the final tally.

some of these numbers don't quite add up right but it gets a little confusing because i sometimes skied and snowoarded in one day and in kasmiras case she skied at two mountains in one day but forgive me with a slight plus/minus here are are numbers for the year:

i downhill skied 63 times. i snowboarded 25 times. i x-country skied a mere 4 times. i skied or snowboarded at sunday river 80 times, sugarloaf 3 times, then shawnee, mt. cranmore , black mt. and wildcat once a piece. best i can figure, i skied, rode or x-country skied 87 days this winter. that's up from 52 last season so that's a healthy jump.

kasmira downhill skied 50 times, snowboarded a mere 3 times and cross country skied only once. it was a crappy season for x-country. she skied or rode at sunday river 45 times, sugarloaf 3, shawnee once, mt. cranmore once, black mt. once, titcomb once, spruce once, mt. abrams twice, and wildcat once. so, she skied at nine mountains! pretty impressive. her total is approximately 54, although again i might be off a day or two on that. she was actually off a little from last year when she went 59 times. last years season did start earlier and she also went more in the spring last year.

so, we didn't get a lot of natural snow, but thanks to jon pasternak, sunday river, telstar middle school, community concepts (our wonderful landlords) and the mountain explorer this was one hell of a season. i am really commited to losing some weight and being in much better shape for next season so my body can better endure the long season. on the other hand, if i managed to ski and ride 87 times this season, i must be doing something right...

day 102. skiing. sunday river. 4/15,

this might have been our last day anywhere but it was definitely our last day at sunday river. we were there for first chair. at first it was still most frozen with a few soft spots. it didn't take long for it to start to soften. it was still sunny and beautiful. we just kept hitting the trails over and over as they softened up from cascades over. i preferred jungle road over to sunday punch because the width of the coverage on sunday punch was much better kasmira prefers ecstasy. we were cutting through rocking chair most of the runs to check out our tracks. basically, it was real fun. one of my highlights was one of the times kasmira dragged me down ecstasy. i thought i'd be clever and cut off the main groomer track to the right on what appeared to be snow to the right of a big rock with no snow on it. as i cut to the right and came over the lip i realized the snow stopped abruptly and the rock was much bigger than i thought. at first i thought for sure i was going to ski right onto the rock and stove myself (and my skis) right up. i went into a a hockey stop and then saw about 6" of snow along the right side of the rock right at the side of the trail against the trees. i cut over there and made a sharp left and actually skied that little strip past the rock and back onto the trail. i was stunned that i had reacted so quickly and actually skied my way out of that crisis. it was fun to be out of my comfort zone. i am not a risk taker but being in that situation forced me to be quick, which is not usually my specialty. we got a lot of runs in and skied till a little after 11. if this was the end, it was a great way to end the season. sugarloaf is still going, and we might still make a trip, but i doubt it. if not, i'll be back with the season totals soon.

day 101. skiing. sunday river. 4/14.

another beautiful morning. got there a little earlier today and stayed a little longer. a couple of runs i took were just magical. a great, great morning on the hill. tomorrow i'm gonna let kasmira go to school late and we'll take our last runs of the year. the mountain is open till monday but i have my test friday and we are headed to ct./nyc on saturday. can't wait until tomorrow, though.

day 100. skiing. sunday river. 4/13.

i had been laid off the day before. the mountain was down to just barker. it had been reasonably cool the night before. i hit the mountain at 9:30 and was ecstatic to find that what remained open was actually quite good. i had my tunes on and was feeling it. the snow was just going from firm to soft and was sweet as can be. sunday punch in particular was fantastic all the way down from the jungle road. i left early to study for my computer final and watch the yankees' opening day game on tv. still, i was psyched to know that the season was still going to end on a high note, not that crappy morning i had on saturday.

day 99. skiing. sunday river. 4/10.

parrothead weekend. for some reason they gave me the weekend off and kasmira was off to her aunt angela's bridal shower so i was ready to party. i was hoping to re-create the nice runs i took at jordan the other day so i dragged myself out of bed to get to the mountain early. the difference was that it had been colder last night so the surface was pretty well frozen. it had been warm and rainy before the freeze so the grooming was pretty rough and then for icing on the cake in jordan it had snowed at the tail end of the storm but it was extremely sticky and wind-blown. so, you'd go back and forth between hard and fast and sticky and slow randomly every 10-15 feet. near the top of lolla the left side of the trail had about three inches of powder on it and a ski patrol guy flew threw it making it look easy but i kept getting tangled up in the sticky snow. i really felt like i was going to hurt myself so i took kansas back. that was ok till i got to grand rapids which was one groomer track of slush, mud and pebbles. it sucked. i cut around broadway which wasn't much better and finally when i went throught the jib park i found the first decent snow i skied on all day. it was about 9:15 and i was done for the day. maybe the season. fortunately, parrothead was an absolute blast as it turned out to be sunny and beautiful. the goggle was completely packed at night. it was a real good end of the season celebration.

day 98. snowboarding. sunday river. 4/7.

"checked tickets" at the bottom of two until 11:30. didn't want to ride over to jordan and felt it was too late to drive over so i headed to barker. south ridge had basically one groomer track wide of snow which basically disintegrated into mud as it dropped down to barker. ecstasy was decent but i was planning on taking monday morning which turned out to be closed because they are apparently moving the bust and burn contest over there due to lack of snow everywhere else. so, i headed over to cascades which wasn't bad at the top but had about a two foot path of snow down the edge for considerable lengths down low. it sucked. unless i head back to jordan, or go back to wildcat or sugarloaf, i am done for the year.

day 97. skiing. sunday river. 4/6.

a special morning. i had a dentist appt. in portland at 1 pm so i had time to get out early. i knew the best conditions were in jordan so i headed up spruce and over on sirius. there was no one over there and it was perfect firm groomed slush. beautifully edgeable. i had my tunes going and took some luscious runs down lolla, just tweaking my center of gravity and feeling the flow. the snow was actually surprisingly fast. i wanted to see what the barker area was like so i came back across kansas and down tourist trap (which was nasty bad near the bottom). lazy river was still excellent and i was really feeling it as i came down the part where american express and lazy river merge, but then as i cut into south ridge it quickly became rather tragic. i worked it hard though, and those lolla runs were in fact epic. hope to get back over there earlt for some more runs soon, but my schedule might prevent it.

day 96. snowboarding. sunday river. 4/4.

back to work. i was scheduled to be a spare and was delighted when todd told me i could do top shack breaks. it had been a while and most likely will be the last time of the season. it was gearing up to be another scorcher. i started down paradigm from the chondola to get to aurora. there were some barespots, but all in all it was really good. after aurora i cut over to jordan, concentrating on balancing my turns more after my realization from yesterday. a very nice run. then i had to take kansas back from jordan and was delighted to make it all the way across without having to step out of my board. conditons were good all the way to grand rapids but when itried to cut back on the lazt river to south ridge it was just a muddy disaster. i actually had to cut back over towards the spruce chair and down tourist trap (which really wasn't much better) to get to barker. exhausted, i took a brief break. after barker i took ecstacy and cascades to #9. then down tempest which had some decent parts and some more mud than snow spots down to lift 11. assumption over to #11 was pretty good and it featured some easy bumps which i did pretty well on. after #10 (the view was incredible today), it was down obsession, which had some massive rocky bare spots at the top, over to heats off, to cascades and over easy to the race course. the right side of the race course was practically untouched and really amazing. finally, down easy street and across south ridge and in. i've been kind of in a funk about the hot weather and the slushy snow, but today kind of got me psyched up again. you just have to get the hell away from south ridge, which is hard for me to do on a lunch break.

day 95. snowboarding. skiing. wildcat. 4/3.

the unseasonable heat continued. i took the day off so kasmira could do the slush cup. i wasn't going to kick down for passes but was hoping we could stumble on to some. signed her up for the slush cup. she did the zip line which essentially involves flying over the base lodge area. i managed to get one free pass and we snuck kasmira past the liftie so we could take one run and some pictures. the view of mount washington under the clear blue skies was amazing. the snow was nowhere near as mushy as what i had ridden at sunday river the other day. as we were coming down i kind of picked up on a flaw in my snowboarding. i have become way too heel turn dominant and it makes it hard for me to make balanced turns. i think i do it because i am braking too much and using my power legs on my heel turn to do it. kasmira of course looked great and made it look easy. then it was time for the slush cup. kasmira went about fourth, i think she was the second skier. she thought she couldn't use poles because they didn't let her at saddleback the last time she did it. she made it about three quarters of the way across and sank without falling. it wasn't that deep, though. it turned out all the other skiers were using their poles to push for speed and i have no doubt that had she used hers, she would have made it. boots soaked, we were done for the day. we had two gift certificates to the muddy moose in north conway from our snow sculptures at shawnee peak so we went and used them. it was like summer in north conway.

day 94. snowboarding. sunday river. 4/1.

it rained steadily for three days. april fools day someone turned on the heat. by the time i got out on my lunch break, the conditions were just crap. mushy, cut up and gross. there might have been good snow somewhere on the mountain, but i didn't have time to find it. one and done. it also left me fairly pessimistic about the rest of the season.

day 93. skiing. sunday river. 3/28.

i was throwing a party that night and one of the djs mike said was out snowboarding so i headed up to take a few runs with him. i was quickly taught about lot 10 which is a little dirt parking lot of dreammaker which is quite the party spot. my friend ben had mentioned it to me once last year but this is the first time i experienced it. its quite the little "underground" event and most of mike's friends were telemarkers. it was cool. conditions were incredible loose granular. really sweet. i would have loved to stay longer but nic was on his way up and i wanted to save something for the dance floor. i love to dance, but i'm very picky about what i dance to, so i had to bring my own djs up to play...

day 92. skiing. sunday river. 3/27.

