Fun.

Fun. No doubt about it, snow sports are fun. Regardless of the weather, the conditions, or the crowds, a day on the snow is better than just about any other day.

I'm not sure why, perhaps it's because skiing is such a ridiculous activity. Why should putting your feet in a pair of vices and then lashing 6' long boards and hurling yourself down a snow covered mountain be so much fun? To start, I think it has a lot to do with gravity. Every run is like an unscripted thrill ride. Kind of like a roller coaster where you have complete control (hopefully). Only better. Speed, slope, and gravity all combine to make it one thrill after another.

Not quite the terminal gravity rush that skydiving might provide, but it is what you make it. When I was younger, 30' cliffs were fun. Now, if I get tired and can ski tomorrow, I call that fun. 45 degrees and sunshine on the last day of January... fun. Riding with my wife and son, and his buddy Marty... fun. Watching Dylan smash the barrel while attempting a tap... hilarious fun. Telling stories of the day on the ride back... great fun.

Even if you're not a seasoned expert, it's still fun.

Diane is having fun taking Eagle's Flight to Odell Lake.

Dylan is having fun doing the "jump over Diamond Peak" grab.

And the "scale a tree on your board" contest.

If that's not enough fun, add a little rainbow butter.

The man in black (evil me) must certainly be having fun.

Here's the Orange Army marching off to fun snow city...

Sometimes you fall off the rail and hammer your knee. I'm pretty sure that's a little less fun.

Look, I'm smiling. I must be having fun.

Watching the beginners take out the "slow" signs down by the lift. Fun. Chatting with fellow enthusiasts on the lift. Fun. Watching the kids break themselves on the gigantic jumps. Not as much fun. Mashing moguls on a 35 degree slope on a sunny day in January. Double fun. Chatting with my wife and son on the lift rides. Fun. Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces. Fun!

If Sheryl Crow really wanted to have fun, she would have headed for the mountain. Girls that just wanna have fun... go skiing. And like Commander Cody says: too much fun! Little Feat (one of my faves) says you can't have too much fun. Just add snow.

The gorgeous scenery is the icing on the funnel cake from the happy fun snow bakery.

Drive.

Drive. Unless you are one of the fortunate few that lives at a ski area, with ski in/out access, you'll be using surface transportation to get there. As the photo shows, Willamette Pass is 70 miles from Eugene, or a 70-90 minute drive depending on weather and road conditions. It's a pretty easy ride, as long as you follow a few simple rules...


So you don't end up here...

And my personal favorite sign of all time:

You would think that this sign would not be necessary, but as they say...
Safety First, snowplows at work.

There's lots to see between Eugene and Willamette Pass. Dylan took this one back in December when the days were shorter.

Then you get to the little town of Lowell, and on past Lookout Point Reservoir.

On through the town of Oakridge. I highly recommend the Trail Head.

The same rules do not apply at the mountain. Extra air, please.

That's a good 8-10'.

Keeee-ya!

Ride the rainbow.

Home James.

The good thing about having a season pass is that you don't have to feel bad if you don't put in a full day. The high pressure system we had for the past two weeks nearly decimated the base. We got a little snow this weekend and we fully expected 2" on top of bulletproof ice. It was a little better than that, but the worst conditions we've had all year. We arrived at 10 and left at 12:30 after 11 runs (17,700 vertical feet).

We're hoping that the storm tracks get back to normal and that the base is rebuilt by next weekend.

Sunday.

The thing about Oregon is you can experience spring conditions any time. Like today, for example. We've had a gigantic high pressure system stagnating our air for a week now. It gets foggy every day in town... but never at The Pass.

It was 23 degrees when we arrived today. It was 45 degrees when we left. The main runs at The Pass all face south--a dangerous proposition for any ski area. It actually works pretty well at The Pass if you know how to ski it. You start with the eastern runs--Eagle's Flight and Good Time Charlie, and work your way around with the sun. The snow softens up as the day goes on.

My homies were enjoying the January sunshine.


I'm busy, talk to the hand.


Now, look at my feet.


Dylan is working on his Steeze on the C-box.


