Totally 80s

Just another powder day at The Pass.

Today was the Totally 80's bash. It is common for ski resorts to have events at the end of the season--which is getting pretty close now. In typical Willamette fashion, the event was pretty low-key.

We pretty much skipped all the festivities to partake in the powder party in the trees. The weather report didn't call for much snow, and the DOT said a couple of inches, but it had really piled up over the week in the woods.

Dylan shoots the cannon.

After a few runs on the south face, we headed to the stash. The one place that nobody else seems to go on a powder day at The Pass. We got easily 10 shots through the trees that we're all untouched lines.

Outrageous fun!

Racing through the grotto on SDN.

SDN lives up to it's name, at least the Steep and Deep part.

Dylan took time out to photograph me.

I'm also enjoying the fact SDN is living up to it's name. Gotta love waist deep turns and face shots.

The S3's float!

Shreddin' the woods.

Overall, a great day. We did 20 runs and quit shortly after 2pm. We'd tracked out everything worth anything, and worn ourselves out. We didn't stick around for the Totally 80's Bash; something I would have definitely done 30 years ago.

Reflections of wonder.

After Hours

You would never know it by reading this blog, but The Pass offers night skiing. We've gone a few times in the past. The experience has largely been cold. Very cold.

Another reason we don't go that much is that night skiing only includes the lower trails served by the Twilight lift. On the other hand, it does include the park on By George. Despite that, Dylan hasn't pressed particularly hard for night skiing.

We got an early start.

First ride at 2:15. Dylan shows his typical level of stokage.

Diane started on the snowboard, but changed to skiing after she bruised her knee on one of those dangerous wrecks that seem to happen all the time when you snowboard.

Hanging out in the Timburr Glades.

After hours today was 4:00-5:30 pm. We didn't stay long enough for the Friday night festivities.

It was snowing hard when we left. Winter is still pushing back against spring and La Nina has been delivering the goods for the past five weeks.

500,000

500,000.

That is a rough approximation of the number of vertical feet I've bagged this year. That's a lot of lift rides and equates to about 95 miles of vert. This is a pretty big number for me, but I've met regulars and Willamette that bag a million or more a year. Of course, they get a lot more days in than me.

Getting another 1500' on Eagles Flight.

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Dylan rips the pow in the woods. We didn't get a lot today--maybe 3"--but there is a lot that has accumulated over the past week or so. It was a little funky in the woods; it got kind of warm yesterday on our day off and there were at least two distinct layers of snow. Depending on how hard you weighted on a turn, you might break through one or both layers.

Diane is committed to learning to board. She spent the entire day boarding. Fortunately, the conditions were more forgiving than Saturday--that 3" made it a lot softer.

Dylan gives some professional advice.

Near the bottom of By George.

Turn left...

then right.

The snow continues to pile up as winter turns to spring. Either way, spring break is looking fine even though it's back to work for me tomorrow.

Boards of Terror

Against my better judgment, I strapped on the snowboard for the first trip down. Terrifying. That is the best term to summarize the status of my current snowboarding skills.

Diane puts on her babushka in preparation for the boards of terror adventure.

Diane doesn't trust me on the lift, so I rode up alone. The guy in front of me lost his ski when he got on. I ended up taking it up. I was terrified about getting off with the ski. I had visions of crashing as I got off the lift in the best style of a Warren Miller film.

Somehow, I made it off. Only to face the terror of having to make it back down the hill. I've now concluded a few things about snowboarding. First, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable on a snowboard. I'm not sure I want to put the effort in to get to that point. Which leads to the second conclusion: crashing on a snowboard hurts. A lot. Dylan says it's because I don't know how to fall. I say it's because falling is painful. I rarely crash on skis, but when I do, it's usually painful. I remember one crash on Success back in the early 90's when I still had gigantically long, narrow boards. I was shredding through the bumps and hit a hole. My ski stuck and I went face first into the tip. I was spitting out blood and my teeth were a little loose. But that was on skis and I kind of know what to do when I'm going down on skis.

My biggest fear on a snowboard is the "helmet check." That's my term for the way I've fallen nearly every time I've been out on a snowboard (see March 12, 2011 entry). It involves standing on your toeside and catching the back edge and being thrown backwards in a fashion that hyper-extends your neck and whacks the back of your head. Helmet check. Check, the helmet works. Check, it's good to have a helmet.

The other humbling thing is that my helmet checks always occur on the flats. I've yet to figure out how to go straight on the flats. As far as the helmet check maneuver, I've done it enough times now that it's always in the back of my mind (so to speak) and that it affects the fun factor. I don't think I'm cut out for snowboard.

