Bro Down, Throw Down, Show Down Mood: rushed Topic: shred report
No new snow, 30 degree weather, and a fresh cut halfpipe - that alone was enough to convince me to do the Bro Down. Maybe I'll even get a sobe t-shirt....
Registration was from 8 to 9, with a mandatory rider safety meeting right at 9. I got there around 8:45. Apparently there weren't many other girls signed up, and I was the only one in the "over 19" age group. So they changed it to "over 16" and put me against a girl named Emma, who I never actually met. I think I know which one she was because there were only about 6 girls, and 2 of them were skiers, but I didn't see any of her runs (or anyone else's for that matter.) They gave me a competition bib which REEKED. Even with my jacket over it, I could still smell the stench. Yuck. We found out the halfpipe had been freshly cut AGAIN, but wasn't quite finished. Should be open by 9:30. I got myself an espresso and meandered up the Gondola to take a few warm up runs down the groomers. Fast and smooth, as usual. Warm and sunny, so hopefully the pipe will be soft by the time the competition starts. Spring conditions make for the best halfpipe riding.
At 10, the pipe still wasn't open, but a crowd was beginning to gather near the entrance. I stopped and waited with my fellow competitors. After no more than 5 minutes, JP came over and took away the "closed" gate to let us in. He told us if we liked the pipe, and knew who Ranyon was, tell him thanks. Since I DO know who Ranyon is, and I DID see him, and the pipe was INCREDIBLE, I told him how awesome he is. Of course, I've told him this before.... pretty much every time he cuts the pipe, because he ROCKS. But I'm sure it's still nice to hear.
Took as many practice runs as I could squeeze in before 11. I was feeling pretty confident and getting a foot or two out of the pipe, landing alley oops at the bottom every run. I dropped in fakie a few times and it felt smooth. I rode the rope tow, mostly, but I did hike a few times to warm up my muscles and get my heart pumping. Eleven rolled around and I was ready to go.
The girls' competition was done in Jam format, so there weren't any scheduled runs or scorecards. This was supposed to take the pressure off, but instead I felt as though I was racing the clock. Because I was. Twenty minutes means about 4 runs, and you really have to "throw down" so the judges remember you when you don't get individually scored. My first run was smooth, with lots of speed and air, and grabs on both sides. Second run I dropped in fakie, and was smooth the rest of the way down. Did an alley oop at the bottom. Third run I dropped in regular again, and had more speed than I've had all year. I was at least 2 feet out for the first 4 hits, then I went up the backside wall and sailed out of the pipe. And didn't turn. Whoops. Slid out on the landing, lost speed, but still managed to alley oop at the bottom. I was panting, but I needed to take another run. Dropping in fakie puts me on the same side of the pipe as the rope tow, so it's much faster (and less hiking at the top.) I made it to the top with three minutes to spare. Which meant it would DEFINITELY be my last run. Didn't really wait long enough to catch my breath, so I shouldn't be surprised that I spun out after my fakie turnaround on the frontside wall. I didn't go down, but I definitely didn't look suave either. Managed to finish the run and jump out on the frontside wall. Unstrapped and hiked up.
Since I didn't see anyone else's run, I have no idea what I was competing with. I do know that one of the other girls fell during the practice runs trying to spin, and I think I heard that she cut her lip. I don't know which girl it was, but it just goes to show you that we DO throw down and go for it, laying it all on the line during a competition. That's why I fell - go big or go home. If I didn't eat it once in a while, I'd starve... hehehe.... maybe that can be my new motto.
I didn't have to work Sunday night, but I was seriously tired from working a double the previous 2 nights, so I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony. I went home and crashed. I found out later that I had placed second. Hmmm.... didn't I place second last year? Someone else who used to live in Vermont placed second in a halfpipe competition that day, too - someone named Danny Kass. So I guess I'm in good company. USA is A-OK.
Got a lazy start this morning, so I didn't stop for breakfast. Skies were clear and I had my new camera with me. (Fedex delivered it Thursday, but I forgot to bring it to the mountain yesterday.) I headed over to Thunder to FINALLY take a shot of the area where I was cliffed out from directly under it. Just to see how bad it REALLY was.
Yikes.
Yeah, I definitely made the right decision to NOT just huck it. I continued down through the woods, and to my shock found POWDER!. Holy hannah. I guess nobody ever comes this way. The shaded areas were great, but where the sun was visible the snow was already getting mushy. I decided NOT to test the ungroomed on the rest of the way down and headed over to Casper. I was getting hungry. Besides, I needed to show Erek my new goggles and thank him for hooking me up with that deal. Erek is kewl. Erek is jealous. He'll probably be ordering Dragon goggles very soon himself. He showed me the ones he's been using, and they're almost as bad as mine. At least the lenses don't pop out every other run, but they're really scratched up and ready to be replaced. He admired the lens, and took it ouside to get a better view. Yeah, DRAGON GOGGLES ROCK! I am SO thrilled with them. No wonder 686 teamed up with them for their times limited line.
I figured, since I was there, and it was just 11 so they had just opened, I might as well eat lunch. Got some yummy chili, tried not to scarf it, and was back on the hill in no time.
Enough screwing around. Time to hit the halfpipe. It had been freshly cut, and despite the assurances of JP yesterday morning, it did NOT open yesterday. Now I'm REALLY glad I bailed. Took my first run through and could have sworn it got smaller. I was making it up the walls, and last time I hit it I barely made it halfway up. Of course, It was also much icier, despite the snowfall, and I'd only tried it once since I got the NEVER SUMMER. Edges certainly make a difference. Hiked back up - figured the exercise would do me good, and I always feel like I ride stronger when I'm hiking. Hit it again and got enough air to grab. Took the rope tow up and shed a layer. Ahhhh. That's better. Not as much better as it would have been if my shirt was a little more windproof, but my vest is perfect. Maybe I should get a Mammut softshell.... or maybe I should just bring the ibex one I already OWN tomorrow. I've spent a lot of money this week. Granted, most of it was on bills, but I've scored a good amount of gear, too. Good thing I'm workiing doubles all next week.
Rode the halfpipe all afternoon. Actually got out and did a bunch of grabs. I was feeling confident, so I dropped in fakie. It kinda reminded me of the first time I tried an ally-oop. Or the first time I rode a flat rail. I just did it. It felt totally easy and natural. Of course, I didn't ride all the way up the opposite wall very far, and I didn't turn, I just went back down regular, but I still managed to get plenty of speed by the end of the run. This is a good start. Of course, if I really wanted to learn to ride halfpipe, I'd probably have to move back to Oregon for the summer and ride Timberline or Meadows. But I'm not really interested in moving back to Oregon. So no olympic games in my future, unless I'm watching them on TV. But the Bro Down? Yeah, I'm there dude.
Frigid air Mood: cool Topic: shred report
New Snow: 0" Temperature: -7
Brrrrr. It's been colder, and it's not really that windy, so I bundled up and hopped in the gondola. I crusied over toward Casper, and the corduroy was actually soft - you could dig your edge right into it. Not scrapey or icy at all. The cold air bit at my face, and I tried to pull my neck gaiter up - of course, while you're maching down the hill, you can only do this with your teeth, so I didn't have a whole lot of success.
I made my way over to Casper and headed up the lift. Halfway up, I remembered that I was going to the halfpipe. Oops. Got on the lift out of habit. Ah well, maybe sleeping indian will be nice. Or maybe not - it hadn't been groomed, so it was rather sketchy. Still not ice, but hard packed enough. I took the first traverse I came to and almost got all the way across. When I lost speed, I dropped down through the ungroomed, crunchy snow. Not fun, so I cut diagonally over to the trail as quickly as possible.
The halfpipe was supposed to be open, freshly cut the day before. Of course, I was way too early and it wasn't quite ready. I decided to take another run. Again the icy air chipped away my will to ride - on the chairlift up and the fast run down. I took Werner, and the corduroy was perfect, but I just couldn't deal with the cold.... not getting much sleep the night before didn't help either....
Bailed. Got to the intersection of Rte 22 and turned right instead of left - I wanted to get that G3 shovel at Wilson Backcountry. Of COURSE they had just sold THREE of them THAT MORNING and were now sold out. They told me they'd placed an order, and were expecting more soon. Ah well. They do have black diamond probes, which is what I thought I wanted. I was right. They let me play with them and figure out which one would be easier to deal with in a panic, so I made an informed decision. They also had the black diamond collapsible poles I'd been looking for. I like the Life Link ones, but I've heard they're sometimes sticky to adjust in the cold, and with mittens on. I wanted to compare them to my other options. Again, I liked the black diamond better. Flick lock seems to work well, and they're just as short when collapsed.
Shopping Therapy Mood: happy Topic: snowboarding
Didn't ride today - had to work. Didn't get out of there until 5:30, when I zipped over to pick up Joshy from daycare. Dennis went to Targhee and played on his snowbike. He told me he had a fantastic day. High pressure has begun to settle over us, and with a great day under his belt and no new snow on the way, he decided to head back to Telluride tomorrow. It's been awesome having him here and riding with him, but I'm working a lot of doubles next week so I wouldn't really have much time to hang out anyway.
Last night, after NOT finding my camera, I came to the conclusion that it's either buried in the snow and won't be found until it's completely frozen, defrosted, and useless, or someone else discovered it and is putting it to good use. I suppose they could also be publishing my photos on the internet, but since I've already done that, I'm not particularly concerned. Luckily, I had downloaded most of the pix onto my computer, with the exception of a few gaper shots of our new construction at the Trapper Inn. Ah well. As my compulsive gambling friends like to say, it's only money. Went on ebay and found the exact same model, Canon SD400, with a 1 gig card, and ordered it. Should be here via fedex in a few days. AND it was 50 bucks less than I paid for the first one back in September. I can deal with that.
After Matt picked up Joshy, went out to Chinatown with Dennis. On the way home I stopped at the post office and discovered that my Dragon goggles had arrived. SCORE! They even came with a free replacement amber lens. And a cute little Dragon pin, which I magnetized and attached to my refrigerator. Sweet. The ionized lens is AWESOME. It looks a little dark inside my house, but I have a feeling it'll be perfect against the white background of a snowy mountain. Yee haw.
How many days until Friday? Ouch. Maybe I'll find some time this week to ride Snow King. Or maybe I'll find some time to sleep. I doubt it, but maybe.
Gaper-bowl Sunday Mood: spacey Topic: shred report New Snow: 6" Last 3 days: 15" Conditions: POWDER
I awoke at 3am, fully remembering a complex and vivid dream. I'm not going to get into too much detail, because we all know my posts are lengthy enough as it is, but the relevant part was as follows: I was riding down a slope, powder as deep as my chest. The snow was light and airy, and I passed right through it, though my momentum was slowing. I remember thinking that I'd better not fall because I'd be buried under a pile of snow if I did. At that moment, I realized I couldn't feel the surface of the snow below my board. I didn't fall, but I had no way to steer. As I continued to float, I heard Donnie yelling from above me "Get out of there!" I looked up and saw what looked like a tidal wave of snow way uphill from me. I knew it was an avalanche, and I knew I needed to swim to stay above the snow. During this entire sequence of events, my head never submerged. The snow that surrounded me was moving in one giant mass, and the surface was smooth, not debris (like in an actual avalanche.) As it stopped moving, I lost mobility but was only buried to my chest. My arms were under the snow. Then things got very surreal. An SUV was coming through the air, right at me. Someone stepped in front of it and said "you need to stop." The SUV stopped in mid air and sat down on the snow. The trunk opened (and it was now facing the other way and the trunk resembled that of a sedan.) Troy from BCP was in the trunk, and he thanked us for getting him out, because he had been trapped there for 3 days - apparently his friends thought it would be a funny prank but they had assumed someone would find him so they never came back to get him out. Erica was in other parts of my dream, but for some reason she was NOT a member of our backcountry party and I remember thinking it was odd that she wasn't with us. Since that's really more than enough to be relevant I'm not going any deeper into my psyche with the other events and "scenes" in my dream. Besides, while I may have remembered them clearly at the time, they are a bit fuzzy now.
Dennis rode in with me this morning. He is a night auditor, so his sleep schedule is rather atypical, but he's been awake as early as I am every day, and he needed a ride. Erica called me at 7 to tell me she was on her way, so we met her at nick's for breakfast. yummy.
