go with the flow Topic: shred report Mood: thankful New Snow: 1"
I reported spring snow today. I removed the word "powder" from the report. I was wrong. The snow at the top of the gondola was DEFINITELY powder, and the groomers were not mushy at all. Of course, with no new snow overnight, you had to really know where to LOOK for the powder...
I met some guys in the gondola who had never been here before so I played the tour guide for a couple of runs. Most of them were intermediates, but there was one guy (Dave) who was on tele skis and he was RIPPING. He kept whining, though, that he's not really a tele skier and he wanted to go swap out for his regular skis. We had al planned to head over to Bivouac, the "groomer's choice" of the day, but I convinced him to ditch his friends and come to Rock Springs with Erica and me (she had, by then, arrived at the resort, taken care of her errands, and was waiting for me at the gondola.) He decided to come with me, but on the home strech of gros ventre I told him I'd show him a shortcut back to TML, where he was staying. He passed me. I don't know what happened after that because I never saw him again. I looked all over, and even went into the TML, but no luck. Ah well. He had a cell phone. I'm sure he met back up with the rest of his crew, and he probably had a much better time after switching skis anyway....
Rode up the gondi with Erica. By this time the clouds had rolled in and snow was falling. I had switched my goggles to the amber lenses, but the light was still completely flat and I couldn't see anything. I felt like I was speed checking the entire way down, but apparently I was hauling (at least according to Erica, who actually has some pretty tough standards.) Rock Springs was fantastic, as usual. Not very many tracks at the top, and great snow, then tapering off to flat spring roads at the bottom. Maybe I was tired from my mountain bike adventure the previous day.
Side note: I bought a mountain bike from a coworker at GB. I haven't ridden a bicycle in 18 years, except for one time about 2 sumemrs ago when my roommate decided to let me ride around the block on his. But I made it all the way to the Trapper and back. I even figured out how to shift gears after stopping at fitsgerald's on the way home for instructions! But back to snowboarding...
Maybe I was tired from lack of sleep. Whatever the cause, I started riding like a gaper. Every four turns I ate it. I must have fallen about 8 times before I finally caught up with Erica. As I was coming around a corner through the trees, I hit a patch of ice and went down. I slammed both knees into the ice, but apparently had enough layers on to pad my fall, because it felt the same as it would have had I been wearing knee pads. I have a little bit of a bruise now, but I iced it all night (bags of frozen peas work great for that sort of thing) and it doesn't hurt at all (unless someone smacks the bruised area because they want to torment me.)
Somewhere along the way, my boss called me and needed me to run an important errand on my way to work. I'll have to remember to thank her for being the reason I left the mountain when I did, because I picked up a really cool hitchhiker on my way back to town. Funny how life does that to you - alters your schedule in what seems inconveniencing at the time, but actually places you right where you need to be to meet a new friend.
Destiny is what happens when you're out making other plans.
waiting around Mood: energetic Topic: shred report
New Snow: 0"
rode around, cruising the groomers. mushy spring snow. Thunder was nice. Casper was nice. AV was REALLY soft. Perfect park & pipe weather. Hit Little Britches. YIKES. The launch threw me crooked, and I almost slid off the rail. Then the next launch threw me so weird that I completely missed the second rail. I think it's the pack that's throwing me off. Not that I really needed my avy gear today since I was solo and not hiking anywhere. But I need to get used to wearing it and carrying the extra weight. Besides, on days like this, it's nice to be able to swap out layers as it gets warmer.
noticed a snowcat inching its way up the halfpipe. figured it would be a while before it opened, so I took a lazy lunch break. thought about going up to casper, but I didn't really feel compelled to take the gondola again. ate a yummy french dip sandwich at cafe 6111. and some sort of croissant with raspberry danish filling.
