12/31/09

Day 15

Conditions: More Epic Powder

Location: Snowbird, Utah

Today was a bluebird day at Snowbird, and the powder was plentiful. We got up early and picked up Craig at 7am to do the Canyon Crawl again. We had plenty of time to boot up and get in the Tram line – which was packed with locals and fatty skis.

We had run after run floating in sweet, fluffy powder. We started with a run down the front side to Peruvian Express. Then, we followed the rope openings to Mineral Basin, Baldy and Little Cloud. Every run was powder or powdery moguls.

Just like yesterday, we didn’t stop for lunch. We finished the day at Gad 2 and called it around 2:30.

Highlight:

Powder. It’s impossible to explain the awesomeness of riding in powder to someone who doesn’t snowboard or ski. It is complete freedom and absolute flow. Time doesn’t exist. Nothing else exists. Paul Newman use to say that he raced cars because it was the only time he ever felt any semblance of grace – that’s how I feel about snowboarding on a day like today.

Lowlights:

There really were none – but the lines were pretty long. The valet told us there were 6400 people on the mountain today. That’s a lot.

Après Ski:

It’s New Year’s Eve…so there’s only one thing to do: pack and go to bed early in preperation for one more day out tomorrow.

Days to go: 35

12/30/09

Day 14

Conditions: Epic Powder

Location: Snowbird, Utah

This morning, Snowbird reported two inches of snow. We suspected it might be more and we made the hour drive on slick roads to see what The Bird had to offer. When we got to the top and dropped into Mineral Basin we found feet (not inches) of fresh powder.

It snowed all day long…and I mean it was dumping snow. Visibility was an issue, but we still managed to make plenty of turns from 9am to 4pm – without stopping for lunch. It was a great, full day.

Highlight:

The highlight was simply the sheer number of fluffy powder turns we made today. It was literally never-ending.

Lowlights:

It took us around two hours to get out of Little Cottonwood Canyon…doing the canyon crawl all the way. But, it’s a small price to pay.

Après Ski:

We ate at the horrible Fuego Pizzeria. My pizza was raw in the middle and cold. But we were so starving that we just ate what was served and went home to go to bed.

Days to go: 36

12/29/09

Day 13

Conditions: Cloudy with light snow

Location: The Canyons, Utah

Today we headed back to The Canyons for more mediocre conditions and heavy crowds. All the exciting stuff was virtually unrideable (or closed by parole). We checked out the steeps off Ninety-Nine-Ninety and The Aspens to find the snow hard and limited. We kept to moguls and groomers most of the day because there weren’t many other options.

Highlight:

At this point, even millimeters of snow can soften up the conditions. So, the half-inch or so we received throughout the day made carving in the afternoon much better.

Lowlights:

Dirk either reinjured his arm or suffered a brand new injury when the rug came out from under him on a groomer. We ended up quitting around two in the afternoon because he was in so much pain. Here’s to lucky day 13.

Après Ski:

Days to go: 37

12/28/09

Day 12

Conditions: Gaperlicious: Sunny, blue skies, and icy

Location: Park City, UT

It was a blue bird day at Park City, so we walked the 100 feet from our condo to the Payday lift. Things were already crowded at 9am – the lift line was long and 7 out of the 8 electronic kiosks were broken.

We got on the hill and took a few groomers. We spent most of the morning on icy runs looking for some decent trees or moguls. Unfortunately, the Park City Ski Patrol had roped off anything with the potential to be fun. We were drooling over the trees left of Pioneer Lift…but it was all roped off.

We broke for lunch early and came back out to huge crowds everywhere. We hopped around in the afternoon and ended the day with a few groomers.

Highlight:

For me, the highlight was riding afternoon bumps. The moguls on Widowmaker and Nail Driver were the perfect size for boarding, and we were able to get a great rhythm.

Dirk’s highlight was probably doing something I like to refer to as “riding hard stuff in less than favorable conditions just to prove you can.” We rode the dirt/rocks/moguls of Jupiter chair in the afternoon, and somehow Dirk was having the time of his life.

Lowlights:

Crowds. By noon things were out of control on most of the high speed lifts. It was so crowded there were multiple traffic cops directing traffic before the lift lines.

Après Ski:

We went out to The Riverhorse with Craig and Breanne for a great meal. The highlight was definitely when Breanne forced Craig to request a song. Even better was Breanne's reaction when the acoustic, folk singer didn't know Country Roads by John Denver. We settled for Desperado - weak.