today was the first time in a while it was a kasmira only day. i worked the top shack on south ridge and then the door at the goggle so i had no time for skiing. kasmira took a few runs on south ridge and then met up with ken and cameron. cameron had a friend on a snowboard, too. first ken turned up in the goggle and then the snowboarder friend called it quits, too. kasmira and cameron continued to shred the night away. it actually stays light quite late these days. they finally quit around 7:30. i could tell kasmira had a blast.

day 91. skiing. sunday river. 3/26.

i had the day off and kasmira had no school. we took her friend shelby skiing. the temps had dropped dramatically and the skiing was fast and icy. it felt really good to me. shelby is basically a green skier. i was hoping to track down my old friend regis who was on the mountain as the event coordinator for red bull at the dumont cup. kasmira pointed out, however, that shelby isn't supposed to leave south ridge without an adult. we took a chondola run then went over to barker and took the lazy river. then we took her over for her first trip to jordan. we got her on lollapalooza and she was loving it. kasmira was happy she was able to take her there for the first time. we stayed there for a while and then headed back across kansas. when we got back to south ridge they decided to stay there so i could go find regis. i went up barker and over to the stage to see if i could find him but he wound up calling me from out on the hill. i met him at the bottom of barker then we cut back to south ridge to find kasmira and shelby. they had gone in so we took one south ridge run and met them. we took one chondola ride then did a few more south ridge runs. it was really fun.

day 90. skiing. sunday river. 3/24.

back to work. it had continued to rain overnight but was turning to a wet snow when i arrived. i took a chondola cabin up first and was stunned on the ride up to see that there was actually quite a bit of fresh snow. the winds were also picking up. after covering the break there i took escapade to the top of south ridge which was probably one of the best runs i had taken all year: about 4" of unbroken powder all the way down. what a surprise. i did the south ridge break and the spruce break and headed out towards the outback. asi headed across sirius i saw huge windblown drifts on the top of votex. crazy. by the time i made it to northern lights it was very chopped up with some really good sized bumps of powder mixed with icy spots underneath. it was kind of a challenge. i had to do a break on thirteen because it was running since jordan was down. then i did aurora which went on wind hold just as i was leaving. i took lights out to lower downdraft back to escapade which was still good but not as good as before. by the time i reach broadway there really wasn't even any fresh snow and it was mostly scratchy. after doing the barker top i came down ecstacy to cascades to get to the top of nine and at the beginning of the run it was mostly powder but as i went along more and more spots were windswept and icy so it became like waves of powder and ice. after nine, i headed down wildfire to roadrunner where it was mostly all ice. after eleven, i was done since white cap had never opened. assumption was actually really nice as i headed back to nine to cut back over. off of nine it turned out that lower cascades was sheer ice which for some perverse reason i really enjoyed skiing down. at least it was consistent. it was definitely the most variable day i had experienced all season and while the long season has at times left me a little tired and uninspired, today really was a fun day.

day 89. skiing. sugarloaf. 3/22.

conditions were awesome. soft and smooth. again, we started on whiffle tree and then headed over. timberlie was just incredible. kasmira gets bored with the slower lift so we skied all the way down but as we got down to the base the snow got a little heavy for my tastes. we took a lunch and i thought about switching to boarding, but it was starting to drizzle and we weren't sure how much longer we'd go. we went all the way back up to timberline but again the slo lift got on kasmira's nerves so we came down. we headed back to whiffle tree where i just really wished i was boarding, although it wasn't as heavy as it was on the lower superquad area. the rain eventually did pick up and we headed back to the fitness center/pool. that would be it for the skiing on this trip because it poured the next day.

day 88. skiing. sugarloaf. 3/21.

we headed up for our luxurious stay at the sugarloaf mountain hotel, which i got dirt cheap for being an employee. we started on whiffle tree and it was soft and nice. we headed up the superquad to timberline where it was a little crunchy underneath but it was actually snowing now and covering up the bad stuff. we didn't push it until 4 because we wanted to check into our room and check out the pool and fitness center. the room was awesome as was the fitness center. we then treated ourselves to an excellent fancy meal at the hotel restaurant which was also a steal because i'm an employee. it was really, really good.

day 87. skiing. sunday river. 3/20.

after riding for a few days my plan was to ski and get the outback done relatively quickly and then meet kasmira and head to jordan with her where even in the late afternoon the snow should still be very skiable. the first part of the plan went fine and the skiing was good. kasmira was supposed to meet me at the top of the chondola at the end of my shift but kasmira had a little equipment mishap that delayed her. she kept calling me and i really couldn't talk so when we finally met there was some tension in the air. then the clouds came in and it cooled off a little so she needed to get her jacket so we couldn't head straight to jordan. knowing escapde would be soft as hell we took lower downdraft to lower american express where we ran into huge moguls. not what i had in mind. anyway, we then shot up north peak and across the lateral chair to jordan. kasmira wound up using rental boots and skis which was kind of a bummer, but we took some nice lollapalloza runs before heading back. then it was time for me to report to the goggle and send kasmira home on the explorer.

day 86. snowboarding. sunday river. 3/19.

yet another warm beautiful day. again, i had the whole mountain to do. again, i did it on my board. took a slightly different route today hitting the chondola and six after jordan and then doubling back to aurora. then i doubled back to south ridge to get steve who was working a double so i didn't get him first thing. escapade was the first of the serious slop, but i stayed to the right in and out of the shade and it wasn't so bad. broadway was pretty sloppy too. after barker ecstacy wasn't so bad nor was cascades. i didn't have to do eleven so i avoided the lower white cap slop and went straight from jibe to ten. obsesion was quite fun and even down to the race track was still good especially along the shady side on the right. i tried to make it across the "barker pond" but a couple of people heading to the ift went in front of me causing me to veer right into the worst of it. yuch, picked my way across easy street and in. all in all, riding on the soft stuff is coming pretty well to me, especially after last year when i switched late and really struggled with it.

day 85, snowboarding. sunday river. 3/17.

st. patty's day. another beautiful warm day. i seriously laid low on my day off yesterday and today was the first day i did the whole mountain on my board. it was quite nice early while i did the outback and kansas was fast enough i had no problem making it on my board. as expected as the day wore on and i headed over towards white cap it got crazy warm and slushy. l felt pretty good on my board and just took it easy picking my way down the trails. i even made it all the way across easy street at the end of the day. i was pretty pleased at how well i felt at the end of the day. not like moday when i felt ready to drop...

day 84. skiing. sunday river. 3/15.

the ides of march. i was still really struggling for energy but being a weekday i had to do the whole shebang. two, eight, and over to fourteen. the skiing was actually pretty good as a little snow had fallen on the backside of the storm. then aurora and the chondola. barker had been down so i didn't have to do it so i headed all the way down roadrunner to eleven. i wanted to grab lunch at hungry harry's but despite what the sign said they were closed so after eleven i took moonstruck down to the moonstruck cafe and brought my lunch up nine. it was a much bigger lunch than i usually eat and really made me just wanna call it a day. i went up ten to do my last break but because of racing on cascades it wasn't my last run. all the way down obsession and back up nine and over. by the time i hit easy street it was all mush. i was completely spent by the time i reached the hub. its really getting to be fulltime snowboarding weather.

day 83. skiing. sunday river. 3/14.

the rain came in overnight. i again had the outback. i hit two first then rode a cabin up to the top of the chondola. i knew three and six might not need their breaks covered due to early closings so i headed to aurora next, then jordan. it was pretty miserable as visibility was terrible, i was getting hit with ice pellets, and the skiing was actually fast and frozen. i was also struggling with the time change. i was delighted to hear three and six were all set and took the long ice pellet-filled ride back across kansas to an early day.

day 82. skiing. sunday river. 3/13.

the nice weather hung on for one more day. i stayed out a little late the night before so i was exhausted. i think in general the long season is starting to wear me down a bit anyway. i've already got more days on snow in one season than i ever have before. i got the outback. i took the chondola up but headed right over to aurora. after aurora iheaded over to jordan. i blasted lollapalloza and took thirteen back over to three and six. then i hiked u to the chondola and skied down to south ridge. then it was up to the hub for a nap on the coach before the safety meeting and the night at the goggle.

day 81. skiing, snowboarding. sunday river. 3/11.

the beautiful weather continues. i had the day off and was out for first tracks. i took the chondola and headed down paradigm to head towards jordan. up aurora and over to jordan. i bombed an empty lollapallooza twice and then took excalibur. it was perfect soft corduroy. i took kansas back and headed up barker on my way to white cap. i discovered it wasn't quite as good over there so i headed back over to jordan. i killed it for a while longer over there and then came back to the hub and headed home for lunch because i was going to pick up kasmira after school to bring her back to the mountain. i switched to riding and she skied. we mostly hung around the chondola and south ridge and she took a few stabs at the park. i was a little skied out and tired for riding. it took me a few runs to start getting my groove which quickly led to me getting tired. kasmira of course skied around making it all look effortless.

day 80. snowboarding. sunday river. 3/10.

another beautiful day. what a stretch of weather. i spent a good part of the day waiting for the cable guy to upgrade us from just the basic local staions (and a bunch of stupid shopping channels) to the full digital line-up. he missed the 7-12 window by about 10 minutes so i got a free install. i kind of wanted to get to the mountain earlier, but in the end it gave me a chance to do some nice riding without getting too tired. i also re-charged the ipod and loaded it up with a new batch of mixes. i was so eager to get to the mountain when the cable guy left i didn't even want to wait till the next explorer but just as i went outside our neighbor chris saw me headed out and offered me a ride. i took a few chondola rides first. conditions were perfect: soft but not too soft. i cut over to barker and came down ecstasy to cascades to the race course. i was really starting to feel by far the most comfortable i have felt on my board this season. i had a cheeseburger and a beer on the barker deck. i realized i didn't have my phone and couldn't remember whether i had left it in the hub or maybe i had left my pocket unzipped and lost it. i took the lazy river back to broadway to the hub where i had indeed left my phone when i went down a layer. i had a voicemail and checked it and it was the people at the census wanting me to call back. they offered me a job starting next week, even though when i took the test they told me they'd be calling in early april for a mid-april start. i had to say no because there is no way i'm qutting sunday river. he told me he'd put me back on the list for a call in april and that he thought i would get a call because i was on the top of the list. if not, que sera, sera...no way i'm going to quit this early. it was nice to get the call regardless, especially since my job searches over the last few years have been so fruitless. anyway, i went back out to the chondola and headed up and finished out the day riding south ridge. just seems like everything is going my way these days...