went back up teewee to AV. rode the lift with 2 girls who were just learning to snowboard (who sat on my right) and one girl on skis (who was on my left.) Just before getting off the lift, we discussed which direction we were all going. The two newbies said they were just going straight, so I said I'd wait until they came to a stop before I cut right to go to AV. As we got off the lift, the skier chick decided to completely cut us off. she turned right in front of me and I ran over the back of her skis. She didn't even notice. This basically pushed me into the 2 beginners, who crashed into each other, but miraculously we all managed to stay on our feet. what a SNOT! maybe she should have turned down her ipod for two seconds before she got off the lift and showed a complete lack of etiquette. I'm not usually the brawling type, but it's a good thing she was long gone by the time I got over to AV. It's one thing to be like that on Sublette. It's rude, but at least the other people on the chair with you are experts who can manouver around you. But teewinot is a BEGINNER chair. Show some courtesy!
met a guy from florida on AV. he was friendly. We took a couple of runs together. he never introduced himself tho so i don't know his name and i didn't bother to tell him mine.
lapped av waiting for halfpipe to open. the snow was perfect, and i'm sorry i missed it, but by 1 it still wasn't open and I had to bail. which was a good thing because i don't think i would have handled my night at GB without that 45 minute nap i snuck in after i got back to town.
waiting tables. computers crashed 4 times. apparently there was some sort of power surge/outage in town and it wasn't our computers' fault. didn't matter. still made printing checks and taking credit cards and putting orders in to the kitchen a pain in the ass. Luckily, I timed it just right and printed the checks I had during the two minutes the computers were up between crashes, so all I had to do was manual credit cards. Then, of course, I couldn't enter any orders because I needed to close out the checks, but I managed to get all the orders in, out to the tables, and entered into the computer before I had to print checks again. So not quite as bad for me as it was for many of my fellow servers. For once, I didn't feel like a junk show. Got all my tables out and finished my side work.
Ahhhhh. the joy of sleep after a long day. i can't wait.
Cirque de neige Mood: a-ok Topic: shred report
New Snow: 2"
Had some errands to run (in other words SHOPPING) so I went to the Bridger center after work and told Erica to meet me there. I had seen a nice red arcteryx first layer shirt that I wanted to try on before I went out on the mountain and got all sweaty. And it was really warm, so I knew that would only take about one run. It fit perfect, and was such a light silky material that I knew instantly that I would not only buy it, but immediately return to the dressing room and change into it. So a pretty fast adventure for me - usually shopping takes several hours. Then I got myself a triple macchiato and headed out the door. I made it about two steps before I did an about face and went back in to retrieve my snowboard from the tune shop - I had dropped it off yesterday morning to get waxed. DERRRRRRR!
Erica's phone was dead, so when she called earlier it was from Chris' phone. No, not that Chris. Chris that works at the warehouse with Matt. Anyway, we told him to call us later so we could all ride together. As Erica and I headed from the bridger center toward the gondi, who should we run into but CHRIS! We told him to wait at the top, since he was already most of the way through the line, and we'd meet him there. Erica realized in the gondi that she didn't have her goggles, so we knew we'd have to go back to the base, which was convenient because Chris had to meet up with his roommates down there. So we had a posse!
We cruised down Sundance because Erica led the way and that's where she went. Nice, fresh corduroy. supercruise. I felt totally fine and uninjured, but I was still riding rather conservatively so as not to hurt myself further. But I was in no pain, so all was good. We zoomed to the bottom, and Erica ran into the shop to buy a pair of goggles. Meanwhile, Chris' roommate Pat showed up, along with their friend Anessa. We went back up the gondola and over to Thunder. By the time we got there, it had started to snow. HARD. We were pretty stoked (except Pat, who whined that he wanted to hit the park, so Erica made fun of him and said if he can't handle the powder he should go back to Wisconsin. Of course, if she had REALLY wanted to insult him, she should have said he was from Missouri.... oh, wait, he really IS from Missouri.... my bad.) We headed straight to surveyor's rock, Erica's fave, but she let ME lead this time. The snow was great, and the new snow was covering everything in sight, making it even better. We hit the cornice and headed back to Thunder. Then we took the soft trees on the other side down to Sublette.