Days to go: 38

12/27/09

Day 11

Conditions: Crud, rocks, stumps and dirt

Location: Snowbird, UT

We picked up Craig this morning and headed to Little Cottonwood Canyon for a day at The Bird. The Canyon was beautiful as always, and we practically had the mountain to ourselves. We started at Mineral Basin and worked our way through Little Cloud and Gad 2.

Unfortunately, Snowbird hasn’t had much snow all year. To say we hit a few rocks would be an understatement. We were scraping dirt, hitting wood and riding on rocks. The coverage on Gad 2 was the worst I’ve ever seen it. Still, the packed snow was light and hadn’t been damaged by any warm-ups. The bumps were soft and nice all over the mountain.

Soon after lunch, Craig and I were tired. Dirk, on the other hand, was riding like a rock star and ready to go all day long. We took a nice, long run down the front side and had to call it early because of sheer exhaustion.

Highlight:

Remembering our April trip at Snowbird – days 48, 49 and 50. We had so many great turns and got to see all the runs again today.

Lowlights:

Snowbird is a great mountain. On a powder day, nothing beats it. But as Craig said, “It’s an angry mountain” when it doesn’t have enough snow.

Après Ski:

We watched Stanton start for the Lions on the computer, since it wasn’t televised out here. Yes, they lost. Then, we met up with Craig and Breanne for Italian in Park City. We also watched one of the most depressing movies ever: Wendy and Lucy - it made us miss Little Breck.

Days to go: 39

12/26/09

Day 10

Conditions: Packed powder, groomed snow, rocks

Location: Canyons, UT

After spending two days sitting in the car, we woke up this morning ready to get moving. We met Craig and Breanne at The Canyons for a day at the locals’ playground. We let them show us the mountain, which included some nice tree skiing off Peak 5 and a ton of great bumps. The snow was nice, but they definitely need more. We were hitting rocks everywhere, some of the worst trails being groomed ones near the bottom of the hill.

We took a few exploratory runs into areas that Dirk thought looked tasty. This led to stumps, rocks, tight trees, and crusty patches. But at least we were trying to find some new snow.

Highlight:

The best run of the day was in an area that was roped off in the morning for avalanche risk and then opened on our last run. It was rocky, but full of fluffy fresh snow. The only own side was the altercation (see Lowlights).

Lowlights:

No day is complete without some comment by some idiot. Today, it happened on our powder run. Four skiers were blocking the only path to the run and waiting around for no apparent reason.

Dirk rode by and joked “Why is everyone standing here…is someone hurt?”

Promptly, an overweight, middle-aged man barked back, “I’ll stand here if I want to stand here…got a problem with that?” It was aggressive, but we laughed and started down the hill. It was such a weird experience that I almost took out Breanne in an attempt to get away from the guy.

We stopped half way down the run and the four-pack caught up to us and skied by. (I noticed that the guy in question really sucked at skiing.) At that point, Breanne related the incident to Craig. Having been plagued by jerks lately, Craig was immediately moved to defend the honor of his snowboarding friend, Dirk. He yelled, “Where is that fucker?” and took off down the run.

The “fucker” was only about 20 yards away, and had heard Breanne’s description of the story and Craig’s battle cry. He was preparing for a confrontation.

Below is a summary of things I’m pretty sure were said during this incident. I do not remember all of them, but I did my best.

Craig: What the heck? Why do you have to harass people?

Fucker: I’m skiing with four people! I can do what I want.

(Lots of dialogue…things getting heated. Dirk enters and exits the scene.)

Craig: I’m just saying,  you don’t need to make a comment about someone.

(Breanne skis over)

Breanne: Let’s just calm down.

Fucker: Tell him to calm down. He’s the one who skied over here. (To Craig) You want to fight?

Breanne: Okay, let’s just stop.

Craig: I don’t want to fight you.

Fucker: I want to fight you. Get down here. I’ll shove this ski pole up your ass.

Craig: I’m not going to fight you.

Fucker: Fuck you, get down here.

Craig: Fuck you!

Breanne: Fuck you!

Fucker: I’m not trying to fight with you, just stop!

Breanne: You are starting a fight. You just told my husband you were going to shove a ski pole up his ass!

(More arguing…guy skis away)

Breanne: ASSHOLE!

The guy attempted to ski down the hill while we waited with heads shaking. Craig and I discussed The Constant But Not Inclusive Asshole Dilemma: There are assholes in every aspect of life, representing every race, religion, gender, hobby, etc. However, not all people in any category are assholes – and assuming anyone from a group is an asshole solely based on the fact that they are in a particular group is wrong.

