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.