Great Quotes

"Frostbite ? I consider that a failure." — Marc Twight. "We'll climb with you and steal your women." — Todd Skinner and Paul Piana. "He who remains calm while those around him panics probably doesn't know what is going on." "Don't fall now or we'll both go." — Layton Kor on numerous occasions. "I don't have any friends, and my nuts are too small." — Climber on a bad day. "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." — Evan Hardin.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Monday, January 12, 2009

Hood SS 1/10/09

Thanks for everybody who showed up. I had a good time hanging out. Too bad we were able to hang out, but you get what you get.
Now for the important stuff. Conditions report. Winds were high, snow was being transported to sout east facing slopes. There is blue ice all over the place making skiing interesting. If you can link up the soft snow patches it was good turns. We only made it up to the half way point on Plamer. We made the call there cause visibility was not that great due to blowing snow and ice looked to be more problemmatic as we went higher. It is not all about the down, but that is a large portion of getting up there. I appeared that there was no good way down from hogs back due tow the blue ice on the slopes. Later this week as we get a corn cycle things will improve and creamy turns will be had. Think Wend-friday and possibly next weekend if the weather holds that long. In the mean time stick to the groomers for the best turns.

Here is a link to the pics

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Crazy weather

We had two weeks of snow and cold. Now we have really really wet and warm. Thank god it is not a true Pineapple express. The snow will stay in the mountains, want good turns this weekend for two days at Crystal Ski Resort. Fingers are crossed.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Sicknesssssssss Jan 2-4

Plans were set. We were skiing for three days in Oregon. But as always a trip with me is an adventure in an adventure. Team Double D (DD) was off to Batchelor for a half day of lift turns. But highway 26 was closed for 10 miles. We were detoured on to a very small curvey, icey, creek running over the road 40 minute tour around the what we found out later to be a land slide. Finally made it to Batchelor and it was flat light and clowdy. But the snow was great. Not blower but light and fun. 5 runs later Team DD was feeling a lot better on two planks and were off to meet up with friends and beer.

Day 2
Get up early, load up and head for breakfast borritos and coffee. Headed to the snow park loaded up the sleds. Cort and Jlag on one with her skis attached to her backpack and me with my skis on another sled. It was cold. My face mask froze up but it was Blue Bird and the snow was looking really good as we headed to the top. Jlag dropped to show us the way through the cliff bands for the first run. The turns were a bit rough on the wind effected top but quickly turned to buttery goodness in the trees and down to the open slopes below. Just steep enough to make it great but not too steep to get freaky. Cort did great and shredded a great line. We put in a skin track back to the top for another lap. This time Jlag dropped a sweet line while we spotted from below just incase it slid. As usual is killed it. Back to the top and now it was my time to drop. Problem, bent my pole getting to the line when I was going too fast on a wind lip and had to land sideways to avoid taking the top off a tree. Thanks again Chris for the great tune job on the planks and for the added graffics :) I rolled up to the top of the line and dropped it was a bit freaky having to deal with lots of sluff but blundered my way through till I decided to turn back into my sluff and fell. As I was sliding I figured I was not going to stop so I better get up and ski out before I hit a tree that was fast approaching. Pole bent further, guess we were going to stop off at a ski shop for another pair. We did another lap to ensure we tracked out the entire bowl for everybody else. What good citizens we are:) The amazing thing was that NO one else showed up. We later found out the reason was that they were planning on hitting it the following day. Early bird gets the shreddage.

After much beer off to bed to dream of the days sickness. Sweet dreams.

Just so you can dream too, the pics.

Day 3
This time Timmy, Schralper and Mlag signed up for some goodness. The crew was large and in charge. Team'z DD and Lag'z ready to tag team. At another snowpark got the sleds loaded and warmed up. At our first fork in the road we looked at little blue and decided the sled was not up to the task of making it the rest of the way. What to do....I know..Let tow Will off one of the sleds. That is a great idea. Ok it was not that bad, but it was not easy. At least it was mostly up hill to where we had to go. At the base of the slope we skinned up geared up and laid first tracks. Everybody thought the snow was going to be heavly wind effected but turned out to be quite good, some would say great. It was :) What littel wind there was kept it really cold. I only ski in so much gear at the resorts. Think I got a little case of frost nip on my nose. Need a nose warmer. Got in a couple of more laps before legs started to give out. Back to the sleds for possibly the best turns of the day. Guess we should have been lapping that slop. Lesson for next time. On the way out I forwent the harness tow system for a loop at the end of a rope. Much easier and I could get turns on the way out. I was actually having fun minus the whoopie-doos. Though were though to keep from crashing into the back of the sled. At one point there was so much downhill I let go of the rope and skied past my tow sled and past the second slep with Schralper and Cort and almost past the Lag's. That was fun till I hit a flat spot. I grabbed the back of Schalper's sled ala Back to the Future style and made my way down the trail. Finally it got really flat and I ditched Schalper and waited for Timmy to pick me up. A short while later we were back a little blue and off to the cars.

Man if every trip was like this. Pics for you.

The adventure continued as we were to find out that it was snowing in Portland AGAIN!!!! The drive from govie home sucked. The price for goodness.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Rain, Rain

It is raining like crazy here. Don't think it stopped all day. Freezing level is high so not good for the snow pack. All packed up and ready to head to bend for 3 days of fun. Half day at bachelor if the lifts are running then BC for two days. Not sure where we are heading, but Cort is going along for a full meal deal this trip. It will be fun to see what she thinks of sleding in for turns. Will have the camera so pics will be posted when get back. Want to take the good one if there is enough room in my pack. I need to start looking for a good camera bag so I can pack it along with out worring about breaking it.