As we continued down the run, a funny thing happened. The guy had wiped out, lost a ski, and was frantically searching for it in a huge mound of powder. Many people would have taken this opportunity to heckle him, spray snow on him or just run right into him. Did we? No. We calmly rode by, having a great run. See, karma brought him down…and if we participated further we would have fallen because karma would have turned on us.

Après Ski:

We went grocery shopping and spent the night relaxing. USC beat Boston college. Boo. 

Days to go: 40

12/24/09-12/25/09

Getting there is half the fun.

We spent Thursday and Friday involved in an escapade that could only be described as the drive from hell. We packed up the Tribeca and left early Thursday morning aware of storm warnings in the plains. We brought plenty of extra food and water, a shovel, warm clothes and everything we might need. Our first day of driving involved rain, snow, wind and ice. But it really wasn’t that bad. We stayed overnight in Kearney, Nebraska – the biggest leg of our drive was over and we planned to drive on Friday and arrive in Park City around six in the evening.

We woke up early on day two of the drive and started our drive through I-80 in Wyoming. This route saves about 3-4 hours compared to taking I-76 and I-70 through the rolling mountains of Colorado. The first five hours through Nebraska and Wyoming were tough: it was so windy that we were constantly steering against the wind. (We later found mounds of snow that had somehow blown into our car and our Thule rack in the high winds.) Still, it was drivable.

We got to Cheyenne, Wyoming to find that a huge stretch of I-80 and the neighboring state roads were closed. In the winter, the only options are to wait out the storm or to drive down to Denver and through Colorado. Dirk checked Map Quest and found that the drive from Cheyenne to Salt Lake was predicted to take 6 hours; the new route was predicated to take 10 hours.

We ended up deciding to make the drive. We knew it would be long and tiring, but we really underestimated just how horrible it would be. We passed Vail, CO around 4:00pm. We typically end our journey at Vail, but yesterday we drove by knowing that we had eight more hours of driving to go.

Our scenic tour of Colorado

We arrived at midnight (Utah time), and it was so late we had to call a random number to have a security guard check us in. The positive was that our condo is awesome: it’s by far the best RCI exchange we have ever locked in on. Walking into a condo with two flat screen TVs, a nice, clean bed, new carpet, and a full kitchen did somehow make the hellish drive worthwhile.

12/21/09

Day 9

Conditions: Powder and packed powder

Location: Mount Bohemia, MI

Today was our third and final day at Bohemia for months. We woke up to another healthy inch of snow. Conditions improved each day of our trip. Things were still a bit hard underneath, but they had softened up significantly.

We rode mostly on the front side because the double wasn’t running, but we did make a few bus runs. We got a chance to take some runs with Lindsey and Lonnie, which was a nice treat. We went through some of the short cuts we found yesterday and just had a good time on the hill that we know and love.

Highlight:

-       Finding good snow in Widowmaker and Jesse James, and busting through the trees without hesitation.

Lowlights:

-       Driving away, and not knowing for sure if we would be back in March with four healthy biceps between us. Bohemia is truly paradise. With all the talk of moving next year, it’s one of the few things about Michigan we will really miss if we leave.

Après Ski:

Time really flew by while riding with Lindsey and Lonnie, so we ended up a few hours behind schedule on the drive home. That made for a late night of driving, but definitely worth it.

Days to go: 41

12/20/09

Day 8

Conditions: Powder and packed powder

Location: Mount Bohemia, MI

We woke up to three inches of fresh, lake-effect powder. Sure, three inches isn’t that much, but it did wonders for the hard-packed conditions that developed by yesterday afternoon. We spent the morning on the front side, riding pretty much every run. We took another trip into the Outer Limits and had much better luck finding our way around. We passed up Jupiter and traversed to Uranus, which had some great chutes and completely untracked powder. By the time that was over, it was close to noon and we went in for more fabulous egg salad.

The double chair opened in the afternoon, and even more fluffy powder had fallen since then. We had some great runs down Roller Coaster and Lindsey’s run. We also ducked a rope into The North Pole and found some great snow. Late in the afternoon, we decided to explore a few paths off the Bear Den that we never took. Four runs later, we had discovered new paths to The Black Hole and Venus. Even better: neither path required unbuckling. Typically, it takes two to three episodes of unbuckling just to get to those areas, so we were really excited.

Haunted Valley in the snow. 

We quit around 4:00pm after a full day of riding. It wasn’t epic, but it was a lot of fun. I’m really going to miss this place in January and February. 