The obvious summary conclusion is that snowboard is harder than it looks. I've gained appreciation of Kayla and Dylan's mad boarding skills. Like skiing, it requires subtle moves and a certain balance.

Diane tackles Duck Soup on her Board of Terror. She's picking it up pretty fast at this point.

Looking back up the hill.

Dylan on the other hand is terrorizing the mountain on his Board of Terror.

Happy day. It's snowing yet again!

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The Raven is bigger than it looks in this picture. Willamette Pass has the biggest Ravens I've seen anywhere. Today there were several of them hanging around the parking lot.

I'm hanging up the Board of Terror for the season and going back to what I know: skiing.

Just another powder day...

It snowed some more last night, as it did Wednesday night. The past four Thursday's have been powder days. I only made one of them. Seems like we've had quite a few powder days this year, but who's counting?

Oh, yea...I am! Today was day 23; going back through the postings, 8 of those were powder days. That's a little more than 1/3. Pretty awesome. I'm certain that we get more powder days here than when I was skiing in Colorado. That said, we didn't have the tools to track the weather and snow conditions back than that we do now. We could probably do pretty well in Colorado... except for the part where all the pow is plundered by 11 am. We were still hitting freshies when we left at 3 today.

Cherokee Ridge was in fine shape. Dylan shreds the Grotto.

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Method Man.

Diane went out and got herself a new board and new boots. I think she's serious about this snowboarding stuff. She's also getting better.

Me? I was also enjoying the day. Spring break starts next week, but I figured I would play hookey again and get an early start. Good call.

Surfin' the Rossi's.

It's turning out to be a pretty decent season. Started early, a little lull in the middle, and now La Nina is delivering the goods again. It was snowing hard when we left, so I better get rested up for an early start tomorrow.

The Amazing Sleepy Hollow Board Session

Today I strapped on a snowboard for the first time in six years. I swore that I would never do that again after The Injury. I also make Kayla and Dylan swear that they would not allow me on one of those dangerous devices called a snowboard ever again. Some good that did.

An omen?

Diane, for reasons she has not fully yet articulated, has decided to take up snowboarding. Despite my warnings.

I decided it might be fun spending the day together struggling to keep our feet. So, we loaded up the boards and headed over to Sleepy Hollow for the amazing board session. I was hoping we would not get run down by the headless snowboarding horseman.

It all looks innocent enough.

Diane refused to sit on the same chair as me for the 870' ride that gives you an amazing 100 feet of vertical.

Diane gets advice from the expert. I think he's warning her of the grave danger that lies ahead and to sell the board and go back to skiing.

Diane makes another trip up.

OMG, Dylan, this is hard!

My first run down Sleepy Hollow was pretty shaky. Of course, I crashed a few times. After several runs, it started coming back and I was linking my turns again. Despite that success, I still do not have a high level of comfort on a snowboard.

Today reminded my of two key axioms of snowboarding: (1) it's harder than it looks; and (2) it really hurts when you fall. Which we both did. A lot.

I finally got bored with Sleepy Hollow and headed over to Twilight to have a little more adventure. I started with a trip down Peek-A-Boo, a green run. That went fine--I only crashed once and was starting to feel a little more comfortable and gain some confidence. My second run was done Swoosh. That was going fine until I hit the road at the very bottom.

The road is my nemesis. The road and me on a snowboard always seems to end badly. When I first started snowboarding back in the 2004-05 season, I had my first run-in with the road. I was going down Peek-A-Boo which has a long run out on the road at the bottom. Going straight on a snowboard is harder than it looks--if you keep a flat edge, it's probably going to catch and throw you. You can either stand facing the mountain on your toe edge, or ass-end to the mountain on your heel edge.

So, I'm going down the road (this is back in 04-05) and making feeble attempts to link my turns. I'm on my toe edge and catch my back edge. That threw me backwards down the hill where I smacked my head on the snow and hyper-extended my neck. I was a mess for two weeks. I went out and bought a helmet the next day and have been wearing it ever since.

Today I just had to do another helmet check. It definitely works, but it was a hard painful fall on the road. I went down a little further and banged me knees on the next fall. At that point I was reminded of my conclusion six years ago: snowboarding is a dangerous activity for middle-aged people. I don't know if I'll try it again or not. Warren Miller once said "there's four things you can do with a pair of skis: turn right, turn left, go straight, or sell them." Sage advice from the guru. I'm pretty sure the same applies to snowboards.

I went down to the lot and changed into my alpine gear. It seemed safer to go with something I know.

The Ass Family showed up today. They were probably snowboarding.

I caught up with Dylan after a few runs. He was up to the same old tricks.