The gondola line was reminiscent of a powder day during xmas break. We waited a REALLY long time, but finally made it to the top. Since throngs of people were on their way over to Thunder, we decided to avoid the mob scene. The road to Casper took us all the way over to Casper bowl. I was riding with the grace of a landlubber sufferring from seasickness. Dennis was dropping off everything in sight. I dropped a few smaller things, but didn't land any of them. Then I "accidentally" went over a 6 foot filled in rock drop. I saw it coming, I just didn't feel like steering away from it, and I've been there often enough to know that even the big rocks just aren't that big right now. Plus, even though six inches were reported (all since the lifts closed) there was a considerable amount more - probably 8 or 10 inches due to wind transport. But I didn't commit to the air and I tried to stop at the last minute so I just pouffed into the powder below. We reached the traverse, but it appeared to have been groomed VERY recently so we cut back into the woods and over to sleeping indian, which was smooth sailing. We lapped Casper for a while, going deeper into Moran woods each run. At one point, I was following Dennis through the trees, and they got really tight. I saw his track, but when I emerged from the trees, I noticed a snowboarder sitting just below me so i steered to avoid him. Hmmm.... that's not Dennis... maybe he didn't come this way. Just as I stopped, another snowboarder was coming around a the tree next to me, trying to avoid hitting HIS other friend, who was down in the middle of that runout. I slammed on the breaks and sat down while he quickly steered around me and got out of there. Whew. Wait, where did Erica and Dennis go? Oh, crap. I knew Dennis was way ahead of me, and figured Erica had passed me, so I tore through the rest of the run to catch up with them. They weren't at the lift. Erica had seen the clusterf*ck of snowboarders and thought I crashed. She yelled to Dennis to stop, and they waited for me. Oops. Eventually they figured they'd missed me so they came the rest of the way down. We encountered the collision carvers at the bottom, so we wound up traversing into Moran at the same time they did for our next run. Yeah, we kinda smoked 'em. Gapers.
Speaking of gapers.... one of these days I'm going to bring a can of spray paint and make a huge double ended arrow at the top of Casper with the words CLEAR UNLOADING AREA NOW underneath it. Every run, more gapers seemed to congregate right in front of the offload ramp. Not everyone on Casper is an expert. These people are a hazard to themselves, as well as anyone coming off the lifts. I yelled something of this nature as we got off the lifts. Erica said she wanted to just bowl them over. So I said that next run, we could play "Bowling for Gapers." In honor of bowling for soup, one of my favorite bands. And also in honor of the Superbowl. The term stuck. Expect to see it again.
We found lots of nice kickers with soft landings. At one point, we even stopped for a photo shoot:
When we were ready for a change, we headed over to Apres Vous. I ran into a friend and exchanged pleasantries while strapping in. I turned around to introduce my friend to Erica and Dennis. They were GONE. Oops. I traversed into the woods but knew I wouldn't find them. I did, however, have a great run through fresh, soft snow. I was pretty close to the boundary, so the traverse out was long and grueling, and I actually dropped all the way down before I finally reached the groomed part (I usually try to stay on one of the upper tracks so I have some room to manouver if I need it. I zipped down Teewinot and headed into the shop to meet up with Donnie, as planned. I was WAY early, and Donnie was WAY busy, so I wandered outside to look for Erica and Dennis. Eventually they found me - they had waited, realized I wasn't going to find them, and continued, only to stop again for a photo shoot.
After a brief pow-wow, Dennis decided to head off on his own. He didn't have any avy gear, and the danger was rated "considerable" today, so he chose to stay in bounds. Erica and I waited for Donnie, who then had to wait for the other guys who were meeting up with us. An hour later, our group was NINE people, and ready to go. Erica was getting antsy because she had to leave at 1:30 and drop Joshy off with his grandparents in Wilson before heading to work. Since there were too many people for one Gondi car, we rode up separately. Then the entire mass reconvened at the top and sped through the human slalom to Thunder. After a lengthy wait, we sped down to Sublette. At this point, Erica and I were riding with Donnie and Phil, who informed us they were going to hike over to Green River. Erica was annoyed, because she only had time to do Rock Springs, and if she had known they were hiking we could have left a half hour earlier instead of waiting for everyone. Ah well. Plans change. Life happens. Erica reminded me that I didn't have to be anywhere, or give her a ride, and I could go to Green River with the guys if I wanted to. Yeah, right. After the dream I had there was no WAY I was going off into the backcountry with a huge party, WITH Donnie, WITHOUT Erica. I can take a hint from my subconscious.
We traversed over to the backcountry gate, where we bid farewell to the guys. Erica and I cut down a face of fresh, silky, slightly windblown powder. Heaven. We continued together, stopping after each traverse to select our route. We saw a large group of gapers WITHOUT EQUIPMENT, behaving recklessly, not waiting for each other before dropping. We avoided crossing their path. She even scolded them for not bringing gear into the backcountry. See, you're not just responsible for yourself out there. You're not just responsible for your own party. You are responsible for everyone you happen to encounter, and likewise they should be responsible for you. If you were to happen upon an avalanche, you would NOT abandon the helpless skier or snowboarder who was buried. You would stop what you were doing and help locate them, and dig them out. You would hope that others would do the same if it were you. Donnie taught me that. Actually, he told me that on the phone right before I fell asleep. Maybe that explains my dream...
I had given Dennis my house phone so he could contact us after our backcountry run, but my phone was dead. He's a smart cookie, so he called Erica's phone instead. She told him where we were and that we'd call him when we got to Union Pass. Then we crossed another flat section.
I ate it. Oops.
By the time I managed to get back on my feet, Erica was nowhere in sight. I went around the traverse, but didn't see her, or any sign of where she had dropped. I yelled. No answer. I cut down and yelled. No answer. I cut down further and yelled. I heard a voice below me saying "I'm above you." and something about "the meadow." No one in sight. I cut down further, still no sign of Erica, so I yelled again. No answer. I sent a "where R U" text message. I cut down a bit further and kept looking. I finally reached the drain, and stopped right at the entrance, knowing she would HAVE to pass by there. I text'd her again and received a response - "Up." I thought she meant she was above me. My phone rang. She couldn't hear me, but I could hear her. She was already at Union Pass.
Let me say right now that if anyone other than Erica ever did this, it would be my last backcountry run EVER with that person. After all that talk about skiing responsibly and bringing equipment to the backcountry - well equpment won't do you any good if you're not in a party with other people. Sure, you can hope that someone happens upon you at the precise moment you need them, but the MOST IMPORTANT part of backcountry travel is to make sure no one is left behind. I KNOW Erica knows this. I also know the only reason she left without me was because she was pressed for time, and she would NEVER have left me if we hadn't already been so close to the traverse out. She KNEW I knew where I was, and there were loads of other people around, and there was very low avalanche danger from there to the ski boundary. It's one thing to abandon your friends IN BOUNDS, when you know which lift they are heading towards and the area is patrolled and controlled. It's another thing entirely when you're in an area that isn't monitored. DON'T EVER TRY THIS AT HOME! And especially, don't ever try this on VACATION! Don't leave anyone behind.
I sent Erica a message, letting her know where I was and that I could get back safely. I told her not to wait, since I knew she was pressed for time. Someone did wait, however - I encountered Dennis at the bottom of Union Pass lift! He had been on his way down the hobacks when we had spoken with him. We headed back to the base and got in the line for the Tram. Normally I would flat out refuse, but I had already taken plenty of runs and found oodles of powder, so I didn't mind. Besides, the company was good. We even met up with another guy in a 686 jacket - he was wearing the times collection and I commented on the Dragon / 686 combo. He was eager to tell us all the wonderful features of his jacket. 686 does that to people.
Dennis and I stopped at Corbet's Cabin to take some gaper photos and defrost. We traversed way over to the other side of Rendezvous Bowl. I was amazed how fresh and soft it was. The wind had filled in whatever tracks had been carved before us, leaving a beautiful blanket of white fluffiness for us to tear through. We wandered into the hobacks and took our time coming down. My body was definitely feeling it, and we decided that when we reached the bottom we would head home. The powder was great until we got to the bottom, where it was pretty thrashed. Which I knew, because I had already been across it on my way out of Rock Springs. But we did find some nice launches on the way down:
I decided to stop by the shop on our way out to see how Donnie's run went. He told me I should be glad I didn't go with them. They set off several slides in Green River. Luckily, no one was caught in any of them, so no rescue operations were necessary. Somehow, I have a feeling that might not have been the case had I been with them. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd much rather be safe than sorry. Last night, I listened to my dreams. Today, I'm safe.
Fancy footwork Mood: hungry Topic: shred report New Snow: 4" Last 3 days: 15" Conditions: POWDER
I met up with Dennis early and we were in the Gondola line before it opened. Nonetheless, a lot of people were ahead of us. Since we knew that Thunder and Sublette, as well as the tram, had been blown down yesterday, and since we knew the prediction was calling for high winds, and since we weren't first in line, we decided to hike straight up stairway to heaven. Steep and exhausting, but definitely worth it. Since I am a slow hiker, already tired from sleep deprivation, we stopped a few times to let the faster people pass and let me catch my breath. Dennis, of course, was fine. He's used to hiking in Colorado at even higher elevations than 9,000 ft.
We got to the top and the entire Steep & Deep snowboard camp had just come up the other ridge. They went out the gate when we did and promptly blocked the entire knoll where we wanted to strap in. No worries, we just waited for them to get out of the way, since we knew they would stop and wait for their instructor anyway. Besides, there's nothing worse than dropping right behind someone and spending the entire traverse trying NOT to catch up to them. So we let them get out of the way, then we finally dropped, and just as we were passing them, their instructor decided that it was time for them to continue their trek across. 15 more seconds, and we would have been in front of them. Instead, we had to slam on the brakes to avoid plowing into them and incurring the wrath of the inconsiderate instructors who most certainly would accuse US of not being conscious of others on the trail. But again, no worries. Plenty of snow for everyone today, and the camp would all follow the same line once they got where they were going anyway. Since their destination was the crags, we decided to take Casper Bowl instead. I think I crossed two ski tracks the entire way down. It was completely fresh, and Dennis and I chose parallel paths so as not to get in each others' freshies. Hella cool. We stopped right above this nice little rock jump - at least I assume it was a rock, but it was completely covered by the snow. It had a nice launch, though, so he hit it and set up to shoot me. I may have lost MY camera, but Dennis still had HIS. And his camera works GREAT!
After that wonderful run, we meandered down to Casper lift. As usual, there was very little waiting involved. We decided to head over to Thunder and Sublette, and possibly even hike headwall from Pepi's Ridge. Until we saw the liftline at Thunder. Screw that! We dropped over the ridge and noticed that lower tram line was actually GROOMED. They never do that. But I should have remembered it, because it was listed as the 'groomed run of the day' on the ski report that morning. Derrrrrr. We carved down that, which was smooth fast corduroy. Considerably different from our first run, but pleasant nonetheless.
We took the gondola back up, cruised back to Casper, and decided to check out the halfpipe. Sleeping Indian had been groomed early, so there was a nice layer of moguls on it by the time we got there. We carved down, then headed over to AV. The halfpipe was beautiful - it had just been cut that morning. Dennis only does halfpipe on his snow bike, so he watched me take a lame-o run (I have yet to air out of that thing this year.) I actually remembered how to pump the walls, though - I guess my summer skateboarding cross-training paid off. Now all I need is a little more speed... or maybe a slightly softer pipe so I have the confidence to not speed check from the start... Ah well, I have a week to figure it out. Next Sunday is the Bro down throw down show down (formerly the hole in the wall huckfest) so I'd better "get my shred on" if I want to compete.
We hit the baby park on our way down. As usual there were a lot of babies there. I hit the first two rails and the first two kickers, but then I caught up to the little squirts, and since I couldn't tell if there were more of them toddling down the landings, I played it safe and avoided the rest of the jumps. I suppose I COULD have tried to hit some of the other rails.... still working on the confidence for that.
I had promised myself that I was going to get custom footbeds for my boots today. Donnie is the MASTER of boot fitting, and he had mentioned that he'd be working at 11:30. It was about quarter after, so we headed into the shop and did some browsing until he got there. Donnie, being the PRO that he is, got me set up in no time at all, and though I was feeling pretty tired, I needed to get back on the hill to test out his handiwork. But I could already tell it was 100% better than my previous setup.
Dennis and I headed up the gondola, not for "one last run" because saying that is worse than saying "this day couldn't possibly get any worse." We cut through the woods below sundance, then decided to traverse back over to GV in search of some obscure powder that might be lurking in the trees. We cut down and over and down and over, crossing the gondi line (where some freshies were lurking) until we finally got to the right side (skiers' right) of GV. The hidden powder field was pretty tracked, so we cut back up to Slalom and down FIS woods. THAT was fresh. Crusted from melt/freeze with spring conditions in places, but untracked, at least. Certainly fun enough. And even with all that traversing, my already tired feet felt great. Did I mention that Donnie ROCKS?
