Winter
2008/2009
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Winter 2007/2008
Summer 2007
March/April/May 2007
January/February 2007
November/December 2006
September/October 2006
Wednesday
October 22, 2008 It's not summer,
it's FALL! A clear cool day, with changing leaves, and snowcapped
peaks (Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood).
Saturday
October 11, 2008 Still in Oregon...I got to ride in some fresh
snow on Mt. Hood yesterday morning. It was snowing
on the top section of Palmer Lift and was really windy and cold, especially
after not being in those conditions for a couple of months. Some really
fun, deeper powder pockets of windblown for the taking. I am now really
glad I went up there yesterday since I just saw that the lifts are closed
today due to high wind. I was pretty exhausted yesterday with the riding,
all the driving to get to and from the riding and just the general challenges
of balancing a lot of balls in the air at once, working hard almost around
the clock to make money to survive and for this winter all the while
trying to get a ton of exercise and stay as strong as I can. Then yesterday
evening
I made my way through Portland to the That's It That's All snowboard
movie premiere at the Roseway Theater.
I am really looking forward to moving. And it feels like opening
day is coming sooner rather than later. Riding yesterday got me so stoked,
I want to rip the crap out of everything.
Here are some Mt.
Hood Snow photos from yesterday:
Monday
September 22, 2008 Mt. Hood September Weekend Riding, Surfing Seal! I made it up to Timberline to ride on Friday,
my first day back since Labor Day and some time spent in Indiana helping
my mom move. There was a major forest fire burning on the other side of
the mountain and the smoke was pretty thick in the air. They had a pretty
nice little mini park built but there was just too much smoke in the air
to be inhaled in the process of hiking it seriously. I got a few laps through
it and did the hike out over the rocks back to the main palmer run. The
weather came in the rest of the weekend, the lifts didn't run at all on
Sunday. I hope the rain helped with the fires.
Last Thursday I went surfing out on the coast and there was
a harbor seal in the water when I was waiting for a set. That was right about
when the swell was
pretty much over for the afternoon and the seal hung out for about ten
minutes watching the surfers from about 30 feet away and swimming around us underwater.
That head sticking out above the water's surface and those big eyes...such
a nice animal, so cute. I love seals. (There is a photo of a harbor seal
at
the aquarium in Newport, Oregon on the homepage).
Here is Mt. Hood September 19, 2008.
Monday
September 1, 2008 Fresh Snow on Labor Day It snowed a couple of inches last night and maybe a dusting down to
lodge level. Some nice little sections of windblown powder were slashable
in the colder, earlier hours of the morning. Today was the final day of
the summer ski season, following a couple of weeks of scheduled lift maintenance
Timberline is scheduled to reopen for fall weekend skiing and riding on
Saturday September 13th. Now I am checking surf reports waiting for the
swell and the wind waves to not be the same size.
Other Mt Hood Labor Day Photos: Above the clouds/Mt.Jefferson View, Top of Palmer Lift, Fresh Snow, Fresh Snow Tracked, Alpine Flowers with Snow
Sunday August 31, 2008 Labor Day Weekend, End
of Timberline Summer Ski Season...A Look Ahead
The public park underwent a final reincarnation in High Cascade Snowboard
Camp's zone further up the mountain than the early and mid-summer public
park locations. I had a couple of slushy pipe days before the HCSC
pipe was finally returned to the Earth. And a couple of days hiking and playing
on some smallish jumps. There is a sense of the season winding down up there,
fewer people around, only a couple of ski lanes in use in the mornings and
the busy summer snowboard camps but a distant memory. The chill of fall is
in the air.
Tomorrow, September 1, is the actual "closing day".
The mountain is supposed to reopen for weekends only starting in mid-September.
I plan
to get
a few more days to keep my snowboarding legs through the next two months while
getting as much surfing in as I can before I head for my next destination.
I have a lot of work to do to make money for this winter and for leasing a new
place to live.
