Tuesday
May 22, 2007 Park City, Utah "End
of Season" I didn't go ride at Snowbird this past Friday. I did
go to Indiana to visit with my family over the weekend. The whole visit
was really quick, kind of a blur...Grandma doesn't have any chickens,
my mom's dog has learned what cows and horses are. We have decided that
Scottsburg's motto is "A Heritage of Free Cake" (due to a bakery
that frequently gives out free cake and cupcakes for no good reason)
and Hanover's is "The Home of Tick and Twirl" (due to the prevalence
of ticks falling from trees by the roadside ice cream stand
during a stop there a couple of years ago). My grandma and many of my
aunts, uncles and cousins came over on Sunday to celebrate my mom's birthday
with some hotdogs, bratwurst, fudge cake, and a few games of bingo. On
Monday my mom and I went to visit with my Grandma and then went to Walmart
to buy some rickrack and a new vcr/dvd player. A fun time was had by
all.
The snow season for me started September 19th in Saas-Fee and as of right now
I am at 198 days (or maybe 199, one day I didn't count because it was only a
ride back down to the PC parking lot from the village which is lame). My last
day was Sunday May 13th at Snowbird. I am really over the whole counting days
thing, it is sometimes a good way to motivate to go on days when conditions or
weather are questionable, but sometimes, especially in terms of my present intensity
and level, some added rest days and laziness (and avoidance of crappy conditions)
might just be what I need. And intermountain spring snow that has had new snow
on it and hasn't corned up is really sketchy. And I will say that popping off
a non-park, non-salted lip to spin frontside in such conditions (even when the
snow was colder, fast and fine a couple of runs earlier) is really painful. You
don't want to do that.
Monday
May 14, 2007 Park City, Utah Today is the first day in a long time
when I've been where there are
no ski resorts open to go ride at. I slept in, now I'm getting ready
to go and exercise/swim and go to work.
I went to Snowbird yesterday for what I thought might have been my
last day of riding there this season. The snow is melting even up on
the runs
in Little Cloud
Bowl, i rode the mountain top to bottom yesterday but it was really sketchy
near the bottom. The snow in some places is finally starting to corn
up really nicely
so that made some natural terrain stuff fun and aggressively rideable again.
Their website says they will go for one more weekend, so I plan to ride there
one more day this Friday 5/18 before I head to Indiana on Saturday for my mom's
60th birthday festivities. Snowbird "Almost End of Season" Photos:
Saturday
May 12, 2007 12am Snowbird is still open...after a week
of spring and summer conditions, one more storm with
powder on Friday 5/4 and Saturday 5/5...probably Sunday too but I was
sick with some stomach thing and didn't make it up that day, heard
it was skied out and not as good as Saturday...there was still powder
around
Monday morning 5/7...especially in the higher sections of Peruvian
Gulch and off Road to Provo but things went back to spring/summer
conditions
by mid-afternoon. That storm was pretty epic, the way the snow fell
the heavier new snow with lighter powder on top, no "bottom" ,
no hard ice underneath in many zones of the mountain. This week, with
only the Little Cloud Bowl area officially open (the rest of the resort "open" but
designated as backcountry i.e. not patrolled, hazards not marked) it
has been a week of lapping my favorite things around Little Cloud, with
the exception of a run or two down Peruvian and Mineral Basin (when it
was open one morning). I have found a chute I like that is shaded all
morning and the snow in it has corned up some. I guess there is one "good
way" all the way down to the bottom of the resort through Peruvian
Gulch but it is pretty sketchy, mostly in terms of the slowness/grabbiness
of the snow.
Tuesday May 1, 2007 The marmots are out at Snowbird...I found one of their houses. Good spring conditions today, fast slush. A cold front with snow for the higher elevations is supposed to arrive Wednesday night.
Sunday April 29, 2007 More Snowbird...I just looked at the 'Bird website and it is 50 degrees F at the top and 60 at the base..at 9:35pm! The snow conditions are definitely going in the direction of summer slush, even though I can still play that game where you see by how much you can beat the tram back to the bottom. As the meltdown continues it gets more challenging to find things to jump off of and zones for steep speed, but there are still things to jump off of etc. Snowbird is still a really fun mountain to be on this time of year. There will be plenty of time for park and pipe riding and progression this summer and fall. The coyotes are all hanging out around the base areas and the little rodents are coming out of their holes to enjoy the warm weather. i saw a moose lingering along the main road into Park City yesterday. Spring hours go into effect tomorrow, 8am to 3pm...I will be attempting to get up and going an hour earlier.