Erica wanted to do Rock Springs Bowl, but I was the only one carrying gear. Pat said his gear was at the base and he would be happy to go out of bounds if we went down and got it first. It's just NEVER appropriate to go into the backcountry unprepared. It's not fair to YOU, and it's not fair to anyone else who is out there. Imagine this: you are wearing a transceiver and you've got your shovel and probe in your pack. Your group drops a sick face of powder. You go last. And it slides. The only people above you are a bunch of gapers that didn't think they needed gear because it was "JUST Rock Springs." Your friends can climb up and try to dig you out, but it would have been sooooo much faster if the idiots above you had shovels. Now imagine this - you are being super careful about your terrain choices because you know you don't have gear. You see someone drop the ridge next to you and get caught in a slide. You're RIGHT THERE and you could have saved their life, but you left your shovel in the car. How guilty would you feel? As our wise and knowledgeable friend Donnie told me, you're not just responsible for yourself, you're responsible for everyone else out there, and you expect the same from them. It's just never appropriate to go out the gates without your gear.
and traversed through Tensleep Bowl. Which was partially fresh, and very nice. So nice, in fact, that I didn't even make it across the flat to get to Cirque! With fresh WAX! I supposed I could try to blame it on Erica because I caught up to her and had to speed check and carve out farther than I would have on the traverse, but that wouldn't really be fair. I knew what I was doing and I didn't need to try to pass her. I could have waited my turn. And even then, I might not have had enough speed. Besides, she already accuses me of blaming everything on her (which isn't true, btw. I only blame her for things that ARE her fault.... hehehe.... or at least PARTIALLY her influence.) Anyway, eventually we made it over to Cirque. Which I have decided is short for Cirque de neige (circus of snow). I'm sure there are days when it's actually a cirque de soleil (sun), but today it was definitely neige.
At this point, Erica and I were both getting really hungry, so we headed over to Casper with Pat & Chris, and Anessa went back to Sublette to hike headwall. She's hardcore. And it's only her 2nd year riding! But she kept up with us like a trooper. She rocks. As for us, we had a nice lunch, but it was almost one, and Erica wanted to go get new footbeds for her boots, and she also had to work at 3, and I had to meet my friend Alex in town, so we bailed. We did cut through the pipe (well, not Erica, she cut through the AV gully and went straight to stinky... er, i mean LITTLE britches.) the pipe was ok, but visibility was nonexistent. So I took a very sketchy run through and cut down with Chris and Pat. At the kiddie park, I had another sketchy run - I hit the first rail ok, but I wasn't lined up right for the second one and my approach threw me off to the side so I didn't even touch the rail. I noticed a mass of people on top of a little mound on the right side of the trail so I stopped. There was a new obstacle - a barrel on top of a nice little ramp. Neat-o. The guys hit it. I was already riding really sketchy, so I just went around everything and met Erica at the base.
We got to hang with Donnie, since he's the bootfitting deity. He made custom footbeds for Erica. What a guy. Yeah, OK, that IS his job, but he's still the man. And he knows it. Check out the label on his beer bottle:
With her boot situation rectified, Erica was ready to head back to town. We decided to stop by the Ranch lot to see if she had left her goggles in the car. We couldn't find the car. After cirling the parking lot about 4 times and wasting about 15 minutes, she finally spotted it - when she had parked, her row was the last one, and she was all the way at the end. But they parked another row behind her, so what we needed to be looking for was the front of her car instead of the stickers on the back window. And while she had been all the way at the end when she parked, she was actually only about halfway back once they filled up the row. After that narrow escape from a frighteningly stressful panic attack, a pleasant surprise awaited us. Some thoughtful samaritan had noticed her goggles on the ground and hung them from her rear view windshield wiper! So not lost after all. Kinda like her car.
We got back to town and Erica went to work. I went to see V for Vendetta with Alex. Lots of great visuals. Lots of deep commentary on society and the government. Lots of plot. Not nearly as much violence/action/fighting as the previews portend, but then there usually isn't. But you know me - any movie based on a comic book or video game is worth the price of admission. Of course, in this case, we got in free with the passes Erica gave me...
