Yo, 'dis is my uncle Nickie
Crystal was insane - they'd gotten something like 3 feet of snow over the previous 48 hours.
In an earlier entry about ski lift socialization, I wrote that I had never been invited to to take a few runs with a random stranger but some others have. Well, that's all in the past now!
I was on a lift with a relative newbie teenage snowboarder and a grizzled old veteran with monster fat powder skis. The boarder was outgoing and all talk so we were having a conversation about the freshies and season passes and kids going back to school, etc.
Near the top of this particular list, off to the left, there's a nice patch of trees and the boarder started talking about how cool it would be to get a line in through there. I think about these trees often because they're right in my sweet spot in terms of steepness and tree density. But from the lift, it looks like all the possible lines end in valleys, so runs end in hikes out through thick powder. I rarely see more than one or two sets of tracks through the snow there, and I assumed it was for fear of the eventual hike.
It was at this particular moment that the the guy with the monster fat powder skis jumped in and says there's a traverse back into the regular trails if you get yourself down to just the right place. Further, he offers to take me down there and show me where the traverse is. Normally, I'd think that was a pretty phat offer, but there's three-freaking-feet of untracked powder down there. Now, if you haven't skied powder much, you might think it's a "the more the better" kind of skiing. But this is not necessarily so. And so the guy's offer had sort of a Double-Dog-Dare-Ya feel to it. But I could hardly refuse a double-dog-dare-ya, could I?
So Nick, his name is Nick, and I shoot down this small stretch through the trees in powder so deep that even the tips of my Sugar Daddys didn't see the sunny side. It was a rush - powder and steeps and trees.. oh my! Generally I like to limit myself to two of those (powder, steeps, and trees) at a time. This guy didn't stop to worry about the line before dropping in, as I would have, and it's great to ski with guys that will push you a little. I just followed him over the edge.
On the ride up he shared some intel with me about a few hidden stashes and gave me a few pointers about skiing in the deep stuff. We missed the drop off on the next run (because Nick doesn't bother to stop!) and ended up skiing an easier shot. At one point, this run splits with one direction going steep into the trees and the other easier and flatter. There were several people at the top of the tree'd bit thinking (tsk tsk) about it, but Nick just drove right past them and so did I.
The third run killed me. We did the steeps again and I took a fall. Falling is no big deal, but coming out of a ski in 3 feet of fresh powder can totally suck. I ended up about 10 feet below my ski which, oh by the way, had dug itself under the snow - no longer visible. Climbing up this kind of stuff is brutal. You have to use your other ski with your poles as sort of a hand ledge to pull yourself up, struggling to firm down enough snow to gain a couple of inches under your feet. Once you've found both your skis, it's no easy task to get the first one back on. Think pushing your foot onto a board which immediately sinks to your waist. More is not necessarily better. That was it for me. I had to go back to the lodge to defrost my goggles. And to think.
But 'uncle Nick' gave me a fun ride. I hope to run into him again.
January 12th, days skied: 16
In an earlier entry about ski lift socialization, I wrote that I had never been invited to to take a few runs with a random stranger but some others have. Well, that's all in the past now!
I was on a lift with a relative newbie teenage snowboarder and a grizzled old veteran with monster fat powder skis. The boarder was outgoing and all talk so we were having a conversation about the freshies and season passes and kids going back to school, etc.
Near the top of this particular list, off to the left, there's a nice patch of trees and the boarder started talking about how cool it would be to get a line in through there. I think about these trees often because they're right in my sweet spot in terms of steepness and tree density. But from the lift, it looks like all the possible lines end in valleys, so runs end in hikes out through thick powder. I rarely see more than one or two sets of tracks through the snow there, and I assumed it was for fear of the eventual hike.
It was at this particular moment that the the guy with the monster fat powder skis jumped in and says there's a traverse back into the regular trails if you get yourself down to just the right place. Further, he offers to take me down there and show me where the traverse is. Normally, I'd think that was a pretty phat offer, but there's three-freaking-feet of untracked powder down there. Now, if you haven't skied powder much, you might think it's a "the more the better" kind of skiing. But this is not necessarily so. And so the guy's offer had sort of a Double-Dog-Dare-Ya feel to it. But I could hardly refuse a double-dog-dare-ya, could I?
So Nick, his name is Nick, and I shoot down this small stretch through the trees in powder so deep that even the tips of my Sugar Daddys didn't see the sunny side. It was a rush - powder and steeps and trees.. oh my! Generally I like to limit myself to two of those (powder, steeps, and trees) at a time. This guy didn't stop to worry about the line before dropping in, as I would have, and it's great to ski with guys that will push you a little. I just followed him over the edge.
On the ride up he shared some intel with me about a few hidden stashes and gave me a few pointers about skiing in the deep stuff. We missed the drop off on the next run (because Nick doesn't bother to stop!) and ended up skiing an easier shot. At one point, this run splits with one direction going steep into the trees and the other easier and flatter. There were several people at the top of the tree'd bit thinking (tsk tsk) about it, but Nick just drove right past them and so did I.
The third run killed me. We did the steeps again and I took a fall. Falling is no big deal, but coming out of a ski in 3 feet of fresh powder can totally suck. I ended up about 10 feet below my ski which, oh by the way, had dug itself under the snow - no longer visible. Climbing up this kind of stuff is brutal. You have to use your other ski with your poles as sort of a hand ledge to pull yourself up, struggling to firm down enough snow to gain a couple of inches under your feet. Once you've found both your skis, it's no easy task to get the first one back on. Think pushing your foot onto a board which immediately sinks to your waist. More is not necessarily better. That was it for me. I had to go back to the lodge to defrost my goggles. And to think.
But 'uncle Nick' gave me a fun ride. I hope to run into him again.
January 12th, days skied: 16
posted by Chris at 21:17
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