day 79. snowboarding. sunday river. 3/9.

despite how beautiful it was yesterday and the fact i had ample time to ski or snowboard i took the day off to let my legs recover. plus i had a couple of beers on the goggle deck and relaxed. i was a "spare" again today and only wound up covering one break. i took a run to get there, too. i did quite a bit of stretching and felt much better. unfortunately, my ipod died pretty much right away, but other than that it was great afternoon of riding. the weather was again beautiful and i took a nice goggle break in the middle. i also quit "when i was ahead" and didn't push my legs to the point when they would push back tomorrow. speaking of which, i have the next two days off...

day 78. skiing. sunday river. 3/7.

my legs were exhausted from snowboarding and it had been colder the night before so figured i'd jump back on my skis. i got a ride again and this time did my phone calls and headed out early. this time i gave sam the early break at spruce and skied straight to jordan from there. no oz break so i headed down lollapallooza (which i never get to ski) and took thirteen back to the aurora chair. after benny's break i was headed to light's out when i took a "shortcut" to it by hitting part of vortex, which is a double black diamond. it had been bumped up the day before but riding up the lift i saw it was fresh groomed and the snow looked great so i did it. it was great and it was exciting for me how well i skied it. then i did the chondola, the quantum leap chair, and the north peak chair and was done. i took dreammaker down which was really soft, better for riding then skiing. when i checked in the hub they sent me out to check tickets at the chondola. later that night, my legs were so sore i could barely walk. i love snowboarding but it kills my legs.

day 77. snowboarding. skking. sunday river. 3/6.

after two days off snow i was ready to get back at it. the weather was turning spring-like so i was up for snow-boarding. i woke up early so i headed out to the explorer and on top of that someone picked me up and gave me a ride so i figured i'd take a run before i made my morning phone calls to all the shacks. as much as i've made every effort to be a "good boy" all season i guess that was a no-no somehow. i figured since i normally wouldn't even be there then what difference would it make (it never even crossed my mind frankly) but when i got back kelly told me that if i was ready to ride i was ready to work. my guess is it has something to do with others at work being envious/jealous of me being out while they are working. of course, after making the phone calls i go right out again anyway....the one run i did take was great, though i did: my traditional favorite escapade to broadway. after the phone calls i did the chondola first. then i took paradigm to aurora where i already found huge lines. i also had to bring some stuff to jen on the other side of thirteen so i headed across. turns out the line at jordan was much worse. after jordan i rode down kansas to cyclone to the oz lift, which needed a break because they were extending the hours. after the break at oz i took a quick walk up to the scenic vista just up the hill and into the woods and it was truly breath-taking. amazing view. rather than take kansas again i rode the lift down. it was interesting to realize that from up there you are actually looking down at the tops of all the other peaks. kyle was actually dropping someone off at the bottom of oz to cover the bottom break so i jumped on his snowmobile and he took me to the bottom of aurora. when i got up to see benny it rurned out kelly had been looking for me since i went out of order, even though i had called in from both shacks. after aurora i jumped on light's out and over to spruce where i covered sammy's break, my last of the day. kasmira, who had been skiing on barker, met me there at the end of the break and we headed down american express and cut over to escapade and broadway. after checking in with the hub i punched out and we took another. my legs were killing, and kasmira was under the weather so we called it a day. of course, i still had the safety meeting and my shift at the goggle ahead of me. the goggle was off the hook and i worked till afer midnight.

day 76. skiing. sunday river. 3/3.

the whole mountain again. it was a little cooler and overcast. the snow was packed down and fast, but obviously still completely edgeable. it was effortless skiing and for the first time since the storm my legs felt great. of course, on that kind of snow ou never have to turn unless the urge strikes you so you don't have to use much energy unless you want to. kasmira said she spent the afternoon skiing with the boys hitting rails and skiing in the woods.

day 75. skiing. sunday river. 3/2.

an absolutely beautiful day. sunny and warm. packed powder everywhere that got kind of slushy by late in the day. being a weekday i got to do the whole mountain. i was a little beat from sugarloaf and when the snow softened up it was a bit of work, but what a day. incredible. kasmira went with the school and i think she spent her time in the park. i looked for her at barker on the way through but she saw me headed across south ridge to the hub and followed me. only one more day for the bus from school.

day 74. skiing. sugarloaf. 3/1.

our first trip to sugarloaf of the year. holy snow batman. it was unbelieveable. it was also much lighter and fluffier than what we got at sunday river. we started on the whiffletree quad which was groomed up on the trails but powder was plentiful in the easy glades trails there. we also cut over to the lower part of king pine which was on wind hold and we were skiing powder over there all day. we then headed to the superquad. the fog was quite thick near the top and timberline was also on wind hold. coming down the tote road it didn't take long to get out of the fog. it was a little bumped up on the pitches but even where it was the bumps were soft and forgiving i was doing pretty well with them, keeping my skis pointed more downhill and less across the hill than i usually do in the bumps. lower tote road was just soft groomed heaven. kasmira kept cruising through the woods trail along the right side of the tote road. at one point kasmira wanted to ride the t-bar which i had no interest in and since i was up for resting anyway i let her ride it alone while i waited. to get there we took sluice which is a fairly steep blue but it was considerably bumped up. i really felt encouraged by how i did in the bumps. kasmira had a blast on the t-bar and was back in a flash. we tried to take a late lunch and were somewhat unimpressed to find the freaking food court closed for the day at 2:30. we finished the day on the whiffletree where we still got plenty of powder along lower king pine and kasmira continued to ski the woods. they had also just set up a small park there that day where kasmira was hitting the rails and jumps. the day also included a bizarre coincidence. the liftie at the bottom of the whiffletree looked down at where my pass was to point out to me that it was gone. he let me ride anyway but then i went in to get a replacement day pass so there wouldn't be any issues. its no big deal, because i would have been able to get a replacement the next day back at sunday rover, but later in the day i actually skied right across my own pass and found it. what are the odds?

day 73. skiing. sunday river. 2/28.

another good six inches or so had fallen and the snow was getting drier. i chose to ski and do the outback. around the bottom of oz i got stuck in a little bit of bumps, but other than that despite my still tired legs, everything went smoothly. i really admire people who can just attack the bumps but i just can't. my legs simply aren't quick enough. a rare treat for the day was covering a break at the top of oz, which usually isn't open long enough to require a break, and the amount of pure white snow up there was breath-taking.

day 72. snowboarding. sunday river. 2/27.

i was still sore from all the snow shoveling. wet snow had continued to fall so i decided to snowboard. randy chose the outback. the ride from south ridge to barker surprised me because rather than being thick and heavy the snow was all packed down and firm. even hard to get an edge in. after barker i took ecstacy which was actualy very nice to cascades to the top of nine. from there i took wildfire to roadrunner to eleven. assumption to the white heat chair was good, too. my legs were already getting tired, though. as i rode the white heat chair there was an incredible snow squall. the amount of snow at the top was incredible. foolishly, i tried to hike from the to the top of locke but the snow was so deep on bim's whim it was never going to happen. i went down the bottom part of bim's instead and hit some powder and bumps. by the time i got to the bottom of locke my legs were so tired i made the decision to leave my board and ride down when wayne' break ended. i also hate that top ramp on a board. then i took easy street back to get steve at the top of south ridge and i was done. skiing probably would have been a better choice. obviously, i'm glad we got snow but snow this wet is challenging.

day 71. snowboarding. sunday river. 2/25.

we finaly got snow but it was very wet heavy snow. i had to shovel the entire magic carpet with one other liftie and it was exhausting to say the least. about an hour and a half of shoveling. i wasn't even going to go riding but decided to give it a whirl. went up the chondola and it was snowing and sleeting pretty hard at the top. headed towards escapade (where else?) and on the flats it was surprisingly smooth sailing. at the first pitch it was still pretty nice but as i wen along it got stickier and stickier and it started get bumpy. my legs tired quickly and while i thought it would get better when i hit broadway, but it didn't. one run and done.

day 70. skiing. sunday river. 2/23.

i had the whole mountain to myself. the skiing was basically pretty good. after doing south ridge and spruce i took my first run down to the bottom of aurora. then down to joradn. then back to the chondola. up barker and down to the top of tempest. then the top of the little white cap quad, up white cap and in. kasmira didn't ski today.

day 69. skiing. sunday river. 2/22.

i had the day off snow but kasmira went with the school for her first post-racing day. i guess most of her friends didn't go, but she said she had a good time.

day 68. skiing. sunday river. 2/21.

kasmira took the day off snow. i did the barker/locke/white cap route. the snow wasn't quite as good as yesterday because it didn't warm up as much and it was a bit firm. the biggest excitement was getting to the top of white cap just in time for the wind hold. the winds were howling and before zane even got there to do the wind check heath came out of the ski patrol shack and told us to call last chair. i was on the controls hitting slows and it seemed like forever before last chair got there. some of those chairs were really swinging. i skied down and while the winds were furious at the top it didn't take too long on the way down before normalcy returned. that's the thing with wind holds: at the bottom you really have no idea how windy it is at the top.

day 67. skiing. snowboarding. sunday river. 2/20.

