chasing it.

saw the weather, saw the reports
on Friday, it looked gnarly, burly.
Road's closed, Emergency! Delay
the commute to a very relaxed
Saturday lunchish departe'.
Super chill driving ensued,
until the Mt Storm, then it
became increasingly winterlike,
neat.

Make the quick rounds in the lodge
and out into it, post 5ish, headlamp
in pocket. Find mystical howling
quietness & solitude atop the knob,
trusting veritgo instinct here and
there, along with the directional nose
to guide thru Gladed Chaga in the
dark before minimal wattage mainslope
whoopage that caused a second lap to
be seriously considered.

Bail at 7 for apres' and stokage building
Barry's World rappin' before Icebox movie
night and petrified motionless log sleep
until the sun comes up. Love the ski
morning rythmn, filling the belly with
goodness, oatmeal, eggs. Stoke the oven
to head out once more. Perfect call celly
ring ring timing hooks it up with Carp and
spancer him with Guides + skins. Weary
legs happy to follow a quick learning
partner, putting in a sick direct route
skinny to the Funnel.

Morning firsties off the Face then on
down into Springer and Flatrock to
set the lowpoint for the escalator.
Multiple laps of blissfulness ensued.
Powder on the faces when milking
sweet tree shadow whaleback drifts
and drops...3, 4 laps?? where's the
gps, where's my mind? nevermind,
just keep pushing left and combat
ski hands up w/ dancing feet thru
brushy rabbitholes revealing Tennis
Courts or Rock Star gullies of
consistent knee deep to BallzzDeep!
coverage. Occasionaly finding pockets
to envelope your chest in the corniced
creekbeds.

Refuel on a late lunch via a mainslope
run, split nachos and a pitcher and out
for a hot lap, which streched on up into
BaldySteeps.

'dude, we're all but there...'

ok.

yeah, it. was. money.

Well worth the efforted traverse
back to Roundtop. Last run, hit
the big jump off the other corner
and kept it together. Just keep
it tight, feet under ya, and poof...
silent stompage and run it out in
a somewhat controlled bounding GS
groove from one fluffy lump to the
next. Hit Chipper's impromtu PB jump
and feel orbital sensations, but
probably only 8ish feet in the air.

POP!

poof.

yeah...like a porpoise.

another shared apres pitcher with
friends, big oatmeal raisin cafe'
cookie and an inspired drive home,
back into the here and now...

anybody look at the forecast recently?

gonna put it on mah fixy

'NAHBS'

what I want.
is blingy new valve cap.
a handmade valve cap.

Made In America.

construed of bamboo-
hemp hybreed, grown in
east asia, with carpet
fibre stiction strips,
for easy handling.

and a tiny chrome flame.

bling!

it's weird.

you try to relate skiing.
to what you assume is not
a skiing centric audience,
to a bike centric audience,
thru a bike honed, Ewok
pedaling ninja lens.

And it's weird, cuz it
just.doesn't.relate...
watch the ski porn,
the PRO's can't even
explain it. that full body
massage, tingly adrenal
rushing soothing essence.

are there words for
the sensations? what
is it about skiing powder?

it's different than over the
shoulder disconnected Ewok
grinning glowing head thru
the Bambi trail...this is thru
the Rabbit hole and into an
effortless preternatural float
that denies the theory of
gravitational sensations you
think you understand.

poof.

how is that possible?
then poof again. and
muffled flight ensues.

poof.

strange that.
addictive.

One Pic TR

I go thru all the shots.

This one....you had to
be there, turns out that
skiers & snowboarders
can get along.

disclaimer.

So. Here we are, where we at?
Always sorta asking myself,
where you at?

"Where you at, with respect to A,
with respect to B, C, T?"

Takes three points plus time
to be semi accurate.

huh?

"yeah, quick inventory, where
you at?"

Wellll, I'm not where I was before.
I'm here now, was there then. There.
Then, where're you going?

Working on that. Yeah, been saying
it out loud, couple times now, to a
broader audience of friends now
and then, more recently in the now,
as March now approaches, and all I
wanna do is ski...once conditions
rebound from this rain, nice sucker
punch Ullr, you pussy. {thanks, though}

Yeah, it feels good to be retired. Taking a step back from the game. No objective goal or hurdle projected into the future, no big race looming on a forecasted calender. I mean shit, I'm done. That fire in the belly finally feels like a smooth burning charcoal diamond ember. Like the smooth flow of Chipper's white oak enhanced mtn spring water...an easily stokable flame to get you thru the rough patches of the new adventures, but without the concern to get it burning white hot peak clear flame blowout. No more objective goals, other than the steps it'll take to tackle a 5 day ride, that I'm giving myself 8 to complete...so still lots of fun figuring some shit out....but...less intensive bike focused energies open up a positive balance sheet for other pursuits...so, if the blog gets weirder at times..yeah, whatever. ya know?

not like I'm gettin' paid to do this, and you're not gettin' paid to read it, well maybe, lots of office types out there....anyways,
this has always been an outlet or something..is what it is.

and with that....these fucking Anon commentors are starting to bug me, no respect from the fucking 'bots....might flip that switch, sorry.

gettin' down in the hometown.

points to those that can identify the venues.

what freakin' wknd!!!! the south central is going. off1!
big pow lines, bountiful glades both solo and with good
friends old & new. damn, if only, every year, like this?
shiiit, this is dreamtime sequence gametime jedi post
work ninja schralpage in new sweet & steep honey hole,
already ingrained with good vibe memories. earn it, full
time until it is no more, time to charge the batteries,
refills are a coming....thank you Ullr, we ain't skeered.