My plan is to go after the freestyle progression and competition
side of snowboarding with a vengeance this coming season. After a couple of years
of learning and exploration in some of the most extraordinary natural terrain
locations in the world, I want to develop the more technical aspects of my freestyle
riding in a controlled terrain park situation. Competition season starts early
(beginning of December) and moves fast, and to prepare for it I am going to position
myself where I know I can get things done. It is an excruciating decision to
go somewhere besides Jackson Hole, as its terrain and snow culture
reflect my values in snowboarding and also in living. But it is time for me to
give my snowboarding everything it needs to develop as fully as possible on multiple
of planes of progression. I think there will be a lot to learn this winter and
a lot of fun to be be had riding at the Village and in the surrounding backcountry,
I realize I have barely scratched the surface of all of the terrain and the levels
of approaching it that are possible there. But I feel like I
have some good momentum with all of the natural terrain, freeriding and mini
shred stuff I have been doing during the past couple of years, and right now
I feel like learning new tricks. A year or so ago at SnowPark or in Park
City or during the previous couple of years at Mammoth I didn't quite feel comfortable
enough or ready to progress quickly with freestyle riding. Now I feel like it
is time, and I am ready. I
will
probably
go
ride
in
Jackson at some point this winter but until then I want to put all of my focus
and energy into developing the greater body awareness needed to do technical
tricks on a bigger scale. Good pipe (or pipes) cut right everyday and jumps that
work so I can hit them A LOT. It is my time to go out into the world and make
things happen.
Friday August 22, 2008 First snow...It snowed
a little bit on top of Mt. Hood this morning.
Friday
August 8, 2008 Timberline, Oregon QUARTERPIPE I
hadn't really hit one since Snowpark NZ last August. So stoked
and completely
overjoyed
to have this to play with in the latter half of the summer and
in the public park no less. Just getting warmed up today on the
QP. HCSC's
pipe was pimped out today too. Haven't been in Windells but their
stuff looked pretty good. Met some people on the lifts from the
Midwest
and back East who had never been to an actual mountain to ride
before today, only the small hills in Minnesota and Western New
York
State. I was so excited for them. Today was an extremely fun
day.
Tuesday August 5, 2008 Oregon I am really hungry for progression and tricks again. The summer public pipe has been returned to the Earth for the season -- I got up to the top of the lift Monday morning and it wasn't there anymore. I accepted this and went and rode the pipe at HCSC (High Cascade Snowboard Camp).
Saturday
July 19, 2008 Spring/Summer 2008 Recap. Somewhere
in Oregon...
After the season ended in Jackson Hole, actually on closing
day after getting fed at the 100 day club breakfast and riding for
a couple of
hours, I caught the flight to Atlanta and onward to Florida to see
my family and get some rest time in the sun. The day after I arrived
I went to the beach where there were perfect little glassy two foot
waves rolling in with perfect peaks in neat little sets. It was a kind
of unusual sight for the southwest coast of Florida. Alas I didn't
have a surfboard with me but I got to swim in the surf on another day
during that trip.
I flew back to Jackson in mid-April, unloaded my storage unit
and loaded my car up and drove to Oregon. Jackson is a nice place to be and it
was hard to leave
but I decided that I wanted to be somewhere this summer where I could snowboard
and surf. Oregon has both and compared to many spots in California, I can actually
afford to live here. The first day I went up to ride was a total blizzard
day at Mt. Hood Meadows and a wild blizzard situation on the roads on a weekend
afternoon
getting back down. The pipe at Meadows was pretty good and fun for a few days
in late April and early May. Timberline had a fun park off the Stormin' Norman
lift through the end of May that had a small pipe up top and two sets of two
jumps, two hips, three sets of two jib features, some kind of a bonk jib feature
and a quarterpipe type thing at the bottom. Some cold powder days in May too
(and well into June). The jumps were serviceable, and were the right size for
all sorts of progression and the jib features were set for progression too.
June brought the opening of the park and pipe further up the
mountain and a blissful couple of weeks of calm before the summer camp crowds
arrived. There was one
day when a blizzard was starting and the pipe was so perfect and no one was
riding it except for one other person and myself. Then it was a snowstorm for
the greater
parts of two weeks. When I got back up there the camps had arrived and it was
like waking up on a whole other mountain. I don't work for the camps or have
any sort of official access to their well-groomed parks and perfect pipes.
I have been out to the coast three times so far. The first
time I went up to Oceanside and then drove down to Pacific CIty where the surf
was really good
and I looked at guys in their wetsuits. I like to look at guys in their wetsuits.
And I saw some sea anenomes in tide pools.
Then I finally went surfing twice further
down the coast. I found my "spot".