2/20/09

Day 34

Conditions: 45 degrees; packed powder
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

For the seventh day in a row, we went to work on the slopes. Heavenly was in desperate need of snow – the temperature was warm and things were melting in front of our eyes. We took a few groomers and a run through Killebrew Canyon, then we went to the Fire Break gate.

It was a mellow day, and we were done by 2 in the afternoon.

Highlights:

- Seven days in a row is an accomplishment. It was a great trip, with some of the best snow we have seen…ever.

Lowlights:

- I’ve eaten baby back ribs in the past that were so tough, they produced a ripping sound as I tore the flesh from the bone. I heard that same sound today when I ate it hard off the chairlift. I literally felt my shoulder pop out of the socket and then back in. I’m sure I’ll know just how severe it is tomorrow. Despite the disturbing sound, it doesn’t hurt that much.
- The lacing system on my right boot suffered an equipment failure and has to be sent back to Burton. Thank goodness it happened on the last day of the trip instead of the first.

Après Ski:

We packed and got ready for an early flight tomorrow.

Days to go: 16

2/19/09

Day 33

Conditions: 40 degrees; packed powder
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

Tuesday and Wednesday were hard to top; we didn’t expect today to come close, and it didn’t. With no new snow and some sore bodies for two long days, we allowed ourselves to sleep twelve sweet hours, from nine to nine. We finally rolled out to the slopes at 10 in the morning.

The snow was okay; it certainly made us appreciate the past two days. We took another run through the Fire Break gate, where we had our crazy run on Saturday. Since we knew where we were going today, it didn’t seem so extreme.


Fire Break Gate: Round 2

We spent the afternoon playing the in trees and doing bumps. We were sore and tired, but we stayed out until four in the afternoon like good little Spartans.

Highlights:

- The out of bounds gate had some nice turns
- Lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s Express was only $20; normally we have to dish out twice that on the mountain.

Lowlights:

- We were sore and spoiled from the past two days, so things felt a little ho-hum.

Après Ski:

We ate an early dinner and watched the film Smart People.


Days to go: 17

2/18/09

Day 32

Conditions: 14 inches overnight; 3 feet in the past 36 hours
Location: Kirkwood, CA

We never dreamed we would have 2 epic powder days in a row.

When we woke up this morning, a guy from Kirkwood Resort on the television saying the following: “I want all you hardcore skiers and riders to get out a pen and paper. On it, write February 18, 2009. In a decade or so, when someone asks you what your best day of riding was, you can pull out that piece of paper and tell them about this day.” We got goose bumps.

The drive to Kirkwood was an hour long, and the mountain delivered all it promised. We weren’t getting local seconds today; we were out there waiting for first chair and following the pack from front to back as different sections opened.


In line in time to see the first chair go up.

Every run was filled with waist-deep pillows of the softest powder I have every felt splash in my face. Things were so great, we didn’t stop for lunch – we just ate a few protein bars and kept riding.


Yummy turns.

Near the end of the day, we decided to hike Thimble peak, where we found some steep and deep turns. We made it a long day, and we didn’t take one turn that wasn’t full of fresh powder the entire time.


The hike to Thimble Peak

Highlights:

- We were part of a chaotic, dodgem race when parole pulled the rope for the back side of the mountain. Everyone was racing to get to the chair that would take us to the really crazy stuff. As soon as parole opened the area, fifty of us raced down, boarder-cross style. It was dangerous, and almost like war (as Dirk described it). The mood was truly every man for himself in search of powder. We saw a guy moaning in a rock crag that he accidently raced into, and his buddy was saying “This guy needs help!” We didn’t stop. No friends, or hurt strangers, on a powder day. It was scary and surreal, but it was something to remember.


The pack lines up and waits for patrole to pull the rope. We watched from the chair, then had to join them.

Lowlights:

- On our hike to Thimble Peak, we set up the money shot of the season. I went down and gave Dirk detailed instructions of where to come down to get the perfect shot. He came down looking great. When I went to hit record to stop the shot, I realized that I never hit record in the first place. I missed the whole shot. And, this was a 25 minute hike, so it wasn’t like we could just go up and do it again. It is possibly the biggest regret of my life.

Après Ski:

Since we didn’t eat lunch, we got a few appetizers at Kirkwood before driving home. Then, we ate dinner again at Freshies and watched American Idol.

Days to go: 18

2/17/09

Day 31

Conditions: 10+ inches overnight; 3 feet in the past 2 days
Location: Squaw Valley, CA

There is a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where all the kids bust through a metal door to find a magical candy world, Gene Wilder starts singing a song about imagination, and everyone is inexplicably happy. Well, substitute snow for the candy and that was us today.

