Sixteen Inches of Awesome!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

We haven't had a single good powder day since before Christmas, even though we've had a few storms. The snowpack is holding up fine, but I've been jonesin' to get back into the woods. Our favorite lifty was saying it was coming in early this week; the weather report was for a slow buildup to the big storm on Friday. Mother Nature delivered the goods last night.

I got up at 6:30am and checked the Pass conditions report and the DOT road report. Both said 14" overnight ant 16" in the last 24 hours. Game on!

You have to be at rope drop on a powder day or you miss the goods (technically, Willamette doesn't do rope drop--you just queue up in line until they let you on). We boarded our first chair at 8:57.















Conditions on the hill...ideal.















Base is pretty healthy.















Diane got me a GoPro video camera before we went to Mexico last year. I've been waiting for a good day to use it. Today was a good day to use it. It's got a nice chest harness where it is easy to get to and stays out of the way.

Through the trees on SDN. There's not many things that I like more than a 45 degree pitch through the woods in knee deep snow. Exhilarating. 

 

Ran into a crew from the University. Steve is one of my project managers and a good skier to boot.

Dylan shreds SDN.

Dylan's been waiting a while to build a booter on the rock at the bottom of SDN so he could work on the frontside Rodeos. He nailed it the first time. Subsequent attempts were ok, but he scrubbed the landings.

Back home to make some tasty enchiladas and enjoy a bottle of Rogue Brewery's fine Yellow Snow IPA.

The mountain was pretty well ravaged by noon. They definitely had a bigger than usual crowd...good for them, not as great for us. This storm has passed and we probably won't go up tomorrow. I have a bunch of work to do to prepare for a busy week that includes a plane flight to Seattle and two intense days of meetings in Skagit County, Washington.

I suppose that's a fair trade to feed the habit.

Putting the "H" in Hardpack

February 17, 2013

I got a little behind on the blogging. Between work, trying to finish up this record project, and everything, it just wasn't the top priority.

Conditions today were ideal for racing. FIS people would have loved it. A thin sheen of dust on top of blue ice. Makes for fast running, but isn't my favorite. I knew what to expect and pulled out the trusty K2's--the go-to choice for bulletproof conditions.

Diane came up today since it was the first sunny day at the mountain in a while. We had a good time.

The fog rolls off of Odell Lake making for beautiful scenery.














They're finally getting the park dialed in. Dylan taps the spool.

Riding up Twilight.

Nose grab!
















 Method!















Diane on By George.

It was the annual fundraiser for the WARP team (Willamette Alpine Racing Program). I ran the race a few years back; I didn't even know it was happening. Randy Rogers, the key instigator of our economic study and Ski Oregon Board Member, invited me to forerun on the second run. I was pretty stoked to get the honor of going down before everyone else. The conditions were ideal--hardpack softened up just the right amount and a course that suits my style.

I also told Randy that we needed to leave by 1:45 since Dylan had to be to work by 4. So, I inspected the course and went to the start at 1:25. I was all set to go mentally; then they informed me the would be starting at 2:00 with forerunners at 1:55. Alas, I had to bail. I wasn't too broke up about it, but it sure would have been fun. Next year.

The fog was rolling in a bit by the time we were wrapping up.

It's a K2 kind of day

Saturday, February 9, 2012

If one skis long enough, one ends up with a garage full of gear. I've done a decent job of keeping it semi-current. For example, I donated the RD Coyotes a few years back. All 198 cm of their skinny stiffness. Old school gear and I'm not going back there.

I still have two pairs of K2s and a pair of full-metal-jacket Volant Machetes. It's been a long time since I took the Machetes out. I'm not sure I ever will again...but I think about it now and then. I've also got a pair of K2 Apache X's that I took out last year. I didn't enjoy them that much. But, my go-to hard pack skis are still my K2 Apache Recons. They're 119-89-112. Narrow by today's standards for an all mountain ski, but about par for people that ski in the east.

Conditions have been, well, meh. There's plenty of snow, but it keeps coming at times when I can't enjoy it (see last week's post). So, we're into full on hard pack conditions unless it gets warm. Which it didn't today. But I was prepared. I pulled the K2s out of the quiver and threw the Rossi's on board just in case. It was 28 degrees when we arrived today; it was much warmer yesterday. It wasn't much of a mystery what conditions were going to be like.

