The 7th Day

Today was the 7th day we went up this season--at least Dylan and I. Diane had to work :-(.

Our season kicked into high gear today: 12" of fresh (at least according to the snow report), which was more like 12"-15" depending on where you went. We were accompanied by Andre--who we abandoned in the parking lot. Andre boarded today, and the reports were positive. It was also the day I left the memory card for the camera in the SD slot on my computer... so no pix from me. Fortunately, Andre took a few with his iPhone.

Swoosh!

Andre quit early (2pm) because his $14 boots weren't cutting it. A little coffee and bailey's is good for sore feet, among other things.

I caught up with Andre in the bar, where he was reading incident reports.

View of Eagle Peak from the bar.

I put down 20 rides on the EPA and three on the backside...33,000 vertical feet. It was a great day--Dylan and I started on the groomers, poached a few runs on High Lead before they dropped the rope, and then hit the trees. The trees were, well, treacherous. I nailed a stump in the woods between Good Time and Eagles and had my lunch handed to me. All my stuff was buried. We also high Cherokee Ridge for the first time this season (awesome) and SDN. A dozen groms followed me in--and cut in front of Dylan. Fortunately, their coach understood the etiquette of the woods and let us have our line--which killed.

Today was great, but I'm super stoked for the next couple of days. Here's why:

North Cascades, Lane Co. Cascades

Weather Alert

Winter Storm Warning *NOAA Issue Date: 12/30/2009 1:12 PM In effect from 6 Am to 9 Pm Pst Thursday for the north and central Oregon Cascades... The National Weather Service in Portland has issued a Winter Storm Warning for heavy snow...which is in effect from 6 Am to 9 Pm Pst Thursday. The Winter Storm Watch for snow is no longer in effect. a strong Pacific storm system will approach Thursday...with heavy snow developing in the morning. Snow...heavy at times...will continue into Thursday evening. * timing...snow will develop Thursday morning...and increase in intensity by noon. * accumulations...2 to 4 feet are likely above 5000 feet...

Two to four feet! Yow! Nothing beats a great powder day better than another. Bring it on.

Happy new year indeed!

Boxing day

In Canada (as well as a lot of other places), today is boxing day. According to the most trusted of sources, the Internet, boxing day was traditionally a day on which the servants had a day off from their duties. Today is also St. Stephen's day, which is apparently one of nine official holidays in Ireland. Closer to my heritage, St. Stephen's day in Wales is known as Gŵyl San Steffan and the ancient Welsh custom included bleeding of livestock and "holming" (beating or slashing with holly branches) of late risers and female servants. Sounds like fun.

Here in Oregon, today is just another ski day. Nobody gets boxes, no livestock were bled, and late risers like Dylan, were not holmed. Although, that holming was taken into consideration.

The fog started lifting today, but it was clear and cold at the mountain. It never got about 20 degrees--which is pretty cold for here. I can hear the snickers and guffaws from the Colorado and Midwest contingent... you call that cold? Well, yea for here.

Diane at the top of "By George" with "Success" in the background.

Dylan discusses what he's going to throw down next.

Eagle Peak (foreground) from the summit of Peak II. That's Diamond Peak in the background.

Diane at the top of Peak II--calling Kayla--who was complaining about how cold it was. Wah!

First trip of the year down RTS today. Dylan avoids the trees.

Dylan launches into the jetstream of the kicker on the bottom of RTS.

Kayla said her feet felt like a boa constrictor wrapped around them after riding on Friday. One of the benefits of coming home for the holidays is you can snake your way into a new pair of boots. Which she did, no boas with these Solamons.

My feet don't hurt, but I'm cold.

Our little ray of sunshine flies back to Denver tomorrow.

Conditions were pretty icy today. It's about time for the next round of storms to hit. If not, conditions are going to deteriorate and it won't be a great holiday break for the resorts here. There is a ray of hope: the forecast is calling for rain for the next several days and the satellite images show some nice systems developing out in the Pacific. Let's hope the track this way and not to the north (Whistler got 167" of snow in November) or the south.

Happy Boxing/St. Stephens day!

Out of the fog

Out of the fog...

and into the sunshine!

Fog is pretty common in Eugene this time of year. It seems like we've had at least a week of fog in Eugene every December for the past several years.

Fog:

A cloudlike mass or layer of minute water droplets or ice crystals near the surface of the earth, appreciably reducing visibility.

Apparently the foggiest place on the planet is the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland, which experiences well over 200 days of fog annually. Fog results from the aggregation of water droplets just above the surface of the earth and when the moisture content of the air is increased beyond the saturation point. Fog forms when the difference between the temperature and the dew point is less than four degrees Fahrenheit.

