed toward Cirque, but we didn't quite get that far. The first opportunity we had to drop, we took. As near as I can tell (and I'm staring at a trial map as I type this) we were on Downhill, which is right between Expert Chutes and Cirque. Either way, it was an awesome powdery chute (a bit rocky, but steep and narrow) which led us down to another nice chute. I don't think I've ever taken that exact path before - usually I traverse as far into Cirque as I can get or I hike headwall. Ya learn something new every day....

We decided to take some cruiser runs, and were anxious to check out the brand new terrain park, Rodeo Grounds. After traversing as far as Casper, we decided that was enough for one run and headed up the lift. The woods looked soft, but the snow underneath was.... well... not soft. ka-runch. sleeping indian was nice, though, having been groomed the night before. I decided to work on my fakie riding, which always feels awkward for the first few turns, but after that I wonder what the big deal is. Nonetheless, I was still loopy from the antihistamines and my reaction time felt off. Taylor was thirsty, so we detoured into Casper Restaurant. Espresso anyone? YEAAAHH. That did the trick. For me anyway. Taylor chose gatorade.

Off to the park, which wasn't open quite yet. According to JP, it was about an hour or so away from being ready, so we went to little britches instead. Corn snow really is the best surface for park riding. Well, except for the chunked out landings after throngs of people have been through. (That's why I only hit the rainbow rail once.) But I sailed over the kickers with ease, so I recruited Taylor as a videographer and properly trained him on the operation of my camera.



We hit it a few more times, and I stopped to get a shot of him on the rail.



After the gaper sessions, we took another ride up the gondola. I thought maybe Gros Ventre would be a nice long cruiser to end the day with. I told Taylor I was going to do the entire run fakie. He didn't believe me. I told him had already been riding fakie on sleeping indian. I guess that's a good indication that I'm improving if he didn't notice that I wasn't riding regular.... Gros Ventre was a lovely mogul field. This was all from today's skiers, since I KNOW GV was groomed this morning. Ah well. A promise is a promise. I did the entire run fakie. It's funny, but you use completely different muscles when you ride the other direction. HOLY CRAP was I tired! Holy crap also accurately described the end runout part of GV. It got really sketchy, and I was looking to find the "secret" road back to the parking lot, so I turned around and rode regular. Right before the bridge I found a little road that said "caution, snowmobile access." a-chhhha-ahh. what a lovely surprise gift. Merry Xmas.

Wake up call
Topic: shred report
Mood: Exhausted
New snow: 4"

I wasn't going to ride today. I REALLY wasn't going to ride today. I didn't even pack up my gear the night before like I usually do. I didn't fall asleep early because I was tooling around on the computer. But I woke up at 4:45 and there was snow outside. Not one to trust my depth perception (and wary of the likelihood that town weather was considerably different than mountain weather) I checked the webplots to make sure it had actually snowed. 3 inches and still coming down. Ok, NOW I'm up. My programmable coffee maker had already finished brewing half a pot of caffeine-o-roast for me, so I drank a few sips and started gathering the essentials.

By the time I got to work, another inch had accumulated. This was very evident during my walk through the unplowed parking lot. By 8 AM, the snow had tapered and there was still 4" showing. Ah well. I'm here, and it's a decent snowfall, so what the heck? I got dressed and headed off to the Gondola.

I wasn't expecting to take my first run blindfolded, but that's what it felt like between the lack of sleep and the vertigo. I'm not complaining - four inches of fresh on top of flat corduroy is smooth as silk, but I couldn't tell where the edges of the trail were and I was afraid I'd carve unexpectedly into the moguls at any moment. Snow was sticking to my goggles, creating a hazy vision that made it feel like I was riding through a fog bank. But it was a soft fog bank, and I was just happy to be on the mountian.

I cruised up thunder and carved down Grand to Sublette. Yes, there was snow in the trees, but there was just as much snow on the open trails, and how often do you get to carve fresh lines on a trail with no moguls? I went up Sublette, and at the top my vision was again impaired. I didn't even try to traverse through the trees into the lower 10 vertical feet Rendezvous bowl like I usually do. I did, however, cut into bivouac woods. Woo hoo! I can see where I'm going! Moguls, yes, fresh snow, yes, fun, YES. Even made it across the agonizingly slow flat part at the bottom.... the part where you're usually hauling so fast it's gone before you notice it's there, but on powder days you have to follow the one track straight down the middle in order to maintain your speed. No fresh tracks for me, but I did make it without having to hop and pump the whole way. I stayed on the traverse around sublette and dropped down the face above where it zig zags back, then took thunder up again and traversed under expert chutes. That snow was great, and by this point my eyes were awake enough to actually focus. I made my way over to Casper and got first tracks through sleeping indian woods. This is fun, but at some point responsibility kicks in - I still have to work at my OTHER job today - so I take one more run down sleeping indian - groomed with pow on top, but seriously tracked by now, cut down through the sketchy rock garden (first tracks, no surprise there) and take the traverse over to Werner. One little detour through Little Britches and I'm outa here.