Wednesday
April 25, 2007 The Sun Comes out at Snowbird Winter conditions
higher up through the weekend and another (surprise) six inches or
so of powder came Monday morning for a really
low-key, mellow powder day especially by Snowbird standards. There was
more wet snow Monday afternoon and Tuesday and the sun finally came out
in an all-day intense manner on Wednesday 4/25 for one of those epic
spring conditions days that happens when all of the big wide open natural
terrain stuff rides smooth and fast like it has been groomed. Pardon
me if my chronology is a little bit off, all of the days blend together
after awhile. Here are some photos from Wednesday 4/25/07:
Tight little drop-in chute in Mineral Basin under the
chair...
A fresh
line when conditions went "spring", view from the top...not
too steep but from the opposite slope it looked a lot bigger, non-doable
rocks and cliffs to the left catch a bunch of snow forming a continuous
ledge to the right that ends in a bulbous rounded bank at the base.
The ledge/lip was only about 10 or 15 foot drop but the snow/landing
was smooth -- untouched by skiers earlier in the week. the ledge could
be re-mounted and dropped again and then you could spin off the thing
at the bottom. I tired to go back and get a photo of it from the opposite
slope (where I found this thing in the first place and it looked so
spectacular) but clouds rolled in and it went to flat light after I'd
only done this line twice. I went back the next day and it was all
chewed up and the snow was too slow to get speed.
View from Little Cloud Chair
These little
cliff bands made nice ledges to fly off of...
Twin Peaks
Saturday
April 21, 2007 Powder Days at Snowbird! New Art for 2007 Updated! During
the main storm this week 17 official
inches of snow fell at Snowbird -- of course it was much deeper in
some places. Wednesday was the storm day, starting as ice and transitioning
to crowd-less fresh powder lines as the day went on...and Thursday
was
the big powder day, with another big dump overnight and the sun coming
out in the afternoon. I am really exhausted right now, I have been
riding hard, full days for 10 days in a row (plus working most nights
afterwards
for several hours). And Snowbird has now extended their season, planning
to stay open daily through May 13th and then Fri-Sat-Sun after that!
I am all over the place finding tricky, fun, creative (sketchy) lines
on that mountain. It is not really a cliff thing right now, as they
don't have enough snow on them and below them in most cases, but
it is indeed
a chute, spine, ledge, lip, amorphous snowform dropping frenzy. The
base of my board is a mess right now. I know I need to get another
T6 to have
on deck but I am thinking about doing Slopestyle and have been playing
around with the idea of a different board (non-aluminum core, which
is what the T6 is, and which rails and park jibs can dent). But I
am just
not motivated to work on my park-jibbing game...if I had a perfect
park to ride I'd go right for the pipe and kickers anyway and ignore
the jibs
for the most part, so I don't really know what I am going to do. I'd
be happy to keep riding a T6, really up my jumping game, and then if
I do Slopestyle (because the one's for "girls" always seems
to have jibs you know) just 50/50 something and do the jumps and stuff,
have fun and take what I get (48th place or something). It is an edge
thing too, I like mine super sharp and don't even detune contact points
a lot of the time. Some of the ice at Snowbird right now is really
spectacular and needs to be danced across and down to get to some good
stuff to ride
-- I have the set-up that lets me ride it and I don't want to compromise
that. I keep going around in circles with this. Here is a photo of
Snowbird during the snowstorm. (Sorry it isn't more detailed of the
powder but
the trees are pretty.)
I have also posted some of my paintings from the first part of this year.
My style is still growing, changing and progressing but I feel that now
I have a more distinct sense of where I am going with it so the next few
pieces should even hotter. I am building a really big canvas (which I kind
of hesitate to do as I am going to have to move again in a few months)
but
I may wait until I get some fashion things going before I set up to paint
again. Here are some photos of my new art...
Tuesday April 17, 2007 Epic Spring Conditions at Snowbird! Highlight of the day was the area in Gad Valley accessed from the traverses off the Little Cloud Chair. Peruvian Gulch runs were pretty hot too. I've lost a lot of the traversing/speed-checking/extra turning in my riding so gathering too much speed on steeps heading into flats where the casual skiers like to stand around...has become an issue. Today was just so incredibly good. To be able to hit so much natural terrain stuff with speed on spring conditions snow in mid-April at a major resort is really special. Winter Storm Warning in effect for the Wasatch for tomorrow into Thursday.