"Did I thank you yet?" "No." "Don't worry. I will."
Lost and Found Mood: blue Topic: shred report
New snow: 5" Last 3 days: 20"
My friend Dennis arrived yesterday afternoon. He was tired (from the drive) and I was tired (due to my work schedule) so we hung out for a little while but went to sleep pretty early. I woke up, did the report, and headed over to nick's for breakfast. Dennis wandered in just as I was finishing. What timing!
We got in line for the gondola, and I mentioned that my camera was probably going to freeze since I had it attached to my backpack, outside my jacket. I figured I'd check it in a run or two to see how it was doing. I said I wished I had a case like that so my cell phone would be as easy to access, but then my battery would just die.
Yes. I'm retarded. I know.
We got off the gondola and headed through Woolsey Woods to Airbowl. The snow was soft and fresh, as it always is, even when 50 gondola cars have been loaded in front of you. That's why we went to Casper instead of Thunder. We tore it to shreds (that's why they call me shred grrl.... that or maybe it's a reference to the tatters on the cuffs of every pair of pants I own because I'm short...) I hit the traverse, grabbed the backside of my board, landed, and cut through the trees and across two trails. I almost stopped and took liftline down, it was so smooth and buttery with the fresh on top of the corduroy. But I knew it would be deeper and softer in the woods, so I led the way. We popped out on Sleeping Indian, which had not been groomed. It didn't matter - it was just as soft as the snow in the trees. We cut back through the not-yet-fenced-off race course and laid out some fast carves. By the time I got on the lift, I was sweating so I decided to take my vest off. I did, after all, have a backpack on (the plan was to meet up with Erica at 10 and do Rock Springs.) I didn't want the backpack to fall off the lift, so I intended to attach it to the chair. It was then I noticed my camera was NOT attached to it. OH CRAP.
We sped down the groomer in case it had fallen when I took off my backpack. No luck. We cut through the trees and across the trails, following my line. It was surprisingly easy to do since there were only a few other tracks and I remembered my run pretty clearly. No luck. We told the lift operators, and I called the gondola and told THEM. No luck.
Of course, I wouldn't have needed luck if I hadn't been an IDIOT and had put the camera INSIDE my backpack like someone with a shred of intelligence. But that's definitely NOT why they call me shred grrl...
At this point, Erica called me to let me know she was still in the shop getting her board looked at. She had hit a rock last weekend, and compressed the edge pretty bad. The base was still intact, though. We went to do one more gondi run just in case I had dropped it while I was strapping in. I told the gondi operators I had ridden in either car 21 or 31... I wasn't sure. We didn't see the camera at the summit, and no one had dropped it off to any of the employees, so we retraced my path through the woods. Again, it was amazingly easy to identify. And again, no luck. We cruised the rest of the way down, hitting the fresh snow in the trees off Jackson Face. For a bad day, I certainly was having a good time...
Met up with Erica in the shop. She was pretty excited because they said they could fix her board, but that meant she had to switch her bindings and ride her old board instead. While we were waiting, Donnie came in and told us he needed to move his truck. He and Erica went to do that, I got a cappucuino, and before long we were on our way up the gondola.
We took a quick run over to Thunder. Erica cut me off on the traverse, but I saw her coming so I got out of the way. Then she cut Donnie off and almost crashed into him. He probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't apologized. When Donnie rides, he's in the ZONE. Thunder lift was really windy, and we noticed that Sublette wasn't moving, but then by the time we got to the top, it was moving again so we headed over there. We cut through the woods to the left of Grand, where Erica AGAIN cut Donnie off, and AGAIN he didn't even notice. Since I was following them, I noticed. But we love Erica so we forgive her. At the bottom of Sublette, I checked the time. Almost 12:30. I needed to be back in town in time to shower, cash my paycheck, deposit my paycheck, acquire food, and get to work by 3. So I needed to bolt. I also didn't trust Sublette not to go down 2 chairs after I got onto it, thus stranding me near a windy tower for an undetermined amount of time. Either way, I DEFINITELY wasn't giong to have enough time to hit the backcountry anyway.
Side note: I was right. After 10 minutes of waiting in line, my friends were told they would not be allowed to board Sublette because it was DOWN due to high winds. Surprise, surprise.
My last run, though lonely, was one of the best. Totally untracked most of the way down. Spring snow, to be sure, NOT powder, but fresh nonetheless. I cruised down to UP and headed for my car. A busy day. A frustrating day. Sure I miss my camera, but it's replacable. My friends and I are alive, healthy, uninjured, and we got to ride some fresh snow. Somehow, I just can't bring myself to feel bad about that.
Jonesin' Mood: blue Topic: snowboarding
New Snow: 6" New snow since I was last on the mountain: 27"
The snow is relentless. Fine by me. But I'm working. Today, AGAIN we got a pile of snow, then it cleared right around the time the lifts open, and now it's a beautiful sunny day. If I were on the mountain right now, I'd go up Thunder and take a picture of the ridge where I got cliffed out Saturday so people would know where I was talking about.
Anticipation is making me jittery. Or maybe that's the caffeine. Tonight, my friend Dennis is coming into town. (He's the one on the x-bike that I posted about on November 13, 2005. He lives in Telluride, but he comes up to Jackson for about a week every year. Since he doesn't have a huge posse with him this year, he didn't rent a condo, but instead is staying with me. So I have to go home and arrange things and prepare for company (in other words, dredge the air mattress out of the closet and inflate it, move furniture out of the path of the pull-out couch... put a mint on the pillow... errr.... leave me alone. I work in a hotel. Sometimes I forget that I'm not at work. Which is unusual because I'm hardly EVER not at work. Except tomorrow. Tomorrow, I ride. Right after I get off work....
Steeper and Deeper Mood: chatty Topic: shred report
New snow: 11" Past 3 days: 25"
Oh, yeah. It's still snowing. At least I actually woke up on time this morning. But you won't hear me say "it HAS to be better than yesterday." No way. I learned my lesson.
Erica called me bright and early, and I was all ready to go by the time 8:00 rolled around. The phone system, however, had other ideas. As I was on my way out the door, I had to stop and call I.T. and explain what was going on, since the problem stemmed from the measures I tooke to correct yesterday's problem. Nonetheless, I was still in line, waiting for the Gondola to open, at 8:30. Erica had made plans to meet Donnie at 11:30 so we could all go to Rock Springs together. She wanted to hit it right away, and I told her we could ride around, see how it was IN bounds first, then decide about heading out the gate. We were early enough that the line at Thunder hadn't gotten out of hand yet, and we knew the gondola was packed, so taking a run that would put us back at the base seemed illogical. Besides, we needed to find NORTH facing slopes. We took Grand woods over to Sublette. I stayed on the top of the ridge. Erica cut down the south facing slope toward laramie bowl. The snow chunked right off the face just as she started down it. Oh, joy. Rocks. Just what she wanted to go down through on her new board. But she managed. Meanwhile, back on the ridge, the snow was fresh but not nearly as deep as I knew it would be on the right slope. So we went up Sublette and encountered a nice young man on the lift. I think his name was Brandt. Erica was getting really frustrated with gapers at this point, and started going off about the idiots in line ahead of us who tried to fit 5 people on a quad and the girl who was such a snot her very presence was offensive to Erica earlier this morning. Since 'gaper' is pretty specific resort local terminology, she had to explain the definition to him. She told him HE was clearly NOT a gaper. He asked us where we were going, we told him Cirque, and he asked if he could tag along. Of COURSE!
We dropped into thigh deep powder in Tensleep Bowl. It was incredible. Unfortunately, it was also a very short part of the run. Ah well, off to Cirque. We stopped right at the entrance, and I pointed out the rock Dave had shown me last weekend. Erica and I both hit it, then cruised down through deep and mostly fresh powder. Brandt followed us, and thanked us for showing him such awesome terrain. Yeah, we're great. We know. We cruised back to thunder, where the line had grown considerably since our last visit. We waited. And then we noticed Diana, our boss, in line a few chairs ahead of us! We called out to her and told her we'd meet her at the top. Coolness! She's awesome, and we never get to ride with her. OH, and she rides a MONOSKI! She also RIPS.
We took our favorite run down to surveyor's rock, and Diana was kind enough to shoot some pictures of us! Since she got my takeoff AND landing, I decided to play around in fireworks and merge them together. The result is below:
Sure, it's a little odd. Here are the actual pics of me, as well as the pics of Erica. I've even included a zoomed in version so you can tell it's actually us!
It's so nice having other people along - most of my pictures are not OF me because most of them are taken BY me. What a great day. We got back to the bottom of thunder, where the line was getting ridiculous. As we were offloading, my phone rang - it was Angelene, who I haven't talked to in a really long time, and who I HOPE is coming back to Jackson very soon because I miss her and the Trapper Inn misses her and she's just a super cool person to be around. I didn't want to delay my fellow riders, so I kept it brief, but just as I was putting my phone away it rang AGAIN, only this time it was tech support for the malfunctioning phone system I had dealt with this morning. I had to take the call. I told the others to go on without me, and I'd catch up with them next run. I dealt with the issue, then realized I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. It was already almost 11, so there was no way we would have time to take a run through rock springs before meeting Donnie at 11:30, so I knew Erica would forgive me. I made a sharp left and carved through the trees above paintbrush. Unbelievably sick. I didn't want to cut too close to the bomb tower (or whatever that thing is, I think it launches avy bombs toward headwall.) Last time I did this run, I wound up stuck on the little traverse right above the canon, so I cut left and dropped down into the woods by paintbrush. Yummy. Once again, powder was thigh deep (at least on me - I'm pretty short...) and I found fresh lines down to the mushroom chutes. From there I grabbed the high traverse to Casper and cut down when it looked fresh. Then I was on the low traverse, and then I was in the bathroom. Then my phone rang.... I told Erica I'd just meet her at the bottom at 11:30. I don't think she had realized how late it was getting. I believe she took Gannett to the bottom, which was the groomer's choice, and ironically she had been asking earlier where the heck Gannett actually was.
We met up with Donnie and his roommate, Nick. Since Donnie had to be back at work by 2:30 and Erica had to be at work in TOWN by 3, the plan was to jet over to the gate and take Rock Springs so we wouldn't have to spend time hiking. The lines were long, but the company was good so it didn't feel like it took very long. Donnie was kind enough to hold the gate for me, but when I grabbed it to go through it I wound up crashing into it with my body and closing it in front of me. Sheesh. I managed to manouver it back open and slide around it, and hurried to catch up with the rest of the crew.
I hate being a whiner, but my riding was totally horrid. I blame my goggles. The lens keeps popping out and then they fog. Yuck. I am SO buying Dragon goggles as soon as I finish updating this blog. Sheesh. I suppose part of it was the fact that I was tired - cumulative lack of sleep plus riding really hard all morning in deep powder equals one very tired shred grrl. But I'm sticking with the goggle theory. Spy can suck my... er.... tail pipe!
I managed to stay with the group, mainly because they are experienced backcountry travellers who patiently wait for the stragglers. I hate being a straggler almost as much as I hate being a whiner. So I didn't whine. I accomplished this by keeping my mouth shut. The run itself was way better than anything we could have hit in bounds, especially this late in the day. Since we didn't have time to hike out to some of the more obscure slopes, we were in a pretty travelled area (at least for backcountry anyway.) We found lots of natural terrain features to hit, as well as steep, fresh snow. Soon we found ourselves in the drainage (as I have started calling the lower part of the gully where you have to traverse back to the hobacks.) I usually stay as far left as possible, but I was bringing up the rear, and as such could only see the one person who was ahead of me, who happened to be Nick.
YYAAARRRGGGHHHH! Side note: when I was in 3rd grade I was in a spelling bee. It was down to me, and the most popular girl in our class. She got the word happened, or happening, or something like that. She spelled it with 2 p's and 2 n's. Which was wrong. Even if I hadn't known how to spell it, I should have been able to guess correctly after that. But she was the most popular girl in our class, and she was clearly frustrated that she had missed that word. I wanted to give her another chance - a do-over. It was only a stupid spelling bee anyway. The outcome obviously wasn't important because I can't remember which one of us wound up winning. And TO THIS DAY, I still can never remember how to spell happening! Maybe after this rant I will.... but today I had to run the spell checker to make sure I didn't mess it up again. YARGH!
