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.