So a late night for me, with early obligations in the morning. I'll sleep in April. Till then, I'll see you on the slopes. -AC Yikes. That doesn't go here. Where am I? What time is it? Sheesh. I need a day off.
No pain, no painkillers Now Playing: Death in December - A beautiful tragedy Topic: shred report Mood: sleepy New snow: 2" Last 3 days: 16"
Went to bed early last night but it didn't matter. I was still half asleep when I finished the report and got into my snowboard gear. The 20 oz of coffee hadn't kicked in yet, so I got a triple espresso while waiting for Erica to arrive at the resort. Wandered up to kids' ranch to meet her, but she called requesting that I go up to Casper to run an errand for her - since the transceiver she had wasn't working and Donnie had offerred to loan her his, she needed to get it. Only it was in Erek's car, so I went up to find Erek and borrow his keys. I took the traverse to Air Bowl, which was remarkably soft and powdery. I had expected it to be more tracked out and mogully, but it was smooth. which was good, because in my tired state I was flowing with minimal resistance, which meant I gained speed fairly easily and when I slowed it was gradual instead of jerky. My riding felt much smoother than usual.
Erek gets in at 11 on fridays, so when i got up to casper at 9:30 he was halfway up headwall. I took a run through sleeping indian woods, also very plush, and cut out onto the trail, which had been groomed and was thick, soft corduroy. I cut deep lines through the ridges left by the snowcat. When the orange fence of the race course came into view, I remembered that I was headed for the restaurant, and didn't really feel like hiking up from the traverse. So I cut around the edge of the fence and traversed as high as I could. I've tried this before, but I could never quite make it back up to the trail (which I believe is the intention behind the orange fence in the first place.) But there was no one running the race course, or even manning the bottom shack to be offended if I cut through. Nonetheless I looked both directions before crossing the finish line. Not a soul in sight. Good thing I was too lazy to speed check and made the traverse through the woods....
I was still too early, so I went down to the gondi to meet erica. she was definitely irritated about something - most likely having to borrow equipment and having to wait for other people (aka Matt.) We took the gondola up and cut over to Casper. She stayed on the groomer until we were almost on croaky point. I was baffled, but followed her. she finally cut into the trees on the left side of the slope, and I shadowed her line, taking alternate routes here and there to pilfer the pow. Then we hit the trees on the side of croaky point, and did the same dance.
Coming out of the trees, I had quite a bit of speed and when I cut through the corduroy I turned to sharply and slammed. It didn't seem like a bad fall at the time....
Last week, I had been on my way down Apres Vous when I caught an edge and slammed. Hard. I knew I'd be sore, but didn't feel any immediate injury, and kept riding (that was the day I helped with the competition.) By the time I got home I had forgotten all about it. Didn't even mention it in my blog entry that night. The next day, i was stiff and sore, but nothing serious. i got a little bit of a twinge when I lifted my right leg. Kinda reminded me of what happened when I hurt my back a few years ago at Snow King. Only THAT injury put me out of commission for a month, and I could barely move an hour after it happened. So I wasn't concerned. Figured I'd just tweaked the muscle.
When I slammed today. I hit the same spot. So it was sore, but since I didn't slam that hard I felt fine. Until I unstrapped and tried to lift my foot out of the binding. Even so, it wasn't really enough pain to be annoying. Then again, I do have a high tolerance level. I got my wisdom teeth pulled and took ibuprofin instead of the vicodin they gave me. I hate painkillers. They just make you week. And they make you sleep, and I have enough of a challenge waking up in the morning as it is.
So although I felt a little weird, I wasn't in pain (unless I moved the wrong way) and even when I WAS in pain, it was minor and fleeting. Erica went into the lodge and borrowed Erek's pack instead of his keys, which was way more logical at the time. Then we were off again - up casper to traverse to thunder to zip to casper to traverse into rock springs. I was mostly on groomers, and I sped easily through the now chunky snow that got softer as the sun began to peer through the clouds. No pain whatsoever. A couple twinges when I was skating through thunder liftline, but by casper all was smooth. Nonetheless, i figured I'd better get checked out. Erica reminded me that the clinic is free for JHMR employees, so I decided to go. But not until AFTER our backcountry run.