The forecast this week is calling for snow EVERY DAY. Looks like it's going to be a white Christmas!

Casp-gnar
Mood:  rushed
Topic: shred report
New snow: 0"

35 trails were groomed last night. Sleeping Indian was one of them. Boo-ya! Yes, I watch Teen Titans. And Yu-gi-oh. and yu-gi-oh gx for that matter. Deal with it. i must be getting sleepy if i'm talking about cartoons. I was sleepy this morning too. So sleepy I had to take my coffee mug with me when i left the office. Then I had to find somewhere to stash it. Luckily Erek's office is conveniently located in the casp-gnar cafeteria, and Erek was kind enough to let me leave it there. I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with the sugar high from the cookies Erica had delivered... well, technically Matt delivered them yesterday.... that was the 'something or other' he had to drop off. We wanted to head over to the park, but first we wanted to surprise Lucas at Casper with some cocoa for being so patient with us yesterday. And because he is kewl. And because it was FREEZING outside. And of course this was the one day he was stationed at the TOP of the lift at 9:30 in the morning.

Casper has always been one of my favorite lifts. Just read my posts from last season if you don't believe me. Lucas calls it "the best lift on the mountain." Due in no small part to his presence there. Erica, on the other hand, called it the slowest, coldest chair on the mountain yesterday. All she did was complain about how cold her butt was. Suffice to say, she was NOT thrilled at the prospect of riding it again. Luckily the sun was out to warm the sitting surface and Casper redeemed itself in the eyes (and grateful behind) of my best friend.

Sleeping Indian was awesome, as I knew it would be. We forego... what is the past tense of that? forgoed? forewent? whatever... instead of the traverse, we drop down into the sketchy, almost powdery, boulder infested gully below the traverse to casper, and scrape our way down to south pass traverse. We manage to save enough speed to make it over to Werner, and from there it's smooth sailing to stinky britches (see yesterday's post, or the chef aid episode of south park if you don't get that reference.) Erica wants to film. So do I. Isn't it nice when things work out that way? I position myself between the rainbow and the flat rail. She drops, I film. I hike back up to where my board is waiting at the top of the park, and she takes Teewinot to get back to the top of the park. I give her the camera. What I don't give her is adequate instructions on how to shoot video with it. She manages to film 4 different clips, none of which I am in. Ah well. I forgive her because she is my best friend, and it was my fault anyway. Besides, she told me about the other rails that I had completely ignored because I was trying to clear the kickers. Wooooaaaahhhhh. That looks fun. I'll be back.

We reviewed the video footage (or lack thereof) on our way up the Gondola. We decided to check out the grooming on Ampitheater, which was also nice, though a bit tracked. The original plan was to traverse back over to Gros Ventre and ride to the bottom, but Thunder lift was RIGHT THERE so we got on it instead of continuing down the mountain. I made sure to put my high back DOWN. Mismatched highbacks are SO much better than duct taped ones..... Grand was pretty smooth, and we took a fast run down. I almost lost my edge (edge? What edge? Since when does my board have edges?) so I slowed down before we got to the traverse. We still made it across, and this time we DID go around thunder and down gros ventre. VERY skied off. I carved through the cast off snow on the sides and managed to maintain control, almost making some turns (as opposed to scraping my way through them.) Man am I going to FLY when I get that Never Summer next month. 27 days and counting.

We head back up to Casper and catch up with Tele-Rippah for a couple of runs down sleeping indian. I manage a grab of the little kicker on the edge of the traverse, mostly for Erica's enjoyment because I know she's right behind me. Then we head into the restaurant to retrieve my coffee mug and grab some lunch. The idea was to warm up, but sitting by the fire we realize how cold we actually are and decide to haul down to the bottom and call it a day. Besides, Erica has to work, and she wants to stop and see joshy before she leaves, and we have to drop off the keys to her truck at the MOB before we can go, and I still have to get my stuff out of the OSP..... yeah, ok. we wussed out. responsibility and obligation just made it convenient to do so.

Past... my.... bedtime..... Must... sleep.... NOW.

posse-bilities
Mood:  lucky
Topic: shred report
New snow: 1"

After last week's scheduling fiasco, Erica decided to plan more efficiently and drop Joshy off at the Kids' Ranch, then drop Matty off at the warehouse, then park the car herself and meet me in the Bridger Center. Next time she'll probably drop Matty off BEFORE she drops Joshy off.... but it definitely went smoother. We decided to take a run while we were waiting for Matt, who was waiting for Jake - oh yeah, did I forget to mention that part? Anyway, we took the gondola to Casper and paused to coordinate our schedule with Lucas, so we could ride with him on his ski break. We had a bit of time, so we cut down through Little Britches (which from now on will be referred to as "stinky britches" in homage to chef on south park. somehow I managed to lose Erica, but I found Matt waiting patiently at the bottom of the Gondola. Due to binding issues, Erica had gone into the ski shop, but he had to take some stuff up to casper restaurant, so I rode up the gondi with him. He informed me that Jake would be joining us a bit later - he had screwed something up and was obligated to buy his coworkers a pitcher of beer. Yes, we had actually piddled away AN HOUR, and in Wyoming alcohol is legally served after 10 AM. Sheesh. About halfway up, my phone rang - Erica was on her way up. I told her I would wait at the bottom of Casper lift. Matt said he needed to stop at the top of the Gondola to drop off something or other, and then he was going to Casp-gnar restaurant to drop off some other something or other.

