President's Day

On monday I went skiing with Steve and Melissa, there wasn't any new snow that day, but it was still a good day none the less. We mostly did mogule runs. I think we got in 10 or 11.

In the morning in the shade it was pretty cold. Melissa said, "I am smiling!"

It warmed up in the next 30 minutes in the sun, making it a perfect day.

Steve, demonstrating excellent speed control in the bumps.

Melissa motoring along.

Too much motor, not enough brakes. She actually crashed into me, knocking her ski off, then tumbling down. I was nice enough to take a picture.

Trying out something new

I'm trying to figure out this Vimeo thing that Doug and Ben have been using.



Untitled from matt wiz on Vimeo.

This was me in the back country on tele skis. We'll see if it works or not. Looks like it worked. That is Geoff in the background playing his harmonica trying to give me a little theme music.

More ski pix

I finally had to download some of Pam's pics myself. Here are a few of them from the past few weeks.

At Mary Jane on 'Tophers Trees, had to drop this rock then stop in about 6 feet or eat tree. Pam's birthday ski weekend.

The landing right before I fell on my backside.
Wayne, showing us how he lands on his backside at Vail.

Jason Webb at Vail on New Years Day. Another sweet powder day. He's doing the backwoods boogie on his board.

Jason showing us the proper technique for entry on Lover's Leap

Me, on my monoski, at Mary Jane on Wayne's birthday ski day.

Secret stash in the trees at Keystone. Pam had a good trigger finger on this one.

Pam's day off work

After 2 weeks off the snow, Pam finally makes a return. Just for the record, we had warm temps that turned everything to ice, then finally cooler temps and lots more snow, that's why it took her so long to return. Pam has been bumming quite a bit because of it. I have in 20 days so far this season and she has only about 10. I guess it pays to have a job, but it isn't always as fun.

Pam with questionable anticipation on our way up the first gondola at Keystone at 9am.

Since I didn't have to go alone this time, I actually had a subject that I knew that I could take pictures of. Pam finding her groove after a few warm up runs.

Further down the same run...her luck running out. Her left ski ran under a down tree and put her down. This one took a good 5 minutes to get out of. It was pretty funny, at least from my perspective.

Tree run later on, I think the snow was getting the best of her on this one. It was getting late in the day and her tank was running low.

Unexpected Suprise

I just happened to wake up yesterday morning, expecting to stay home and take care of a few things, like creating this website. However, during my morning ritual of checking the snow report, I discovered that Vail got 10" of new snow on top of 33" that they already had from the previous few days. I could feel it all over my body, I had to be there. It took about 30 seconds to make up my mind. One of the hard parts of not having a job, trying to descide what to do with a free day. Stay home and take care of business (or lack thereof) or make some fresh tracks.

I was in the car by 7 and on the chair lift by 9am. Looking down at the snow and tracks from other below it looked like only 3 or 4 inches, I was thinking, "Those liars!" or "It must have all come yesterday during the day and everybody ruined it!" But on the back side it was a whole nother story. My furst run was way over 10" deep. I just leaned back and let go, full speed, busting thru piles from others or carving hard in the fresh and watching it spray out and up in my face. Within 2 turns I knew this was going to be one of the best days of the season for me.

The whole day was more sweet snow everywhere, cornices, rock drops, trees, plugging up my nose and getting down my shirt when I crash. Since I had to go by myself, I wasn't able to get any good pictures. I did get this one of someone else skiing below the lift and someone else flailing in the trees, but that is about all.

1st Day on New Board

I just bought a new snowboard, Ride Fleetwood 161, and Burton Cartel bindings this week. I have new boots on order too, Burton Sabbaths. I have been on the same old boots and bindings since '97, they were the K2 Clicker step in bindings. They were, how you say, pretty clapped out and sloppy. So now the new gear is tight and responsive. I waxed it up and broke 'er in this week. I went up to Keystone to give it some abuse.

I always felt pretty comfortable on my old board which was the same size, but I tried mounting the bindings an inch farther back, thinking it would make it float better in the powder and crud. It felt ok, but not quite as good as my old board, so after a few runs I moved the bindings up an inch then took it down the same run I just did prior, much different. It was so much better underfoot carving on the groomers, way more nimble and more effortless in the trees. So I guess I found out what too far back on the board is like. I am totally stoked to take the board out some more.

Here is the final result of going too fast and out of control through the trees. I was almost back out into the open, just rippin along and couldn't make the last zig-zag and had to pull back hard and jump to the side to dodge the head inplant into the bark. Another move to just barely keep body intacted so I can go try it again.