Rock Springs was SICK. I actually made all the traverses without having to hop or unstrap, mainly due to my lazy flowy style. Erica watched me drop into the bowl and said I looked really smooth, even though the surface was tracked and choppy in places. I didn't really notice that because I was floating effortlessly over it. We cut through the trees to the next bowl, and for once I didn't speed check, crash, and have to hike. I was riding really strong the whole way down. When we got near the drainage we lost Matt. Erica doesn't wait. She assumes that we all know where we're going once we get to the traverse. So I didn't wait either, I followed her, and she was far enough ahead that I didn't catch up with her until we got to Union Pass chair. Where we waited for Matt. It didn't seem like a long time to me, but then I don't know how long Erica was waiting before I got there - long enough to remove her jacket and shed an underlayer and sprawl out on the picnic table.
I went to the clinic, where they told me exactly what I already knew. x-rays would be a waste of time, because I wasn't in enough pain to indicate that I had hurt something. An MRI might have been more informative, but was a bit premature and unneccesarily expensive and labor intensive given that I just wasn't in any pain. The doctor prodded me a little, but nothing hurt. He said it was probably just a strain on the muscle, and I should rest for a day. He told me he'd give me some vicodin and a muscle relaxer. So it can sit in my medicine cabinet until some drug addict friend of mine pilfers it.... or possibly until i get a really bad migraine, but even then I probably would just take excedrin instead. So screw that. then again, might as well have it, just in case... only it cost $25 and I didn't have any money on me. I was way too lazy to go all the way back to my car and COME BACK just for some stupid drugs I didn't even want in the first place. So I waffled a couple of times, and probably irritated the crap out of the frustrated practitioners that were trying to help me and were completely nice even though I am certain they wanted to strangle me. Finally I left without the drugs. And felt great.
Since I was advised to rest, and since the discharge instructions were to NOT try and strech or massage, but to refrain from further tweaking, I decided to wear the back brace I still had, that my insurance refused to cover and I had to pay a ridicolous amount of money for. May as well get some use out of it. I've been wearing it all night, but so far the only pain I've had was the support pieces digging into me at the upper edge of the corset. The "pain" I've had was only that feeling you get when you stretch anyway, just the muscle letting you know that it's there, and you've reached the end of it. So not really, in my opinion, even what I'd call pain.
It actually hurt MORE when I slammed my elbow into the railing on the stairs in the marketing building. And then when I slammed it AGAIN on the metal back part of Union Pass chairlift. And it hurts more to whine about it and type yet another sentence trying to describe my discomfort. So I'm done now.
Happy St. Patty's Day. Which reminds me, my report was kinda funny this morning. Most likely because I was half asleep. But I'm going to record it here for posterity:
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! Visions of green beer and shamrocks are obscured this morning by the blanket of white that has fallen over our mountain. It's hard to think about anything else when there's fresh snow outside. Maybe it's holiday excitement, or maybe it's just a hallucination from lack of sleep, but I'm starting to see leprechauns dancing in the powder. Maybe if I follow them, they'll lead me to a pot of gold... or better yet a stash of untouched freshies hiding in the woods. -AC
Playing Hookey Mood: mischievious Now Playing: Death in December Topic: shred report New snow: 1"
I don't usually ride on Mondays. I work on Mondays. Unless it's a powder day, which today most obviously is NOT. But I bailed yesterday because I was just too sleepy to deal, and I didn't ride Saturday because it was -8 degrees, so I just felt like I needed to be on the mountain. Besides, I had already worked about 4 extra hours during the past week, so after I finished the report I geared up and headed over to nick's for a quick breakfast. By the time I finished, the gondola was open and deserted. woo hoo!
I cut into the gully, not knowing what to expect. Although we had only received one inch, there were a couple of inches in the gully. Certainly not enough for a face shot, but a decent amount. I zipped over to Ampitheater - the groomers were nice and fast. Soft enough to cut into, which is always a plus. For some reason, it's just not fun when your edge slides out from under you...
