O' What a Glorious Day!
The stars, moons and planets all aligned today to create one hell of a ski day. A foot of fresh powder awaited us at Steven's Pass this morning. I crashed at Tessa and Jared's place Saturday night after a few pints at Pies and Pints, followed by some Rockband.
Jared and I got up to the pass at about 9:15am, and the place was already packed. Plenty of snow on the road and an early-morning snow report of 12" of fresh powder had us giddy to get up and start shredding. While playing Rockband the night before, I finalized plans to meet up with Jeremy on the backside (which is like finding a needle in a haystack). I called Jeremy a few times this morning and didn't get any answers, so imagine my surprise when some douche cuts us in line on the first lift of the day--and guess who it is!
Jeremy made the trek up with three other friends, so the six of us went straight up Big Chief, then Double Diamond to see if we could get some fresh tracks on the backside. We found plenty of fresh snow, and by the end of the day we had hit just about everything Steven's Pass has to offer--which is something I don't think I've ever done before (at least not all in one day). We bombed down the backside a few times, once without stopping. We jumped into Corona Bowl. We hiked up a path I had never hiked before, which led to an oasis of untouched snow. We hit 7th Heaven in the afternoon, hitting both the Bobby and Nancy chutes and Upper and Lower Rock Garden.
On our second-to-last run of the day, we cockily decided to hit Schim's Meadow, even though Jeremy and I have both been in there before, and both had to jump 10ft cliffs to get down into the bowl. We were feeling lucky and Jeremy, Jared and I got lucky, finding a way down that didn't involve jumping (or sliding) over rocks. Gabe wasn't so lucky. He found himself stuck in a tree, looking down at a 10ft wall of rock. If I were him, I would have climbed back up and around to where the rest of us came down, but Gabe decided to do it a little differently (see the video below!). He cuts the 10ft cliff in half, by hugging a tree and inching his board down onto one of the rocks... eventually he decided to reach his board down as far as it can go (while still holding onto the tree), and his only option is to let go of the tree and hope he doesn't scrape his back and head on the rocks on his way down. Degree of difficulty: 9.7. On the video, the whole situation looks rather tame, but the ending could have been so much worse--I think the rest of us were more excited that he didn't get seriously hurt than anything else. I had visions of a stretcher, a broken ski or bones--and the next thing I know he's sitting in the snow right next to me, fine except for a little ass-scratch.
I am going to be extremely sore tomorrow, but I got a few video gems on my camera, and I decided to play with MS Paint and spray-painted our routes on the Steven's Pass Trail Maps. From the sound of my giddy voice, I'd say we had a good day!
1) Hiking
2) Gabe's got skills, so does Jared!
3) Gabe... you're insane.
Jared and I got up to the pass at about 9:15am, and the place was already packed. Plenty of snow on the road and an early-morning snow report of 12" of fresh powder had us giddy to get up and start shredding. While playing Rockband the night before, I finalized plans to meet up with Jeremy on the backside (which is like finding a needle in a haystack). I called Jeremy a few times this morning and didn't get any answers, so imagine my surprise when some douche cuts us in line on the first lift of the day--and guess who it is!
Jeremy made the trek up with three other friends, so the six of us went straight up Big Chief, then Double Diamond to see if we could get some fresh tracks on the backside. We found plenty of fresh snow, and by the end of the day we had hit just about everything Steven's Pass has to offer--which is something I don't think I've ever done before (at least not all in one day). We bombed down the backside a few times, once without stopping. We jumped into Corona Bowl. We hiked up a path I had never hiked before, which led to an oasis of untouched snow. We hit 7th Heaven in the afternoon, hitting both the Bobby and Nancy chutes and Upper and Lower Rock Garden.
On our second-to-last run of the day, we cockily decided to hit Schim's Meadow, even though Jeremy and I have both been in there before, and both had to jump 10ft cliffs to get down into the bowl. We were feeling lucky and Jeremy, Jared and I got lucky, finding a way down that didn't involve jumping (or sliding) over rocks. Gabe wasn't so lucky. He found himself stuck in a tree, looking down at a 10ft wall of rock. If I were him, I would have climbed back up and around to where the rest of us came down, but Gabe decided to do it a little differently (see the video below!). He cuts the 10ft cliff in half, by hugging a tree and inching his board down onto one of the rocks... eventually he decided to reach his board down as far as it can go (while still holding onto the tree), and his only option is to let go of the tree and hope he doesn't scrape his back and head on the rocks on his way down. Degree of difficulty: 9.7. On the video, the whole situation looks rather tame, but the ending could have been so much worse--I think the rest of us were more excited that he didn't get seriously hurt than anything else. I had visions of a stretcher, a broken ski or bones--and the next thing I know he's sitting in the snow right next to me, fine except for a little ass-scratch.
I am going to be extremely sore tomorrow, but I got a few video gems on my camera, and I decided to play with MS Paint and spray-painted our routes on the Steven's Pass Trail Maps. From the sound of my giddy voice, I'd say we had a good day!
1) Hiking
2) Gabe's got skills, so does Jared!
3) Gabe... you're insane.
posted by MHG at
1/27/2008 09:09:00 PM
1 Comments:
Looks like it was a good time at the mountain!
Lookin' forward to meeting you at the home game on the 9th... hope you're able to make it.
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