OK. Rant over. Now where was I? Oh yeah, in the drainage. Following Nick. On previous runs through the drainage, I have been paranoid. I was afraid of missing the traverse. I stayed as far left as possible, to ensure that I would wind up somewhere on the bottom of the hobacks, higher than union pass traverse. Nick cut right. I followed. The snow was much better, and less tracked. I had no idea how far down we were, but Nick knew where he was going so I stayed right with him. And he stopped periodically to make sure I stayed right with him. The tracks we followed dropped us out right at union pass, so we traversed over. To my surprise, we found only Donnie. Since Erica had been leading the pack, we had assumed that Donnie followed her through the drainage, but he had cut through a different way. She had taken the high traverse, then waited for us at the hobacks. Or possibly somewhere along the traverse dropping onto the Hobacks. We waited a couple of minutes before we saw her bright blue jacket approaching. My phone rang AGAIN so I hopped on a chair with the solo guy in front of us so as to not interfere with the conversation. Besides, I was having some major boot pain and didn't want to have to support my board while squished onto the lift with 3 other people. Anyway, the call was from I.T. who had finally fixed the problem and needed some more details from me to ensure that I didn't inadvertently cause it to happen again. I was finally off the phone by the time we got to the top of the lift, and waited for the others. Donnie and Nick were going to take some more runs since it was only 1:30. 1:30?!!! It's been a pretty eventful day for me already - and it's only 1:30? Wow. Erica wanted to go visit Joshy, and all I wanted to do was take off my boots. I headed off to the car, got comfy, and drove over to kids' ranch to pick her up. Then we drove to the MOB to drop off the keys. Then we tried to order Chinese food from Chinatown, but they don't open until 4:30 on Sundays. I did NOT know that. This explains why no one answered the phone the LAST time I tried to order food on my way home... must've been a Sunday. Ah well. Went to Quizno's instead.
It's supposed to snow all week. Ya gotta love Wyoming.
Don't ever use the expression "this day couldn't possibly get any worse." As I unloaded my board from the car I remember thinking about Shania Twain's song "up, up, up, can only go up from here." I thought it was an appropriate description of my day. Actually, it's ironic, looking back on the events that unfolded, because those lyrics LITERALLY described the situation in which I found myself. But first things first.
First, I woke up this morning. Through bleary eyes I tried to focus on the digital clock on my cable box. It looked like it said 7:08. I squinted at it. Yep. 7:08. I slept through three different alarm clocks. I was already over an hour late for work. ON A POWDER DAY! Bad, bad, bad. I was out of the house within 5 minutes, and got out to the village around 7:30-ish. I updated the phone right away, then started to work on the roundup, since everything else was already late but that, at least, would only be a few minutes late. Riiiiight. If you read my report yesterday (or if you scroll down and read it now) you know that our printer isn't working. I can deal with that. I try to log onto our computer. It's not the right computer, which means my user id and password don't work. They were working on some project and switched out the computers. No sweat, I'll use Anna's computer..... which doesn't have the printer set up. I couldn't get it to "find" any other printers on the network, so i couldn't print that out. I worked on a couple other updates, but by this time Anna was already in, and she called tech support... oh yeah, it's after 8.... tech support is available! Sweet. We got it printed out and I went upstairs to retrieve it. I figured I'd use the copy machine up there, but it decided to statically charge all the pages and stick them together, so I took it back downstairs and managed to finish printing it without incident. I finished the other updates, and updated the local phone, but the 888 line wouldn't update because I can't update it if anyone calls in while I'm trying to record it. And when it's a half an hour late being updated, there are twice as many calls, and it was a mess. I tried for a half an hour, but no luck. Finally I just made sure everyone in the office knew and told the front desk to just tell people to call the local number. Whew. What a day. Things can only get better, right?
Since I had missed the lift ops pickup for the roundups, I decided to deliver them myself. Pop quiz - do you know where all the giant trail map signs with boxes for the grooming report are? If not, you're about to.... well, actually at the end of the day I still had 2 left, so it's possible I may have missed one.... but I didn't go to moose creek and I'm pretty sure there's one there, and I think the other one goes to the lift supervisor, so I probably did hit them all. Anyway, there are 4 at the base - one at the tram, one by the Walk Festival Hall, one by Teewinot, and one by the Gondola. I ran into my friend Tag who works at Union Pass, so I gave him the copy to go over there. Sweet timing. See, my day is already getting better. I went up the Gondola and dropped off the one at the top. I took a run through the powder down to Thunder, hitting the gully and traversing over into mushroom chutes, past the sign that says "caution, cliff area." The Thunder roundup is at the top of the lift, so I rode up with some skiers and their ski instructor. They were discussing the cliff signs, and I told them that if it said "caution, cliff area" that meant there were cliffs, but there were chutes around them and you could get down without dropping them. If it said "CLOSED cliff area" there wasn't a way out and it was a cliff band. They said they didn't really want to hit either, and discussed where they were going to ski. At the top of the shack I dropped off my report and headed down to thunder through the powdery trees. Where it was soft, it was beautiful. Where it was skied off it was totally scratchy. Luckily there was a lot of fresh.
Sublette's report is also at the top of the chair. I dropped it off and crossed back over to hit tensleep, which was phenomenal. I wanted to take either cirque or expert chutes down, then traverse over to casper to deliver my next roundup. I can never find the entrance to Expert Chutes, but today I saw it and cut into it. Woo hoo! I saw a sign that said "closed, cliff area" and traversed over above it until I saw a sign that said "caution, cliff area." I took my own advice and cut down. I could see huge rocks, but it looked like there were a couple of very steep, narrow chutes. Then I fell.
I knew I was about 20 feet above some hairy rocks, so I concentrated and sank my edge into the snow. I was sliding on my butt, so it wasn't that hard to maintain control, but it was pretty steep and the light snow fell off the hardened surface. I looked down the chute and saw only rocks. Figures. I traversed carefully across to the next chute. Also only rocks. Crap. I saw some skiers down below and yelled down to them, asking if there was a path anywhere, or even something that I could climb around and get down through. They told me I should be able to clear it if I jumped, but I didn't really see a good launch that was accessible from where I was. At this point I was about 10 feet above the cliffs, and looking up, it was only about 10 feet to hike. I asked how big the drop was, and they told me it was 20 feet, but I'd have to jump OUT to clear it. If it had been 8 feet, with a nice launch, I probably would have dropped it. Hell, I probably would have gone to it on PURPOSE intending to drop it. But 20 feet is a little beyond my level of fear tolerance, so I decided I'd better hike back up.
I unstrapped my back foot and tried to kick a it into the surface. The snow just sluffed down the slope. My foot sank into the powder, but didn't find anything to grab onto. I strapped back in and tried to relax. "everything is going to be alright" from Yellowcard's "Believe" started running through my mind. I took a few deep breaths. I was right above a tree, which I thought might give me a bit of leverage. They guys below told me I should use the tree to try and unstrap. I edged over to it and wedged my board against it. My left arm was wrapped around the trunk, and my right arm was clinging to the branches. I reached down and tried to unstrap again, but still couldn't get a foothold, let alone turn around to try and hike back up. I REALLY didn't want to take the board off because at this point it was the one thing keeping me from sliding down the hill and over the rocks. I yelled down to the skiers and told them I wasn't going to be able to manouver from where I was, but at least I was stable for the time being. They told me they'd go get ski patrol. Just after they left, I remembered that my cell phone was in my pocket. I called the resort operator, who transferred me to ski patrol, and I told them where I was. They had already heard about me, and had me describe my exact position so someone could come down and find me. Once they were confident that we were both describing the same area, they sent a patroller with a rope.
Here's where I was hanging out - the arrow points to the tree to which I so desperately clung:
Ski patrol ROCKS. They are so awesome! Thank you so much for helping me! I had told them I was stable and uninjured, so if there was some sort of horrible crash they could leave me hanging for a while, but luckily for everyone on the mountain (especially me) there were only a few minor accidents. I waited MAYBE 5 minutes before I heard someone yell "hello?". I yelled back, and he looked down and saw where I was. He said he was going to ski down to where I was to pack the snow down, then kick a boot pack in so I could hike back up. He asked if I could just turn around and climb, but I told him I was nervous about losing my footing if I unstrapped and I preferred to use a belay rope. After he had hiked back up, he lowered a rope to me, which I put around my chest. I unstrapped and used the tree to leverage myself so I could remove the board and turn around. Using the board to create a handhold, I managed to hike up to where the patroller was. At that point, a second patroller had arrived to assist if necessary. Between the two of them, I hiked across, above the rocky cliffs and into the first of the Expert Chutes. I got my board back on, thanked them, and cleaned off my goggles. Of course, they were still really foggy so my run down the chute was not nearly as cherry as it should have been, but the snow was more than knee deep and mostly fresh, so it was a great run anyway.
I managed to find lots more freshies on the way to casper, where I delivered another roundup (once again, at the TOP of the lift.) Moran woods was incredible, although my goggles were so fogged at this point I felt as though I did that run blindfolded. I dropped off both traverses and cut down to AV, my final stop on the mountain roundup dropoff adventure. Of course the map is at the top, and this one is high enough that I had to take off my board and climb up a snowbank onto a pole to replace it. Yeah, that was NOTHING. I found a path down through the trees that I haven't taken before, and got to hit some untracked snow on the way down. About halfway down, I crossed the snow line of the day - we had received 11 inches at the top, 7 inches at mid, and ONE inch at the bottom. It's a gradual shift, and it was snowing all day, so there was still quite a bit of snow, but I definitely felt the difference. I managed to cruise the rest of the way down on the groomer, and paused just above teewinot to make sure I hadn't missed a roundup. Nope. No sign at the top. Which was exactly what they had told me at the bottom when I delivered the roundup there. So I think I hit them all. I'll ask Eric when he picks them up tomorrow.... assuming I WAKE UP when my alarm goes off...
So an eventful day, despite the late start. Actually, an eventful day BECAUSE of the late start. But I'm home, and I'm safe (and uninjured), and I'm not leaving the couch unless I need something from the refrigerator (or to use the bathroom.... I'm not Jack Bauer, after all....)
Have a great day. Stay safe. And don't ever use the expression "things couldn't possibly get any worse." Because anything is possible. And no matter how bad it gets, there's always something worse that you can be thankful you avoided. Just be sure when you wish to "only go up from here" that's really what you want. Sometimes it's better to be able to go down.
Patience Mood: irritated Topic: shred report
New Snow: 5"
The first few hours of my day were frought with technical difficulties. Raymer plot wasn't working. The printer was on the fritz, even before I tried to use it. I am resourceful. I used the avy report and the tram tower info to get the info I needed. I sent the grooming report to the printer in the office next door. Of course, I don't actually have a passcode for that office, so I set off the security alarm retrieving the printout, but all in all I was super efficient and finished right on time, as usual. I quickly got into my snow clothes. As I was lacing my boots, the lace disintegrated. I tried to knot the two pieces together, and they broke again. And again. So I went downstairs and bought a new lace. Extra SUPER long, but also strong enough to lace my boot TIGHT. Sweet. I'm ready to go.
Of course, I'm meeting people who said they'd be here around 9:30 or so. Even after a leisurely breakfast at Nick's, it wasn't even 9 yet. I thought about taking some runs, but we had a huge backcountry expedition planned and I had to work at 3, so the last thing I needed was for THEM to have to wait for ME. I wandered up to the shop, got a triple macchiato, and ogled a 686 jacket on the sale rack. I wandered back to the tram to wait. I called Erica - she was just leaving town, and had just spoken with Donnie, who was also just leaving town. I surveyed the tram line. Not making the 9:20. Not looking like we'd be in line quickle enough to make the 9:40. I hate the tram. I hate squishing into the car and riding up for 12 minutes in a half squat. I hate waiting 20 minutes in between cars. But the terrain makes it all worthwhile if you're going out the gates. So I waited.
9:45. No Erica. No Matt. No Donnie. No way we're making the 10:00 tram or even the 10:20 at this point. Crap. I have to work at 3. Why didn't I just take some runs. Erica told me to take some runs. Too late now....
10:00. Got sick of waiting. I left the tram dock and got in the gondola line. I was about halfway through when my phone rang. Erica was on her way up from the tram dock, and she had found Donnie in the parking lot. She said that because of the wind and visibility we were going up the gondi to thunder to sublette to the lower gate instead of taking the tram. Nice. I got out of line to meet her in front of the shop. I showed her the jacket I was ogling. We met up with Donnie. Matt was in the warehouse, waiting for his coworker who was loaning him some backcountry gear (for Erica, since I had HER shovel....) We waited.