We work up at 6 a.m. and turned on the television to find out how much snow the epic storm dumped on Heavenly. The weatherman reported that we received…(wait for it)…nothing! (I don’t use exclamation points often, but this one is warranted.) Meanwhile, less than 20 miles North, Squaw Valley had almost a foot overnight, and three feet in the past two days. Forget Heavenly; we piled into the car and made the hour and a half drive to Squaw Valley, despite the fact that the most direct roads were all closed.

Our effort was rewarded. Truth be told, the day started off rough. We took the wrong chair and ended up in an area full of killer-groomers. By the time we got to the KT-22 chair, most of the locals were on their fourth lap. Missing fresh snow hurts. Luckily, there was plenty of snow to go around. We had run after run after run of waist-deep – no exaggeration – powder.


Finding afternoon freshies in the trees.

The only bummer was the weather. It was snowy and windy, making visibility only a few feet at times. We didn’t get many pictures or video shots…but who has time for that junk on a powder day anyway?


Got snow?

Highlights:

- The deepest snow either of us have ever ridden (by far).
- Face-shots, white rooms, and a constant, floating sensation. Yes, we are referring to snowboarding, not those other things you are thinking of.

Lowlights:

- The locals had been waiting all year for a day like this, and they all went into work late so they could get in a few runs in the hill. Competing with locals for fresh tracks is tough because they know exactly where to go. We got their leftovers, but these sloppy seconds were oh so tasty. The upside? We got to see hotshots drop off some of the famous Squawllywood cliffs during the chair rides.

Après Ski:

We were so hungry from our full day that we stopped for pizza on the long drive home. We arrived back at the condo at 6 p.m. and were pretty whipped. We did have time to see MSU lose to Purdue.

Days to go: 19

2/16/09

Day 30

Conditions: 2-4 inches and packed powder
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

Workin’ 9-5 is tough.

Last night we slept while visions of powder turns danced in our heads. The weather forecast called for up to three feet in the next few days, so we were expecting to wake up and find at least 8-10 inches today. When we woke up, there was nothing. Even the weather man was flabbergasted. The storm never made it to the lake, except to a few resorts to the North. The good news was that the storm was still on the way, just a bit delayed. We would have to make our own fun today.

Luckily, there was plenty of fun to be had. Since the upper mountain was closed yesterday, The Sky Glades were covered with several feet of fresh snow, and the trees were great. On the chairlift, we met a local named Nicole, who was riding by herself. We took her over to Killebrew Canyon for a run or two, but we ended up separating because she couldn’t really keep up on the traverses. We did four laps through Killebrew, which is a feat for snowboarders because the traverse out of the canyon is a ¾ mile path of death; then, it takes two chair rides to get back. (By the way, upon entering the canyon we saw a sign specifically for snowboarders, warning us to beware of the killer traverse. We theorized that bitter skiers had this put up to try and keep hooligans like us out. And, as we traversed out, some old skier – who was waiting for his slow and incompetent wife – said “It’s a long hike out…” to me, as if I had no right to be there. “Worth it,” was my reply as I skated by him. He probably though I was like 16 years old. I’m starting to hate skiers, even though I once was one.)


Killebrew Canyon gate - note the sign at the bottom left, meant to discourage snowboarders.


After our Killebrew marathon, we explored some areas of the mountain that we hadn’t hit yet, like North Bowl. Then, we circled back to Sky Glades and made a few laps there. We didn’t quit until 4 in the afternoon, which is a very long day for us. And, things started to brighten up after we quit. Right now, we’re finally getting that snow.

Highlights:

- No epic snow, but many great turns. And, we made a full day of it.

Lowlights:

- Nope, it was a good day.

Après Ski:

We found a great, local resturaunt called Freshies that serves vegetarian and organic food. It was awesome. Then, we watched teen movies until we fell asleep.

Days to go: 20

2/15/09

Day 29

Conditions: Packed powder
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

Today was not as eventful – or epic – as yesterday, but still a lot of fun. When we woke up, there were high winds as a major storm was moving into the area. Most of the major resorts on the lake had their entire upper section closed due to high winds. Heavenly was no exception – three chairs and the gondola were closed, and more closed throughout the day

The chair that links the California side to the Nevada side was closed, so we had to pick one side to spend the entire day on. We chose California. We hit lots of trees in the morning, and found some nice snow in the Powderbowl Woods.