In the Willamette Valley, fog occurs when air is cooled below the dew point. The dew point is the temperature at which water vapor condenses into water. In other words, the dew point is the saturation point. We get what is called "Valley Fog" which happens when we get temperature inversions--heavier cold air settling into the valley, with warmer air passing over the mountains. It is essentially radiation fog confined by topography. This is somewhat of a simplified description, but enough of that for now. Let's get back to the action.

Diane loves the new Nordica's with the super cool see-through shells.

Where's my poles?

Diane and Kayla at the summit on the Eagle Peak Accelerator.

We saw some Christmas Finch's having a little finch party at the summit.

Diane and Dylan.

Dylan had an all day session.

I. Timburr log jump

II. Timburr log jump

III. C-box

IV. Rainbow box
'

Budda...

More budda...

Kayla has a love-fest with Kodi.

Foggy night scenes on our street. Looks like we'll be fogged in all day tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Christmas day and we'll be celebrating in the fog.

Happy holidays!

Family Time

Today was the first time that we've all been to the mountain together since the 2006-07 season. Kayla decided to give college a rest and moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado in November 2007. Steamboat is holds a special place for both Diane and I: Diane lived there for a year or so in middle school; I went there with my family starting in the late '60s and have many memories of The Boat well into my 20s. More on that later, perhaps.

We had a lot of rain, with some snow mixed in this week--with 8" on Monday night. Other commitments, unfortunately, kept us away yesterday. While I'm sure yesterday was an epic powder day, conditions today were ideal. Blue sky, cool air, and primo packed powder conditions. The snow earlier this week really helped.

Kayla at the top of Eagle Peak, with Diamond Peak in the background.

Photo op! Please smile.

Sister and bro-ham.

Stylin' the steeze.

Dylan shreds the jump on Timburr.

Good times on the bottom of Good Time Charlie.

Kayla shows her style on the top of Timburr with Odell Lake in the background.

Dylan shows off the magnatraction feature of his LibTech "Banana" board on the Timburr log ride.

Diane gives her new boots another test drive. Damn... they hurt.

She bought a pair of Lange's after the Jeannie Thoren ski clinic. Unfortunately, her appointment with Jeannie got jacked by some pokey hog, and Diane got the Lange rep, who, well, recommended she purchase a pair of Lange's. So she did. And they didn't fit right. So she took them back, and the Berg's guys did their best (they are the best) to try to make them work. They didn't, so she came back tonight with a pair of Nordica's. She'll test them out tomorrow; hopefully, they will work better.

Kayla checks out "Swoosh"

Diane checks out "Swoosh"

Kayla and Diane ride the Twilight lift.

The Fam! Looking good.

Lots of fun today. Great conditions, great weather, and great company. We'll head up again tomorrow to make sure the conditions are still good--it's looking like tomorrow will be a repeat of today.

Happy holidays!

'Tis the [ski] season

For hunting trees. Christmas trees, that is. We took a trip out to the local tree farm in Pleasant Hill yesterday afternoon in search of the Parker Family Christmas Tree. We're having an old-fashioned family Christmas this year, with a real tree (sorry Kayla, we couldn't wait until the 21st). The fake tree is staying in storage.

Diane and Dylan are overjoyed to be on the hunt.


Don't pick that one... it's too small, and the limbs are all wrong.

We found it!

Diane and Dylan admire the Nordmann fir that will reside in our living room for the next few weeks.

Diane supervises the cutting of the tree. She was kind enough to bring a tarp so Dylan didn't have to lay on the wet, muddy ground while he sawed it down with his bare hands.

Success! Now we need Kayla to come and put the ornaments on.

Getting the tree on Saturday allowed us to ski today. We skipped last week because conditions appeared to be ice on ice--which was confirmed today by someone who was brave enough to brave it last weekend.

We got 2" on Friday night during the ice storm here, and another 2" last night. Not a lot, but enough to make it acceptable.

Management provides some advice.

Which turned out to accurate. Conditions on the backside (Peak 2) were much better than on the frontside. Dylan demonstrates how to avoid the rocks.

II.

III.

Solid. Diane chills in the car while we pack up. She only got six runs in because her slick new Lange boots aren't fitting correctly. More specifically, the left boot appears to have a manufacturer defect. Hopefully she'll get it worked out before we go again.

Did a few runs on the tele's today, which reminded me that I'm not really in shape yet. It was a thigh-burning experience. I sure like the K2 World Piste's that Pete donated to me a whole lot better than my Piste Offs. I did a nice auger on Eagle's Flight and then called it a day. My tele technique needs a lot of work.

Snow is in the forecast for this week. A little snow dance, a sacrifice to Ullr, and a little luck and we'll be into regular season conditions by next weekend.