So far I have not so much as mentioned the conditions. The corduroy was perfect (thanks of course to Jake and his coworkers) and the fact that we got another inch of snow made the carving "like butta." Really smooth, and you could sink your edges right into it. There was still a bit of pow in the trees, but only a couple of inches over moguls, so cruising and hitting the park was at least if not more fun than cutting through the trees.

OK, back to coordination efforts. Here's where we left things: Me - bottom of casper lift. Erica - on her way up the gondola. Matt - dropping something off somewhere. Jake - atoning with alcohol. Lucas - about to go on break. Timing was perfect. Just as Lucas came out of the shack in his gear, I saw Erica's bright blue jacket zooming past casp-gnar (the building.) We waited about half a minute for her, then up we went. We took a fast cruiser. Really fast. I was hauling but I couldn't catch up with Lucas (aka Tele-RIPPAH!) See Erica's blog - she invented the term. Anyway, we took a few runs, then Lucas went back to work. And Matt and Jake were 2 chairs ahead of us. They were kind enough to wait at the summit, where I strapped in WAY too close to the shack. Rather than hop my way over to sleeping indian, I decided to cut through the woods and meet them on the other side. I thought I heard Erica say she was going to follow me, but as usual she was "following" from farther on down the slope, and she thought I was taking the groomer but I cut into the woods. And out of the woods. In fact, if I hadn't lost speed in the gully I would have jumped out onto the trail - and collided head on with Jake. But I saw him, speed checked, and carved through the gully instead of leaping out of it. The snow was great, but sleeping indian hadn't been groomed that morning so it was a bit scratchy. What with my edges looking like I've done nothing but rail slides for 3 years.... although rock slides would be a more accurate description... well, let's just say I was draggin' my knuckles a li'l bit. Anyway, we stopped about halfway down and waited for Erica, but we didn't see her so we figured we'd just catch her in the park. She'd wait there for us..... yeah, right. NOT. I stayed at the top of the park and tried to call her, while Jake and Matt went the rest of the way to the bottom, hitting the jumps and rails on the way. Jake is another one of those Tele-Rippers, just in case you were wondering. Man, he's fast.

So there I am, at the top of the park, and who do I see but Matt from park & pipe! I ask him if he minds if I film him and publish it on the internet. He obliges. Here ya go:

Matt, you RULE! And he's the nicest person, too. See, my battery died while I was trying to tell Erica that I would wait at the top of stinky britches for her. But Matt had his phone with him, and graciously loaned it to me so I could finish my conversation. What a guy!

Took a few more runs through the park and headed back to casp-gnar for lunch. Have I mentioned that the blackened salmon is OUTSTANDING! Ran into Matt's coworkers (Erica's Matt, not Matt from the previous paragraph) who dared me to mention the blackened salmon on the mountain roundup tomorrow. Be careful what you wish for, especially around me.

Holy hannah, this post is getting ridiculous. We cruised around for the rest of the day and hit the park a couple more times before heading back to town. The End.

The daily grind
Mood:  energetic
Topic: shred report
New snow: 1"

Got a leisurely start this morning after work and wandered down to the ticket office, both to solve my malfunctioning UPC problem and to link my credit card with my pass so I don't have a repeat episode of what happenned this week. I hate writing checks. I REALLY really hate writing checks. Not once, but TWICE this week I had to break out the checkbook because my credit card was STILL in the pocket of my snowboard jacket. YAARGH! Lucky I even had my checkbook with me (I usually don't.) So they printed me a new pass (complete with a new photo) and off I went to Nick Wilson's to test it out. woo hoo! works great now!

So it's 9:30 and I leave the restaurant and notice there are two people in line for the tram. Interesting. Ok, why not? Got on the tram - by the time it came there were actually about 10 people. So not scrunched in the least bit. XLNT. Carved down Rendezvous bowl and discovered some great snow! Unbelievable, when you figure we only got 1 inch. But the wind must have transported some snow because the moguls were all filled in. I even found a fresh little chute through the trees near the bottom. I cruised across Rendezvous trail and hit a little more pow on the traverse between Sublette and Thunder, then decided I had traversed enough. At the top of Thunder I went straight, toward the lower part of expert chutes, and noticed that the cat track climbed partway up the face. It didn't appear to be much vertical, so I thought maybe I'd hike it so I could get a little more oomph to traverse into the chutes. NOT the best idea I've had. Once the cat track ended, I was thigh deep and (i believe the correct term is) post-holing. But the snow was nice and once I dropped it I had plenty of speed across the ridge, not to mention about 2 really nice turns before it. Here's the view from where I started:

Back on the groomer, there were some nice kickers on both sides of the run, as well as a couple of nice traverses to give you a little lip. My intention was to wander over to Casper, but I somehow missed South Pass traverse (I probably thought it was a jump...) and found myself back at the base. Ah, well. I wanted to check out the kiddie park anyway. Up Teewinot I went.