At this point, I was unbelievably cranky. I didn't know how long the backcountry adventure would take, and I was starting to think I wouldn't have time to go and I'd have to just take a couple of runs in bounds before heading back to town. I got really annoyed and started to storm off but Donnie and Erica stopped me before I got back into the gondi line and ditched them. Friends are nice like that. When I get really frustrated, I have a tendency to say EXTREMELY hurtful, inappropriate, insulting things to the people I care about. Since I don't like doing that, I prefer to remove myself from the situation until I calm down. I'm generally pretty tolerant and I don't let it show when I'm annoyed, so when I reach the breaking point I tend to snap. hard. I really didn't want to do that right before heading into the backcountry. I understand that patience is the most important thing to take with you when you go out the gates - patience to wait your turn going down steep sections - patience to wait for everyone in your group and make sure no one gets hurt or lost or stuck - and patience to stop and plan your line instead of impetuously hurling yourself down every fresh face or off every rock drop that appears in front of you. I was afraid I had used up that patience, thereby making me a liability to everyone in our group. Luckily, my friends managed to calm me down long enough to wait two more minutes, which was all it took for Matt to ski down from the warehouse.
As usual, I had completely disassembled while we were waiting, and it pretty much took the entire ride up to get all my gear organized. At the top, we strapped in and went straight for the gully. This was my first run EVER with Donnie and I know he totally rips, so I was eager to see if I would be able to keep him in sight. I'm pretty sure he was taking it easy, partially because we were with him, but also because visibility was rough and the conditions were a little rough. Five inches of feather light snow on top of 2 days worth of sun baked crust. Where it was fresh, it was scratchy. Where it wasn't fresh, it was piles of snow that wouldn't pack into moguls because the snow was too light, surrounded by crust. Sketchy. I took all my aggression out on the mountain, and it felt good. My edges held, and I absorbed the uneven surface through concentration and sheer force of will. I did the same thing down Grand, not once considering the possibilty of seeking powder in the trees. Screw that - I wanted to tear up some moguls. I hate moguls. I can carve right THROUGH these moguls though. There's nothing quite like being able to destroy something you hate.
We traversed from the top of Sublette, and though I lost speed and dropped down below everyone else's line, I still made it to the gate without having to unstrap. We followed Donnie across the ridge until the slope flattened and we had to unstrap and hike. It was deep. No gapers. No FOOTPRINTS. We blazed a trail across the ridge to the treeline, where we assembled our equipment sheltered from the wind. I was overheated, but took Donnie's and Erica's advice and left my jacket on. The climb would be windy. It wasn't. Well, it was, but there are two things that happen to me when the adrenaline flows. #1 - I get short of breath. #2 - I sweat. About a third of the way up the boot pack I reached the end of my tolerance and removed my backpack, board and all. I took off my jacket. Ahhh. That's better. I grabbed the bindings and used my board for leverage. NOW I can climb. I was panting at the top, and Erica was baffled by my state of disarray, but I felt great. We waited for Matt to finish the climb (I've never hiked in ski boots, but I can't imagine it's comfortable) and continued to the top of the ridge. We stopped to strap in and traversed over to a steep face where our run would begin. Donnie went first.
One turn down the face, and the light snow sluffed off, leaving a scratchy, exposed surface with several ominous rocks. He pointed it and straightlined across the flat, where he stopped to wait for the rest of us. Erica went next. Her edge wouldn't hold, and she pretty much slid down on her butt, all the while trying to get her edge to dig in without putting herself in greater peril. She slid over a rock that was sticking out onto the trail, but managed to maintain some semblance of control and ride across the flat to where Donnie was waiting. My turn. I was on my edge, on my butt, at the top, and I was trying to choose a line. There wasn't a good one. There was a rock blocking my way, so I edged down to it, eased my board out over it, released, and tried to catch myself. Yes, I was still on my butt, that's how steep the face was. I managed to stop just after the annoying rock, point it, and float across the flat. The lower part was actually really nice, but just below the surface it was still scratchy. It didn't sound like snow. I loosened my bindings and sat down to watch Matt.
Matt encountered a problem right away - he tried to turn and his uphill ski released. It miraculously managed to stop just below him, wedged next to a large protruding rock. The ones we had navigated were just on the surface, but this one was more of a cliff. Matt climbed down to try and grab his ski, but it was just outside his reach. He smacked it with his ski pole to get it out from the rock, and it slid down to a nice open area just below the rock. Of course, he still had to get to it, and he only had one ski on now. He removed his ski and used it to hike back up the face, around the rock, and over to a more open chute. I don't know how he did it - it was so steep and icy. Erica was cringing the entire time, and I could hear the panic in her gasps. I'm sure that was nothing compared to what Matt was feeling. But he edged his way around the rock, put his ski back on, scraped his way down to his other ski, reassembled himself, and joined us. Whew. That was stressful.
At the next steep slope, I stopped above what appeared to be a drop. Erica and Donnie assured me that it wasn't, it was just snow. They dropped and crossed a long flat. Donnie had warned us to maintain momentum. I dropped over the snowy pile and saw the surface of a rock just below me, so I carved out around it. The snow was soft and untracked, but unfortunately I had to carve a wide arc instead of pointing it down the steep so I lost all my speed. I tried to hop - no luck. I unstrapped my back foot and sank to my knee in the powder. Ah well. Guess I'm hiking. I got over to the face where Erica and Donnie were waiting and couldn't catch my breath. It occurred to me that I was hyperventilating, and I remember thinking how odd and unusual that was. Of course, I didn't happen to have a paper bag with me, and never understood that cliche anyway - why didn't the person just breathe slower? And how would a paper bag help anyway. Well, I learned the answer. I tried to slow my breathing, but the fresh air just made me gasp harder. I covered my face with my hands and voila! It worked. The stale air caused my breathing to slow. I took my hands away, felt the difference, and quickly covered my nose and mouth again until my breathing was normal. Imagine that! I think my friends were a little freaked out, but I assured them I was fine so they relaxed and we headed down another pitch. Eventually we found ourselves in a rock garden, with huge boulders that could be used as ramps or ridden around. I jumped off a few, Erica jumped off a few, and Donnie sailed over the biggest ones. The landings were a little scratchy, but do-able. Matt was definitely struggling, mainly because his calves were seizing up from climbing a steep face over a rock in ski boots. Nonetheless, we waited and made sure he was still with us, and before we knew it we were at the drain - or as Erica calls it the 4 lane highway back to the hobacks. The lower part of the hobacks was actually decent, and we traversed back over to Union Pass.
At this point, it was already 1, and I had a few errands to run in town (aka - get food. change clothes. etc.) before work so I bid my friends goodbye and carved down to the parking lot. Despite my irritable mood and lack of lungpower, I actually had a great day. I had forgotten how the backpack cuts into my diaphram and cuts OFF my ability to take deep breaths, especially when I bend in half to strap or unstrap. I don't profess to be in the best of athletic shape right now, but even at the top of my game I still get short of breath the minute I start to exert. But I work through it. Now if I could just learn to do that with my frustration, I'd be set. I'm going to work on that. Later. Right now, I'm just going to work.
Workin' it Mood: sharp Now Playing: 24 - season 4 reruns Topic: shred report
New Snow: 2"
I had to work today. Good morning skiers and snowboarders! Then I had to go work some more... that's what happens when you have multiple jobs. But in the middle I had some time to take a few runs, so I made the best of it. After a quick breakfast at nick's I was on my way up the Gondola just after 9. At the top, I noticed that headwall was open. I decided to check out thunder and sublette first, then head over and hike the ridge. The snow was good, but not great. Two inches usually means dust on crust, but today it was more like dust on soft moguls. and soft corduroy. It's snowed every day this week, so the surface underneath is still pliable, but I knew a little hiking would do me good, and get me some deeper freshies.
Since the trees were pretty mogully I hopped out about halfway down and cruised the rest of the way on the corduroy. Buttery. With sugar on top. Yummy. That got me to Sublette. Then I traversed over to tensleep. BIG mistake. The wind was completely blinding. So blinding in fact, that until I dropped down off the ridge I didn't even notice all the "closed area" signs blocking the bottom of the bowl. Cirque - closed. Expert Chutes - Closed. headwall - forget about it. Not that I would have wanted to hike in that wind anyway, but I didn't really have a choice. At first it was just windy, and the snow beneath me was so windpacked I walked right over it. Then I got to the ridgeline, and started upward. The snow got deeper and I sank further until I was buried to about my waist. There was another snowboarder just above me and I warned him that all was closed. I finally managed to struggle my way up far enough to strap back in and be able to make it over to Rendezvous, but by then a lot of people were on their way across the ridge. I yelled to them that it was closed, and told them to let the lifties know so they could warn people. Then I cruised down to tell the lifties at the bottom the same thing - they at least have a phone and a radio, instead of just having to shout across a windy ridge.
Despite the miserable hike, I actually had a pretty nice run down Bivouac woods. Nothing spectacular, but certainly fun. Then I delivered the message to the liftie at the bottom and traversed over to thunder. From the top of thunder, I traversed to the bottom of expert chutes, since i knew no one from Sublette would have touched the powder there. it was fantastic. Soft and smooth and deep. I decided to head over to Casper for my last run, knowing there would be areas of powder off the traverses on the faces below the gondi. I cut over until i saw some freshies, then cut down through the softness.
At the top of Thunder, I cut into the trees just right of liftline. Not my usual run, and I stayed high enough to cut back onto liftline instead of going down to EDI. I don't think anyone else ever goes that way either. Then I cut across sundance to the trees under the gondola. I kept cutting through the trees until i finally found myself on GV, finding more neglected areas on the way. Then I hit the trees between FIS and Slalom, which were virtually untouched. And also rather shallow. Where it was good, it was very very good. Where it was bad, it was scratchy. But I was close enough to the groomer to cut out at any point if it got too bad. It didn't. Carved my way down to the parking lot and by 11am I was on my way to the Trapper. Time to get serious. TTYL.
Another SICK day Mood: irritated Topic: shred report
New Snow: 4" New Snow last 72 hours: 14"
Erica called me early and we decided to meet at Nick's for breakfast. Of course, just as I was coming out of the OSP to get my board out of the car, I found her in the driveway coming back from the Kids' Ranch. She stopped and waited for me to grab my board and throw everything else in my Jeep, then we rode together down to the Ranch lot to park her car. I didn't know we had acquired new shuttle busses that are completely enclosed - what a comfortable way to get from the parking lot to the base! Not that we needed it since we were early enough to be in the front part of the lot, but it was right there, so we took it. After a delicious breakfast at Nick's, we decided to go straight over to Sublette and out of bounds. Erica is hooked. Rock Springs is her new favorite run. I'm pretty fond of it myself. And with good reason - although it was tracked from the previous day, there was enough new snow and enough fresh lines to keep us floating the whole way down. I followed her, which was a good thing because I would have gone the wrong way otherwise. One more reason NOT to go out the gates by yourself.
When we got to the bottom, Erica checked in with Matt and I went into the ski shop to visit Donnie. He was going on break in about a half an hour with a bunch of his coworkers, and we decided to meet them at the top of Sublette and hike over to Green River with them. Donnie is the backcountry GURU so we were pretty stoked. I was feeling a bit lightheaded so I drank a few cups of water. Meanwhile, Erica found Jimbo, one of Matt's coworkers, who wanted to come out of bounds with us.
We went back up the gondola and over to Thunder, where we ran into Kami from Queenie & Co. She recognized Erica's voice, which was good because otherwise we never would have known it was her through all the snowgear. I was half asleep on the lift, but I mustled the strength to say hello. We took a run with her over to Sublette, and when we got to the bottom my phone rang. Donnie was just leaving the shop to get on the gondola. He told us we would probably have time for one run on Sublette before they got there, and he'd meet us at the top. I was still feeling headachey, and I had to go to the bathroom again from all the water I drank in order to NOT feel dehydrated. I decided to wait at the top of Sublette and assess how I felt before heading out the gate. Meanwhile, we had run into Smiley, who was anxious to go out of bounds and find some nice cliffs to get crazy off. Smiley, Erica, Kami, and Jimbo took a run and I sat in the snowbank absorbing the sunshine. By the time they got back to the top, I was still feeling ill, and knew that a run through the backcountry would be a bad idea, and I would only be a liability to my friends. I told them to apologize to Donnie for me and headed down Rendezvous trail. I had enough energy to cruise the groomer, but that was about it. My goggles were fogging and I felt groggy, but I made it down to Casper restaurant and used the bathroom. I felt a little better, but my head was still throbbing so I cut down the face behind the lift intending to zip down to Sundance. I noticed a little traverse and a ski trail sign, so I followed it over onto a part of Jackson Face I haven't hit before. I keep finding these little areas that are mostly ignored. The snow was getting mushy from the warm sunshine, but it was still a sweet run down untracked lines. It dropped me down onto Sundance and I headed back to the OSP where I had told Erica I would meet her. I dropped my board off in the car, got my shoes, and changed out of my boots. Then I went to veg on the couch in the Marketing office. I took some excedrin and waited for it to kick in.