Took thunder to Grand, and cut into the trees a little bit. It wasn't bad. I wouldn't call it powdery, but there was enough on top of the hardpack to make it carveable. Then I cut back to the groomer and sped down to sublette. Thought about taking a few more runs over there, but couldn't resist the lure of headwall. More for the exercise of hiking than anything else, but I figured I'd find better snow over there than anywhere else (except the backcountry, which I wasn't going to venture into alone.)
Did I mention that trekking poles ROCK? Oh yeah.
Headwall reminded me of Rendezvous Bowl. There was enough snow to fill in the moguls, but you still had to carve around them. Even so, it was pretty soft, and I definitely gave myself some face shots. My intent was to head over to casper restaurant, but I cut a little too far right and wound up lower than I had wanted. I still managed to traverse across the face, down to the traverse, over gros ventre, under the gondola, and still make it to the top of croaky point. Then I carved down another deserted slope to the restaurant. At this point it was getting pretty late, and my legs were burning from the traverse, so I figured I'd head down to the bottom, but not before procuring a cappucino and saying hello to Erek, who as usual was overworked and understaffed. Hopefully, I managed to cheer him up and de-stress him a little. Then it was off to my own stress... which really wasn't that bad. I got some work done, met Erica at Bubba's for lunch, got some more work done, and went home just in time to watch the new episode of 24. All in all, a pretty productive day.
USSA rEvolution Mood: hungry Topic: shred report New Snow: 4" Past 48 hrs: 8"
Today I volunteered to help with the USSA rEvolution tour slopestyle competition. The things I'll do for a free pair of sunglasses.... but since I didn't have to be at the park until 10 I had time to find some pow before reporting for duty. I considered going over to Sublette and taking a few runs since the wind had blown it down for most of yesterday, but figured the line at thunder would prevent me from having time to get over there anyway, so opted to hike straight up stairway instead. I made this decision while waiting in the Gondola line when I saw on the announcement board that the bowl was open. So I had the entire ride up the gondola to organize everything. I had my gear with me, mainly because I had wanted to carry a pack to store all my extraneous crap. I knew I'd be shedding layers hanging out in the park, and I knew I could find somewhere to stash it, so it wouldn't be annoying. So I got everything together, tied my coat around my waist, and had my new trekking poles (that I hadn't used yet, even though I bought them almost a month ago) unattached from my backpack, and was ready to hike. I got off the gondi, strapped my board to my pack, and up I went.
I WILL NEVER HIKE WITHOUT POLES AGAIN!!!!! I can't believe what a difference it made. For one thing, my weight was balanced and I wasn't tipping over every two steps. Which meant I wasn't nearly as winded, and could hike significantly faster than before. I also didn't have to use my board as an anchor. And I got to work my triceps - always a plus. (If you don't know why, go rent the sweetest thing and forward to the scene in the dressing room where christina applegate wiggles her arm and says "what IS this?" referring to her droopy arm flab.) And I got a friendly foreign gentleman to take this lovely picture:
For those of you looking for gear reviews - I got the black diamond poles with flick lock. Easy to lengthen, adjust, and shrink, which was good, because I originally had them too long for the steep climb, and was able to change the length on the fly. They compact VERY well, and fit on my pack without poking me or feeling cumbersome. I'm very VERY happy that I went with my first choice, and not the most convenient or cheapest pair I could find. Just because "they're only poles" doesn't mean I shouldn't have been picky.
I stopped at the first entrance gate, partly because I knew I wouldn't have time to go the rest of the way, and partly because I knew Beartooth was the most north facing chute in Casper Bowl. And with wind coming from the southwest.... if you read the snow report I've already told you this. And if you don't, you obviously understand the weather patterns in Jackson well enough that I don't need to elaborate. Beartooth was SICK. I came at it from a weird angle and wound up on the right side of the entrance instead of the left because I almost went right past it. There was a little bit of a drop, not quite a cornice, but certainly a wind lip. I didn't get enough speed to catch any air off it, but I did sort of jump to drop it. The entire chute was totally soft, and I had the 2nd track down it. Then I got down to the lower bowl, where you can traverse in from the gondola. Wow. What a difference. It was still soft, but only a few inches were on top of the crust underneath. So you had to float or scrape. I did both. Liftline was its usual early morning immaculate corduroy, so I cruised down past the restaurant and took South Pass over to Rodeo Grounds (the terrain park.)
