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.