This year goes to 11

Or at least that is what Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap would say. As well as a lot of my friends who have a strange sense of humor. As it turns out, this is also my 11th day of this season. Ten days on the mountain before new years--that's the most early season skiing I've bagged since growing up in Colorado.

We reinstated the New Year's Day tradition of skiing instead of hanging around drinking and watching football. It's kind of any easy choice, no? Apparently, many other people are adopting our tradition--much to my disappointment. It used to be that holidays were the best time to ski--everyone else was off celebrating in places that left the best to us.

No more.

We arrived fashionably late today to a full parking lot and no less than half a dozen buses...presumably full of gapers. When I registered my surprise and dismay, Diane reminded me that I said the same thing two years ago when we went on New Year's Day (we were rained out last year). Ugh, why do all these people adopt our traditions? One could look at it in the sense that we were ahead of the curve, or conversely, that they are late to the game. I wish they would just stay home and watch the game. Navigating around them on the hill is annoying, and slightly dangerous.

No new snow today, and the weather was partly sunny and cold. Cold is good, but Northwest cold is Cold. Twenty degrees here feels at least ten degrees cooler than in Colorado. I attribute it to humidity.

Since there was no new snow, I tele-d all day. It was pretty painful--not because I'm out of shape, but because my body seems to be revolting against too much skiing. I may have to consult my personal trainer.

Amazingly, management put new features in the park. Two big jumps to replace the little rail (which was completely buried from last week's storm), and a smaller jump and a reconfigured kink rail. Dylan was stoked.

Here's Dylan doing a 360 off the big jump in time-lapse:

I. Cutting it off the lip

II. Backwards with the grab

III. Holding on

IV. Finishing up the rotation

V. Release

VI. Landing


And that, folks, is how it's done.

One of the fun things about small resorts and six buses of gapers, is that all the dudes head for the park. It's some kind of macho thing. Most of them can barely ride, much less ride off a jump, but that doesn't stop them. A decent percentage don't carry enough speed to make it up the ramp; well over half don't clear the knuckle and land hard on the flat. It's sort of amusing and annoying all at the same time.

Dylan gets good air off of the small jump.

Dylan does the indy grab on Peekaboo.

We didn't spend the entire day stalking Dylan in the park. We did a lot of runs on the lower mountain and then ventured up into the fog on the top and over to the back side. It was cold, cold, cold.

Diane braves the cut through to get back to the front side.

The sun was peeking through the clouds. This picture doesn't really do justice to the lighting. It was quite striking.

Diane gives me the look that let's me know I stole her picture idea. Whaddya gonna do?

One last huck off the little jump.

And then home to play guitar with my musician buddies.

All in all, a great way to start the new year. And remember,

This year goes to 11!