What a scene! Tons of competitors in bibs lined the top of the park. There were 2 judging areas - one at the top in a retired tram car, and one at the bottom near the black SoBe tent. My job was to collect the scoresheets from both areas and deliver them to the AV lift shack, where the tally mistress was waiting. Then I got to cruise back up, ride down AV, and repeat the procedure. The guys at the top wanted me to mention that they were my favorite. Their scoresheets were always neat and perfectly lined up in order. Of course, they also didn't have throngs of spectators, photographers, and the announcer lurking in their way, so I can't really diss the guys at the bottom. They had a lot to deal with. But the whole experience was fun, and I got a sweet pair of Arnette sunglasses for my troubles.
BAD Blogger! Mood: mischievious Topic: shred report
I have been a very BAD blogger. I haven't posted in almost a month. I suppose I could defend myself by talking about all the double shifts I've been working, but double shifts didn't prevent me from surfing around myspace and emailing my friends and getting a new camera phone and spending hours customizing it and learning to use it.... incidentally it's the SLVR L7 and it totally ROCKS. Erica and I both got them. We bought them on Ebay, which means they came from overseas, and the manual was in German, but you can download that sort of thing off Motorola's website so we did. And for anyone who cares, the overseas ones are WAY better because they don't have itunes. Which means you can hook your phone up to ANY computer and put whatever mp3 files you have directly into a folder (once you have a memory card) and listen to them... assuming of course, that they are 128 kbs or less... but hopefully the arrival of the motorola software (which I also found on ebay) will allow me to edit and change. Oh, and did I mention that you can use ANY mp3 file on your phone as a ring tone? Even an ENTIRE song? It uses a lot of memory, but it's NOT possible if you loaded the songs through itunes. And - BONUS - we didn't have to sign a contract because we purchased the phones independently. Stoke....
But wait, isn't this blog supposed to be about snowboarding? Rewind....
Last blog entry - Bro Down - March 12.
Worked doubles all week. exhausted myself. no snow + president's weekend tourists + too tired to blink = no snowboarding for prsgrrl. So nothing to report. for the weekend of March 17-19.
2 weeks ago, FRIDAY (Feb 24): 7 inches on top of 7 inches at the summit, and a half inch at the base. Temps in the 30's, so heavy wet spring snow. And of course, half of the 7 inches fell while the lifts were open on Thursday, so conditions were soft but shallow. I cruised over to Dick's Ditch to see what the course looked like. Maybe if I had been riding boardercross all season I might have wanted to try it, but I'm not really a racer. I did a boardercross at Stratton about 9 years ago and missed 5 gates in my best practice run, so I altered my strategy during the competition and went really slow. I didn't DQ, so I beat the one girl who did and came in 3rd for my heat. Way, way, WAY behind #1 and #2. So not even close. I decided that I didn't really feel like standing around all day waiting to take ONE run when I knew I wouldn't even be remotely competitive. Maybe another year.
Met up with Erica, Matt, and their ex-roommate Mark. Since Mark isn't really an expert (yet... give him time... jackson does that to people...) we stuck to Casper and AV. Found some great spring snow on the groomers, and Erica and I headed down to the park. She had me set up on the 2nd jump, but the first hit was the good one. Since we only did one run, we didn't know this. She nailed the first hit, then the 2nd threw her kinda weird, so the video has been deleted. She didn't crash and she didn't rally, so you really didn't miss anything. The first jump would have made a good vid, tho. They kept riding and I went to work.
Sat (Feb 25) - woke up with the flu. REALLY BAD. Drove to the resort and did the report. Drove home and slept. All day.