today was a fun day. i did the outback side of the mountain with no incident. conditions were quite good. i sat on the deck in the sun until the safety meeting and then had the night off from the goggle. kasmira started snowboarding at around noon and found some friends and rode right until the lifts closed at eight. she was clearly having a blast. i hung at the goggle and then at 8:30 we watched the fireworks. life is good.

day 66. skiing. sunday river. 2/19.

i swore i was going to stay off snow for a day, but it didn't happen. kasmira and i went night skiing. the conditions were phenomenal and we had a blast.

day 65. skiing. shawnee peak. 2/18.

our annual pilgrimage to our former home mountain, always a long day because of our participation in the snow sculpture contest. we wrapped up the sculpting around one and kasmira took her runs in the nastar race. she did very well. the judging for the snow sculpture contest was at two and we were somewhat disappointed to settle for honorable mention but we got some nice gift certificates. when i finally made it up skiing the spring-like conditions were starting to re-freeze. basically, it was pretty crappy, especially compared to what i am used to. we hacked around for a while and then took a break. kasmira went back out with our friends' ken and sue's son cameron and two of his friends, all of whom are racers. i went out a while later and eventually found them terrorrizing the mountain. watching kids that good have that much fun on a mountain is pretty special.

day 64. skiing. sunday river. mt. abrams. 2/17.

i did my usual thing covering breaks. the conditions were excellent. kasmira went to mt. abrams with her uncle rick and cousins james and jessica. rick and jess stayed at the beginners area so kasmira and james had the run of the mountain. kasmira said it was pretty spring-like over there.

day 63. skiing. sunday river. 2/16.

again i took the left side. i was very tired but suddenly remembered that skiing tired and slightly hungover has a kind of charm to it. the conditions were also excellent. i finished up about two and headed in but was sent back up to finish the day at the top of barker as sergio was in overtime.

day 62. skiing. sunday river. 2/15.

back to two tsbrs. i took the left side of the mountain and was done about two. conditions were decent. at night i wound up going drinking with marceas who was celebrating her birthday.

day 61. skiing. sunday river. 2/14.

valentine's day and a fun day of skiing. for some reason there were three tsbrs and on top of that there were wind holds so i was done by noon. kasmira actually made it there before then. we skied for a while and then had a very nice lunch at the goggle. we went back out and wound up making our way over to white heat which had re-opened after being on wind hold. i picked my way down the headwall and the rest was really nice. kasmira, of course, had no issues. a really nice day of skiing. whenever kasmira and i manage to ski together on a sunday it always makes me nostalgic.

day 60. skiing. titcomb mt. 2/13.

finals for the states. both kasmira's times were just over 40 seconds. we're still not sure of all the results because we didn't stick around for the awards banquet which wouldn't even start till around 8 hours after kasmira's last run. i was told the next day the telstar girls did come in second. over the last couple of weeks of the season it seemed some of the other girls on telstar were able to cut a bit off their times while kasmira's times slowed a little so it was a little disappointing. personally, i think the challenge of the slalom slowed her progress a little and she wasn't quite as aggressive on the grand slalom as she was before. but now, with race season behind us kasmira can just relax and return to being a "recreational" skier. maybe even snowboard a bit more...

day 59. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 2/11.

i had been hoping to have mt. abrams listed on here but alas it didn't work out. my plan was to use my manager's letter from sunday river to acquire a free pass, ride a short afternoon stint and have a few beers in the loose boots lounge. robin in tickets refused to "offer me any considerations" because she claimed sunday river didn't reciprocate. i certainly wasn't going to pay full price to ride mt. abrams whern sunday river was up the road for free. when i got to sunday river i asked at guest services what sunday river's policy was as far as reciprocation this year and was told it was the same as it has been since i've been there: they don't give anyone free tickets but they do give them a $30 ticket which is a pretty deep discount. seems fair to me considering how much more sunday river has to offer than most other mountains. anyway, i don't think i would have even paid a reduced price at mt. abrams either.
i had my board with me because i had left my skis for a tune and brought my board to black mt. i took one chondola ride on my board and was sore from the night before and the snow seemed more suitable to skiing so i went in and picked up my skis. i bombed around for a while and went to the goggle for lunch. i found marceas (lift operator of the bottom of barker) in there and took a couple of runs with her after lunch. then i found kasmira with her ski team and took a few runs with them. kasmira seemed in high spirits.
believe it or not, there was another fatality at sunday river that day. two in one week. this time it was someone who went off right stuff and hit a tree. not even a hard trail really. i don't know the details but people need to slow down when they are near the sides of trails. if you fall in the middle going fast you should be able to stop. if the snow isn't good enough to go fast down the middle, then don't go fast.

day 58. skiing. cross country skiing. snowboarding. spruce mt. black mt. 2/10.

a long day on snow. kasmira had the first race of the states at spruce mt., a tiny little hill in livermore falls. they had the slalom portion of the states there and what they call the freestyle (skating allowed) portion of the cross country skiing. kasmira got decent times in both of her runs but unfortunately there was a lot of confusion regarding a gate near the finish line and a lot of skiers went on the wrong side of it. some noticed, stopped and went back up and others were disqualified. what it was is that there is a two gate set-up for each gate and around two sets of tight turns they set up the two gates vertically instead of horizontally so at the last one a lot of racers thought the guide gate was the gate itself. kasmira was racer #30 and had i had any way of getting up there to warn her i would have but sure enough she went on the wrong side of the gate. a major bummer to have gotten disqualified in one of the two state races over something like that. they kind of fixed the gate for the second run but of course every one learned their lesson. unfortunately it was too late for many.
after the downhill it was the cross country ski races and kasmira and i put on our cross country skis and skied around the edge of the course with the other cross country skiers who were rooting their teams on. it was very exciting with a lot of team spirit. it was also finally kasmira's first time on cross country skis this year because it has been such a bad snow year and we have both been so downhill oriented.
on our way home we hit another mountain black mt. in rumford where they had free skiing and tubing that night. kasmira was skiing and i was riding. black has a very nice lodge and it was bigger than i expected with a nice long wide trail right down the middle. unfortunately, we quickly learned that that gave license to a lot of yahoos to bomb completely out of control down the mountain over and over again. it was really kind of scary. i don't know whether it was because of the free skiing or whether this is some kind of a rumford tradition. i mean really. mix in a turn now and then. they are all way back on their skis and boards, many skiers with no poles and pretty much completely out of control. the trail flattens out at the bottom so as long as they don't fall (or crash into anyone) they can get away with not being able to stop. we took a break and kasmira went over and went tubing. a nice tubing park but kasmira had a lot of trouble with people cutting and the workers not doing anything about it. we went back to sking and riding and i was getting tired but kasmira wanted to keep going. at sunday river i wouldn't think twice but here it made me nervous. sure enough, on my last run some idiot going a million miles an hour in a straight line cut straight through my heel turn right in my blind spot. no one else around and she skis within foot of me on a wide open trail at a high rate of speed. i had no idea it was a young girl until i caught up with her but i had some harsh words for her at the bottom. skier's responsibility code: always ski in control and avoid and yield to skiers downhill of you. or not. i felt this was really also a ski patrol issue because i really believe it is the responsibility of ski patrol to police the mountain and make sure people aren't skiing recklessly. i went in and spoke to a patroller who said he'd have his patrollers check it out but i got the sense that this type of skiing isn't really frowned on at black. its too bad because it is really inconsiderate and dangerous. they might also discover that its actually fun to be able to make turns and get on the edge of your skis and boards once in a while. anyway, it turns out kasmira had actually seen the near collision from the lift and saw me take off like a bat out of hell after the girl and she came in to see what happened. she also said she didn't really feel comfortable out there by herself. its too bad because otherwise it would have been a really nice visit to black. i'll be willing to give them another chance. maybe it was just because it was free skiing night.
anyway, what a long day...

day 57. skiing. sunday river. 2/9.

a beautiful day. the wind was gone, it was sunny and mild and from one end of the mountain to the other conditions were excellent. i pretty much have my routine down to a science. once again, as i came down from white cap i found kasmira on the race course and this time i had time to take a run with her. i hope she does well in the next race. for some reason they were practicing grand slalom even though the race is a slalom. we shall see. either way, race season will be over saturday and i think kasmira will relax and enjoy the rest of the season more. we should also get our tax refund this friday which will set us up to visit more mountains. life is good.

day 56. skiing. sunday river. 2/8.

the whole mountain. it was cold and windy and everything from spruce to the outback was very windblown and icy. there was again a rumor of a fatality, this time on oz and this time it is basically confirmed (the other person from white heat earlier in the season was still in a coma last i heard). that always freaks me out. i know people die in car accidents every day but death by skiing just always seems so unfortunate. i consider myself extremely careful on the slopes. never even been hurt. knock on wood. anyway, i was pleasantly surprised to find that by the time i made it back to barker not only had the wind died down, but there was actually snow on that side of the mountain. it turned out to be a very nice afternoon of skiing. i saw kasmira on the race course and she seemed to have bounced back from the disappointment of last weeks race.

day 55. skiing. sunday river. 2/7.

same route as yesterday. cold in the am again. jordan went on wind hold while i was up there and i got to take my own private run down lollapallooza. that was fun. got done around two and called it a day.

day 54. skiing. sunday river. 2/6.

i'm having trouble keeping up with this because all of the skiing we're doing. i might have to start summarizing a bit more. i had everything from south ridge to the outback. conditions were good. it was quite cold in the am. i finished around 2 and had to hang for the safety meeting. kasmira was still at shelby's. after clocking out i skied the chondola for a while taking escapade and broadway repeatedly. they were real nice. the foggy goggle was mellow but i got 6 hours in.

day 53. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 2/5.