I can deal with a little spring in January... but not too much. The base shrunk from 52" last weekend to 38" this weekend. We don't want a repeat of the 2004-05 season where major parts of the area were shut down because there was no snow. Time for that high pressure system to move on and for us to get back to the normal storm pattern.

Until then, we'll take a Sunny Day.

Park.

Park. Yea, park. Parker. No, park.

As in Terrain Park. You know the song "video killed the radio star"? No? How about snowboarding saved the ski industry? Ok, that obviously was never a hit song. But snowboarding was a hit in the industry. And those snowboarders demand parks.

Anyway, snowboarders saved snow sports. This started back in the 80s, but became clear in the 90s. There's only three resorts that prohibit snowboarders (Taos figured out last year that they couldn't survive economically without them).

Taking the cue from skateboarding, snowboarders insisted on "features," or at least began to use them in ways that skiers hadn't yet discovered. Of course, there was the freestyle craze in the 70s (I may have to come back to that one) with moguls, aerials, and the, uh, ballet. Skiers on ice... or skaters on skis... or, well, it was all sort of 70s.

After a week of stating "we're working on it," Willamette got the park up and running this week. Dylan snowboards, so he lives for this stuff. This is not exclusively a snowboarding phenomena--skiers started doing all kinds of cool stuff in the park starting in the 1990s.

Willamette, being the Eugene backwater that it is, doesn't have the park that the big resorts have. It's been years since they've cut a half-pipe (even though the purchased a pipe dragon a couple of years ago). But they try... and they're doing better at it.

Today was a sunny, spring in January, day. We get that here, whether we want it or not.

Park. Yea, park. Parker. As in Dylan Parker. Park maniac. Dylan tore it up today. Hail to the rail!



It still looks cool. Warning, LibTech advertisement ahead...


Big Air, banana style.


Scraping the barrel. Note, Diane in the background.


And what a beautiful January day in the Central Cascades.


We're hoping for more snow this coming week.

Enthusiasm.

Ski enthusiast. Well, more precisely, skiing enthusiast. That's what the Register-Guard called me in yesterdays "Packed and Ready" article. A quote from the R-G: "That’s good news for skiing enthusiast Bob Parker of Eugene, who’s already made five trips to Willamette Pass this year." Well, heck yea! What else would boatloads of snow mean?

Enthusiasm. Yea, ok. Let's break it down for a moment.

en⋅thu⋅si⋅asm

–noun

1. absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; lively interest: He shows marked enthusiasm for his skiing.
2. an occupation, activity, or pursuit in which such interest is shown: skiing is his latest enthusiasm.
3. any of various forms of extreme religious devotion, usually associated with intense emotionalism and a break with orthodoxy.

Ok. This works pretty well. So, what's an enthusiast?

en⋅thu⋅si⋅ast

–noun

1.	a person who is filled with enthusiasm for some principle, pursuit, etc.; a person of ardent zeal: a sports enthusiast.

2.	a religious visionary or fanatic.

Sports and religion. Put them together and you get fanaticism. Fanaticism=skiing. There's some calculus for you.

But, skiing enthusiast? Isn't that kind of like being a Wine Spectator? Or a Fine Art Connoisseur? Or a Cigar Aficionado? I could go on, but you get the point--so many magazines--so much luxury. I get the fine art and cigar stuff, but since when did wine become a spectator sport? What do they do, sit around and watch it age? In oak casks? With a cherry/blackberry finish? Until it gets a Robert Parker rating of 98? Robert might want to wait, but Bob doesn't have that kind of time--I'll die before it's time. So damn much enthusiasm!

If you want to sit around and spectate wine, fine. Sounds a little slower than corn growing, but whatever. Me, I'm a participant. There's skiing to be skied on skis. And then I'll drink the wine you sat around and watched during happy hour (us skiers call that apres ski).

Forget Ski magazine, Skiing magazine, or even Powder. I'm going to start a magazine for connoisseurs called Skiing Enthusiast. It will target only the top demographic: attorneys, doctors, Wall Street fund managers, and of course planners. Skiing Enthusiast (e.g. the Parker family) will visit the world's top resorts and spare no expense--all funded by the top demographic listed above. I think I've got a plan. Or at least an idea. Or something.