Monday April 16, 2007 Snowbird! Snowbird is the last resort still open in Utah. Today began with a couple inches of fresh snow on the Gad Valley side...the mountain reported one inch but there was much more, and powder conditions prevailed during the morning in the upper parts of Peruvian Gulch where it stays dark, dry and cold. Things got sticky on the lower mountain as the day went on but there is still a ton of snow up there and lots of off-piste zones are still fun. My board wasn't sliding well with the mix of sticky fresh on top of slushy ice that formed but I have finally figured out really good, consistently steep runs on each side of the mountain that seem to get me into a lot of good spots without too much traversing on flats or waiting in traffic. Today was a day for new things to ride and new little sketchy places to get into and out of in the slush and in some cases the powder too. That seems to be the game right now, picking out some new place check out during the lift or tram ride up and then trying to get to it, through it or jump off of it on the ride down.
Friday April 13 2007 through Sunday April 15, 2007 Brighton Closing Weekend...Last day for the original 2-seat YAN Millicent Lift. Friday started with excellent powder groomers on Millicent and a few inches of fresh powder on the natural terrain stuff over there. Really good runs, through the chutes in the bowl and the chutes that go through the cliff bands to looker's right of the main bowl and also a nice first track on the slope to the looker's right of the chair itself. There weren't many people over there...understandably there were icebergs looming under the fresh near the bottom where the melt/refreeze was more extreme, but overall it was a powder day. Same can be said for terrain off of Snake Creek lift and Crest lift. Saturday was more of a typical spring conditions day. In spite of the oververt the pipe was fun to play in during the afternoon. I won't go for big air when it is shaped like that but there were transitions to play on and the slush was fast slush. SUnday was the last day for the original Millicent chairlift, signficant to snowboarding because a lot of early freestyle went down on the natural terrain over there (and still does) before the days when terrain parks became the norm at every resort. It is a two-seater YAN lift with the bar down the middle a la June Mountain's J1. They are replacing it with a high-speed quad...all the terrain should still be there to ride but the new lift will load (I've been told) more centered, closer to where the restaurant is. It was slow over there all weekend, I rode Millicent for 6 hours straight Sunday and hit all of my favorite lines, didn't drop anything more than 15 feet or so, and was mostly doing methods as I know I can do them in taking off and landing heavy slush dependably. The crowds started arriving for the last runs of Milli and of Brighton's season around 2pm. It is interesting to see what lines and places to get air people pick out, different groups of riders like certain areas and some like others. There is so much over there it is hard to decide which route to take. The snow has receded off most of the big rocks so the cliff thing was mostly over, but there were mini-shred features everywhere you looked. I left about 3, had to get to work back up in Park CIty. It was a good season for me at Brighton, a good place to get comfortable with rocks and cliffs and things. I love Brighton and I'm grateful for my time over there this winter but I don't feel like I need to do another season with a pass there (but I would like to get into the surrounding backcountry more.) It is time for the next thing.
Sunday April 8, 2007 through Wednesday April 11, 2007 "The Tahoe
Trip" I
met up with my mom in Reno/Tahoe for a few days for Easter and my birthday.