i was really, really sore in the am. my head cold was killing me, too. but i was going to meet my friends darrell and ray so i was determined to bounce back. they were going to try night riding for the first time. kasmira didn't ski because she went to her friend shelby's straight from school. ray and darrell picked me up and we got to the mountain around three. the mountain was in shadows and the light was flat but we figured we'd go somewhere we couldn't go later while we could. we took the chondola up and took escapade and broadway to barker. they were pretty nice. then we took barker and took ecstasy to cascades. i took over easy to monday mourning but i guess i surprised them and it was icy at the turn so they went down the rest of cascades. they don't know trail names like i do so we had to kind of just play follow the leader. i think they usually scoot before the light gets bad, too, so they were having trouble avoiding the late day ice. we took barker again and flew down the lazy river which was nice. one more ride up the chondola and down escapade and broadway and it was time for beer and to wait out the transition to night skiing. i had been riding pretty hard on top of being tired from yesterday so when we went back out after one run i knew i was going to fade fast on my board. we came down escapade and broadway and they had been re-groomed and i knew i wanted to last so i ran into the hub and switched to my skis while they took another run. they took dreammaker and we did again on the next run. it was nice but escapade and broadway were better. we pretty much ran them over and over till it was time to call it a night. ray had to get back to portland to work and i was fine with calling it quits when we did because of course i always know i'll be right back on the mountain before i know it.

day 52. skiing. sunday river. 2/4.

i was fighting off a cold but i was really pumped about snowboarding. kasmira had a race but i was a bit apprehensive about that since she was so stressed about doing the slalom. the day started off great but by the end i did feel like a little air had been let out of the bubble. i started on the chondola listening to a dale charles mix and running broadway and escapade. i was getting way over (for me) on my turns and cranking with all my force (and 300 pounds) on my edges and really riding out my turns. my plan was to ride hard as i could until i got tired. no pacing myself. i headed up barker and came down the lazy river. back up the chondola and back down escapade and broadway. it was quite cold out but not out of control cold. still, i was ready for a break and went into the north peak lodge. after the break i took another run down escapade and broadway to barker. then i took ecstasy where i was once again cut off at cascades so i took monday mourning down to roadrunner. by the end of roadrunner the long traverse was getting to my legs. took the slow ride up little white cap in the sun. moonstruck was perfect with just a little drifted manmade on top of corduroy. for some reason there were a couple of icy spots but they were easily avoidable. my second run down moonstruck i was way over on my edge and it let go and i almost fell but recovered. i was getting a little tired already. then i took tempest up and since cascades was closed i took wildfire to cut back back to barker. went up and back down the lazy river to grab a beer at the foggy goggle. from there i took the chondola up and back across broadway to barker to meet kasmira. we got to the top of barker and the girls on the team seemed surprised to see me on my board. ecstasy to monday mourning to the race course. they checked out the course and then we took the same run again and i headed down to watch.

on kasmira's first race she missed the hairpin gate and had to walk back up. the reason she struggles at the slalom is because she aims right for the gate instead of aiming wide and turning into the gate. she does the same thing at grand slalom but grand slalom is more forgiving. she walked back up, skied around the gate and finished. she was pretty upset, but lots of people missed gates and many others that didn't still got worse times. i tried to encourage her to just take it slower and make sure she made all the gates on the second run but she still went for it and missed the same gate. it was also real icy the second run and the temperature was plummeting now that the mountain was in the shade. she finished a disappointing last on her telstar girls team, but both the telstar boys and girls won. unfortunately, the first race in the states is slalom, too. i'm not sure she even gets what she is doing wrong when coach kav explains it to her. someday she'll start turning before the gates instead of right at them and she'll make a huge jump in her times for both slaloms and grand slaloms. maybe, if we're lucky, it'll be at the states next week.

after we went to the thursday happy hour at the goggle. we had had so much fun when we went before but today we were tired and spent and while the cheap chicken wings were good, it wasn't the happiest of happy hours.

day 51. skiing. sunday river. 2/3.

i got to the hub and saw that randy (the other tsbr) wasn't around so i kind of figured what i hoped was true was true: i was tsbr. it turned out neither of us was, but since randy had the day off, i was instantly appointed. they sent someone else to the carpet and i put my skis on. did south ridge and spruce first and then finally got to take a run on the luscious snow all the way over to jordan. after jorad i took th route back to the top of the chondola. the snow was incredible. from there down paradigm and up aurora. after aurora it was looping back by the chondola to escapade and braodway to barker. fun fun. after barker i tried to get to the top of #9 via cascades but it was closed for racing so i took monday mourning and roadrunner and rode the chair up. the frigging top shack guy from #9 decided to disappear for amost an hour and a half so someone else covered the top of #11 and i resigned myself to finish the day in the shack. he finally showed up amd i took jibe down to the white heat chair. at the end of the day i took obsessino then ran into a rope at heat's off which i promptly ducked because i knew the racing was over and i didn't have time to ride the tempest chair again. then i ran into a fence with one of those bypass lanes they set up that was sheer ice. once i negotiated that i headed down wildfire and cut back to barker to easy street and into south ridge. another great day of skiing and getting paid for it. i never saw kasmira but when i picked her up[ at school she was having a herated discussion with coach kav about slalom racing. she is really struggling with it and he was giving her pointers but she was just saying it was too hard. its good for her to be challenged, even if she finds it frustrating. i'm sure he is setting up the course harder than it will actually be. hopefully, she does half decent in the race. i told her not to worry about it and just do the best she can.

day 50. snowboarding. sunday river. 2/2.

what will probably be my last day on the magic carpet turned out to be a fun one. kasmira didn't ski today because she stayed home from school sick. i have the same cold but fuck it. why would i want to stay home? early in the day i saw a very attractive woman in her 20s come up the carpet on her board looking as scared as if she was on white heat. her friend who was a little better than her took off and went down pretty much without making a turn. i realized her friend wasn't going to be much help so i went out and talked to her. apparently, she had taken a lesson but hadn't made much progress and was very sore from all the falls she had taken. the snow is very hard from all the cold weather and soft snow is definitely better for learning to ride. i promised to help her if i could. she picked her way down very defensively, keeping her weight way back and turning into a toe turn stop if she got up any speed at all. she clearly couldn't make a heel turn at all. she was also in a deep crouch so if she started to fall into her toe turn she could put her hands down so she wouldn't fall. when she made it to the bottom she was joined by what appeared to be her boyfriend and when they came up i asked if it was alright if i gave her some pointers. i told her it was obvious she was terrified of falling, which was understandable, but that by leaning way back all the time she was sacrificing any chance at all she had of gaining any control because she was lifting her edge out of the snow instead of driving it into the snow. i told her when she got to the bottom to find a flat spot where she wouldn't start moving and just practice moving her weight around forwards, backwards and from side to side just so she could get used to centering herself over her board better.
i wound up getting the early break and headed up the chondola to ride. came down escapade and broadway twice and it was just awesome. definitely my best two runs on a board all season. i was feeling it. also had no lunch so i went into the lodge for a slice of pizza.
courtney was still at it when i got back. not quite as terrified but still riding so defensively it was hard for her to make any progress. eventually they went in for lunch and i wondered if they would ever come back. eventually they did and after she took one run i realized she was going to have to try something different or she just wasn't going to get it. today was her last day and since she lives in long island access to a mountain again wasn't going to be readily accessible. i told her since she was so afraid to go on her heel edge to try taking one run all the way down on her heel edge, just leaning back on it with the brakes on the whole time. she started to dig that heal edge in and skootch the board back and forth and was able to control her speed that way and low and behold when she got to the flatter part she actually briefly turned into a toe turn and then made her first heel turn. she then tried a toe turn caught an edge and allowed herself to fall for the first time of the day. her boyfriend turned back up and when they came up she was all smiles and told me that had really helped. i commented on her first heel turn and asked her if the fall hurt and she said not really. i told her that like it or not falling was part of learning. anyway, her boyfriend stayed with her for the rest of the day and suddenly i guess she finally felt like she wasn't racing out of control every time she moved and actually started to ride. within an hour she was all smiles and connecting turns and everything. the day came to an end and they both thanked me for my help. it was all really kind of sweet. when i was headed to the explorer i ran into them all again in the parking lot with more friends of theirs and they treated me like i was some kind of celebrity. it really made me feel good to know courtney was going home feeling like she had actually accomplished something in part because of me. the fact that she had this completely amazing smile was certainly an added bonus. and i t was a nice way to end what was probably my last day on the carpet as the next day i started my full-time tsbr duties.

day 49. skiing. sunday river. 2/1.

i got to do the whole mountain today. i did the chondola first and then headed up to do locke mt. since wayne had started at 6 am for the racers. then i headed back to do south ridge and spruce and over to jordan. i was feeling pretty good today. then down kansas and northern lights and up to aurora. then upper vortex to lights out, to downdraft, to escapade and across broadway to barker. one thing i notice is how much more i am just skiing and letting my form come naturally instead of thinking about it and adjusting. in general skiing much more relaxed. its all about the repetition. from barker i went down ecstacy and cascades to the top of #9. after #9 i took wildfire, a trail i just about never take and it was awesome. a much bigger and wider trail than i remembered, and i really liked the fall line. i'll definitely be taking it more often. from the bottom of wildfire i took roadrunner to #11, after #11 it was assumption to white cap. from there it was down salvation, to heats off, to cascades to lower monday mourning where i found kasmira at the bottom of barker. she was headed up but i was headed in. if i didn't go in i'd miss the 4:15 explorer and she'd have to take the late bus home. this was the first day i actually did every open lift and there was even an extra one open (locke is usually closed on weekdays). when i went in jon was just posting the schedule and since jeremy is gone i am now full-time top shack break relief. awesome!

day 48. skiing. sunday river. 1/31.