If you've read this far, you're probably screaming for me to get back on point. Ok. We went up again today for more fun and frolicking. You know how Bob Marley sang about One Love? We found it.



Dylan found it right here on Eagle Peak.


Diane and Dylan find it on the Twilight lift.


Pals Andre and Kimmy (from Mississippi) found it too.


Andre finds love (don't tell Becky, Andre's wife).


And sometimes the best way to end the day is in the bar with a cold beer. Skiing enthusiasts, spectators, connoisseurs, aficionados. Both of them.


Enthusiasm.

Enthusiast.

Skiing Enthusiast.

I guess that's me. It could be you, too. And always remember:

Snow is Love

Now, back to the mundane things in life. Like taking out the garbage.

Almost famous.

Well, nearly almost maybe. Maybe not. I don't subscribe to the Andy Warhol notion that everyone gets their fifteen minutes. Yesterday I wrote that I ran into a reporter from the Register-Guard while Diane was using the facilities. Just another random coincidence?

Perhaps. After 41 years of skiing, stuff is bound to happen--like getting your photo and quotes in the local paper. At any rate, Diane thinks I'm a ham. I also don't subscribe to that notion, but that's just my opinion. I've been quoted by the press plenty of times in my professional capacity. I usually try to avoid press--my experience has been they usually have an angle, which frequently conflicts with my perspective. Plus, I've had plenty of dumb quotes attributed to me. So, better to let someone else get the media attention. No reflection on the Register-Guard; it's a good article.

Anyway, back to the story. I'm chatting with the reporter who is asking me standard reporter questions while the photographer is snapping pictures. Ok. I wondered what they would do with the comments and the photos, if anything. At any rate, what business do I have commenting about the ski season? About how the economy might affect skier visits?

Well, 41 years of skiing experience is a start. I figure that's enough to give me license to stand on my skiing soapbox.

Beyond that, there were the economic impact of skiing in Oregon studies that we did at the UO in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And, there was my master's thesis that looked at characteristics and behavior of Oregon skiers. We'll come back to those in a future post.

So here's the photo from the Register-Guard. Bob is "Packed and Ready." Would you ski with a person that looks this menacing?


The real pain comes in trying to keep up with me. Most people can't--no joke. Well, at least in Oregon... or at least at The Pass. In Colorado, where I grew up, I'm just another middle-aged dude.

Here's a link to the article "Packed and Ready." Front page, below the fold. My photo was on page 6. Diane thinks I'm even more of a ham, but that's just a hazard of going out I guess.

Enough of that nonsense. I went back up today, and it was magnificent. The road conditions were a little dicey--flipped vehicles on the way up and back.



By the way, I'll expand on my take on how the economy might affect skiing this season in a future post. If today was any indication, Willamette will have a good year. More cars in the lot than I've seen in a long time. That's good. I like to see people enjoying the snow, and, of course, the ski area needs to turn a profit so we can all continue to enjoy the mountain.

Dedication.

Well, kind of. As long as it doesn't rain.

We left late today (9:30) because the lights were out in the tunnel. When the lights are out in the tunnel, it means there's no power at The Pass. That means the Eagle Peak Accelerator can't run (it's electric) and that only the lower mountain will be open.

When we got there I was waiting for Diane when I got approached by a reporter from the Register-Guard (our local Eugene newspaper). She asked if it was my first time up. I said this was day five; I'm dedicated. She also asked if the economy was going to affect the number of times I ski this year. Of course not! One needs to have priorities.

This kind of says it all.


This person gets it.

Anyway, it was a slow day. I took a couple of runs on the alpines and then went back to the car to get my tele gear. If I have to ski the lower mountain, I'll tele. I spent most of the day skiing with Diane and Dylan.

Ms. awesome.


Mr. Awesome.


And lots of more dedicated folks than me making the trek on foot to the top.


Tomorrow promises to be better. The temperature dropped and we're getting little snow squalls.