We gambled at the Grand SIerra in Reno upon arrival Saturday night, spent
the night there and drove to Squaw Valley on Sunday morning. Had a nice
condo ski in/out at the SV Lodge. Rode nice spring conditions and the superpipe
at Squaw on Sunday and Tuesday and rode at Alpine Meadows on Monday. I
was hitting some crazy dangerous slush and slush on ice moguls type terrain
at both places, just because i was there and I wanted to ride, and because
I wanted to check out how entertaining each place was in case it might
be somewhere I wanted to live and ride next winter. I have to say that
I was more into the Tahoe thing last spring, because it was like Mammoth
but with more cliffs/rocks and natural terrain intricacies. Everything
seemed small and kind of flat to me this trip. I am presently debating
about whether or not to renew my Mammoth myp pass. I didn't go at all this
year and now it is even more expensive to renew. The idea is that I may
go to use the park/pipe stuff, like to get tricks in shape before a competition
or for spring riding or something. I don't see myself moving back there,
though a Mammoth top to bottom run including the steep stuff on the top
and the park and pipe down below is a nice thing. So yeah, I don't know
for sure where I am headed except for that I don't feel motivated to jump
through hoops to find housing in Tahoe (it's not easy there) and I know
I need really challenging natural terrain inbounds to ride, not just a
terrain park. Here are some photos (Squaw, Alpine, Lake view from Mt. Rose
Hwy)
Tuesday
April 3, 2007 Park City, Utah I
have been riding at Park CIty for the past three days, mostly riding
park and enjoying it. The pipe was good on Sunday when it was overcast,
I was it it for one run today and it was kind of squirrely. Otherwise
I have been really into the kickers. Getting really comfortable with
that kind of air again. I think i finally got sick of not riding park
much, in the same way as I was over it with the park after having so
much park and only park from late Spring in Mammoth last year through
the Switzerland trip. Following one restricted form or method is going
to put limits of the riding that are going to keep me from growing...the
all natural terrain thing became just as restrictive and limiting as
the all park thing is for a lot of people.
There is a definite fork in the road where one way leads to slow or non-progression
of freestyle on natural terrain and lots of fun freeriding which to me is really
quite boring as an overall modus operandi...and this is coming from my perspective
of having been in Utah almost all winter with off and on conditions and getting
the most possible out of what kind of natural terrain stuff I can get to inbounds,
even if it is icy or hardpack (and one would think it would be easy to hook up
with people with common interests and goals to go out-of-bounds with but even
being reasonably social, this was not to be for me this year, which is unbelievably
frustrating). I have found that a lot of people are just way too casual about
riding and I feel like I am stuck in wishy-washy land.
The other way involves passionately wanting and pursuing with commitment concrete,
dialed-in freestyle progression. Moving forward. And this is the path that I
have chosen because it is fun and not boring. Getting at the technical detail
shit as it is tightly interwoven with style in the most efficient and effective
manner possible. I am thoroughly stoked through my entire body and into the furthest
depths of my soul right now by the sheer finesse of movement. I go out and ride
for five hours and then I go to work for seven or eight hours where I have to
be active and on my feet non-stop. I watch video of snowboarding and film parts
on my iPod during my breaks at work. I dream about riding. Then I get up the
next day and do it again.
Saturday March 31, 2007 Park CIty, Utah I rode at Brighton today and yesterday. Winter conditions and overcast yesterday, with some decent deep-enough powder in some places on top of the ice. Today began as groomed powder, the off-piste stuff on Millicent was getting sticky and warm early. I tried out my 2007 UnInc 158 this morning...I have been riding T6s for so long I wanted to see what a different board would be like. It was fun on the groomers early but once I wanted to get off trail I wanted my T6 for the variable/choppy conditions. I switched to a new pair of bindings today (another pair of CO2s fresh out of the box) which helped a lot -- I'd let my old ones go on for about a month too long (way too stretched out and worn out). It was a nice couple of days at Brighton but I feel like I want to do some more technically focused riding...I'll probably be in the Park City parks a bit this week even if it is raining/snowing/foggy. i never do much in the Brighton parks as it is so much jibbing and I am usually on the T6 -- and there is just too much other stuff to do there like jump off of rocks and things. Snowbird announced their spring pass that is good through the end of April...so it sounds like their season is set to end at the end of April. I was hoping to squeeze a couple of weeks in May out of the Utah season, but it doesn't look like that is happening. Park City seems "over it" for the season, the skate park is open and spring has sprung in SLC but I am still in full winter mode. I want to squeeze every fun riding experience and the most progression possible that I can out of everyday. I am so close to having so many things I have been trying. I don't want it to stop now!
Sunday
March 25, 2007 Jackson Hole Bye bye nice mountain!
Saturday March 24, 2007 Jackson Hole Resort, Teton Village, Wyoming An epic mind-blowing day, even with the spring conditions, lack of coverage in places and all of that. I think i rode like 50,000 feet of vertical today. I was on the gondola at 9am sharp and finished up around 3:30. And I found out that I really didn't place so well at the Chicken Jam, but because it is 6star I got some decent points and I am finally ranked on the TTR world rankings...at #223! But they have decided that i am Canadian. I am American, and proud.
Thursday
March 22, 2007 Park City, Utah Roxy Chicken Jam Edition Today
was the qualifiers for the slopestyle and pipe, I only did the pipe.
