so far...

17th March 2006

Return of the snow blower and James learns to fly

Rudely awoken this morning by the snow blower clearing the roads out the front of the house, but it's a while since i've heard it so it means more snow has fallen. Decided not to catch the bus as it leaves a lot earlier than i've been used to. So Shane and I decided to hitch up later on. Eventually a car pulled over to let us get up and when it stopped it sounds like there was a rave going on inside. On the way up we got to speaking (more like shouting) and it turned out that the guy (who was Austrailian) and he got so excited this morning when he saw the snow that he jumped into his car and came up to the hill, but then realised in the rush he'd left all his gear at home! So had to drive back home and get it and drive back up (which is when he picked us up). Then when driving through the car park, sliding all over the place, slid into a space and nearly smashing into the side of the car next to the space.

Before James hitting his drop we went for a warm up run getting some fresh tracks down a run with some open parts and open trees. Next on the agenda was hitting the gulley again so that James could do his drop. On the way down, to the point where we cut off the cat track to hike up to the gulley, a wee black squirrel was running up the slope towards the cat track. I could see it running up and was trying to work out where our paths would cross. The closer I was getting to it the more certain i was the we would both cross at the same point, it was running across the track as i was coming down and had to slam on the brakes to let it cross and up the tree at the other side of the track.

We all did the gulley again, leaving James at the top to take up position on the cliff he wanted to jump off, at least 25ft above us. We were all positioned below with Aubrey on the video camera and Dave and Dan using the video on their cameras.

After a bit of positioning he was ready, then after some words of encouragement to himself and Aubrey telling him that snow was building on the lens. It was well worth the wait though as it looked very professional, even though he didn't quite land it.

It took James about 10 to 15 mins to come down from his rush after the jump. We made our way back up to the top and did a couple more really nice tree runs still finding fresh lines, then headed in for lunch to check out all the footage of the jump. After lunch we headed up Red to see what it had to offer. We found a new area to play in that we always saw when up Granite, but never looked at it before. At the top there was a really rocky part with some huge drops, but we stayed clear and came down through a really wide open part with no tracks which led to a nice tree run. The end of the run took us out to a cat track that we've been on before and needed a bit of walking. The walk took us by part of the old mine and the roof looked jibbable. So me, Aubrey and Dave started to climb up a snow covered roof and about 2/3 of the way up Aubreys foot fell through the snow and he said that all he could see was darkness through it. We thought it was probably best if we were to turn back, just to be on the safe side. On the walk back to the top of the slope i was messing about on my board and fell of leaving it sliding along riderless and started to tip over the edge. I managed to get to my feet and ran and dived to grab it and somehow got my fingertips to it and held on.

Next on James to do list was a tree jib he tried a few weeks back, but fell off and took all the snow with it. So we headed back up Red to go find it. Making our way down we eventually found it, James overshot it so had to hike back up a bit. No-one else really wanted to try it out so Dan, Aubrey and I made our way down to the cat track below and had a small snowball fight which turned into a snowman making exercise. In the time it took James to make it over his tree we'd done most of the snowman, with it needing some personal touches. In the end he had a face, arms and hair and should be a pleasent suprise for the cat driver when he's out grooming the slopes, hopefully he won't hit it!

We headed back up Red one last time to hit our new tree run followed by a short warm down run then headed in to claim our spot in the bar and wait for the skiiers to come in and get thier Level 2 results. After a few drinks of green beer (St. Patricks day thing) they were all called in. It was hard to tell how most did from the reactions of the people we could see through the window. From the Nonstoppers doing it, 4 passed: Scottish Mike, Abi, Sean and Stuart. Congratulations to all of them who took part, pass or not.

Some of us stayed back for a couple more drinks then headed back down. After dinner we had some more drinks round at our house for all as pre-drinks for a party that was going on in town. Shane and I headed down to the Steam shovel for an attempt to play some pool, but someone had stolen 5 pool balls! so we improvised a game finished our drinks and headed back to the house to drink some more and watch what seemed like endless episodes of Ray Mears. Now we know how to make a paddle from an old tree, a pair of traditional skis and how to light fires in any situation.

