The Final Turn.

This is the end.

The last day.

The final turn.

Goodbye to the 2008-09 season. The last day is always a party. The mood in the parking lot is festive, the mood on the hill is festive. Even the lifties are happy. Dave joins the festivities with his helmet on. Dave knows the rules: Safety First. You would not want to have an unfortuate beer accident on the final day. Cheers!

Even the dogs were partying.

Last day is always a good day to fly and spin.

Or to work on your tele turns.

What a difference the new skis made. They actually turn! I love the K2 Whirled Peas, or is that whirly peace? Oh yea, World Piste. I think I've found peace with my tele efforts on these new boards. Thanks for hooking me up Pete! You truly are the Lord of the Boards.

Some day I might even get competent on these things. For now, I'll take the workout--it's like doing 20,000 vertical feet of lunges. No wonder I'm tired.

It was 45 degrees when we left Eugene and 45 degrees when we got to The Pass. That was about 10:15. It got warmer as the day went on. Probably because Diane was shredding on her hunka hunka burnin' luvs.

Hey, I know those people!

It must be getting warm. Who's got short shorts?

By the time we left at 2:00 it was 60 degrees in the parking lot. The party continued. Dylan looks like he's having the best time ever!

Live to ride, indeed.

By the time we got home it was hot.

It felt hot... this is too fast a transition from winter to warm. What are we going to do now? Work in the garden I guess. Or wash the ski wagon.

Which needed washing badly. The last time it got scrubbed was pre-season. We'll give our respects to the ski wagon... long may you run. It did a great job this year.

What a great year we had. We didn't get nearly as much snowfall as last year, but thanks to the magic of the Internet, it is much easier to determine what days are going to be good. What am I thinking... they are all good!

Here's the 2008-09 stats:

28 days
472 runs
652,762 vertical feet

That's pretty decent dedication for a ski enthusiast with some full-time jobs.

Signing off for now...

Spring Skiing.

Last week I spoke of season's end. I was wrong. We got another weekend of spring skiing. The Vistas are still outstanding.

In spring the temperatures rise. It probably got up to 50 degrees today. Spring skiing requires wax.

With a little wax Dave declares Success!

Not bad for a guy that could barely handle intermediate runs last year. Dave shredded down all the runs today with the exception of RTS. That will come next year. We mashed bumps in the mashed potatoes all day. One word: nice!

Thanks to Dave's bro and Colorado ski buddy Pete, I'm trading in my K2 Piste Offs for a pair of K2 World Pistes. I got new bindings for them today and it looks like I'll get to try them out on some tele-slammin' tomorrow. Since the Piste Offs were pissing me off, I'm stoked to work on World Piste tomorrow.

Pete provided some love to Dave too. He got a pair of Dynastar Trouble Makers.

We'll be back for the final, final, last day of the 2008-09 season tomorrow. Dylan is so stoked he says he can't wait. Me either.

Season's end.

April 11, 5:30 pm. Just finished mowing the lawn--for the second time this year. Living in the verdant Willamette Valley, you come to expect things begin to green up in March. Now it's raining lightly after a more or less dry day. Spring is springing and may have already sprung.

Today may have been our last day of the season. We'll see what the weather holds and if The Pass is open next weekend. Spring now has the upper hand on Winter, and Winter is beginning to look a little battered. Winter had a lot of fight left in it last weekend, this weekend it looks a little dazed and confused, and maybe bleeding from the uppercut Spring gave it last Sunday when the temperature soared above 50 degrees at The Pass.

When The Pass goes to weekends only operations in the spring, and when it's warm, the snow gets a little punchy. What I mean is that there is a crust on top that is an inch or so thick that if you push on, breaks through. If a lot of people ski on it, or if it's groomed, it gets packed down and is just fine. If not, then it gets punchy. The other thing that happens in the afternoon is that things get a little sticky. Ok, a lot sticky. It definitely affects the fun factor on groomers, but can up the fun factor in the bumps by a lot. The stick slows you down and you can pretty much point 'em straight down the fall line. Rockin!

The end of the season is a bittersweet time for me. I'll miss skiing enormously for the next 8 months. It is, however, a mixed blessing. I'm pretty sure that if I skied year-round I would get even more worn down and tired than I already am. It seems like all I do in the winter is work on ski. Probably because that is all I do. Anyway, I'm exhausted. Moreover, it would eventually diminish my love of the sport. You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that stuff. Besides, my obsession with skiing means there's a lot of other stuff I'm not getting around to. Like:

• Taking my wife to the movies
• Catching up on all the maintenance projects that need to get done around my home
• Getting the garden started
• Working (you know, the kind that pays for your skiing habit)
• Calling my parents (hi mom and dad... can't talk now, skiing!)
  
