Conditions Ungroomed

Super mega wicked awesome, that was yesterday.

Friday night I climbed into be a little later that I had wanted, and tried to fall asleep quickly. The windstorm did not help though, and I probably got no more than 5 hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 5 am. Yikes. Pitch black out, wet, and cold. The only reason I could do it was I knew I was on my way to go snowboarding. This may turn out to be the only day I get in this season too.

Mike stopped by my place, we took off, and snagged Shane along the way. With everyone in the car we started the long drive to the mountain. Further up island we could see stars. We couldn’t believe that we might actually have nice weather considering the storm the night before.

On the mountain we could not believe the conditions. Stunning. While in line for our first run we could see the fresh snow, and desperately wanted to be on the slopes making first tracks. Once at the top, it was simply unbelievable. Light, fluffy, white gold. So very unlike Washington.

Pics are here. Read on for more.

After a couple quick runs for a warm up we hit the trees. Pure ecstasy. Loads of light powder, nice glades, tight turns, tons of fun. Each run down the mountain had different weather too. Sun, cloud, sun, snow, sun, wind, sun, fog.

The lineups for the eagle chair were pretty long so we got a good break between runs, but we wanted more. We decided to get a hot dog snack, and continue riding while everyone else went in for lunch. Good idea, but the hot dog stand was run by a bunch of dim wits who just didn’t get it. They were cooking the hot dogs as people ordered them. WTF? It is a hotdog stand right next to the busiest chair on the mountain. Throw a ton of them on, and you can get people eating quicker. It took us a half hour to get 2 hot dogs. That is just stupid long.

Once fed we headed over to the Boomerang chair that had finally opened. They were blasting for avalanche safety earlier and this caused delays in opening the chair.

What an addition to the mountain. Expert ungroomed runs. Steep, tight glades that were at my limit of comfort. I had to keep in mind that for terrain like this you have to attack the slope. You can’t be hesitant, you have to go for it, make your turns, not stop. It was awesome. The snow on this side was even nicer. Some of the short steep runs were super fun, but the longer runs were real leg burners. We did a few of the longer ones, and just as we decided to head over to the other side. As we loaded we heard the lifties called out last run.

Back on the other side we did a couple runs to get us back to the eagle chair. I decided to call it quits while Shane and Mike did one more run. I was so happy with how the day turned out, and I was already so tired, I didn’t mind at all. It gave me time to get changed, call Sox, and relax a bit before starting the drive home.

What a day though. I was completely wiped by the time we got home. I was able to unload my gear, grab a beer, check my email, then hit the sack. It was such an awesome day. I can’t accurately describe just how good the boarding was. I pushed my abilities, but never really felt like I was in over my head. There was one extremely steep, icy face that I ended up on that I would have rather avoided, but the whole way down all I could think of was how I could get in a position to start my turns. The new terrain is a wicked addition to the mountain. If only every day up there was as good as yesterday.