something different.

Trying something new, put together a handful of stills and viddy clips from Saturday.....

one of those days.

Spent Saturday skiing WhiteGrass with Bender. Stayed on the 'frontside' & found plenty of freshy fresh hitting every nook & crannie that I could remember, and that our legs would take us to. Snow was reallllly good, from 6" of light smoke to knee deep tele induced windblown faceshots. Worst decision was the face of Baldy first thing, it was as icey hard as I think it can get.....should make for a quick corn harvest though, and at least no rocks this time. Paid off by putting us into Springer for some driftline love. Rest of the day followed in suit, chasing the snow, looking for turns. We got viddy, I'm gonna try to piece something together with the clips........

Teaser pics, rest are here:

Dave's Anita warm-up.

WV smoke.

Springer schralped.

Lunch.

Dave goes to church.

throwin' down!

Love this picture of Bettini taking a sprint in the ToC, from Pez:

to Allen, the on call water guy.

Ya know what dude? I understand that it was a hassle for you to come out at 8pm on a Monday to replace a blown out water meter. I mean, shit, if I had realized it was gonna require you to go get the 'work truck' and all........

But, put yourself in my shoes, when you reluctantly asked on the phone: "So, uh, do you really need water tonight?" What the fuck do you think I'm gonna say?

No, it's no big deal, I don't need clean underwear for tomorrow, nor will I need to shower until sometime Tuesday.....or flush the drained toilet for that matter....it's cool man, I'll just go melt some snow.

Maybe if you weren't such a grumpy bitch, beyond a standard 'thanks man,' I'd have also offered you a beer when you were done, whatever.

My new meter, thanks man.

payment due

man, when karma comes to collect......

Somehow last night, I'm guessing a well placed wind gust, the sidewalk level window under the front porch got blown in. This meant a nice cool draft into the basement. Which means a frozen waterline.

Fun morning.

pay it forward

Been having a pretty damn good ski season so far this year, have gotten my groove on more than enough recently. So, I guess I was due....

The plan: Reach Laurel Run via the pipeline cut starting from Col Denning, hopefully bagging some turns along the way, explore the Laurel Run winter wonderland, then just a quick hike back up and over on the snowmobile groomed fireroad. Simple enough, huh?

Well, it took a solid 7 hours, I became reaquainted with the joys of trying to ski what was basically an inch or two thick breakable styrofoam crust over a few inches of sugar. Great for stomping around the woods on, awful for turning. Descended the pipeline using the much underrated power wedge-falling leaf combo. Had a blast touring along the creek, then turned for home on the first of two fireroad options. Should have opted for the second in hindsight, woulda meant more pleasurable creek plain cruising vs a second gnarlylingly frustrating ridgeline bushwack. Finished with sweet linked stem chirsties down the snowmobile shredded fireroad, so extreme!

I'll call this one a character building experience, and figure it as an early season deposit into the pain bank. Now I'll let the pictures do the talking:

A proper set of rock skis,

to take me on yet another journey.

Starting out in a nice little squall,

Tuscorora Trailhead at Rt 233.

Quick break after a sketchy little bootpack.

Continuing on up, Tuscorora pines.

to the pipeline!

Nearing the top of the climb,

Carlisle getting a bit of a dusting.

Gaining the ridge.

Let's go this way!


Finding the Tuscorora Trail again.

Looking down the pipeline toward Laurel Run,

too bad it's covered in a gnarley breakable foam crust.

Looking towards home,

snow squall moving out the valley.

The far end of Meadow road, kinda 'out there'.

cruising the valley

Lunch time, 1:30.

Craaaazy creek ice.

Ice ice baby.

Ooops, found a weak spot.....

Turkey traction.

Turkey trot, time to start thinking of home....

checking out.

Saw some nice looking glades, if only.

Leaving the valley.

Heading for home.

More fun ridgeline touring.

Sun setting on the final ridgeline schwack.

I need a haircut.

explorin'

Before the short term memory gets wiped clean......

Went to Blue Knob for some skiin' today. First time there, trying to cash in on the best available local conditions after the midweek storm. Had hoped to reach the zone that didn't get too much sleet mixed in, had hoped to not find any crust.

Got there early, only 20 or so cars parked about, got on snow 9:30ish, only spinning lift of interest was Expressway, the chair servicing the 'expert' portion of the mtn wouldn't spin 'til 10. No problem, nothing wrong with a proper warm up, and I see some blue/black labeled glades to check out. Start with some fun in Laurel Run Glades, then find what will be the best snow of the day over in the top portion of the Forever Glades, a tight driftline of super light knee deep fluff. The Rt 66 chair starts to turn, so I head out to Stembogan, and get fresh turns thru alternating pockets of shin deep pow and scraped down manmade hardpack, nabbed 2nd tracks down the Ditches Glade, which was fun for sure.