Remember, ski time is fun time!

The Rodeo

What a difference a day can make, to use a cliche. It pretty much went from winter to spring overnight. I got up at 6:30 and checked the snow report; the mountain said 5" while the DOT said 0". It was easy to figure out who to believe. So, I caught up on a couple of hours of sleep.

It was about 35 degrees when we arrived around noon. The groomers worked overnight (which is always questionable at The Pass). Diane went out and tested the snowboard again.

Diane wisely wears a helmet while snowboarding.

Wish me luck!

I'm shredding Sleepy Hollow!

Penguin man and his cronies showed up today.

Dylan rides the kink.

The big event of the day was The Rodeo. As frequent readers may recall (all two of you), the Rodeo is a trick that Dylan has been working on for a while now (see the epic crashes from January 9). Today he nailed it...several times.

Video of Dylan doing the Rodeo.

Skies of wonder...

Another fun day with the family. Ski time is always a good time.

Day 20

Day 20. Today was the 20th day on the mountain this season. Not to shabby, but the clock is ticking and it's March already!

It wasn't clear that we would go this weekend. The forecast called for rain and warm temperatures all weekend. It's not that I'm a lightweight, but despite Dylan's dedication, I simply do not find skiing in the rain fun. The key is to get up early and check the snow report. You've gotta love the Internet--you can sit at home and see exactly what is going on via webcams.

I got up at 6:45 and scoped it out: a foot of fresh and still snowing at The Pass. Of course, it's on. You only the the opportunity for so many powder days in a lifetime. Missing any out of sheer laziness is a shame. We were out of the house by 7:20 and arrived at the hill by 8:45--plenty of time to put on the gear and get in line for rope drop.

That worked out well for me, but not as well for Dylan. Two of his binding bolts had worked loose and fallen out on the drive up. There was no way that was going to work for him, so I gave him a $20 to walk the 30 yards to the ski shop and buy some bolts. I stayed in line and rode up with the first crew.

The crowd (if you can call it that) is stoked.

You have to love a resort where the total crowd waiting at the lift is less than 20.

The gentlemen on the far left ended up being my ski buddies for the day. First run was down High Lead--those two were right there with me the entire way, although at that point I didn't know I would end up spending the day skiing with them. I ended up hopping the second ride with them, and as is my disposition, I started chatting with them on the ride up. Somehow I ended up on the third ride with them, so we introduced ourselves and spent the morning shredding a foot (more in a lot of places) of fresh.

Ski buddies Cole in the foreground and Rick in the back.

They are regulars, so I was surprised that I hadn't skied with them before.

As it turns out, I had--at least with Cole. He was one of the brave souls that joined us on The Expedition (see December 27, 2010). Rick is Cole's uncle so it was great to see another family of skiers.

The base is getting respectable (it's 102")

After the groomers were plundered, we headed off to SDN. The first trip down was interesting--snow sluffing off everywhere (well, mostly downhill). I ended up in a tight spot at the bottom, but eventually got out. My ski buddies waited at the bottom.

New experience of the day, and of my lifetime: skiing a small avalanche. The new snow was heavy and came on the tail of some rain this week, so SDN was an adventure. Here's what happened: Cole took a different route into the trees on SDN and ended up above me. He skied by and cut over to the next line, I took off behind him and as soon as I did, a 20' wide slab started moving. So I'm surfing this slab on a 45-degree slope, I'm moving, the slab is moving, it's getting a little dicey. I decide after a couple of turns that it would probably be a good idea to cut over to the next line and off the moving slab. So I did and shred my way to the bottom. It was like that all morning--not so much the sluffing snow, but the shredding. One killer untracked run after another.

We eventually headed over to the backside to check out Cherokee Ridge. We were hoping that someone had already cut the trail in, but alas, we had to break trail. Good thing Cole is young and training for a triathlon. Not that I can't keep up and didn't do my part (I did), but it's nice to leave the really tough stuff to someone else. We got a couple good runs on Cherokee before I announced I was going to head back to the front to find Dylan.

Rick stayed behind with his wife while Cole and I went to The Meadow. It was outrageous--big turns in deep snow. I cut over to the left to find the catch trail out and lost Cole. I think he ended up in the hole. I saw Dylan riding up as I neared the bottom, so we spent the next 90 minutes plundering what was left.

By 1pm it was warming up and getting heavy. Moreover, we'd already ravaged all the best lines... and all my gear was getting wet. It was time to quit, so we went to the lodge and had lunch.

Dylan enjoys a snowy break.

What a great day. Good snow, good ski buddies, and good times. I've got my fingers crossed for a repeat tomorrow.