You meet a lot of really enthusiastic beginners on the green trails, which was super cool. Of course, they look at ya kinda funny when they say it's their second day out and you say you've been riding for about 10 years. But today I'm a beginner because I'm GOING TO HIT A RAIL. No more wussy hopping off the on-ramp as if it were a kicker. It's gotta be just like skateboarding. balance. keep the board flat. do not, I repeat DO NOT try to carve a turn. At the top of the park, Dan from P&P gave me the following advice: "Keep your weight centered. Look at the END of the rail because if you look down at the board you will start to go onto your toe edge." Well, it worked. YEEEAH! Thanks Dan! I totally nailed the approach, the grind, and the landing. Easy as pie. What was I so afraid of? Sheesh. then I proceeded to hit all the kickers with just enough speed to land on the flat of the table tops. Ah well. now I know where they are.

Took the gondola and FINALLY made my way to casper just in time to ride up with my favorite liftie (see post from December 4 for more details) who was on his way up to the top shack. With the exception of the Tram, that was the first time all day I was not all by myself on the chair! Must be those snowboarder cooties.... Cruised through Sleeping Indian woods and found even more powder - it's all over the mountain, just off the beaten path. Even the groomers were nice. Reminds me of my days at Stratton. One inch of new snow = East Coast Powder. which gets skied off and creates fluffy piles on the sides of the trail. until I come along. It's like jumping into a huge pile of leaves. wheeeee..... OK, time to take care of this duct tape highback situation once and for all.

Back in the Bridger Center, I finally had the sense to ask if they had any NIDECKER highbacks. Guys or Girls. Any color. Any year. Lo and behold, they appeared with ergonomical men's highbacks that fit my bindings perfectly. At least as good, if not better than the womens' highbacks. Time will tell. Time to experiment with my new setup in the park.

According to JP (our chief pipe and park guru) you can't claim it until you've landed it 3 times. So I gave him my camera and asked him to document my achievement, then I hiked up and hit it for the 3rd time. NOW I've done a rail.

Took a few more runs through Little Britches (the new "official" name for the beginner park.... which I told JP was Adena-sized and he told me good because that was the standard of measurement they were using when they built it.) I hit the rainbow rail (a total of 3 times) and all the kickers, and by my last 2 runs I finally had enough speed to land on the LANDING instead of the flat top. Cruised around for a little while longer then headed back to town to shower (yes, I actually am NOT a dirty girl today...) and get to work. Such is life. And life is SWEET.

Hiking Headwall
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: shred report
New Snow: 0"

Hoo-ray! Another day on the mountain with Erica! 7:30 am I got a call from her - she was up and ready to go, and did I want to get breakfast at nick's when I got off work. Oh, and by the way, some guys checked into the hotel last night and she gave them my phone number so they could come ride with us, hope that's ok..... I tell her I trust her judgement. Besides, if they're lame, we can always ditch them in the woods. hehehe....

As it turns out, they're not lame. They got to the mountain just about when Erica did and met us at Nick's. Well, 3 of them met us. Mike, Matt, and Matt. That should be easy to remember. Their other friend, Cameron, was hung over and gear-challenged and had meandered off in search of replacement goggles since his were nowhere in sight. He found us just as we were finishing our meal, and we all hiked up to the gondola.

Due to issues with the UPC code on my pass, I was unable to get through the line in time to get into the same gondi car as Erica et. al. All except Matt, the only skier in the bunch. The entire ride up, not once did he mention that he was skiing with a broken arm. He had cut the cast off himself the previous day before leaving Seattle. What a trooper. Can you say "powder junkie"? We spent the rest of the morning cruising around, hitting groomers and finding powder pockets in the trees. Over on Thunder, I managed to traverse through the woods all the way around and popped out underneath the chair. Since everyone else had zoomed down the groomer instead of following me, they were all waiting by the lift as I finished my run and demanded to know how I had gotten there. I told them to follow me into the trees next time.