Then I ducked a rope here or there and had a blast on lower Rt 66 under the chair, getting 2nd tracks on my first lap down. Then tried to check out some other mapped glades, Mine Shaft & Boneyard. Found just enough crust to be a hassle, so I stuck to Lower Shortway and enjoyed more knee deep driftline love. Further exploration found me bushwacking out of the East Wall glades after some sweet turns off the top of the Traverse. Ran a bunch more laps of varying sequence seeking out the nooks and crannies.

Back to the car for a snack around noon and found a dead battery in the CR-Vizzle, left the lights on, oops. I'm sure somebody has cables, so I head back out after a handful of trailmix and a few swigs of Coke. Head back over to the morning stashes and find a nice line leading to the Laurel Glades. Almost hit a tree head on, literally. Scarey fucking target fixation set in, glad that I wear that helmet even though I didn't need it. Found still fresh snow in the Forever Glades again, then back out to the Rt 66 chair. More fun laps under the lift with low tele, deep drift induced faceshots, but had even more fun on Lower Shortway.....that 'closed' sign sure does help limit traffic. Steepish, carvable natural styrofoam & crud, just enough support to crank that ski around, much love found.

All in all, a pretty damn good day on the slopes. I'll definitely be back to Blue Knob, it's setup as a skier's mtn. Don't go there expecting a plush lodge & amenities, go there expecting to be able to ski your balls off and not have anyone hassle you about it, seems to be a pretty loose policy for 'off piste' routes, which is fine by me. Decent looking bar room/pub in the lodge, didn't check it out though, had to get a jump for the car. Who knows? Maybe some cougar hunting action as well........

peace out, time to clear that slate.

Crappy cell phone pics:

Laurel Glades, from the lift.

"Tracked Out"

Ditches Glade

decisions

hmmmm, what to do, what to do?

We actually have real snow on the ground. Well, it was snow, now it's heavily saturated by sleet and probably some frain mixed in. After the good vibe wknd, and seeing the forecast, I put in for a day off on Friday. Now I start weighing options.

1: Head straight to WV, get in an afternoon/evening ski, then chill (literally) w/ Huxley for an overnight car camp before getting out for a dawn patrol and day tour at WG.

2: Sneak up to State College and stomp around those woods (check out Black Mo) on a pair of skis w/ Huxley, hoping that they made out better from this storm. Then dinner in town before hitting the road for a nighttime arrival in Canaan. Crash out in the car w/ Huxley and get some WG love first thing in the morn.

3: Daytrip stomp around the 'local' woods w/ Huxley. Maybe up in Laurel Run, sketchy long access via unplowed fireroad, but guaranteed winter wonderland beauty along the creek, maybe some turns possible on the pipeline shots. Or maybe revisit a stash I found a few years ago up near Big Spring-Fowler's Hollow. Much easier access, but less familiar w/ the terrain. Follow that on Saturday w/ a standard day long trip to WG. Sleep in my own, warm, bed.


Came up with these scenarios while driving home from Roundtop last night. The evening session never really got off the ground, realized I forgot my headphones during the drive, tried to sneak up 15 to Worldcup for some helmet speaker muff thingys, then bailed on that after snarled traffic got on my nerves, no soundtrack tonight. Snow changed over to that sleety stuff as I was gearing up, swell. Slopes were decent, worked some freshness right along the edges as usual, but my legs were still wasted after the wknd. Had nothing, no snap, no power, just some nice tele thigh burn as I dealt with piles of cut up crud. Managed to briefly starfish down the Gunbarrel headwall, working some jumpturns skier's left, dropped into a sketchy shadow and got crossed up on something, couldn't see shit. Got all tangled up while trying to self arrest & tweaked a shoulder in the process. Said 'fuck this' and bailed after an hour to go home and get some rest. The Nugget Nectar sure was tasty.

Meeshow in da snow.

Sunday ride on the mtn bike.

Found some sweet fixy flow.

Needed that.

4 hour ride, only had 3:45 in me.

Fell apart, it was neat.

Snow was sweet,

looked good enough to eat,

ain't that a treat?

Lee tried to open up a third nostril early.

Jake is one sexy bitch.

Bucky sets the line.


Travisimo in frame, looking fine.

Johnny & Lee carving along, amidst the pine.

pt 1.

Pictures now, words later, or not.

pt 2.