I also threw the maintenance kit in today since I figured the K2's (and I) would benefit from sharpening around the edges. Good call. There's a small possibility that I've learned something after 45 years of skiing. Like not to wake up at the crack of dawn to ski hard pack.

We arrived promptly at noon today and our timing was perfect. At least for today.

Race day...again. We have high school league here--which I wish we would have had when I was in high school. I coulda had a letter!




















Not that I cared about high school sports...then or now.

They added some new features in the park this week. Dylan taps the spool.

Dylan goes full Japan on the lower jump.

Not stellar conditions today, but good times were had by all. We'll think about continuing the party in the morning if it gets a little sunnier.

What I really want right now (well, more like later next week) is for a new system to track over so we can get some more killer powder days. I'll keep dreaming...

Gnarr

Saturday, February 2, 2012

Today's word is Gnarr.

I suppose definitions are in order. From urbandictionary.com:

1.  A word to exclaim when frustrated, or having a generally bad time.

"Gnarr! My hand exploded."

 

2. A stupid creature from the game Serious Sam. It just runs at you. You shoot it, it gets back up, and keeps running straight at you.

Can be used as an insult towards a similarily stupid person.

 

You gnarr *shake fist*

In the context of skiing, snowboarding, or skateboarding...but with one 'r' as in Gnar.

1. A shortened version of the word gnarly, meaning high on the scale of dangerousness and coolness. Often used among the skateboard crowd.

 

That switch heelflip was gnar.

 

2.  Snow.The white stuff. You like it.

 Lets shread the gnar.

3.  abbreviated form of 'gnarly', means really fucking kick ass.

also, used by snowboarders to describe good snow

4.  gnarly, but shorter. awesome, cool, sweet...

 

that was pretty gnar

5. Gaffney's Numerical Assessment of Radness

 

Skier 1: Hey Check me out! I'm totally going to rip the shit out of this!

skier 2: Gnar.

6.  used to describe something extreme, usually in a good way.

 

Dude, I got that switch varial flip down an 8-stair.
It was gnar.

I was thinking of it in the context of conditions today. We got 27" between Sunday and Tuesday. By Wednesday morning it was 50 degrees at the mountain. Twenty-seven inches of, yep, you guessed it: Oregon Gnar. Of the frozen variety.

 

Dylan shreds the Gnar.

 

 That method was really Gnar.

The weather was pretty Gnar also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, conditions got pretty spring-y by the time we left at 1:30. Dylan had to work today so we missed the Gnarliest conditions. 

 

We usually go up on Super Sunday, but Dylan has to work again tomorrow, so I'll work and we'll probably watch the game in the afternoon. Looks like a front might move in later next week so maybe we'll get to shred some gnar pow.

Payback

Sunday, January 27, 2012

Today we logged enough visits to justify the expense of our season passes. From here on out the marginal cost of a ski visit is below the $49 cost of a daily pass. If history is any indication, we'll get a least as many more days in this season than we already have...getting our average ticket cost down in the $25 or less range. At that level it starts getting comparable to, well, going out to dinner. And maybe a lot of other stuff. But less expensive than golfing!

That all said, skiing is still kind of an expensive activity. I should know...I've done the studies (most recently for Ski Oregon).  We finished our most recent report in December; the press will come shortly. Here's the low-down:

"Total economic impacts associated with the Oregon ski industry for the 2010-11 season topped $481.6 million, including direct expenditures, indirect spending (such as retail or equipment purchases), and induced economic impacts (including personal income). The Oregon ski industry provides an estimated 6,772 jobs and over $194.4 million in personal income."

And more telling:

Of the $311.2 million in direct revenue generated by the ski industry, approximately $138.7 million is generated by day skier spending.  While destination skiers account for only 22% of skier visits, they generated 40% of direct economic impact—nearly $123 million. Destination skiers spend considerably more per person per day—about $300 compared to $89 for day skiers.

Well, $89 per person per day. Sounds about right. We spend a little less since we go so often, but it's still an expensive activity. As far as expenditures of my recreation dollar, totally worth it in my book.

We got the choice parking this morning. The view from the dashboard:

Famous Eagle Peak Ravens.

 They got the kicker fixed so Dylan hit it a bunch of times.

That was pretty much it. Sort of a low key day waiting for the snow...which is supposed to start tonight. It usually comes in the middle of the week when we can't go and then gets warm. That's what the weather forecast looks like to me.

Great.