• Getting the band back together to finish writing the songs that will eventually go on the cd we've been working on for years

The band... yea the band. Which reminds me of another amusing ski anecdote; I once got, um, booted out of my band because of my skiing habit. To make things worse, this was a band that I started. I guess I shouldn't have taken off for two weeks over Christmas break. On reflection, I should have, and did. I probably deserved the boot (although I was pretty pissed off about it at the time). But, skiing was more fun. It's not like we were rehearsing to play Madison Square Garden. Our tour schedule primarily consisted of dive bars in Fort Collins and other towns in Northern Colorado. No regrets here.

Back to the present. Your fly is open.

Diane and Dylan ponder the end of the season. What are we gonna do now?

We did some point-of-view videos today to give readers a sense of what it's like. Dylan stars, I'm the cameraman.

Over the river and through the woods.

Follow me down I.

Follow me down II.

Follow me down III.

Follow me down IV.

Show me a three.

It looks a lot scarier on the video than in real life. If I can do it holding a camera, it must not be that difficult. I'm not super stoked about Dylan's digital Samsung camcorder. I think that my Canon Powershot takes movies that are just as good--and with better exposure (the first video clip was with the Canon). The downside is my Canon doesn't have a fisheye lens.

What's this guy up to? Not skiing. Looks to me like he's climbed a tower to use his cell phone. Some people don't know a damn thing about cell phone etiquette. Can you hear me now? He's probably asking "where are those helicopters Verizon promised?" It's all about the network, right?

Actually, he's fixing the webcam at the top of Eagle Peak (and talking on the phone). It's been broken for weeks now, limiting our window on the Willamette Pass world to the base and the highway. We applaud your efforts, Mr. Fixit.

Where did all the people go? The crowd is thinning out. It's down to 6 cars, 3 people, and two dogs. The snow is too--but there's plenty left for a few more weeks of fun. The poor suckers down in town haven't yet figured out that spring skiing is a hell of a lot more fun than mowing the lawn.

Maybe those people in town are right and it's time to go sailing. Either that, or just hang with the sailors and drink lots of PBRs at the Redneck Yacht Club in Lowell. For non-residents, Lowell is just across the lake from the former Dexter Lake Club of "Animal House" fame. I wonder what kind of food they have at the Redneck Yacht Club. Probably road kill, stuffed possum, and other respectable redneck stuff like this.

If you didn't click on the link above, you really should have.

Today was most likely the last day of our 2008-09 season. There is a chance we'll go up tomorrow, but the forecast calls for rain, and my love of snow does not extend to rain. There is also a chance that The Pass will be open again next weekend. If that's the case, we'll be there.

Either way, I'll post my end of season analysis sometime in the coming weeks. I promise that it will be worth waiting for. Or something.

See y'all at the Redneck Yacht Club!

Winding Down.

Yesterday set a pretty high bar. It was a difficult act to follow. Yet, the snow comes in many forms.

As the 2008-09 season winds down, it's worth a little reflection. In the program I run at the University of Oregon, reflection is a big part of our pedagogical method. I also engage in a fair amount of professional reflection: am I doing what I want to be doing? What I should be doing? Is what I'm doing effective?

That is a rather pedantic lead in to my reflections on this season. Anyway, I'm not going to share my reflections now--the season isn't over. What I want to reflect on is a simple question.

Why?

Or, alternatively stated: Why do I ski? Why do others ski? What is it about this activity that I'm drawn to? Why do I write so much in this damn blog?

Of course skiing is fun, but it's worth considering whether there is more to it than that. There is for me, but I'll save my response to that question for a future post.

If you visit me at my University of Oregon office, you'll notice this hanging on the board outside:

I love this. I don't have the source, but I think it came out of a USDA Forest Service report from the early 1980s. Non-skiers... no interest... no experience. Let's bowl! Give me a lounge chair, a TV and a pack of smokes and it's all good. Anyway, it's just a phase I'm going through.

So, what makes so eight percent of us Active Skiers? Why do we choose to ski, when bowling is so much more accessible (and not just for the young and the wealthy)? Why don't we power lounge like all those other "non-participants." What's so great about snow sports, anyway? It's pretty ridiculous when you consider it--strapping on boards and hurtling down a snow covered mountain... In short, why do we have The Love?