Highlight:

-       Hearing Muse’s “Uprising” while getting ready to go back out after lunch. It’s just such a great pump up song. We had a great morning, ate yummy food, and knew the double would be open when we got back out. Everything was in harmony, and that song just fit perfectly with the moment.

Lowlight:

-       The Lions lost (and they actually had a chance against the Cardinals). It’s pretty messed up when I’m excited about the fact that the game was at least close. I’ve given up hoping for a win.

Après Ski:

We ate homemade chili and watched Raging Bull. We also got our Bohemia allotment of ten hours of sleep.

Days to go: 42

12/19/09

Day 7

Conditions: Powder and packed powder
Location: Mount Bohemia, MI

Every day now is a stolen day. A great day.

Mount Bohemia opened Friday with 300 powder hounds taking every stash on the front side of the mountain while we were both at work. A little freezing drizzle Friday night turned that packed powder into something that was not very fun to ride on. Luckily, there were still some untracked places and we were able to have a pretty good day.

We went to Outer Limits before the crowds got there. Usually this is a good thing, but today it meant a paucity of tracks that normally guide us through the ups and downs of the galaxy. We (okay, I) made several wrong turns. This wouldn’t have been so bad had the hiking not been so damn hard. No one had forged a trail, so we were waist high in powder trying to hike every which way. Meanwhile, Brian was waiting by the road in a truck to take us back to main camp. We were really trying to haul ass on the hike, and falling all over the place in the process. By the time we got to Venus, we were overheated and tired. Still, the run itself was great. Fresh, deep tracks: totally worth it.

Who knows how long we were in the Outer Limits, but by the time we got in it was time for lunch. We whipped up some homemade egg salad and tried to cool down from the hike.

Conditions went from decent to great in the afternoon. They opened the double chair and plenty of runs with plenty of powder. We rode the back most of the afternoon, taking about three passes down Lindsey’s run. It was a really great afternoon with lots of solid turns. The best part was that Dirk’s bicep didn’t really bother his at all.

Dirk and his bicep both rode like champs. And it even snowed!

Highlight:

- Just being back up here at Mt. Bohemia. Cabin 8, the familiar smell of the air freshener, the predictable turns in the entrance to the backcountry…it all feels like home.

Lowlight:

- The sad realization that we will not be back here until March. If we’re lucky…

Après Ski:

We went with Lindsey to the Bear Belly Lodge in Lac La Belle.

Days to go: 43

12/16/09

Dirk’s surgical consult was this morning. In preparation, we did some research about the procedure last night. The more sites we looked at, the worse things looked. The bottom line was this: unless Dirk gets the bicep fixed within a month of injury, it may look like a fruit rollup forevermore.

I woke up this morning to a world where the season was over. It was not a good feeling.

Dirk called me at school several hours later. After seeing two specialists, he was booked for surgery…one week after our trip. Yes, we will make Bohemia and Utah. I’ve never been so excited for two trips. I had written off the season, but part of it was somehow saved.

After surgery, Dirk will need weeks and weeks of rest, but the April trip is still good possibility. We haven’t even officially canceled Tahoe in February; we’re going to see how things go. So, the season is not a total loss.

Another bonus is that knowing Dirk was out of commission from January to February motivated me to finally give in to all the kids begging me to start a ski/snowboard club at our school. Each Tuesday during January and February 35-50 students will get to experience the awesomeness of riding – some for the first time. Plus, I’ll get to make a few turns myself.

12/14/09

The waiting game.

As quickly as the season began, it may be ending. The incident from Saturday was indeed a torn bicep to Dirk’s left arm. We still have no idea how or why Dirk’s bicep chose to randomly rip away from his elbow on fallen tree run, but it happened. Dirk saw his doctor this morning and was immediately referred to a specialist.

Here’s the good news:
- Dirk is not in incredible pain and was able to ride Sunday
- Dirk still has plenty of movement in his arm, and decent strength
- Bret Favre played through a similar injury…and he’s an NFL quarterback
- Some people don’t even get surgery for an injury like this

Here’s the bad news:
- If Dirk wants surgery, his doctor stated that sooner is better than later because the longer he waits the harder it will be to repair
- The rehab time for surgery is four months

Dirk sees the specialist on Thursday. That’s three days of the world absolutely standing still while our season hangs in balance. To many people this probably sounds crazy. I mean, it’s a snowboarding season…what’s the big deal? All I can say is that we live for this time of year. All the slugging away at meaningless jobs melts away in the sheer flow of a powder day. Snowboarding is happiness; without it a Michigan winter is simply an exercise in seasonal affective disorder.