We decided to hit the Hobacks next, to see if there were still any freshies. Keeping with the theme of the day, Cameron was lagging behind when we strapped in, lagging behind as we sped down Rendezvous trail, and completely nowhere to be found when we turned onto the traverse toward the Hobacks. CYA LAMES! The rest of us carefully crept through the crusty moguls at the top all the way to the ski area boundary, where we dropped into some less tracked areas. Erica was leading the pack, but snowboarder Matt (not the one with the broken arm) saw a large rock drop he wanted to hit, so Mike and skier Matt and I stopped to gawk... er... I mean, scope out the landing for him. Total powder. The rock shot him out about 15 feet onto a steep downslope, where he landed and created a huge crater in the snow. Soft landings are always fun. After that, we started looking for other friendly rocks, but Erica was already waiting at the bottom. Luckily there is a happy dog who visits Union Pass every day (despite her shock collar.) Since she's a yellow lab, and in honor of Amber Atkins (aka Kirsten Dunst's character in Drop Dead Gorgeous) we decided to call her Amber Snowdog. So while Amber and Erica were playing catch in the powder, the rest of us leisurely finished our run. We found a couple more rocks to jump off, but skier Matt (who btw had NO POLES due to his broken arm.... he's hardcore) got tripped up by the sketchy terrain and fell. Onto his broken arm. Ouch. He managed to navigate his way back to union pass, but decided that maybe it was time for a little break...maybe 'rest' would have been a better way to phrase that... sorry.

And then there were 4. On our way up the gondola, we decided to see if we could locate Cameron. All the guys had motorola radios (Erica and I have learned that you rarely have a clear line of site at JHMR and that cell phones work much better.) Matt radioed out, and we actually got a response! Unfortunately, the response we heard back was "Hey, did somebody lose a radio? I found this on Casper...." We politely asked the guy to leave the radio with the lifties and we would pick it up later. Ah well. At least they got their radio back..... (post script - they also found Cameron eventually, because he was back at the hotel with them later that night. just in case you were worried.)

As we rode up Thunder lift, I noticed some people hiking the ridge above Cirque. HEADWALL OPENED! I informed them that was our next run. They were shocked that we actually wanted to hike - I guess they're used to girls who whine about their goggles fogging up or the powder is too deep or they broke a nail..... Erica used to live in Seattle, and I think those girls were a big part of the reason she left. Erica was worried that too many people had gone before us, and there wouldn't be good lines left, but I've ridden Headwall enough to know that wouldn't be true. Once we got into the boot pack we were very grateful that others had gone before. Especially after the strenuous post-holing trying to get from the traverse up to the boot pack. A friendly member of ski patrol saw my struggle and offerred some helpful advice. He said "It's not too late to learn to ski!" Of course, two minutes later I passed him hiking as he removed his skis and arranged his poles so he could carry everything up the hill. I told him it wasn't too late to learn to snowboard. (I guess we both "invested time" in one employee and fulfilled half of our passionate purpose today! I'm sure he laughed about it as much as I did. Of course, I'm also not a strong hiker so the truth of the matter is that he made it to the top long before I did.) We took this at the summit:

Headwall was just as sweet as I knew it would be. By far the best run of the day. Summit temp was over 30 degrees due to the inversion, so conditions were like fresh spring snow. A little mushy, but still fressh. Yes, fresh enough for two s's. We sailed down to Casper restaurant for lunch, and sat outside at the picnic table. Then we continued down Jackson Face just under the new Sweetwater liftline. For the first time all day, I realized that Erica wasn't leading the pack. What could possibly have distracted her? Suddenly she appeared through the woods on my left exclaiming "I saw a baby moose! I saw a baby moose!" She may have said it more than twice, it was THAT COOL. We carefully navigated to the bottom - parts of that run were soft, but most of it was heavily moguled and very sketchy.

The hour was late and Erica had to be at work, so we bid farewell to the guys and headed back to town. We later found out that skier Matt had broken his arm again, in a different place from before. He had also made an appointment at Teton Orthopedics, so at least he was in good hands. If they decide to stick around for a few extra days, maybe I'll get to ride with them again, or maybe not.... but somehow I have a feeling they'll return to jackson someday.

Working in a hotel certainly has its perks!

cruisin'
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: sleeper cell
Topic: shred report
new snow: 0"

another inversion day! but it was only -3 at my house, so it's finally getting warmer. Yikes. that's just wrong.

By 9am I had already eaten breakfast at nick's, picked up my board from the repair shop (and what an AMAZING job they did, considering the shape it had been in when I left it - nothing was protruding and the missing chunk had been replaced with ptex) gotten a machiato at the bridger center, and shopped long enough to notice some 686 pants i hadn't tried on yet. i think i'm going for the delta - just like me to pick the most expensive thing. But I think I'm going to take the advice of my friend from wildernest sports and wash all my gear with powder detergent (always POWDER) in hopes of "recharging" my waterproofness. I still don't get the fact that they made a jacket this interesting shade of pink and didn't make ONE pair of pants to coordinate, even remotely. guess i'm going with black.

I know the mountain has been open for a week now, but I don't think anyone's been on it. Sure, all the obvious spots are tracked and packed, but as Erica so eloquently put it in her blog, I am a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out powder stashes. I found all sorts of pockets of snow in weird and unexpected places. Like the side of that trail that goes from the gondola to casper. wait, i have a trail map on my coffee table.....upper sundance to croaky point. and the top of eagle's rest... well i wanted to ride the new lift! plus i was trying to figure out where they were moving the beginner terrain park (now called little britches). Wait, rewind.....