NOTE: This will probably be the last posting for a few days as i got a lot on before flying home, but will have the final installments in place by next week.

16th March 2006

Final week

It was snowing again this morning, so the conditions should be quite good for the rest of the A.M.P runs. The Motherload chair was shut part of the morning as the D.O.T guys are harassing the hill now. So while it was shut we did our first of the 3 runs still to be done. We did a couple of bump runs, riding down the fall line absorbing the bumps then headed up Red to do a free run which only needed one attempt. We then heard that Motherload was open so headed up to do the drop run. I'm not a big fan of the run as the last time we did it i hit a rockface and hurt my hand so i now know not to hit it this time! We all kind of made it down unscathed. I think Dave had a momement as he went down, i couldn't really see it from the top. At the bottom of the gulley we dropped into James spotted some cliffs that he wants to try drop off of. We headed down to the Motherload chair again to go do another run. This time not quite as dramatic as the last run but steep and tree-lined all the same. The bottom of both runs were untracked fresh powder fields which led into a nice wee tree run that brought us out at a log cabin in the middle of the forest.

We then headed down to the day lodge doing our usual jibs along the way. During lunch we were discussing doing another run as Dave wasn't happy with his runs and wanted to do it again, but then decided after lunch that he'd had enough as his back was stiffening up. So we decided to do it tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon was spent free riding and jibbing. I was trying some things out on my board as every run i do i'm getting used to it. Part way through the afternoon we caught up with Jake and Tristan from across the road and did a couple more runs with them. All feeling tired we decided to end the day a bit earlier than normal and got a lift down with Aubrey.

Once home i popped over to try out Plan B with Tristans laptop, which was a sure bet and nearly worked but died at the last minute. So it was back to the drawing board with that one and this time I think I got a winner for sure! Just need to burn off a CD and take it over some time.

After dinner some of us went through to the bar for some drinks and stayed to the start of Name That Tune and then left, much to the disappointment of the organisers and bar staff. Bob and Stuart both have the final day of their Level 2 tomorrow and thought it best not to stay on so we all left. But when waiting out in the corridor i managed to get a few of the answers.

15th March 2006

Last day off

Bit of a dilema this morning, do i go up the hill or not? I had thought about going up and joining up with Shane for some riding in the afternoon and doing some shadowing in the morning, but he changed his plans so that he was shadowing in the afternoon. I decided to have a think about it and maybe go up later on in the day. Al popped round for a chat and to get some more photos from us now that he has a bit more free time on his hands in the morning after a run in with the D.O.T who have been sweeping the area recently and busting everyone. It turns out that his bus licence apparently isn't the right type of bus licence so can't drive us up to the hill anymore.

After sorting out some things James and I headed down into town as James needed to change his boarding trousers as they were falling apart after a couple of weeks of having them. I ended up buying another T-shirt that i didn't really need, but it meant James could buy one at half price to use up the $10 left from changing his trousers. Headed back up to the house to grab some food and sort out some photos and watch some snowboard DVD's.

After dinner Shane and I headed through to the bar for some games of pool, I won 4 - 1. Then on the way back to the house we spotted the guys at Jumbo sitting in their dining room having a chat, so we decided to pelt the windows with snowballs.

Suprisingly we were then invited in for a drink and a chat. It was then back to the house to get ready for a day on the hill tomorrow.

14th March 2006

Goodbye Gene

Gene was all packed up and picked up by Al to go get the Red Express bus down to Spokane for his flight down to Denver. For the rest of us it was a normal "business day". For the skiiers that is their Level 2 exams and us the A.M.P program. In which we are doing Short Radius turns, Controlled Air time and a Gladed tree run.