All we can do right now is sit around and try not to check snow reports, because that epic base that’s building up out west might not do us any good during the February doldrums.

12/13/09

Day 6

Conditions: Chewy and groomed
Location: Boyne Mountain, MI

We woke up to 36 degree weather in Boyne city and had a feeling that the trees would be soggy and difficult to turn in. Assuming that we’d be carving on the groomers most of the day, Dirk put on his elevators and I brought out my brand new Lipstick. It’s a rocker board with an EST binding system – very different from anything I’ve ever ridden.


The maiden voyage of the Lipstick

We spent most of the day just carving around the mountain on the chewy snow. The rocker board was great: it had amazing pop, made ground spins seamless, simplified fakie and positively floated in the powder during our Superbowl hike. I don’t want to make any sweeping generalizations about rocker vs. camber yet, but so far I have been really impressed with the way this board rode.

Highlight:

- We hiked up Superbowl – one of the last untouched places on the mountain. When we got to the top, we thought we were busted because a groomer was working on one side of the mountain. Thankfully, he drove away and we had one, fantastic run down the right side of Superbowl. It was virtually untouched powder with a nice pitch. We almost never get to ride Superbowl during the season because it is littered with race courses, so this was a real treat for us. The bonus was that when we drove by a few hours later, we saw that the entire run had been groomed (read: ruined) since we rode it.


Superbowl hike out. Two words: worth it.

Lowlight:

- Another altercation with boarder-haters. After accidently stepping on a guy’s ski while boarding the chairlift (and apologizing immediately), I was treated to an enlightening lecture that began with “the problem with snowboarders…” He’s obviously practiced it in his head many times and was just waiting to find the perfect, captive audience.

Après Ski:

We ate our weekly lunch at Pearsons and listened to the Lions vs. the Ravens while we drove home.

Days to go: 44

12/12/09

Day 5

Conditions: 20 inches in the past three days
Location: Boyne Mountain, MI

Opening weekend at Boyne always illuminates one great truth: Boyne cannot do anything in a timely manner. The first weekend of the year always includes the following: a broken change machine near the lockers; empty Kleenex boxes still not refilled from last year; a half-running cafeteria. To top it all off, patrol still has not upgraded their 1979, brown uniforms to the modern, red and black patrol uniforms.

But all of this ineptitude, procrastination and slow motion actually translates into one, blissful truth: the first weekend of Boyne always has the best riding of the year. When we arrived today, two feet of snow blanketed the entire mountain. Were most of the trails groomed? No - only Victor and the bunny hills were groomed ready at 9 am. But the more important question is: Did patrol rope anything off? Of course not! The entire mountain was our playground – a playground filled with luscious powder that the masses are too dumb to try and ride.


Opening weekend was full of snow and snow guns.

We started with the trees under Hemlock chair. The coverage was great. In fact, the snow was better than the snow we had almost a month ago in Colorado. We moved on to Nose Dive, then Meadows, then to all our secret spots off Victor chair: Brad’s run, Fallen Tree, and the Soup Bowl.

We ended up plugging in a solid day of riding: 9am-3pm. Normally, we’re bored at Boyne before noon. It was nice to have that feeling that there were so many runs we wanted to take and just not enough time.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Boyne management – not for exceeding our expectations, but for their total lack of service on the hill. Thank you for not fucking everything up before we had a chance to get in some epic turns!


Dirk coming out of the Soup Bowl after an epic run.

Highlight:

- We never ride the terrain park run, which normally includes many features and a half pipe. Because nothing was set up, we took a run there today. We were rewarded with a great run parallel to the half pipe. I guess with the park rats gone, no one thought to venture in there.

Lowlights:

- We had a great first lap through Fallen Tree run, so we decided to take another run. Dirk let me have dibs, so I hit it hard and waited for him at the bottom. Time accumulated and it was clear something happened to Dirk. Eventually he came out holding his bicep and writhing in pain. Apparently something very hard struck his bicep then inexplicably dematerialized…so he’s really not sure what it was. I was tempted not to believe him, but then we examined the bicep. The bicep in question is now half the size of the other, normal one – it is extremely strange. We’ve tossed around several theories from a rabid animal that jumped from the foliage and bit him to a ghost defending the run from intruders. There is no actual wound, just a seriously deformed arm. My real theory is that his bicep muscle has separated from his joint and is all rolled up in his arm. Dirk’s not willing to accept that idea.

Après Ski:

The Red Mesa, as usual. Then we watched The Woodsman with Kevin Bacon. I would not recommend that movie to anyone.

Days to go: 45