Took the gondola up with some guys from pipe and park. Apparently they were the cause of the cancellation of the concierge trip on the Solitude Sleigh ride & dinner. There was a big pile of snow in the way, and the horses couldn't take their usual route. Which ran straight through where the terrain park USED to be. Unless I misunderstood and it runs through where they moved it.... but anyway, apparently it was this huge issue which has hopefully been worked out, but will result in a delay because they had to plow over the piles they had been working on and blow snow somewhere else.

Followed the park guys from the top of the gondola, but didn't stay with them very long. They know where all the cool stealth kickers are - mainly out of ditches and on the sides of traverses. Of course, you've got to know where they are in advnace because you need a good amount of speed to make it up the take off ramp. which is how I lost them. Well, OK, my decision to hit the hobacks also sent me speeding off in the opposite direction halfway down ampitheater. One run down the hobacks was enough - there were still freshies, but there were also moguls and a lot of rocks had been exposed.

Took a few more cruisers down the groomed lifts, finding powder where I could. I was going to take sweetwater lift, just because i wanted to experience a different view of the terrain on jackson face, but that didn't happen. They were still working on it. I did find some sweet powder off eagle's rest though... I think i mentioned that already. Figured out where the access point is going to be for Little Britches - it's actually really cool. It's off Teewinot this year, and it's on antelope flats, which is flanked on both sides by trees. So it's actually more secluded and removed from the busy beginner path than it was in its previous location. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done. And from the looks of things, that will be soon. very soon. but L8r.... much!

Rise above it
Mood:  irritated
Topic: shred report
New snow: 0"

A hazy fog enveloped the village this morning, but above the clouds the sky was clear and crisp. as is normally the case with inversion days, the top of the gondola was 20 degrees warmer than the parking lot. So it was, like, 12 degrees. when did I decide that 12 degrees was warm? Oh, yeah.... that picture I took in my car yesterday (scroll down to the pic from dec 8 for clarification.) I ran into a small, annoying technical snag, but otherwise got through the morning duties rather efficiently. Time to hurry up and wait.

Erica and I had been planning to ride together all week, and I was looking forward to taking runs with her after her long hiatus (aka pregnancy last season.) But she is still a rippah, and while the effort of getting everything going in the morning is a bit challenging when you have 2 little boys to take care of.... er.... i mean.... one baby and one... er... grown-up child.... well she definitely made up for it maching down the hill. No, I don't mean mock. I mean mach. As in "mach speed." I had to haul a$$ to keep up. We found some sick untouched powder in the woods off Thunder... no, not those woods.... the ones over, no, not that far... the other woods off thunder... the ones kinda in between, but not quite over by the rocky part.... if you've ridden thunder you probably know exactly where I mean from that ridiculous description. If not, haha, and I won't see you there tomorrow!

By that point we had finally caught up with Matt... well, more like he had caught up with us.... anyway, we headed over to Sublette and made a beeline for the Hobacks. Un-effing-real. seriously. or should I say SEARiously..... tssssss.... HOT! We tore through the fresh powder and wound up on the opposite ridge from where everyone else seemed to get stuck. So it was wide open and soft.... a little thicker and crunchier at the bottom, but still untracked for the most part. Despite the bright reflection of sunlight off the snow and her inability to see the viewscreen on my camera, Erica managed to take this little gem:

Ahhhh. beatuiful. until I saw a large rock poking out of the snow. just as I smacked dead into it. My board stopped. My body did a front flip. in the AIR. that's how fast I was going. The tail of my board chunked into the powder (luckily a soft crash.) My board was not so lucky. I could feel the drag as I traversed back to Union Pass and knew it was my last run of the day. and it was worth it.

Dropped my board off at the repair shop after some whittling with a razor did little to flatten the surface (and nothing to fill in the chunks.) left it there, and I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it's going to make it through the month until I get my Never Summer in January. I wonder if I'll be a little less likely to barrel through the snow without regard to what's underneath when I have a fresh new surface to slide on. yeah right.... Me? HA. Why do you think I wear a helmet when I ride? Snowboarding ROCKS! (pun intended.)

T minus 24 and counting
Mood:  cool
Topic: shred report
New snow: 0
Temperature: -24 (7 AM, Town Square)

Yeah, it's cold. What? you don't believe me? I took this before I got out of my car at work this morning:

Yikes. Luckily (?) there's an inversion setting up. it's only -3 at the top of JHMR. It's actually -18 at the base. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be a little warmer since I'm planning on riding with Erica. So T minues 24 hours and counting. Till then I think I'll just sit in front of a space heater. brrrr.

Gondo-la-la-la
Mood:  happy
Topic: shred report
New Snow: trace

Yeah, no new snow. But new TERRAIN. Terrain that hadn't been touched. First freshies down the lower faces. yummy. The gondola opened today and the powder was heavy. My first run I dropped into my favorite gully and found that with all the wind drift it almost WASN'T a gully. Now I know how surfers must feel as the wave crashes down over their head and shoots them through a pipeline. totally tubular!