I didn't see the full results but I don't think I did so well, everything
felt gluey it was so warm and slushy...I didn't feel like doing tricks
off the glue wall. It was a relatively chill competition
compared to the others I have been to, didn't seem like many people were
actually riding in the pipe qualifier compared to the number that was
supposed to be there, I am thinking some people opted out. I think I
am pissed at myself for not trying harder..still kind of really not feeling
good after the Snowbasin incident. I have come to face up to the fact
that the difference, the gulf, between my everyday snowboarding level
and my competition performance level is...vast. And I really need some
time, like some pipe and park time.
Sunday March 18 through Wednesday March 21, 2007 Lots of pipe-hiking at PCMR. [The pipe was actually a better version of slushy during these days than it was during the competition.] I was getting super comfortable by Wednesday afternoon. I was kind of questioning whether I should have been out there on Sunday and Monday after what I did to myself on Saturday...
Saturday March 17, 2007 This was the day I went to ride Snowbasin.
I like Snowbasin very much. So much so that I was riding its slush-covered
terrain very aggressively and had a really ridiculous crash. It
was something
of a scorpioning top of shoulder smashing into jaw face plant.
There are crashes that are dramatic and spectacular but relatively harmless
and ultimately forgettable. This was not one of those crashes.
I
could show you pictures of what my face looked like for
two days afterwards
but instead I will post this pretty picture of Snowbasin. What
a great mountain, so sunny, nice high alpine-style terrain
but still intricacies
of rock features and steep rocket-launching groomers. Friendly
staff, uncrowded, kick-ass mini park at the base...and if it hadn't been
so warm that pipe to quarterpipe set up would have been
unbelievable.
Friday March 16, 2007 Park City, Utah I went riding today at Park City, actually getting some clean straight air runs in the pipe in spite of its bumpiness on the downslope of the sunnyside transition and some residual creases in the flat. Pipe was feeling pretty slushed out by noonish so I took off to ski team lift to hit some runs off of silverlode lift.
Thursday March 8, 2007 Park City, Utah I had another good powder day at Brighton last Saturday, then had a couple of solid days of pipe riding at Park City on Sunday and Monday. Finally figuring out the speed and angles in that thing. The pipe at PC has been closed for the World Superpipe Championships since then. There was some fresh snow this morning but the temps are too warm and the snow was sticky. Today is my only full day (evening) off from both of my jobs this week so I am enjoying not being as hyperactive as usual. Contemplating missions to ride Snowbasin's pipe this weekend since PC's is off limits. Glad I am not headed to the US Open this weekend without having a chance to get in the pipe in the days leading up to it.
Saturday March 3, 2007 12:02am Park City, Utah I have been riding PCMR for 6 days straight (since that epic powder day at Brighton last Saturday) deep in powder and hoping to get in the pipe but not getting in the pipe because it has been full of snow or had enough snow in the transitions to make those steep nosedives down the wall a bit tricky. I won a slot in the lottery for the US Open pre-qualifiers but I gave it up because I kind of had the feeling that I wasn't going to get enough pipe time leading up to it to make it worth competing seriously (and it is too expensive to travel if I am not getting some sort of progression out of the experience). The same thing sort of happened last year with all the snow we had in Mammoth in late February and early March. I have this deep yearning to ride good pipes right now that just isn't being satisfied here in Utah. I love all the new snow, but I like to mix it up with some pipe and good jumps too. I am signed up to compete in the qualifiers for the Roxy Chicken Jam here in Park City in late March, just the superpipe part. If I really enjoyed riding Park CIty and the logisitics of getting to and lapping the pipe here were better I could really put forth an engaged, serious effort to put together some good pipe tricks based on the all-mountain freestyle kind of tricks I have been doing all season, but it is like my heart is just not in it the way it would be if I were in some other places where I fully feel at home riding... I have come a long way in terms of my ability to focus and control distractions but I am not all the way there yet. Snowbird not building a pipe and Brighton not maintaining theirs really bums me out too. At least the powder has been sick. Two days this week with waist-deep at PCMR in some places. When not working and snowboarding every day I have been painting a lot...I will post some of the new art stuff soon.
Winter
2008/2009
Summer 2008
Winter 2007/2008
Summer 2007
March/April/May 2007
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September/October 2006