Eventually Erica wandered in and found me. She said they had waited 10 or 15 minutes, but saw no sign of Donnie. Since both she and Smiley had to get to work, they decided to head over to Rock Springs and hit that instead of continuing to wait. They probably just missed Donnie, because he called me later to find out what happened. I told him how I had been so sick I made Erica drive back to town, and I didn't leave the couch for the rest of the evening. Ah well. At least I'll be well rested for tomorrow. And hydrated. I drank an entire Nalgene bottle of water while I was resting in front of the TV, watching the Seahawks trounce the Panthers. I'm an Eagles fan myself, so I'm not as into it this year as I was the past few, but I enjoyed the game nonetheless. Football is like pizza. Even when it's lousy, it's still pizza. But this blog is about snowboarding. I'll get back on that tomorrow.
Punks and powder turns Mood: flirty Topic: shred report
New Snow: 8" New Snow past 72 hrs: 18"
"Yeah, I'll take 8" any day." That's just the sort of mood I was in this morning. I think I'm affected by the powder. Went to Nick's for breakfast and met an interesting character with a degree in philosophy, a full pitcher of beer, and a lot to say. Had an enlightenting conversation with him, and his friend in Alaska, who he borrowed my cell phone to call.
Luckily, I had already received a call from Adam, who I was planning to ride with today. He's working on the construction at our hotel, installing the plumbing. I told him not to quit his day job because his pants wouldn't be appropriate anymore. I can be rather caustic sometimes, but I have a very low tolerance for sagging-off-your-ass pants. Hmm, I wonder where that comes from? Anyway, he had told me he was on the 9:25 start bus, which meant he'd be in the village at 10. My original plan was to take a few runs, but I took my time getting ready and hung out at Nick's longer than expected, so I just waited until the bus arrived.
Adam took one look at the Gondola line (which would have been about a 5 minute wait) and refused to take it. So we took Teewinot to Sweetwater to Casper. Yeah, Ok. Much faster.... But Moron woods was FANTASTIC so it didn't really matter how we had gotten there. Of course, I had been expecting the Gondola, so I was all disassembled when I first got on the lift, but I managed to get my gloves and goggles on, and my powder skirt snapped down, and my coat zipped by the time we got to Casper. We took a few runs there, then continued down through Moran until we got to AV. Adam wanted to see what the halfpipe looked like, even though it was closed, so we cruised across the traverse to gaze down at it. Ahhhh.... what a beautiful sight.
My original idea was to hit Saratoga Bowl, but Adam didn't really want to take a run which required a lot of traversing, and who could blame him on a day like this? Well, OK, I could blame him, but we managed to find a sick line down through the trees and under the lift, and through some other trees, so there really was nothing to complain about. We went the rest of the way to the bottom, hoping the Gondola line would have thinned out by then.
At this point, it was about 11:30, and Adam suggested that we get lunch early to beat the crowd. I wasn't really that hungry yet, but didn't really want to deal with the lunch rush (or a hungry riding companion) so when we got off the Gondola we went through Airbowl to Casper restaurant. Not only was it SICK, we also stopped to take some nice video along the way. Adam dropped off this big rock, and blames me for the fact that he didn't land it because I told him NOT to hit it with a lot of speed (which would have sailed him way past the landing and out into the trees.) Then he dropped another rock and landed perfectly. I got that on video, too. Say what you want about his pants, the boy can RIDE. He may not care for hiking or waiting, but he's all over anything he can huck himself off of.
We managed to avoid the brunt of the lunch rush and ate a leisurely meal, then headed back out to Casper lift. Why go down when you can go up? So up we went, and over to Thunder, which was yet another traverse. Adam was struggling across the flats, most likely because of the lack of wax on his 151. Or possibly due to the fact that he was riding a 151 on a powder day.... but that's his choice. He actually HAD a choice, because he had brought 2 boards with him to the mountain, but for some reason he had left the 154 at the base and opted to ride the 151. This was not a decision about which he had asked my opinion, so I take no responsibility for the consequences.
At the bottom of Thunder, we ran into my friend Dave (who I only ever seem to run into at the bottom of Thunder.) He was with his friend TJ, who was on skis, and we decided to take a run with them. I had a feeling Dave would know where to find the best powder, and I was right. We cruised over to Sublette and took Bernie's Bowl, which was still mostly fresh, and the wind had blown quite a bit of snow into it so it was deeper than anything else we had seen today. Dave totally RIPS, and so does TJ, so I had to haul ass to keep up, and with the exception of crossing the flat sections Adam was right there with us. Then I took a wrong turn across a powder field at the bottom and got stuck. I know better. But I had to unstrap and skate the rest of the way back across to Rendezvous trail. I figured Dave would have cut into the powder, so I sped down the groomer, hoping to catch up so they wouldn't have to ditch me (no friends on a powder day.) I saw them drop out of the trees ahead of me just as I was approaching the lift. Sweet. Thought that would work.
We took our next run over to Cirque, which was the only time I got to lead the pack. Dave stopped to show me where the entrance to Expert Chutes was - I had remarked on the chairlift that I was never able to find it. Then I followed him down the not-nearly-as-moguly-as-usual field at the bottom of Tensleep and across the flat section. Everyone else had to unstrap.... well, except TJ of course, but I zoomed across on my newly waxed NEVER SUMMER. Yeah, I still need to write it all in caps. It's just THAT GOOD. We headed into Cirque and Dave traversed over to hit this rock drop so I followed him and dropped it, too. Yeeeeeaaaaaah! Like landing on air. Cirque was incredible, and we floated down and were back at Thunder again. We took one more run together - Dave and TJ had to leave to get ready for work, and it was almost 3 so the lifts were closing soon anyway. We traversed over to the lower part of expert chutes, hit some more powder, and then parted ways. TJ and Dave headed to the bottom, and after some discussion about what run to take, Adam and I went across the traverse toward Gros Ventre. We dropped into the woods on the right of GV, which were still mostly untouched. I guess everyone was sticking to the upper mountain. Not unusual, but certainly good for us. We got back to the base, Adam switched to his 154, and we went back up the Gondola to find more powder. If you stay on the ridge and don't drop down to Sundance, the Gondi line is always fresh. We cut through the woods and I pointed out the mid-mountain study plot on our way. Eventually, we found ourselves back on GV, right at the point we had entered the woods last run. Apart from our tracks, it was still totally fresh so we hit it again. We were both completely wrecked, and although we probably could have caught one last gondola for another run, we decided to listen to our bodies and head back to town. An exhausting but fabulous day. I think I need a shower now.
Fresh board, fresh snow Mood: caffeinated Topic: shred report
New Snow: 3" New snow past 4 days: 20"
FINALLY I got to ride my new Never Summer! What a week. Constant snow and constant obligations that kept me out of the snow. So I was itching this morning. I learned my lesson LAST Saturday, though, and took the time to eat breakfast at Nick's before heading up the gondola. It definitely made a difference in my energy levels for the day. Of course, my caffeine levels didn't hurt either....
At the top of the gondola, I noticed that headwall, casper bowl, and the crags were open. My plan was to head over to Sublette right away, but I couldn't resist the lure of surveyor's rock so I took an extra run off Thunder before cruising to Sublette. I was having trouble controlling my heel edge, which I realized was caused by an improper binding setup. My feet are so small that I didn't have toe drag, but I was definitely too far toward the frontside edge. And even though my screws were tight, my bindings were loose. So I knew I'd be heading to the shop eventually. But not now.
At the top of Sublette, I considered taking a run somewhere other than headwall, but I really wanted to HIKE. I wanted the exercise. Fresh snow was just a bonus.... or so I thought at the time. Despite the cold and the wind, I zoomed over to pepi's bench, where NO ONE was hiking. I couldn't tell if it was open or closed, but I knew it was open from the gondi so I walked toward it. I took out my camera and tried to zoom in and take a picture, but I still couldn't read the sign on the little display screen in the blinding snow. So I hiked closer. It was open. Usually I take off my goggles to hike, but when I did that I couldn't see anything so I put them back on. Mine were the first footprints in the boot pack. A VERY good sign. A bit of vertigo, and at times I couldn't tell if I was even ON the boot pack, but certainly worth it. When I finally got to the top, I considered hiking across the ridge into Casper Bowl, but I remembered my last trailblazing experience and thought better of it. The upper traverse into Casper is much longer and much flatter than the lower entry. I strapped in and carved straight down the face, blinding myself with each turn. I crossed the Gondola offload area and cut through the trees onto Casper traverse. Headwall AND Airbowl in one run. Yee haw.
Despite the fresh powder, I was still aching to test my new board in the halfpipe. I cut over to Moran and into the pipe. On my old board, I couldn't even make it halfway up the walls. On my new NEVER SUMMER I made it almost to the top. On an icy surface with 3 inches of fresh snow over it. I can't wait to ride on a GOOD pipe day.
As I sped from the halfpipe down into the baby park, I noticed that the obstacles in the park had moved again. The long, flat, box rail was now at the top, with a little drop off steep enough to enable a grab before the landing. The last roller was now a kicker. I know there were more rails over on the right side of the trail, but now that I am on a lighter board I just wanted to catch AIR. I grabbed the back of my board at an angle that could almost be called a method. Next time I'll have to tweak that out so I actually CAN call it a method.
I went into the shop and got some shorter screws to adjust my bindings. Just as I was finishing, I got a call from Erica, who was dropping off Joshy and parking the car. She had left Matt at the MOB already. I said I'd take a quick run through the baby park and by then she'd be at the Gondola. The bottom of Teewinot took me right past the MOB, so I took a sharp left and went to find Matt. He was almost geared up so I waited with him and it was about then that Erica called to tell me she was at the Gondola. Great timing! I rode down with Matt to meet her, and we hopped in the car and discussed our options. Matt really wanted to go through Rock Springs Bowl. None of us had backcountry equipment along, but he said he was going to take us into an area just outside the gate that wasn't prone to avalanches, and the danger at that elevation wasn't very likely today anyway. Since he's the one that knows the backcountry we trusted him and told him to lead the way. Of course, we were on the Gondola, so we still had to get over to Sublette. Since I have to work at 3 on Fridays, I knew it would be my last run, and even then I'd be pushing it, so we sailed down Ampitheater to Thunder, and down Grand to Sublette. Holy crap, I ride FAST on flat groomers when I have edges! We traversed from the top of Sublette over to the gate and out into the backcountry. Matt was right - we didn't have to hike at all and soon we found ourselves atop a steep, fresh bowl that ran out into a wide, flat area. In other words, NOT a terrain trap. The snow was fresh, but not so deep that I was afraid to get stuck going across the flat. We gave Matt the camera and he filmed both Erica and me dropping into the bowl. Sweet!
We followed Matt the rest of the way down the face, and saw numerous other backcountry enthusiasts. Of course, "followed" isn't exactly the right term, because we kept telling him to show us where to go, but he would tell us which way and then follow US. I think he wanted to make sure we made it across the traverses before he wound up above us in an area we wouldn't be able to cut over to. What a guy! At only one point did we separate - during one of the traverses Erica was leading and she cut over a ridge while she was still out of my line of sight. I stopped just before the ridge, not sure if she had dropped down or continued over, and waited for Matt. We called to her but she didn't answer. We decided to cut over and down, keeping an eye out in both directions. As soon as we got around the ridge we saw her cutting down and she saw us. She asked why we didn't answer when she called us, and we asked her if she had heard US calling HER, which of course she hadn't. But we were back together and made it the rest of the way down without incident, but WITH incredible conditions and nice steep fresh lines. We got back to Union Pass and I headed for the parking lot. I'm exhausted and I have to work for the next 8 hours. And I can't wait to repeat the entire cycle tomorrow - especially since I don't have to work and can stay at the mountain ALL DAY!
NEVER SUMMER! Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
New Snow: 3" (as of 6am) New Snow: 5" (as of 8am) Weather: SNOWING
YEAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Never Summer is here! This is the day I get my new board! But not until after the demo. Ah well. One last day on the Salomon.