i was very tired from the long day and night on saturday. it was also very cold. after doing spruce i took the long run over to jordan. i was so tired i barely took a turn and that made me go faster and get colder. i was partway through the break on jordan when a couple of young girls chickened out on lollapallooza and were looking for help. ben let me leave a little early and i led them along kansas and lights out back to the top of the chondola where they downloaded. after the chondola i went down paradigm and up to the top of aurora. skied down northern lights, which was much better today and up #3 to do that break. billy already had someone hanging in the shack with him so i just did the break on #6. then took escapade to the top of south ridgem did that break and headed down broadway and in. i was really beat.

day 47. skiing. sunday river. 1/30.

a fairly uneventful tsbr day. the other tsbr guy jeremy got fired and his replacement randy let me do the outback for a change. it was really cold but at one run at a time it was no big deal. i did the chondola first, then jordan, aurora, top of quantum, top of north peak, and then south ridge and in. i was done very early and wanted to go home and change before the meeting so i could go right to work at the goggle after the meeting. kasmira was away for the weekend. i wound up working a seven hour shift at the goggle which was a blast. i randomly wound up getting a hug from the incredibly cute dawn who i always watch doing her thing at the goggle. that was defintiely the highlight of my day she is so gorgeous.

day 46. skiing. sunday river. 1/28.

i wanted to ski because i wanted to be aggressive without worrying about being over sore the next day, plus i assumed conditons would still be somewhat variable from the rain. i was on the mountain by 10 and headed straight to jordan. i bombed lollapallooza a couple of times and then took kansas back. i took barker and after ecstacy and cascades took snowbound to lower obsession. then i took the white cap chair and came all the way down obsession. they had snow guns blowing on the left side and it was very nice. i had tunes and was skiing well. i took tempest back to barker area and skied over there until kasmira's ski team arrived for the race. i met them in the lodge and took a warm-up run with her and shannon. then they gathered at the starting gate and checked out the course as i skied down the left side. then we rode back up and the lined up to race. i skied to the bottom to watch, it was another duel slalom with a fair amount of racers, including the dreaded sugarloaf girls team. kasmira skied well getting an identical time as the week before but because of the stacked sugarloaf team as well as some good racers on the other teams she finished quite a bit lower in the rankings. the sugarloaf girls won easily but telstar girls hung on to finish second and the telstar boys won. it turned out to be "the pizza race" as there was pizza for all the racers after. it was a good time and i think kasmira is getting a lot more comfortable with regular racing, which she never really got last year because of the cancellations.

day 45. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/27.

we both took a day off after the rain. i went riding on my lunch break my second day on the magic carpet. i had music, the conditions on south ridge were really quite good, and i rode for my entire break. i took it relatively easy just really focusing on getting over on my edges and enjoying the tunes. i felt really good and then started to pick up the speed. best snowboarding of the year so far. kasmira said ski practice was good, too.

day 44. skiing. sunday river. 1/25.

rain and lots of it. i was tired from snowboarding the last two days so i skied. the heavier rains were supposed to come in later. it had been raining and freezing all night. i did south ridge and spruce first and headed down american express planning on cutting over to the top of the chondola. the top of american express had a coating of ice over the surface but by the time i reached downdraft to cut over it was a little softer and i could actually get a bit of edge in. i was getting wet but not out of control wet. the mountain was clearly going to take a beating before it was all said and done. after the chondola i cut around behind the north peak lodge to polaris and sensations to get to aurora. i was supposed to cover richard's break at the aurora side of #13 since jordan was broken down and he was over there. #13 is a rare two-way lift but they weren't loading toward jordan so richard was actually in the shack not loading chairs. because of the rain he wasn't going anywhere and that shack isn't big enough for two people. so i headed up aurora to get the other richard's break. then i flew down kansas, light's out, downdraft and grand rapids to get to barker. sergio actually rode down so i tried to dry my out layers off in the shack. from there i went to the top of #9 where the shack was leaking so bad drying anything wasn't much of an option. then over to #11 which while leaky as well had enough bungies to hang most of my stuff up. i wasn't looking forward to heading up white cap and was pleasantly surprised to find they had shut it down before i got there. by now i pretty much was the only person left skiing anywhere. since #10 was closed i took #9 to head back. i cut over to lower monday mourning which was actually pretty good. the barker basin was practically a lake by now. a straight shot to easy street was out of the question. i went to the left of the lift and around then flew down easy street and across south ridge and in. i survived. it was great to be in. i actually did avoid the worst of the rain. the mountain did take a beating, as did the bethel winterfest set-up. thank god sunday river has such kick-ass grooming and snow-making capacity.

day 43. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/24.

kasmira actually rode the explorer in with me. the day got off to a weird start because there was this red sox thing going on and i wanted to get these vouchers to buy tickets they were passing out. i had originally read that it was going to be in barker so we headed there first. no sign of it but then we saw it started at 10 so i headed up to do the barker break. kasmira took runs on barker while i sat in the shack with sergio. we went back down and still no sign of the red sox road trip and then i discovered it was actually in south ridge. so, instead of just heading up locke from there i had to go back to south ridge. we got two vouchers and headed up south ridge to spruce. my schedule of breaks was a little messed up and i thought kelly would say something. she didn't. i was definitely a little sore and struggling with the lightning fast wax job on my board. at least the edges were razor sharp. the conditions were also so-so. better for skiing because it was scratchy in many places. kasmira took off from the top of spruce to jordan which i guess broke down after she took one run. she had a lesson at one. after going down american express i took quite a digger getting off the locke mountain lift which sucks for snowboarders as you have to ride it out really far before it levels out allowing you to stop easily. i tried to turn stepped out which i am not very good at and fell backwards. i dusted myself off and went into the shack. from there i went down upper sunday punch to cascades to the top of #9. after #9 it was the usual loop to #11 and #10. i had done a decent job of making up the lost time. since salvation sucked so bad yesterday i decided to head straight down obsession today. it was very icy so i i did a lot of scraping on my heal side edge which was shaving the top of the ice pretty good. i'd occasionally make a toe turn when the snow allowed but mostly just got down without worrying about style points. heat's off was almost as bad. cascades was a little bit of improvement but not much. i cut across to lower monday mourning where the race had recently ended so it wasn't all scraped off (it had been closed to the public) and ripped down the right side and kept enough speed to reach easy street and ride straight into south ridge. after doing my trail reports i went to pick up kasmira at her lesson. because of her ability, she had wound up with a private and the guy raved about her. said she was the best skier for her age he had ever seen, she was basically faster and better than he was and that he thinks she's got a real future ahead of her. he said he didn't really feel he could teach her anything she didn't know already about how she skis so they wound up working on some free-style stuff like skiing backwards and turning around while moving and doing actual 360s while moving. they had clearly had a great time. i grabbed my board and we went up south ridge so she could show me. she did great just skiing backward which i have seen her do before but she was much more fluid. she also went nuts doing multiple 360s and made it look effortless. i felt much better on the snow covered gentle terrain of south ridge and we skied and rode till they closed the lift. reminded of the sundays of old when kasmira and i would ski and ride till the lifts closed, minus the two hour drive home. we've come a long way, baby.

day 42. snowboarding. sunday river. 1/23.

today was kasmira's day off snow while it was my first day covering breaks on a board. i had had my board tuned and they had made me take my own bindings off and put them back on. all seemed to go well till i got off at the top of spruce and realized i had done it backwards so the long end side of the board was behind me instead of in front of me. it made for a weird ride down. i fixed it and headed up barker. from barker i actually hiked to the top of locke which saves time but was quite a work-out. i was very hot and sweaty and out of breath when i made it there. from there i rode down to the top of #9 and then down and around to catch #11 up. not all that much riding, really. from #11 it was down assumption and up to the top of white cap. coming in salvation and heat's off were scraped off as usual on a saturday and cascades wasn't much better. from the bottom of cascades i had to step out of my board and walk to easy street to get back to barker. after clocking out i thought i 'd ride some more since i had to wait for the safety meeting anyway, but after one run i felt uninspired and went in, even though conditions on south ridge were fine.

day 41. skiing. sunday river. 1/22.

kasmira had ski practice but it was a free skiing day. i had my normal friday off snow for computer class. the weather was beautiful. she did some more jumping and wound up with a sore back the next day. i think she was probably landing a little too hard.

day 40. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/21.

a great day. i loaded the barker lift with my snowboard on at 11. went down the lazy river and broadway to south ridge to get my board approved for being on snow on it on the clock. it was mild and the conditions were fabulous. took the chondola up and headed down lower downdraft to american express to tourist trap to roadrunner to #11. my legs were burning a little when i got to the lift. my plan was to take a few mellow runs down moonstruck and relax on the slow lift. moonstruck was perfect. after a couple of runs there i took the tempest chair and cut back to lower monday mourning which was also awesome. then up barker, down the lazy river to broadway and back to the barker lodge. my legs felt great. i met kasmira and her ski team there and made sure she was situated for her race. it was a dual slalom which was cool. it was exciting to see her race neck and neck against another racer and she and the other racer were very evenly matched. kasmira started faster both times and then the other girl caught her and they deuled to the finish. she beat kasmira by .99 seconds the first time (kasmira got a 38.0) and .15 the second when kasmira got a 37.67. kasmira came in 14th and both the girls and boys from telstar won. she really looked great on the course today. then we took a run and she surprised me by zooming into the park and catching ridiculous air off the jumps. i had no idea she was jumping that high. after getting the results we went to the foggy goggle where we used our employee discount to live it up like kings on the cheap. a great day.

day 39. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/20.

i had spent a day and a half chilling in the magic carpet top shack stretching and relaxing. it seemed to have never really stopped snowing although accumulations were minimal. i went riding on my lunch break and conditions were incredible. i seem to have beaten all my aches and pains and headed up barker on my board for the first time of the season. it was awesome. kasmira had ski practice and also reported awesome conditions. she has a race at sunday river tomorrow and i have the day off to watch it. definitely going to go riding again, too.

day 38. skiing. sunday river. 1/18.