Took a few more runs before I had to go to work, and found powder everywhere. Eventually, lack of sleep and 3 consecutive days of snowboarding caught up with me and I had to pack it in. Ah well, at least I won't have to stay at work until midnight....

Passionate Purpose
Mood:  flirty
Topic: shred report
New snow: 6"
New snow (past 36 hours): 22"

twenty two inches and the resort has been open for 2 days. what a great start to the season. but what, you ask is passionate purpose? have a meaningful conversation with one fellow employee and one guest. every day. hmmm. somehow I don't think that will be too rough for me. and it's kinda like 'pay it forward'. it's just good karma. As for me, I'm usually over and above my quota because I get so excited when I ride that I talk to everyone I see. Always have, always will.

so i started the day with a quick ride up teewinot to a.v. at the top of the lift, there were a bunch of guys in matching green and brown grenade gear, on illuminati boards. hmmm. wonder who they might be... I decided to follow them, figuring they probably knew where the good snow was. This proved to be beneficial. Of course, i couldn't really keep up, but I managed to follow the general direction, air through some powder, and still make the traverse over to casper. they were long gone by then, but i can find my own terrain off casper. I took a left off the lift, and noticed that the guy from the chair behind me was following my line. I went all the way around the traverse and dropped into the trees, where the snow was soft and mostly fresh. fresh snow over moguls, but that's what happens after the mountain has been open for a day or two. At the bottom, my mystery friend thanked me for leading him to such good snow. We took a couple of runs together and he was kind enough to shoot some video of me with my camera. I, of course, managed to eat it every time he filmed me (hence the lack of footage here.) I can be such a tool sometimes. But he was a great rider who ripped through the powder. I managed to take several runs with him and not once did I lose him in the trees. or vice versa. (usually i manage to get stuck somewhere, then I think I have to haul to catch up, then i wind up at some other lift and don't see my riding companions for the rest of the day.) As we were coming down from sleeping indian woods onto liftline, the wind picked up and completely obscured my view. the surface was smooth and untracked due to the windblown layer of snow on it, but i could barely tell if there were people on the trail, and I lost all momentum and barely made it the rest of the way down from the race course (which isn't set up yet, making for excellent crossovers from sleeping indian woods.) Once we got through the liftline (practically nonexistant) the lift suddenly stopped moving. I thought about it for, oh, maybe 30 seconds. If it was this windy down here, why would i want to be up on the lift? And it was a crosswind, so you know it would have been unpleasant. I suggested we bail and head for the bottom. We hopped out of line and dropped onto the face just to skier's right of the lift. Pure heaven. light and soft, and mostly untracked. a few rocks, but nothing serious or threatening.

At the bottom, I parted ways with my new friend and wandered into the ski shop. I suppose I could pretend it was because donnie said he was going to be there at 12:30, but that wouldn't be the whole truth. I could also say I needed to get some protruding chunks of ptex cut off the base of my board, but that wouldn't change the fact that AFTER they fixed my board I went upstairs to Hole in the Wall. to try on snowpants. funny how all the girl pants are that stylish low rise cut that makes your ass look really cute but doesn't keep the snow off your back at all. The guy pants, however, are tight in the waist and roomy everywhere else. One of these days I'm going to start a women's snowboard clothing company and design clothes for chicks who actually RIDE. sheesh. despite my lengthy shopping adventure, donnie never showed (although he did email me later to apologize.) maybe we'll ride together another time.

So there was this lift operator sitting two seats down from me at orientation, who I later talked to at the party at the moose. He had mentioned that he was going to get a ski break around one, so I headed back up to casper to take a run with him. I found out that the lift had stopped because the wind tripped the stop gate at the top. aha. it all makes sense now. He was on tele skis, and man can he rip. We found some powder stashes in moran woods and the face skiers' left of sundance, then we hit sleeping indian because skiers like moguls. I knew I was tired because I kept falling over for no apparent reason. He went back to work, and I went back to the bottom to head for home. what a day. and I fulfilled my passionate purpose! that's not even counting the guy I met carrying his skis toward the base - I asked him if he was parked at stilson and offered him a ride to his car... but that's another story, and this post is already enormous. So I'm done.

First Freshies!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: shred report
New snow: 5"

My official post was a little too lengthy for the website this morning. So here it is in its full glory. (If you receive the report via email, you can skip the next paragraph because you've already read it.)

Anticipation mounted at the base of Teewinot chair yesterday morning as an ecstatic group of skiers and snowboarders anxiously waited for the clock to strike 9 AM. With a whoop of applause, the lift opened and we were on our way up the slopes. What awaited us was pure bliss - plenty of snow for everyone and quickly moving lift lines. I started the day with a run down Teewinot face through the trees, bouncing over everything in my path with the exhuberance of a child. After a few runs off Apres Vous, I made a beeline for Casper, where no more than four people were standing in the liftline. Apparently it had just opened. I traversed as far into Moran Woods as possible, and cut down through the freshest snow I've ever seen on that trail. Turns were effortless, and I floated to the bottom without even having to pause to catch my breath. It's possible I may have been holding it the entire way down. There's still plenty of deep snow out there and places that haven't been tracked yet. With additional snowfall overnight, today promises to be just as amazing. See you on the slopes!