Lunch was an annoying as ever. Since many chairs were closed, only a few cafeterias were accessible. The one we went to was filed with campers (people who are not skiing, but sit in the lodge and read or drink), brown-baggers (hey, I don’t care if you want to save money, but I paid $40 for this lunch, so give up your damn seat), and people like us who just wanted to buy our $15 chicken sandwiches and eat. We waited in line just long enough for me to lose my patience and start bouncing cutters to the back, then we had to circle the cafeteria a few times for a seat. We finally snuggled up to another couple at a four-top.

The afternoon proved to be a lot of fun. We spent most of the time jumping rocks and trying to get video shots. Naturally, we fell on most of the attempts, but it was still enjoyable.

Highlights:

- Finding fresh stashes under the Gun barrel chair
- Getting some video shots – even if most of them will go into the fall reel.

Lowlights:

- The crowds. With fewer lifts open, everyone was funneled into three main lifts. To make matters worse, the California side is not beginner-friendly. So there were packs of beginners in way over their heads. At times, it was like dodgem cars.



Après Ski:

We had a great dinner at Christiana’s and called it an early night

Days to go: 21

2/14/09

Day 28

Conditions: Snowgasmic: 6-10 inches overnight, More than a foot in the past 24 hours.
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

After traveling yesterday and getting five, hearty hours of sleep, we woke up to fresh snow. We were expecting heavy crowds for the holiday weekend, but for some reason there were only a few people on the mountain.

We started off on Sky Express Lift riding the Sky Ways glades. It was powder turn after powder turn, floating through the champagne snow. There is no flow experience like snowboarding in powder. Everything else dissolves; the only important thing is this turn, right now. (And maybe the next, if you’re looking ahead like you should be.)


Powder=flow

We found great snow all morning, and finally went in for lunch around one. After lunch, we took a few runs. Then the fun began.

We went through a gate. On a ski hill, a gate means that you are doing something extreme. We go through gates all the time, so – truth be told – we didn’t exactly read this one. I do remember that it was red and had a skull and crossbones on it. The sign included a bunch of warnings with the phrase “you can die” in bold letters at the end. Like I said, no big deal.

As soon as we entered the gate we noticed something: there were no tracks in this run. We were thrilled. We busted down about 1,000 feet having the time of our lives. The snow was like silk, and there was no sign anyone had found this place before. It was like a dream, and we started to worry. But, what was the worst that could happen? Probably we would have to hike out or something.


The run of our lives, in more ways than one

We continued on, literally having the best run ever. It was turn after turn of white rooms and untouched powder. Finally, just when we were wondering where the hell we were, we got to an area of burned trees. Dirk was convinced that this was the run called The Burn, and if we kept going left we would reach a chair. This worried me. Earlier in the day, I studied the ski map diligently, and I knew that to get from The Burn to any chair, we had to ski to the right – this was because The Burn was on the ski area boundary. (Yes, we should have put two and two together here, but we had no idea that the gate we exited had been a gate to leave the resort. We were riding in a totally unpatrolled, unmodified area.)

Things started to get rocky. We were worried, but not that much. The riding was still great, and Dirk really seemed to know where he was going. The sinking feeling didn’t really start until we reached a river.

When we reached the river, we could see a lot of tracks on the other side. So, we thought that a real run was on the other side. (Little did we know we were not even on a run.) We hatched an elaborate plan to get over the river on our boards by using a snowbridge. It seemed safer than taking off our boards. It worked, and we both made it over unscathed.


I celebrate after crossing the river, but more fun is on the way. And, where the hell are we?

We kept riding – we didn’t have any choice. But, we were getting scared. There were no chairlifts or other people in sight. People who have been lost in the backcountry know it’s scary for many reasons. For one, if you cannot ride out, you can end up with a hike that lasts several hours (and in some cases you might not have that much daylight left). Also, there is no help, even if you need it, and you could end up spending the night in the woods if you get hurt. We were hitting rocks and logs at every turn; the snow just wasn’t as thick at this point on the mountain. (Later, we talked to someone in the Burton Shop who told us most locals do ski that area, but only later in the season where the bottom area is covered more.)

Soon, we started seeing other tracks, so we felt better. Finally, finally, we hit a travers and eventually saw a few condos. We came out onto a road near the gondola – 3,000 feet below where we entered the gate (according to the train map).

We were so far from the California side of the mountain, where our condo was, we had to take a bus back (the chairlifts were closed because it was so late).

It was the best run ever.