Sun (Feb 26) - see saturday feb 25. and happy birthday to Pete Fucito.
intermission - another week of working doubles. Luckily my 2 days of sleeping (along with a good amount of antihistamines and homeopathic remedies) cured my sickness.
Fri (Mar 3) - Happy birthday to Chris Breshears. (why are all my guy friends pisces?) After 2 weeks and only 1 day of riding, I was ready to GO. So ready, in fact, that I got dressed early and took the employee tram at 8:24. Rode with Anna (my boss at JHMR) and some reporters from the Rocky Mountain News who happened to be in town. Anna is a great mountain guide. We went down east ridge traverse and peered over cobet's couloir. Yeah. On a scratchy, packed day. I don't think so. But what a scene! hehehe. Lots of gapers like to hang out on the cornice, pretending they might actually drop it. Maybe on a softer day, after I've worked my way up to it, I might drop it someday. It's great for the reporters, though. We stopped a lot so they could take pictures of each other and the scenery, and talked a lot about what trails you can access only from the tram and how the east ridge double they're putting in this summer will keep those trails accessible and how the uphill capacity will increase. Exciting stuff. Marketing stuff.
As for the conditions, actually not bad. Packed powder surface, so you could totally cut into it and maintain control. The groomers were so smooth I was hauling, not because I had to, just because it was so much fun. Ampitheater was deserted. Nobody was on the mountain (until the afternoon.) Anyway, I rode with them for an hour or so, and around 10-ish Erica called me and was on her way to the mountain. Perfect timing. I bid farewell to the journalists and headed to the halfpipe. It wasn't quite soft enough to be good - it had chunked up the night before so the transitions weren't as smooth as they usually are. Definitely needs to be cut. Definitely makes a difference.
Rode with Erica & Matt until the slopes softened up. lots of great carving. They went to lunch and I went back to town to clean up before work. I was SWEATING. It was probably close to 40 degrees when I left, and I had been dressed for the colder temperatures that morning. I took a much needed shower and headed to work.
Sat March 4 - no snow. didn't ride. went out to breakfast with Erica and Donnie and Joshy at the VIRGE! First time I'd ever been there. The food was great, the service was awesome, and the atmosphere was very family oriented - inexpensive, toys in the waiting area. Joshy was very happy.
Sun Mar 5 - no snow. cold and crunchy. rode anyway. Took some groomers over to sublette and stopped on Ship's Prow to check out Rock Springs. It looked good. Of course, that was at the TOP. I didn't think the bottom would be very pleasant, but we did it anyway. The top was nice. A few inches of powder on crunchy snow underneath. You had to work to float it, but not bad. then the powder field was totally soft and nice. After that, it got scratchy. The fields lower down were downright awful. I believe the technical term is "BULLETPROOF." At least that's what we called it at Stratton. Then we traversed out. At no point during the entire run were we out of line-of-sight with each other. Erica is good like that. At 11:30 we hijacked Donnie and took him to sidewinders for his lunch break. We're good like that. Had a lazy afternoon, then Donnie went back to work, Erica went to work, and I went to work. In that order.
Hey, I'm up to this week - Happy birthday to my boss, Diana (3/6), and her son Shane (3/3). Happy birthday to Doug Miller (3/6). Happy birthday to Lance Donatelli (3/8). And Happy birthday to any other pisces who happens to be reading this.
Something else fairly significant happened this week. Well, last week actually. On March 1st, our other snowreporter informed us that he was bailing. One day notice. Hope he doesn't think he'll ever get hired by ski corp again.... So now I'm doing it. But since I have to be at work at 7 in town, I can't do it in the office. So I'm doing it from my house. Which is REALLY COOL! Of course, I can't make the photocopies of the grooming map at my house, so that's all being done by someone else, along with the 8am updates. But it'll be me until the end of the season. "See you on the slopes! -AC"
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.
energetic
a-ok
mischievious
hungry
rushed
cool
happy
spacey
blue
chatty
lucky
irritated
sharp