we got a surprise snowstorm over night. jeremy, the other top shack break guy needed a few days off and they brought back someone from last year to do it. since jeremy always chooses the sides, i chose the outback. i did the south ridge shack on the way up and from spruce took sirius et al over to jordan. the conditions were awesome but the fresh snow made it much more of a workout. after jordan i took kansas to northern lights which was already bumped up. i perservered doggedly through the bumps although i was teetering on the edge of exhaustion. the two consecutive 13 hour days didn't help. i kept almost stopping to rest but deciding what the hell and finishing the turn and moving on. after aurora i took lights out back and just did the next three top shacks without any skiing at all. then it was down escapade to broadway and in. i was beat. that night i became sore as hell. the next day i was going to have to go the bank on my lunchbreak anyway, but i was ready for a day off snow.

day 37. skiing. sunday river. 1/17.

the day started out pretty much just like yesterday, except maybe the lines weren't as long at barker. american express was good when i came down it and then after barker i took ecstacy and cascades down to the top of #9. when i was there i got a call from todd the foreman asking me if rather than covering the rest of the breaks i could relieve the guy at the top of white cap for the rest of the day as he wasn't feeling well. i was up there just before noon and fine with just hanging for the rest of the day. at 4, i skied down and man was it ever scraped off. no snow anywhere till easy street and south ridge. my legs has stiffened up in the shack and the icyness made me tense up so it pretty much sucked. oh well. i punched out for a few minutes and then reported to the goggle for duty. it never got busy but i did manage another 13 hour or so day. kasmira came up night skiing, found some friends of hers and had a blast. they took the explorer home together.

day 36. skiing. sunday river. 1/16.

i had the left side of the mountain. saturday of mlk weekend: generally one of the busiest days of the year. got spruce first and american express was still good. broadway was excellent. quite a line for the barker chair. after seeing sergio at the top, i headed down ecstacy and cascades to lansa at the top of tempest. from there down monday mourning and up to the top of locke. when i came down upper sunday punch that was the first sign of the damage done by heavy skier traffic. down cascades to roadrunner to the #11 chair. after that, assumption was also fairly scraped off. i met kasmira at the bottom of the white heat chair and we rode up together with a couple of her teammates from telstar who are in the gould sunday river program. we saw a wicked wipeout on white heat by someone who was sliding and sliding down the headwall and couldn't stop. when we last saw them they disappeared over the next roller in a cloud of snow with skis flying off. later that day the rumor was that someone had taken a fatal fall on white heat that day and of course i now wonder if we were witnesses to it. the skier was desperately trying to stop sliding when we saw them. most likely, it was not them, even if there really was a fatal accident, but i will never know. kasmira was basically interested in getting cash for food from me and headed off. after that shack i was basically done and headed in to meet kasmira. we were trying to coordinate to meet with ken and sue from bridgton even though cameron wasn't skiing because he was sick. they were on barker but headed back to jordan so we headed that way to see if we could connect. kasmira also hadn't been to jordan yet this winter. we took the chondola to paradigm and then up the aurora chair and down to jordan. when we got to the top of jordan they were already closing of lollapalooza except for hotel access. we would have had time to scoot down but kasmira couldn't make up her mind and/or understand the whole reasoning behind closing the trail form the top instead of the bottom (so people don't show up at the bottom after the lift closes and get stuck down there with no way out), she was confused, disappointed, and angry as she stormed off on kansas. personally, i enjoy kansas on skis so i didn't share her moods. when we got back to south ridge i assumed she would continue skiing while i went in for our weekly safety meeting but she was still upset and said she didn't want to. i then offered to get her skis tuned because i realized before her race that she hadn't had a tune all year. after we dropped her skis off she then decided she wanted to ski after all yet when i offered to go get them back she became even more upset. i had to go to my meeting so i sent her home on the explorer. once the meeting was over and i went home i had to head right back to the foggy goggle to work. it was quite a fun night at the goggle as the place was packed and really hopping. kasmira wound up ice skating with her friend shannon. it was kind of a crazy day with the massive crowds and rumors of a death (that we might have witnessed) but i managed to get around 13 hours in on the clock as well as quite a bit of skiing. it was just the beginning of a looong weekend.

day 35. skiing. mt. abrams. 1/15.

kasmira's first race of the season. night races at mt. abrams are fun because the mountain is actually closed to the public so its all about the race. i think there were six schools in the race. kasmira was racer #26. the course looked good. kasmira's grandmother chris and her "significant other" rick came to cheer her on. she took a gate a little wide on the first run and it slowed her down a little but she was all smiles when she skied up to us. on her second run she seemed to be taking a tighter line and skiing faster but her time was pretty much the same. i think she was probably actually skiing faster the first time which is why she took that gate wide, so it kind of evened out: she started faster the first run and finished faster the second run. she came in 22nd and her girls team came in 2nd and the boys 1st. a good start to the season. the next three races are at sunday river on thursday afternoons.

day 34. skiing, sunday river. 1/14.

tsbr from jordan to white cap. did spruce first and then took sirius, aludra, cylone and town fair over to jordan. first time of the year cyclone and town fair had been open for me. we have a new job task which is writing trail reports for every trail we ski. its fun. makes me feel important. after jordan, down kansas and northern lights to aurora. cranmore was fun yesterday, but snow conditions (snowmaking and grooming) are VASTLY superior at sunday river. no joke. i felt like i was skiing very well. after aurora peak i headed down lights out to downdraft to the top of the chondola. then down escapade to the top of south ridge. somewhere around here brandon called me to tell me i didn't have to cover breaks at 4 and 9 today so that took the time pressure off. across broadway and up barker. down ecstacy where i ran into a fence at cascades which was closed for racing so i headed down monday mourning which was the first scratchy slope i had come across of the day. down roadrunner to 11. down assumption (which was awesome again) to the white cap chair. took salvation out of there but again ran into a fence at heat's off because of the race so i headed back down obsession which was probably the best run of the day. up the tempest chair and across cascades where the race had ended. over easy to find coach kav waiting for the team at the top of the gates. at the bottom of barker i found kasmira headed out. i called kelly to punch me out and headed up with the team. its always fun to ski with them. we blasted down ecstacy and cascades was now open and excellent because the sides were unskied. we took that loop three times and i really felt good riding out my turns and not braking and skidding. of course, repeating runs (which i rarely get to do) helps because you learn the snow. great day. big day tomorrow with the night race at mt. abrams.

day 33. skiing. mt. cranmore. 1/13.

killer day. we loaded the skimobile express at 11 am. the weather people went on and on about how cold it was going to be today but it wasn't. kasmira was looking like a million bucks in her new ski jacket and ski pants. and on the slopes. she just leaves me in the dust. i make a couple of turns and look up and she's miles ahead of me. as i mentioned yesterday, the high speed quad at cranmore gets you to the top in a mere four minutes and with no lift lines that means you are getting a ton of runs in. it took me a couple to get my legs under me. cranmore is basically an easy mountain but there was one steep pitch on the trail we kept taking so kasmira could run the race course they had set-up where if i stayed to the left of the chairlift pole it was steep and icy and if i went to the right there was a snow gun creating a big pile of wet sticky snow. it took me a while to pick my best route down that and i even fell once when i caught a tip in the "fresh" snowmaking pile. maybe its just me, but i think sunday river makes drier snow. anyway, kasmira ran those gates over and over. i took one run alone around kandahar and met her at the bottom. it was kind of crusty. all day it seemed like the sun was about to come out, but it never did. we took a lunch break and kasmira let me use her itouch to listen to an osheen mix that accidentally got on there. it inspired me and we were cranking. we started hitting some of the other trails and they were softening up. skiing, skiing, and more skiing. kasmira made me give her her itouch back. we tried to ski straight through to the end of the day but i finally needed a brief break and we hit the charming meister hut at the top. totally old school and i was delighted to find i could get a sam's winter affordably, a rarity at ski resorts. the guy even gave kasmira a free cookie. i was really feeling the charms of mt. cranmore. i never really realized how incredible the view is at cranmore. very panoramic with a beautiful bulls eye view of mt. washington. then we skied till just about four. it was really a great day. i'd love to go back but that was our one free ticket for nh. maybe loon next which is covered by our gold pass. and of course, its back to sunday river tomorrow, which is far from the end of the world....

day 32. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/12.

again i took three runs on my board during my break. took it nice and easy and worked on riding out my turns. a few more of these "baby-steps" and i should be able to bust out my board for real on a day-off. then when i'm ready i'll start riding to all the top shack breaks. a couple of weeks from now maybe? kasmira had ski practice and again said the gates were very hard. tomorrow i'm letting her skip school and we're going to mt. cranmore in north conway. since i have to "work" all weekend every weekend i figure an occasional midweek excursion is necessary for us to get our fun runs in together. besides having considerable sentimental value for me, cranmore is a fun midweek mountain because it is a rare smaller mountain with a high speed chair. four minutes to the top and pretty much all greens and blues to cruise. its also 100% free of charge thanks to a manager's letter from sunday river and her winterkids passport. sweet. we'll get our skiing in fo' sure.

day 31. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/11.

i took three south ridges runs on my lunch break. i was tired to begin with but glad i did it. will do it again tomorrow. kasmira had ski practice and said the course was very hard and she fell. its good for her to be challenged like that.

day 30. skiing. sunday river. 1/10.

pretty much the same as yesterday but no lift report pads to deliver and not quite as windy. and the skiing was better. first run off spruce down american express was so good i had to sneak in another. they had evenly glazed it with manmade and it was silky sweet. perfect, really. after barker i headed down ecstacy to the top of #9. then across lower monday mourning down roadrunner to #11. from there down assumption and up white cap. then over salvation and back down to lower monday mourning to #4. from there down upper sunday punch to cascades, over easy and down monday mourning once again to easy street and in. because of my late night the night before, i was exhausted.

day 29. skiing. sunday river. 1/9.