I'm interested foremost in responses from my family--particularly my daughter who chose to move to Steamboat Springs to become a professional snowboard instructor--but also from my wife and son. And my sisters. And my parents, who introduced me to snow sports at the same time they introduced themselves. And all my cousins. And all my ski pals--both past and present.

Please post your responses in the comments section. It's free! and easy! no subscription necessary; no extra charge. Yep, it's just a click away. I thank you in advance.

Whew! That's enough introspection for now. Let's talk about today.

Diane, Dylan and I went up again today. The earth was definitely tilting in Spring's favor today (see post cf March 29). The season is winding down. In fact, today could be the last decent day. We'll see what next weekend holds--Dylan is emphatic that we go no matter what. I still have the love; I'm there.

What a difference one day makes. Winter gave way to Spring. It was sunny and getting warm. Diane rippin' on her "hunka hunka" burning luvs.

I went out on the tele-bombers.

Long time pal Pete has donated a pair of tele's to my cause. I'm looking forward to leaving the K2 Piste Off's behind.

Dylan contemplates. Why?

A shadow is not quite a reflection, but it's similar. Think about it.

I'll be back next weekend for the exciting season finale of "For the Love of Snow."

Why not?

First Tracks.

Ski date: April 4, 2009
Ski time: 08:45
Conditions: 18 degrees, sunny, 12" fresh.
Location: Base of Willamette Pass

I got a good feeling about this. April 4th, Winter was still in high gear last week, and all systems are go.

Five stars. That's the rating today deserves. Skiing really doesn't get any better than today. Mark, ski buddy and professional acquaintance, proclaimed the day "quintessential." Let's break it down:

Quintessential: adjective.
Representing the perfect example of a class or quality.

Works for me.

It is hard to understate how unusual today was for Oregon. In short, it was quintessential--a perfect example of the best kind of ski day. The storm came in on Wednesday, and peaked Thursday night. 10" to 12" of cold and fresh. Winter was still kicking ass on Spring. The question was, how many rounds did Winter have in it?

I watched the pass cam all day yesterday. My expectation was that the temperature would get way above freezing. It never got about 26 degrees and it wasn't hard to determine what that meant: fresh, cold, fluffy, pow.

Ski time: 08:53.

A large unruly crowd of rather stoked snow enthusiasts are gathered in the line of the Eagle Peak Accelerator. The only problem: the Accelerator isn't accelerating. In fact, it isn't event moving. We make a split second decision to ride up the Twilight lift and get first tracks on the left side of By George.

It's light. It's fluffy. It's a good foot or more deep. And the unruly crowd is watching as we rip down through the pow and take our place in line. Ha!

The first few runs today were among the best I've had. Ever. Anytime. Anywhere. On the first trip down from Eagle Peak we choose High Lead. We don't bother stopping as we unload--we head straight down the hill. The turns are effortless, budda, buddy. I'm ripping big GS turns past the few unfortunates that started down in front of us. The snow is kicking up and the feeling is, well, unbelievable. Usually on first run I get winded; not today. Before I know it, I'm at the bottom and hitting the runout over to By George and to the next ride.

Second run. We head for the woods. It's amazing--uncut lines all the way down. Effortless. Total control. We're in the zone--we're cutting through the trees like slalom poles. The lines are outstanding, and the snow makes it easy to take tight lines that would not be possible under any other conditions. Mark is tearing it up.

He's a happy boy.

And why not? How could you not be happy on a day like this. Everything converges into perfection.

And a trail of fresh snow.
Ski time: 13:30

The large unruly crowd had the same idea and a good part of the mountain was ravaged by noon. We bagged 25,000 vertical by 12:30. Mark tossed it in one run earlier than me--it was a good call. The conditions changed quickly as it warmed up. Things got heavy. By 13:00 the temperature was 43 degrees. It was all over by 13:30 so we left.

We hit it hard today. Run after run of fresh tracks through the awesome Willamette trees. We proclaim the day "quintessential" and hit the road.

I arrived home around 15:00--it was 60 degrees in town. This afternoon, I turned to mundane things like mowing the lawn and pruning the bushes. I bet none of the other gardeners were basking in the memory of an unforgettable April powder day. Too bad for them.

This season is in overtime. Let's hope for double or triple overtime. See ya next weekend on the backside!