Erica met me at the mountain bright and early. And by early I mean BEFORE the lifts opened. We waited in the gondola line, and I showed her my new vest that I bought on Friday. She thought it was kewl. Up the gondola, and off to Thunder. Headwall etc. was completely closed, and with good reason. It was dumping. There was at least 6" of snow on top of the groomed traverse. We went straight for the gully, which was so good I didn't stop at the bottom. I dropped into the lower gully, which was SICK. Of course, I couldn't see ANYTHING at this point - between the snow and goggle fog I was blind. There was just enough accumulation to cover the moguls and hide them, but they were still there. I found myself unexpectedly in the air several times, but luckily the surface was very soft. Managed to make it down into Dick's Ditch, and up over to Thunder lift. It was great.
Erica and I decided to head to our own private powder field - aka upper Rawlins bowl. We got to the cornice and I told her that we were stopping to take a picture. We always say we're going to stopo, then we never do, then we get all annoyed because we don't have any pictures to post in our blogs. I gave her the option of BEING the picture or TAKING the picture. 3 guesses what she picked:
Ah well, maybe you'll see a picture of me next time. You CAN see where I landed - it's the only other track in the picture. She may have gotten the shot, but I got first freshies. We continued down to the traverse. Erica was ahead of me, on the traverse. I cut over in hopes of having enough momentum to get up into jaws. of course, i didn't. I got into the lower part, but I didn't see Erica. I figured she had just followed the traverse back to the lift, so I made my way over to Thunder. No Erica. I waited. No Erica. I called her. She had dropped off the traverse and continued down Rawlins Bowl. Oops. She told me to lap thunder, and she'd be up as soon as possible. I ran into my neighbors in the liftline so I rode up with them. They were headed for Sublette, possibly to hit some backcountry. I took paintbrush, which would have been great had I been able to see where I was going. It felt like the snow was hitting my eyes. It felt like I wasn't wearing goggles at all. I stopped at Thunder Snack Shack at the bottom to clean my goggles. Lo and behold, the lens was sticking out of the frame at the top. No wonder it felt like snow. No wonder they were all wet inside. sheesh. Anika was kind enough to let me use the warm interior of the shack to take them apart and clean them off. Working for the resort sure has its perks. I tried to call erica to tell her where I was, but her phone was dying. I sent her a text msg. Then I watched for her. Since she wears a bright blue jacket, she was easy to spot, and I yelled to her as she zoomed by. She saw where I was and I told her I was on my way down. I reassembled and off we went.
We hit a nice tree line which is supposed to be a secret so I'm not allowed to say where it was. We weren't the only ones in it, so it's obviously not THAT big of a secret, and I know I've been through there before, but I'm still not telling where it was. Then we decided to head over to Casper and beat the lunch crowd. Which we timed perfectly.
Casper lift went down due to mechanical problems while we were inside the restaurant. We decided that what with all the competitions going on there wouldn't be anyone riding AV (except the competitors) so we went to Saratoga Bowl. Another good idea. Fantastic snow, fantastic terrain. We were pretty deep so the traverse out was pretty rough. Erica wanted to visit Joshy and I wanted to stop by the NEVER SUMMER tent to say hello. It was late enough in the day that I could pick up my board, but unfortunately it was late enough in the day that I didn't have time for another run before taking Erica back to town in time to get to work. Ah well, at least I HAVE the board.
Drove back to town and tried to download the pix onto Erica's computer. It hates me. Gave her a ride to work, and on the way home I stopped to get a stomp pad at the boardroom. And who should I run into, but Nichole and Matt from GNU!
Of course, as we're standing there talking, up drives a Never Summer vehicle.... funny how that all works out. So I got to see everyone, and I bought a cool dakine butterfly stomp pad that complements the flowers on my board nicely. It's the 154 Infinity, and it's black with bright flowers on the bottom. Mine came with 2 bluebird wax stickers, because I got it from the demo guys. While I was in the shop, the Gunbarrel called to see if I could work. Sure, why not! Went home and applied the stomp pad (as well as a few 686 stickers, which amazingly there weren't any of on the board already....)
As for my night at the restaurant, eight words accurately describe the type of shift I had. "I'm not even supposed to BE here today!" But at least I got some extra cash, and all things considered it was definitely worth my time. Went home exhaused and crashed. CYA Lames!
Demo daze Mood: hungry Topic: shred report
New snow: 0"
I decided not to eat my mini-wheats this morning because I intended to get some eggs at Nick's. Of course, as I was walking over, I noticed a Gnu demo tent. WTF? How did I not know about this? Went directly to the tent to berate Matt for not telling me he was coming, but he greeted me with a huge hug so I decided to be nice about it. He and the guys took one look at my board and immediately confiscated it. They removed the bindings and set me up on a 153 rider's choice. I forget what they called it, but it has the squiggly edges with 8 different contact points, making it the most snowboard specific sidecut ever invented, and causing superior grip and edge control. Free demos are supposed to be for an hour, so I decided to forego breakfast until after I had tested the board. Yeah, that was a bad idea.
Took a run from the gondola over to casper, and met a girl from colorado on the lift. took a run down sleeping indian woods with her - there was snow but it was really thrashed so basically just moguls. sheesh. I really wanted to hike, but on a demo board? Ah, well. At least I have edges. I had forgotten what that felt like. And MAN do I have edges. The board TOTALLY grips. And it SINGS. There's a faint whistling sound it makes as you speed down the trail. Must be the squiggles.
Continued down to AV, but there was a competition so I didn't get to try out the demo board in the pipe. waaaaah. And it was too early in the morning for the baby park to be open so I didn't take it in there either. I did return to the demo tent to see if Matt was going to be ready to take a run at 10:30 like he said. I was a little early, so I figured I'd have time to grab some food. Yeah, NOT. Nichole set me up on a board that I could thrash, and while the guys were moving my bindings, she went to see about lift tix for her guys. Sure enough, she wound up in the shop, where I had wandered while I was waiting. I probably should have gotten food, but you know me. So she finally got in touch with the people she needed to talk to and headed down to the ticket office to pick up their lift tix. Soon I was on the gondola with not only Matt, but 3 other members of the demo squad. They wanted to hit something different, something they could only do in Jackson. We got off the gondola and they asked me where we should go. I said "option 1 - hike headwall." They immediately started climbing straight up the stairway. Didn't even ask for option 2. Didn't even wait for me to de-goggle and unzip. Didn't care that they only had a half an hour of riding time. But it's all good.
Halfway up, we were all exhausted - most of all me because I HADN'T EATEN ANYTHING ALL DAY. Yes, no one's fault but my own. The entire group had no desire to continue the rest of the way up, so we dropoped into the first Casper entrance and went over to the chute. It was SICK. Deep and soft. Partway down there was this little tree - well, the top of a tree poking out from the snow. 2 of the guys hit it, and since I was behind them I decided to follow their lead. I didn't grind all the way down it, just kinda jumped off the side. It was steep and it kinda freaked me out, but it was fun. Next time I'll slide down a bit further before I wuss out.
We went the rest of the way down, and then of course cut down to AV to gape at the halfpipe. For about 3 seconds. Then it was over to the big park, which had been completely reshaped. I almost hit the kicker in the middle, but changed my mind at the last minute and went around it. It's not that much bigger than the ones I've been hitting, but I hadn't seen the landing EVER and I don't really like hitting things blindly. I like to know what I'm getting myself into. We cut down to the kiddie park and hit that, this time I was NOT riding blindly and I DID hit all the jumps. woo hoo! It's great having a board that doesn't weigh a ton and actually has edges when you're going off kickers. Spectacularrrrrr.
So you'd think I went to the base and got food at this point, but of course Nichole was ready to take a run so I went up with her. She was NOT in the mood to hike, which worked out well because I didn't have the energy either at that point. We went over to thunder, hitting little moguls and other fun stuff along the way. We took Rawlins bowl and hit the cornice, which she really liked. She kept saying she was a "novice" but she rode really well and I didn't know if she was just joking around or if she just hadn't gotten much riding time in this season. But I had a blast riding with her, and then we stopped at the halfpipe to see if her sponsored kid had taken his run yet. He already had. We hung for a few minutes, but then we went down to the baby park. She didn't realize I meant there would actually be BABIES there. We got there just behind a group of ski school grommets, average age probably about 4. They were tiny and cute and went down in a neat little row at the prompting of their instructor. So we waited. Finally we got to take our run, and when we got to the bottom, Nichole gave me a high five and jokingly said "we kicked those kids ASSES!" yeah, we rip.
Went back to the demo tent and retrieved my board. ONE MORE DAY! Yes, I had to tell the gnu people about my intent to acquire a never summer board.... As much as I liked the boards I rode (especially coming down ampitheater with edges.... wow. haven't ridden that fast all season) they were all still too wide for my little feet. I need something that isn't more that 24 wide. Which is hard to find in a board longer than 147. But not impossible.
At this point, it was already after 2pm. I was getting a headache, because not only hadn't I eaten, but I hadn't had anything to drink all day either. Needless to say I was a bit dehydrated. OK, I was completely dehydrated. Went home and took excedrin and drank lots and lots of water. And slept. And drank more water. And slept. And slept. Wait, wasn't I supposed to meet those guys at the cowboy? Ah well, they'll be on the mountain tomorrow. Tomorrow. the day I get my new board. and then it started snowing. and I slept.
Exploring new territory Mood: lazy Topic: shred report
New snow: trace New snow last 72 hrs: 9"
So it snowed... yesterday. I, of course, was working. Today it was mostly cloudy and flat light, but visibility was decent. On the east coast, it would have been a powder day. Here, it was dust on crust. I have become a powder SNOB. When did this happen?
I thought about hiking headwall straight off the Gondola, but decided I'd rather hike the ridge. It was mostly laziness. Funny, isn't it that due to laziness I took 3 extra runs to get over to the boot pack. Kinda like the whole Casper Restaurant dilemma.
I figured out why I'm so lazy this year. (To quote Shannon Doherty in Heathers when asked why she was such a mega-bitch) "because I can be." Last year, I had to move my car to the ranch lot at 8am. So I not only had to be finished reporting, but I had to have all my gear on and be ready to get out of the building right away after work. This year, I don't have to move my car. Which means I don't have to get dressed until AFTER 8, which gives me plenty of time to putz around doing whatever strikes my whimsey. Today it was shopping. As much as I love my new jacket, the velour liner is just TOO MUCH. Way too warm and not nearly breathable enough. Yet on its own, it isn't warm at all. But it's stylin'. I guess that's what the snowboard companies figure girls want in their gear. Since I've already posted a tirade about this tendency, I'll move on. I decided that what I needed was a vest, to keep my core warm. It had to be thin, because my jacket is pretty fitted. It had to be at least water resistant, because I intend to wear it when I'm hiking the pipe. So I visited EVERY ski shop in the village and was left with 2 options. #1 - a Burton softshell vest, perfect and exactly what I wanted, in the EXACT color scheme of the outfit I just retired. Sadly, Burton actually has 3 colors for that particular line (because they had the knitted sweaters in stock, too) and one of the colors is the mustard yellow of my snowpants. But not at Lowrider. Maybe on the internet... Option #2 - a fleece North Face vest that fit perfectly but had no pockets, and being fleece, was the opposite of water resistant. That was at Jack Dennis, the ski shop I have somehow managed to NEVER visit before. Unbelievable but true. TVS and JH Sports didn't even STOCK vests. Except the JH black and red fleece vests at JH Sports. You already know how I feel about fleece.
By the time I finished lollygagging, it was after 9. Erica and Matt had insisted that they would be on the mountain today, but I hadn't heard from them yet. Either Joshy is sick and they're not coming, or they just decided that sleep was more important (a luxury I won't have until April 9th) and chose to snooze. Ah well, they have my phone number. Up the gondola I went.
Oddly enough, the gulley off the gondi wasn't tracked. Well, maybe one or 2 tracks, but it was mostly fresh. Four inches of snow over packed moguls is enough to make you THINK it's deep powder, but you definitely feel the surface underneath. Nonetheless, still a farily pleasant run. Took the trees part of the way, then cruised down the groomer to Thunder. Halfway up Thunder my phone rang - Erica was just leaving town. I told her I was on my way to headwall, by the time I got back to the bottom she'd be here. She was disappointed that she wasn't going to get to hike headwall with me, but she had all day to ride while I had to be at work by 3pm. I also needed to go to the bank, shop for a vest, eat lunch, and take a shower. So my degree of urgency was a bit altered. Luckily for me, best friends love each other. Best friends understand.