i had the left side of the mountain. they wanted me to bring some pads of lift reports to all the lifts on my route so i took kind of a different path than usual to get rid of them. i went up spruce first leaving the other pads at the shack. then when i grabbed them again i swung by #4 dropping them off there and then straight down to #11. i covered the break at #11 and saw daniel on foot headed to the bottom of #10 so i gave him theirs. then i went to #9 leaving their reports and covered that break. all in all, this wasn't much skiing. it was also very cold. from their i went down to the bottom of barker and gave them their's and headed up. no more pads of lift reports to deliver and back to normalcy. after sergio's break i went down ecstacy to cascades and over over easy to lower monday mourning which has been really good as of late. then up locke mountain to take care of wayne and then down to catch #10. snowbound to lower obsession was closed for racing so i took jibe for the first time this year to get to the bottom of the chair. then i hung out with jeff at the top of white cap where it was very windy. finally got take salvation which they finally opened down to heat's off and back towards south ridge.

what was notable about this day was that after working the door at the goggle i stumbled on to the after party with the manager and quite a few of the waitresses and it was really fun. i just went to the funky red barn for a beer or two (kasmira had a sleepover) and they all showed up just as i got there. it was quite celebratory most all of them are really, really attractive. we went back to a girl named maggie's house and drank pbr (which i usually don't drink but it tasted quite good that night) and i had a lot of fun talking and getting to know them. i really felt welcomed and it reminded me a lot of the skiing/restaraunt/party lifestyle of my youth. really fun.

day 28. skiing. sunday river. 1/7.

my 13th straight day on snow. i was scheduled to cover all the breaks but it looked like winds would be an issue. they would. i hit spruce first and then went all the way over to jordan. northern lights was really nice. i just about never skied that trail before this year but i have really grown to like it. the wind was gusting big time on jordan. took kansas back to northern lights to get to aurora. as i came up across kansas on the chair it really got nailed with a gust. when i got to the top kyle the foreman was on the controls watching the winds so i didn't have to stay. i got to the top of the chondola just as they were shutting that down so i didn't have to stay there, either. the wind holds were allowing me to get some extra skiing in. escapade down to the south ridge chair. winds weren't bad there so i actually gave someone a break. the north peak chair had opened since the chondola was down but when i got to the top of that one this time it was will the foreman on the controls watching the winds so once again my services weren't needed. down escapade again and across south ridge to barker. we had just put or safety gate down when that bottom operator called last chair because of the winds. we were two towers from the top when the hardest gust i had felt all day hit the chair and shut off the lift. we were right in the cross-hairs of the wind path and definitely hoping the lift would start back up when the mechanic ran up to the motor room. fortunately, it did start, but since it was on wind hold, no break coverage was necessary. headed down ecstasy and around cascades to the top of nine. the wind was blowing a lot of the snow off right down to ice and i was noticing my confidence was returning on ice. my recent tune-up helps but its also that when you are skiing with your weight centered like you should, instead of defensively leaning back, you can get your edge in even on ice. it wasn't too windy at the top of nine. then i headed from there down the rest of cascades to roadrunner to eleven. after eleven's break i was done except getting back because white cap was on wind hold, too. you can't get back to south ridge from eleven, so i took assumption back to nine and from the top of nine cut over to the trail where they set up most of kasmira's races which still had very good coverage. a nice fast run to end the day and i hit easy street flying back to south ridge. kasmira never headed out to ski at ski practice because of the wind holds. i headed over to barker and it seemed most of the people who did go out came right back in.
tomorrow i have class and no skiing. my legs can probably use the day off.

day 27. skiing. sunday river. 1/6.

my first free skiing day since my first day out. amazing how far i've come so quickly. of course, the "hero snow" didn't hurt. it was perfect. i also had tunes for the first time, an old dante tribal ambient mix. sweet, i headed straight over to jordan and cruised down lollapallooza a few times. riding up the lift in the midst of a snow shower i was trying to truly take in how fortunate i am to have such a great situation this winter. really. then i took the mountain's longest run from the top of jordan to the bottom of white cap. cut back to barker and took a run down the lazy river and in for lunch. after lunch i did feel a little fatigued and also the temp had dropped a little. headed up the chondola and took escapade then stuck around south ridge till it was time to go just cruising it, but making lots of turns. i had to leave to take kasmira to an appointment but i pretty much left what i had on the mountain. plus, i didn't want to be too sore the next day when i had to ski the whole mountain for work (oh poor me). no practice for kasmira because of her appointment.

day 26. skiing. sunday river. 1/5.

i was on the carpet again and on the fence for skiing/snowboarding. i decided to ski. took south ridge to barker. took two runs down the lazy river. the conditions were great. took a couple more south ridge runs to stay close to home as my break wound down. kasmira again had ski practice and her coach told me she was skiing very well but was moving her hips a little too much, which amazed me because keeping her upper body still is usually one of her big strengths.

day 25. snowboarding. skiing. sunday river. 1/4.

no break relief today. bottom of the carpet instead. snowboarding on my lunch break. took 4 or 5 fast south ridge runs. felt really good. kasmira had ski practice. she said she did well on gates.

day 24. skiing. snowboarding. sunday river. 1/3/10.

i was back on the left side of the mountain again. i got a little confused and took the chondola thinking i was going the other way and then forgot i had to do spruce and went straight to barker. the conditions were amazing in places and sheer ice in others as the wind had blown it all around. i headed back across the lazy river to spruce. then down american express, which was excellent, back to the locke mountain chair although my legs were fried as i hit a lot of bumps near the bottom. upper sunday punch was sheer ice. snowbound was closed so i headed straight to the top of 9. cascades was very bumped up and exhausting but roadrunner down to 11 was a blast. then over to the white cap chair where i was told obsession was closed so white heat was the only way down. knowing the conditon of my legs and the situation with the ice and the bumps there was no way i was skiing white heat. we're certainly not supposed to ski double black diamonds anyway. we're not even supposed to ski obsession which is a single black diamond but i do that all the time. i tried to beg ski patrol to let me jump the rope (they were setting up a race course on it) and he said no. so, i downloaded on the lift. a little humbling but there is no way i am going to take any chances and get hurt and screw my wonderful winter up. i had to had back to 9 to get back to south ridge and took the race course insted of cascades and it was awesome. one thing about this job is that you kind of don't get the chance to say "hey that trail was great" and hit it again. i went in and punched out and met up with kasmira who was snowboarding witrh friends. i very relaxingly skied south ridge for the rest of the day. i ski real well on easy trails with perfect conditions. as the season goes on, with all the snow time i am getting i'll get better. kasmira, of course, was smoking her board.

day 23. skiing. sunday river. 1/2/10.

i was unbelievably sore from snowboarding. i had felt fine the night before and i really didn't think i pushed it but i struggled to get out of bed. then i struggled to make it to my lifts, but by the end i was feeling better. sensations to aurora, northern lights to jordan, kansas, etc. to south ridge, annd then up the north peak lift to do that lift and the quantum leap chair. then in. didn't do anymore skiing than absolutely essential. then it turned out i was asked to do security at the goggle again and kasmira and her friend rebecca went tubing.

day 22. cross country skiing. fields. snowboarding sunday river. 1/1/10.

i was a little tired from the long day and night new years eve. we were lazy around the house then i called pizza hut to check to see if they still wanted me because of the weather. they didn't. kasmira went ice skating at the new free skating place they made up the street and i cross country skied in the field. the fresh snow was clumping up on my skis so i didn't go for long. kasmira skated for quite a while. then we headed up to the mountain to go snowboarding at night. conditions were excellent and i was really pleased with how i felt. i felt like i was actually riding better than i have been skiing. when the lifts closed we took the shuttle down to white cap where kasmira went snow tubing, which is also included in our passes. so, she went skating, snowboarding and tubing in a matter of hours.

day 21. skiing. sunday river. 12/31.

today was my first day to do the whole mountain as i guess thursday is going to be jeremy's regular day off. the only thing is that being a vacation week 3 and 6 are open, too, although 11 still isn't open. jon has me working the bottom of the carpet mondays and tuesdays so i'll be tsbr 3 days of the week, getting about 35 hours a week. from the carpet i can easily ride on my lunch breaks and i'll have wednesdays off. sounds pretty good to me. anyway, i had 11 shacks to do so it was time to get busy. i was at the top of 2 at like 8:20 so i didn't give ben his break yet. i went up spruce and got carlo at 8:30. then i took sirius over towards jordan. conditions were great. from jordan i did what i have been doing which was take lollapallooza and 13 back across to jordan but i realized on solo days i can't waste that time because it took 25 minutes. i'll have to just take kansas to northern lights. lollapallooza was great, though. from aurora i went down to the top of the chondola and from there to the top of south ridge. then over to north peak where i had a mishap because adam thought he had an hour break because it was his first time up top. bottom guys get an hour break. top guys (because they are warm) only get a half. i sent ski patrol to find him in the lodge and when he got back i walked over to the top of 3. the guy up there cut me some slack because i was now really behind schedule and let me leave after 15. i had called all my shacks to let them know i was running behind and the guy at the top of white cap told me his heat was out and he needed me asap. i had to hit the top of barker on my way over because when your there you've got to get it done. the conditions were still great and i was enjoying skiing faster because of the sense of urgency. while at the top of barker i got the call that a bottom guy was riding up to get the break at the top of 4 so suddenly i was all cool again. i bombed down the bottom of the white cap chair and then got up to cover the freezing liftie. he went over to the ski patrol shack to warm up. then i headed down obsession, which was still icy but not as bad as yesterday, to the top of 9 my last shack of the day. so, i got it done on time and headed in. with 3 and 6 closed, even with the addition of 11, i am sure i will have no trouble doing everything on thursdays as long as i am efficient. anyway, it was a fun day with a lot of skiing and snow, snow is more snow are on the way.