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.