Carved down Grand to get to Sublette - didn't even TRY going into the woods. Even the groomer was a little sketchy, most likely due to the flat light and lack of edges on my board. 2 more days.... I GET MY NEVER SUMMER IN 2 MORE DAYS! woo hoo! So after a quick ride up Sublette, I was traversing through Tensleep bowl over to Pepi's bench. Along with a slew of other people who got off the chair when I did. Ah well, plenty of powder for everyone.
I hiked up the ridge, and halfway up my phone rang. Erica was here, but she still had to drop Joshy off and park the car, and Matt had to go to the MOB to change into his ski gear. I told her this would likely be my last run since I had a lot of crap to do before work. She was bummed, but best friends understand. I already discussed this. I told her I'd give her a full report of the snow condition the next time I talked to her.
At the top of Headwall, I decided to try something new and hike across the ridge. I took lots of pictures, which will be posted here as soon as I optimize and upload them. I followed the traverse into Casper Bowl, strapped in, and continued across through a flat area surrounded by trees. Hmmm, am I in the right place? Had to unstrap my back foot and skate for a while. The trail continued further, but I saw fresh snow so I decided it was time to drop. I've been studying the trail map, and I think I was either in Shot 9 or the trail just skiers' right of it. Wherever I was, it was phenomenal. The snow was deep, fresh, and total powder. Every time I approached a knoll, I had to slow down and scope it out to make sure I didn't accidentally drop a 20 foot cliff, but there were plenty of lines I could have taken, and lots of little chutes I did cut through. Each time I slowed, though, I was blinded by the face shot I gave myself. Awwwww geez, doncha just HATE that?
My powder run dropped me just above EDI, and right about then my phone rang. I stopped right where the EDI merges with liftline to call Erica back - she was at the MOB waiting for Matt to get dressed. I told her I'd swing through there on my way down. I cruised the groomers all the way down to the halfpipe, which to my surprise was open to the public! Unusual on the day before a major competition, but a pleasant surprise. The pipe was in beautiful condition, but my board is no longer capable of holding an edge. 2 more days..... Cut down to the kiddie park and my phone rang AGAIN - Erica was leaving the MOB, which would put her at the base right about when I got there. I hit all the jumps on the way down. whee! Somehow managed to beat Erica and Matt to the base, but I did get to see them right before I bailed.
On my way home, I decided to take a detour to Wilson Backcountry Sports. Which was a fantastic idea becaue I found EXACTLY the vest I was looking for. Warm, light, lots of pockets - I think one of them is supposed to be a stash pocket for the vest itself - if you flip it inside out it looks like a pouch, but the zipper isn't a 2 way. The entire vest fits perfectly into it though. It's black, with gray stripes down the sides, so it doesn't clash hideously with anything else I'm wearing. Seems like it's always the smallest store with the least amount of selection that just happens to have the ONE thing you happen to be looking for. Go Wilson BC! And they're super friendly and helpful too. SO glad I took a right turn instead of a left.
Drove home. ate. showered. went to work. Time to go home and sleep. rinse. lather. repeat.
I used to be hardcore Mood: mischievious Topic: snowboarding
Not everyone in the world knows how I got my nickname. There used to be this little discussion group called rec.skiing.snowboard. I used to post lots and lots of comments there the summer after my first real season when I learned to snowboard. Well, what else was I going to do - it was SUMMER! Of course, this was back in the day when I was still using a MAC SE and checking my email with ELM and PINE. Before I knew what netscape navigator was, back when I thought webpages were just TEXT. Back when I worked at Upenn. Incidentally, this was the same summer that my skateboard got run over by a maniac in West Philly - I think she was actually trying to run ME over.... but I digress.
In this newsgroup, there was a fellow by the name of John Webster. He's the one who gave me the OFFICIAL nickname of punk rock shred grrl. I was playing around with different signatures, and he kind of combined them and helped me discover my true internet identity. An identity that has followed me through 4 states / 7 ski resorts (and that's just the ones I've lived in / worked at.) I actually met him while I was living in Vermont - he had lived at Mt Snow the year before I moved to Stratton, and he was living in Massachusettes, but he came up to visit a friend of his, who happenned to know my roommate at the time (kinda like jackson, stratton has the two degrees of separation / small town ski resort / everybody knows your name situation.) I meet the coolest people on the internet.
Anyway, back then, there was a different type of spam. Porn websites would post advertisements in every newsgroup, regardless of whether or not it was appropriate to the topic. This really irritated those of us who actually wanted to discuss SNOWBOARDING.
Which leads me to my discovery. I just knew something unusual would have to happen on Friday the 13th. While surfing the internet, I google'd myself. Yes, I know, I am a dork. I noticed, for the first time, the other links at the top of the page, and clicked on froogle. Golly, Gee, I don't come up as an item in the shopping search engine. What a shocker. Then I clicked on groups. I was shocked to discover that not only does rec.skiing.snowboard still exist, but all the posts EVER are archived. I'm pretty sure it wasn't originally affiliated with google, but it is now. Anyway, I found links to all sorts of things that I had posted. Talk about a blast from the past. The most interesting one was so hilarious that I have to share it now.
------------------------------------------------- ORIGINALLY POSTED IN REC.SKIING.SNOWBOARD 9/12/96 -------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.skiing.snowboard From: Adena Chernosky Date: 1996/09/12 Subject: Re: HOT WOMEN ARE WAITING FOR YOU!!!
DISCLAIMER!DISCLAIMER!DISCLAIMER!
If you found this message offensive DELETE NOW. DO NOT READ MY REPLY.... if this type of thing amuses you, press the space bar until you see more text....
On 12 Sep 1996, Rod Sundholm wrote:
> just call 1-800-SNO-SLUT
> and you can be hooked up witha beautifull snowboarding date for a day of > fun on the snow
Top ten reasons why snowboarding is better than sex:
1. No matter how drunk you are, the board is always stiff. 2. You and your best friend can swap boards for a change of pace. 3. It doesn't take 3 hours of foreplay to get the snow wet. 4. Boards don't go limp after the first run. 5. No one whines about not wanting to go down on the mountain. 6. No matter how many times you do it, you can always get back up for one more run. 7. It's always easy to find a screw when you need one. 8. Stopping to take a piss doesn't kill the mood. 9. You can snowboard with someone who's only 14. 10. You don't need proof of your age to buy magazines with pictures of people snowboarding in them.
(anybody got more of these?)
wait..... a word from our sponsor:
---------------------------------------- 1 - 800 - SNO - SLUT ----------------------------------------
Tired of those flat, boring, conventional rides? You know, the ones everyone's already done....
call 1 - 800 - sno - slut.
We'll hook you up with someone who knows the ropes - especially which ones to duck under to find that perfect, secluded trail - the one you've only seen in your fantasies and dreams. She'll help you explore new terrain, show you tricks no one has ever seen before, help you to injure body parts you didn't even know you used when you ride...
Our girls know exactly where to hide from nosy ski patrol officers who want to keep you out of the untamed woodsy areas. They know exactly which crevices and bumps will give you the most riding pleasure, and they are specially trained in what techniques to use to keep you going when that avalanche hits.
1 - 800 - SNO - SLUT. Get off your rocks 'cause we live for huge dumps of the soft white stuff....
-punk rock sno-slut extraordinaire
------------------------------------------------ END OF ORIGINAL POST FROM 1996 ------------------------------------------------
Yeah, I used to be uncensored. If you found this amusing, and you'd like to see the rest of the thread, (there were some pretty funny replies to that post, let me tell you!) the entire thread can be found HERE. Enjoy!
P-p-p-POW Mood: caffeinated Topic: shred report
New Snow: 11"
8:30 AM and I still haven't heard from Erica. I call her, she's on her way out the door. I wasn't ready anyway. For starters, I had forgotten my socks, so I went downstairs to Lowrider and examined the selection. Settled on Burton, and the most appropriate size was the kids' s/m. Yes, I have REALLY little feet. My etnies are size 4 (boys). My snowboots are womens' 5. So I go for the kids 2-4 size socks, in order to ensure that they have NO extra material and don't bunch. They fit PERFECT. Well, except for the fact that they are a bit tight on the calf. But the feet fit great, and my boots are super comfy today. woo hoo! About time I straightened that out.
Around 9, I checked to see where Erica was. Issues, issues, issues. Joshy is teething so he didn't sleep well, so she didn't sleep well. But she was a trooper, and definitely on her way. I told her I'd take a run and check in with her. Got through the gondola line pretty quickly and headed toward thunder.
It was still dumping. Accumulations were now at 12", and piling up fast. Snaked some skiers who were staring down the gully, traversing across it one by one. I cut straight down and threw powder spray everywhere. SICK! I love powder days. Cut over to the bottom part of mushroom chutes and hit the trees. Untracked as usual. It wasn't excessively windy, but there was some obvious loading because it was knee-deep and then some. Cut into the other trees a little lower than usual because I got stuck in a ditch at the bottom of the woods. Hopped my way out, went around thunder lift, got myself a kleenex, and sat down in the snow. Called Erica again. I feel like a stalker. She was just parking the car and on her way to gondi. I told her I'd meet her there.
Considered taking lower faces for about a half a second. Hmmm. 2 inches of new snow at the base. so dust on crusty moguls. no thanks. Besides, if I wound up at union pass I'd DEFINITELY take way too long to get back to the gondi. So I took Gros Ventre with the intention of carving through FIS trees. As I glanced at the trail sign, I noticed that I was on slalom. Aha.... so that's where slalom is. Slalom was the groomer's choice this morning. Slalom is almost NEVER groomed. SLALOM IS UNTRACKED! Took the sickest run down perfectly groomed corduroy with 6 inches of untracked powder on top of it. Thanks, Erica! Had I not been meeting you, I would have stayed on Thunder, which would have been great, but wouldn't have been Slalom. What a cool run. But it's tracked now, so I'm perfectly content to go back to the upper mountain.
Met Erica at the gondi and went over to Thunder. I had a feeling Rawlins bowl would be fairly fresh, and I was right. Led her over to the cornice, which we both dropped, taking chunks of it with us. Then we cut over through Jaws. Best run of the day. By far. Totally powder, and we didn't see another person the whole way down. There were some people under the tram line, but that was it. Once we cut into Rawlins it was all us.
We went back up to the top of Thunder and decided to head over toward Sublette. There were a bunch of skiers clustered on the side of the trail, and I was debating which way to cut around them. They kept moving. That is SO annoying. They were kind of side-slipping down, waiting for the rest of their group, discussing their run. Couldn't they STAND STILL to do that? Sheesh. I hate gapers. So I decided to let them know that they were blocking the trail. By hitting a kicker RIGHT NEXT TO THEM and airing around them. hehehe. Hey Erica, how did you like my GAPE-AIR? She was amused, and the gapers got their act together and moved, so mission accomplished. Cut down the face WAY higher up than I usually do, and took a steep chute between the rocks. Ducked across the trail and cut under the lift line to hit the huge rollers that are always covered with pow. And ate it right at the bottom where everyone on the lift could laugh at me. That's my goal today - amuse everyone who encounters me.
Took a run down bird in hand, which was pretty tracked. How spoiled are we that we can go down through 12 inches of soft snow, and only notice that it's tracked. In Vermont, this would be the sickest powder day ever. We'd be jumping off the piles of sluff on the sides of the trail. Even with the tracks, it was still a great run. Then we headed for the hobacks. Took the North tree line and got some freshies. Not first freshies, but fresh enough. Cut out of the trees into a huge open powder field. At this point we were low enough that there was about 7 or 8 inches instead of 12 inches, but it was still totally fresh and smooth. Kinda like the light. Totally smooth and flat. I knew there were moguls under us, but there was just enough snow that I couldn't tell where they were. Until I was in the air. The snow was great, though, so I just kept my knees bent and went with the flow. I had thought that the bottom would be crusty, but even the lower part of the trail was still smooth.
Erica went to visit Joshy, and I went to get the car. Apparently they made pizza for lunch at kids' ranch - I would have guessed grilled cheese from the strong aroma that permeated the room. Which was close enough - bread and warm cheese. I couldn't breathe. And I LIKE cheese. But the kids didn't seem to mind, and Joshy was happy to see his mommy.
Got back to town. Erica went to work. I went to sleep. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Zzzz.
rushed
a-ok
cool
happy
spacey
hungry
blue
chatty
lucky
irritated
sharp
flirty
caffeinated
celebratory
lazy
mischievious