We headed up Granite first thing to go check out Beer Belly for our controlled air time run, in which we are to approach a jump with 5 or 6 turns, hit the jump and land in a balanced position ready to ride off and do 5 or 6 more turns. But it was a bit too hard and bumpy, even though it's been snowing all morning and hard a times. Not ideal conditions, so we rode down to the bottom hitting our usual jumps along the way and made our way back up to another jump that we hit up the top. Back at the top we made our way over to an area called Mini Bowls. We found the jump and all hit it, so another task down. On the way down we hit a lot more jumps along the way just to make sure.

The next task was to tackle short radius turns, so best place to do this was down a gulley. We moved over to Red Mountain as it's got ideal terrain. we did a couple of short trial runs on the way down to where we were doing the test to make sure we've got the hang of it. I was really starting to notice the new board which was making things a bit tougher. We got to the gulley we're going to use. We all did a run and got feedback from Aubrey with some things to try next time around. So it was back to the bottom to get back up to try it all over. This time with things going a lot better another one ticked off.

After lunch we headed back up Red to have a bit of fun as the snow is so good and to also look to tick off another box from the list. We found some trees so did a trial run for a tree run. Back to the top, but this time to a new patch of trees that were better spaced and ideal for our runs to be observed. Along the way we caught up with Shane, Sarah and Lynne who weren't doing their Level 2's this week. We saw some attempted 360's from Shane and Lynne, Shane is still determined to hit one before we leave. We moved on to do our tree run, which everyone nailed first time! We did one more run on Red before it closed and then headed back over to Granite, this time a man down as James' ankle was a bit sore. Up on Granite Dave wanted to do a lesson as he's decided to go over to Ferine at the end of the course and do his Level 2. With 5 minutes to spare we realised that the Paradise lift was about to close so we hammered down to the catch the last one up. One more run down to the base and we called it a day.

Back down at the house i headed across the road to sort out Tristans laptop, which i started to look at last week. After an hour of messing about Plan A failed so it was time to work on Plan B. After a bit of research i discovered it would take a bit longer than my laptop battery would last, so said i'd be back with some news. Once i'd downloaded and copied everything i'd need it was too late to do anything about it. So sat down to watch the Itallian Job, which i soon fell asleep missing all the car chases and stuff.

13th March 2006

All A.M.P'd up and goodbye drinks

Another blue sky day and the start of the A.M.P program, which has been put together by Nonstop, which covers loads of
mountain activities - not only ski and board skills but also resort and community related involvement. Today we are doing the board skills part, so controlled jumps, tree runs, as well as turns on the groomed slopes. We decided to get all the groomed run stuff out the way first so that we can do all the off piste stuff later in the week as we're expecting more snow.

First up was carving, which we had to do on blue and green runs. I eventually nailed it on the blue runs after everyone else, so next up was a green run, which is a bit steeper. I had a couple of attempts, but was picking up far too much speed and kept sliding out coming out of my turns, so ended up with an incomlpete for that section but was told that i'd have plenty of chances to get the hang of it. Next up was varied size turns, where we had to big turns, then medium, then small and then make them bigger all in a controlled manner showing board performance the whole time. After that it was a freestyle run where we had to incorporate a jump with a twist, jump with a grab, switch riding and off piste riding. With 3 things ticked off the list it was in for lunch.

After lunch it was a bit of a free run afternoon, but i and Aubrey was determined to get me carving on the steeper slopes. I think for about 4 or 5 runs i kept pushing myself, getting it (just) on one steep section, but not quite on the next steeper section, which apparently is above level 2 standard but all the same would be good to do. I was getting 2 turns but the 3rd i was sliding out of the end. What i didn't realise was that Aubrey had passed me without telling me, so i was beating myself up all afternoon about it.

After dinner we all met in the Steamshovel to sign off all the non-riding stuff for the A.M.P and then celebrate Shanes 23rd birthday and have leaving drinks for Gene, who goes back to Denver with Audrey in the morning. It's a bit sad to think that people are starting to leave already, with Peter leaving at the weekend.


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