Friday:




Saturday:




Sunday:

takin' it to the streets.

hey, did you hear?
we got dumped on!

went out at lunchtime for
lunch, it was burly out to
say the least. made any
other storm driving I've
done to date look like child's
play. glad you're ok Lars.

then sat at work,
twitching, all
afternoon.

this one too.

the vortex

you hear the calling
and you get sucked in,

deep. the spirit grabs you.

make new friends,

big snow happens,

and sick shit goes down.

dayummm.

for the books,

been waiting a while
for this. thank You.

full gallery on the Smug

love poem.

driving into the heart
of a raging Noreaster.

not the 'smart' thing to do.

but it is what I do.

I love to ski pow.

recharged.

man, it pays to go in with low expectations.
not sure about conditions, the welcome cold
air was maybe a bit tooo much and pushed
the big cell to the south of us. I was hoping,
hoping, for maybe 2" over a thin rain infused
shiny hardpack base.

when it went to corn last wknd, that was the
hint I missed...the 2" in my mind, that was
the anti-jinx spell I was casting. What I woke
up to Saturday morning was something different.
It was storming, cold storming, blowing out of
the east, filling in the not usual spots.

Eat breakfast, messages come in, my touring
crew is pulling up lame, physically from the
Foofdom, mentally from the commuting 'cakes.
Overslept? phhhht, cupcakes just aren't
skiers I guess...

So I busted out solo, pre-9ish into 4ish deg
brisk easterly puking snow. East? hmmmm,
that's different. Skin up Rountop to Bald as
usual, and gametime it out to Nat'l Nord.
Northside? Laneville is on my mind, but I
can't resist, feels like I've got the place
to myself, tic. Good feel for the snow,
the turn comes easy, feeling the flow
once again, a welcome change. Lap back
up thru the saddle forest a second time,
see that the previous uptrack is filling in
with freshness, niiiice.

Options at the top and curiousity gets the
best of me, drop the south side towards
Laneville, couple nice pitches, could use
more snow below 3800'...turn to climb
back up before the conditions exceed
marginal and try to get my bearings on
the shoulder of Birches/Red Oak/Great
Eastern.....no idea where I was exactly,
well, by local name at least. But I did
etch the location of some sweet glades
that dropped off in the opposite direction
of where I was heading...more on that at
a later date.

So keep poking around, found some fun
little shots of terrain, nothing as sustained
as I'd hoped for and ended up back on the
pipeline. Beelined it back for a dreamt of
GardenBurger and cup of chili, then hot
lapped a mainslope run on the big Bro's
before a qwik switch of stix & chase up
the hill in order to tag along on the evening
staff ski.

In all these years, that's that first time I got
out for a ski with Chip, what an inspiration,
what an incredible person. Good times & we
ended up back at the lodge well past dark,
super enjoyable apres', then a sampling of the
newly opened Sarriani's in the Valley, how
convienient.

And Cake!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANA!!!!!!

Sunday, slooowwwwww start to the day,
25k XC race was a slim to none on the
motivational scale. The sky went bluebird, it
was gonna be up in the 20's, springtime POW!
Had a FOWG errand to run first, move a bottle
of special berry juice from RT up to Bald, check.
Grab the big stix & skins and start hiking.

Got to Bald shelter, bump into TJ & KK & fella
I need to meet two more times in order to put
face to name...felt bonked, empty, done.
Sat down, donned a warm jacket, slug or two
of Coca cola and trail mix and eventually head
out to the overlook for a looksy....

It looks good enough, maybe thin in that one
spot, or two, so what the hell? Sweet jump turn
action, find my game, solid turns, then carnage
on a 20' section where there is no base, just thin
snow over rocks and grass, ooops. Tell myself
it's just ptex and get on with it. The apron
opens up into hootin' and hollerin' shin deep
blown in love then work the drift line freshness
on down to a sunny respite at the Springer Shelter.

Reskin, hike direct back to Bald. Put in a
challenging skintrack right up to the tippy
top of where snow gets good and hit it again,
only this time stay on the left side of the fence,
meadow skippin' at it's finest. Finish with a
glory run down the mainslope then lend a
hand to Chip and the racer folk.

So glad I pulled the plug on that endeavor.
The bell clanging, timing, cheering, feeding,
supporting the racers, it all seemed like so
much more fun than suffering for maybe
2hours. Nice work all you ponies!

Then I lucked into an instant Pork BBQ sandwich.
Right place, right time, damn that was good!
Thanks Gary.

And of course hugs and kisses and vibes and
thanks to everybody, each and every one of ya,
ya'll rock, good night.

(clicky make biggy as usual, and once I head
down & back again, should have some GPS data,
I, uhhh, sorta left my skipack at the lodge...
thanks Chipper!)