That pretty much sums it up.... that and this lovely tidbit chris was kind enough to take of me:

Back in town, I decided to see First Descent. The perfect climax for an amazing day. In the interest of not ruining it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet I won't elaborate, but if you liked dogtown and z boys or riding giants, you'll like this one. If you snowboard, you'll LOVE this movie. History of the sport and adventure all rolled into one. with ACTUAL snowboarders. don't get me wrong, i LOVED out cold, but none of them were doing their own riding, except for a few scenes where they skidded to a stop.... but I digress. I always digress. i'm going to go now.

2 degrees of separation
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: shred report
New snow: 13"
Surface Conditions: POWDER

It's true that there are only 2 degrees of separation (on average) here in Jackson. If you meet someone, they usually know one, if not several, of your friends. But that's not the reason this is my title today. Allow me to explain.

Last night, I fell asleep to the silent patter of snowflakes heaping up outside my doorstep. This morning I awoke to sludge and rain. A bit disheartening, but I refused to panic as the conditions in Teton Village don't always coincide with what happens in town. The temperature gauge in my Jeep informed me that it was 34 degrees. Bummer. Deep puddles parted like the Red Sea as I drove through town, sloshing onto my windshield. What a mess.

I turned the corner at Spring Gulch road and left the twilight zone. Amazing the difference two degrees makes. Beautiful white flakes began to surround me, and the rest of the way to Teton Village was snowy. Ahhh. That's better.

Arrived safely at work and met up with Lauren, my counterpart. Here's the view that greeted us out our office window:

Now THAT'S some accumulation. Since we're just getting used to all the new systems and procedures, we'll both be working for the next couple of days, but after this week I probably won't ever see her since she works the opposite days I do. Pity. She's cool. We walk into the office, feeling stress-free since today was just the "practice run." Then we see a piece of paper taped to the computer informing us that we have to call channel 8 (ABC) in Idaho Falls for a live on-air conditions report and interview. Ha HA! So I AM using my acting degree after all. STOKE! Take that all you cynics who said Music Theater was a useless degree. (Thankfully my parents did not share that view when I announced my choice of courses of study.) The interview went smoothly and will apparently be a recurring event each Friday. Maybe we'll even get our voices back on the radio here in Jackson... technical issues changed our itinerary last season and they stopped recording us. Ah well - cake under the bridge. (which is why you can't eat it.... the water....)

Plodded our way through the rest of the report, then we were off to the season pass office to get our pictures taken. Funny how I always seem to have this dopey grin every year - me and all the other JHMR employees - that "it's snowing and they're giving me a pass" giggle we all know and love. Tomorrow is going to be sick. Then again, so is today.... which brings me to....

SNOW KING! And the two degrees this morning. By the time I got back to town, my temperature gauge (love that thing) read 31 degrees. Of course, the sky had cleared and the sun had appeared by this point, but the difference was evident on the surface of the roads. Ice from hell. The big chunky kind that has been driven through and mushed into pointy and hazardous death cookies. Yes, that is a technical term. But that's the roads. From the top of cougar the snow was deep and soft. There was enough to cover the liftline so I took a hard left off the chair and dropped directly into heaven. Steep and (mostly) well covered, the trail dropped me onto a nice traverse from which to sail. A traverse with a steep, soft landing. Carved through the softness, about a foot deep, and the snow silently made a beautiful arc each time I changed direction. Hit it 3 more times before I decided to check out another trail. Bison was just as nice, but not quite as steep. Of course, about two thirds of the way down, the consistency changed suddenly. There was still a foot of powder, but on top of it was a light crust from the low elevation rain. Kind of like a vacuum, it sucked you down. I had to lean as far back as possible just to keep my nose from sinking. And the groomed trail was pretty skied off, so I tried to stay off it as much as possible.

I finally decided it was time to go for a little hike. Took the high traverse over to exhibition, which had a few tracks through it, but still plenty of freshness. What a perfect idea. The problem with face shots is that you're so excited about them, you open your mouth. The snow tasted nice though. Very satisfying. The turns were great until I crossed the rain line, when suddenly staying upright became quite the challenge. Managed to make it back to the trail, and even hit a nice little kicker near the bottom of the hill. Ok, lather, rinse, repeat. No, wait, that was what I did in the shower after I got home. Ride lift, hike, and hit that line again. Lovely. And exhausting. My legs were jello by the end of the run, and my breath was... hmmm... I had lost it somewhere... As is often my policy, I decide during the last run that it IS my last run, and abide by that decision despite the adrenaline rush and the "I can rest on the lift" mentality that manifests itself right about the time I navigate myself through the "slow down" fence. Had time for a snack and a shower before I was off to my OTHER job. Ah, the life of a snowboard "bum" in Jackson.