Highlights:

- Everything. It was the best day ever. I lived more this day than most days of my life combined.

Lowlights:

- There are many ways to hit a tree. We found two more today: you can be knocked down by a wayward branch you do not see (Dirk), or you can turn around a tree too fast and be clothes-lined (me). We both ended up with bruises, but mine was much more hardcore. These both happened in the morning, but we powered through. Who wants to stop on a powder day?

Après Ski:

We ate at New York Pizza – a place right out of Chef Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. It was extraordinarily bad, but the beer was good. Then, we watched The Island and went to bed early.

Days to go: 22

2/8/09

Day 27

Conditions: Ice. The bottom 5% of all our days together for the past three years.
Location: Boyne Mountain, MI

According to Dirk, “I’ve had worse days…10 years ago.” The warm weather yesterday left cold, hard, arctic-style ice today. It was bad. Scary bad. Fall-and-slide-into-a-piece-of-snowmaking-equipment bad. We logged one, awful hour and called it quits. But, hey, we did log a day.

Highlights:

- We pushed through, Coach D style, to log a day.

Lowlights:

- The worse conditions I’ve ever seen. Legitimately dangerous.

Après Ski:

We drove home, went to Meijer, and went home. Am I a jerk to propose special hours for special people at Meijer? Seriously, those with high IQ’s should be able to shop without dodging some of the folks trying to navigate the isles. Forget I said that.

Days to go: 23

2/7/09

Day 26

Conditions: Spring conditions: 45 degrees with mashed potato snow
Location: Boyne Mountain, MI

We decided to drive up late last night instead of this morning, a decision that proved to be disastrous in many ways. We started by grabbing a quick dinner at Panera. They were busy, but we didn’t really mind. We waited more than 10 minutes to place our order. When we got to the counter, we attempted to order soup and sandwiches. At this point, the highschooler at the counter said, “Well, we’re kindof busy. And, we’re going to have to make the sandwiches ourselves. So...it will be a while. Do you still want them?” This question was asked in an attempt to make us change our order to something less complicated than a sandwich. Obviously we still wanted them. For $8 per sandwich, I expect you to make them. We informed her we would wait for the sandwiches. We then got into the long line of people waiting for their actual meals. More than 15 minutes later, we arrived near the front. One of the young ladies making the food pulled Dirk aside. “Did they tell you we would have to make these sandwiches, and that it would be a while because we only have two people working?” Dirk told her that we were informed it would be a while, but we had already waited 15 minutes. Begrudgingly, the girl agreed to make the sandwiches (which we already paid for, by the way). This type of situation is the reason I hate leaving my house.

After mediocre sandwiches, we started the long drive to Lake Waloon. Near the end of the drive, I offered to take the wheel several times, since Dirk seemed tired. He insisted on finishing the drive, so I went to sleep. I work up to a scream, screeching tires, and a snowboard bag hitting me in the back of the head. Less than one mile from our destination, the Tribecca (only six months only) had its first accident when it hit a deer. Luckily, the damage to the Subaru was minor: a small dent and a piece of plastic that came off the wheel-well. We then when through the process of calling the cops to file a police report and calling Dirk’s insurance. We didn’t get to bed until almost 1:00 a.m.

After the dramatic trip up here, today was far less eventful. The trees were out of the question: it was far too warm and the snow wasn’t safe. We spent most of the day riding switch and perfecting ground spins on some blue runs. We even took a few runs through the baby park. Sure, the rails were only a few inches from the ground, but we still had fun. The snow was soft and chewy, making it a good day to do some technique drills.



Highlights:

- There were no ski teams today! There was a NASTAR course set up, but it was unobtrusive. We actually got to take several runs down Superbowl; it was a pleasant surprise.
- The people watching. Warm weather brings out the weirdness. Below is a picture of a guy who obviously didn’t realize that the Pro Bowl will be played in Hawaii, not Boyne City.



Lowlights:

- During the ride up the Superbowl chair, we started calculating how many days we have left. This year, Boyne opened early and Bohemia had great snow – if we are ever going to make it to 50 days, this is the year. But, we’ve already missed so many days to laziness, poor conditions, or resort closings. We came to the conclusion that it will be very close. We can’t skip another Boyne day, even if we are dying to.
- I took an accidental detour to the Boyne Land Lift – the beginner lift the literally moves slower than a human walk. It was humiliating just to ride it, but at least I can not say that I have ridden every life at Boyne Mountain.

Après Ski:

We stayed at the Hobey's, ate chili, and watched movies.

Days to go: 24