Cats & Dogs Living in Harmony

As a general rule snowboarders (like me) don’t usually get along with skiers. They don’t like me because they have to wait while I get strapped into my binders at top of the hill and I don’t like them because they can traverse through any run-out without issue. Unfortunately the majority of my friends are skiers and the few that do snowboard are switching over to skis so I often end up riding with the two-plankers. While there aren’t many things skiers and snowboarders see eye to eye on, there is one thing where we are in full agreement. Few things beat riding in powder.

This weekend Brian (a skier) and I went to Black Mo to check out the abandoned ski slope. It’s only about a quarter mile hill with around 200 feet of elevation change but when there’s snow it can be amazingly fun. Usually the fumers get to the hill first and track out most of the good lines but this weekend was a bit different. We got to the hill and looked down across a mostly clean powder field. We geared up, dropped in, and proceeded to slay the powder dragons like medieval knights. There we were; a skier and a snowboarder enjoying deep powder.

One down side to the hill at Black Mo is that you park at the top and therefore have to hike back up for each subsequent run. We managed to get in six laps before it was time to call it a day, but those six runs were fantastic. It’s not often you get to experience bottomless powder at Black Mo but we put some of our best graffiti on the hill that day. Not only did I get a solid workout I was also able to shake off some of the hangover I suffered from the night before (since it was my birthday). Thanks for that Herm.

Road Trippin', Again

Once again this weekend I decided to get out town for some snowboarding. It’s been a pretty terrific year of snow and I’ve been traveling a lot to enjoy it. Granted, most of the trips have been short but the change of scenery has been a welcome change to lapping the local hill.

This weekend’s destination was Ithaca New York. It’s about three hours from the SC and Greek Peak is about twenty minutes north of that. I’d never been to Ithaca or to the Peak so I was looking forward to the trip. I was going with a co-worker who has friends in Ithaca so that meant the lodging would be taken care of and I would have a personal guide at the mountain to show me the best lines.

Greek Peak doesn’t have a lot of steep chutes or burly terrain. What they do have though is an abundance of long and wide open corduroy that is ideal for cruising and laying down effortless carves. We got to the Peak early enough on Saturday and Sunday to catch first chair and rode until about noon on both days. The conditions were pretty spectacular and the board was running great. One thing that I wasn’t expecting though was the pain and soreness.

I like to think that I’m in fairly decent snowboarding shape. After all, I’ve already ridden about thirty days or so this season which is a lot for Central Pennsylvania. I usually don’t get too tired from riding groomers but for some reason my legs were cooked from riding on Saturday. It was difficult to boot up again on Sunday but with bluebird conditions I managed to rally. While I never really thought I’d get worked from riding groomers I got in some great laps with deep carves and that goes a long way to alleviating the pain. And one last thing before I forget, happy birthday Herm.

Frozen Sticks

So today is St. Valentine’s Day and quite frankly I don’t really care about that. In fact, I’m not even sure who St. Valentine was or what he was famous for, but I’m fairly confident it has something to do with cards, flowers, chocolates, and gettin’-it-on. At least those seem to be the main themes for this day. Being single I don’t really have anything Valentine’s related to write about so instead I’m going to talk about icicles (which might have something to do with why I’m single).

After the snow stopped flying last weekend the weather started to warm just enough to begin melting things off. Granted, it’s mostly from the sunshine than the actual temperatures but for whatever reason, the mild melting of snow is producing some fantastic icicles. For a solid two days we had really good sunshine and everywhere in town the icicles were forming.

I don’t really know why but I’ve always been fascinated by icicles. The ever changing frozen water obelisks can grow exponentially over the course of a few hours and just as quickly fall into a shattered pile that soon melts and then evaporates leaving no trace of its existence. It’s an amazing lifecycle that ends almost as quickly as it starts. It’s not just the formation of the icicles that I like but it’s also the visual depiction that they provide as they hang from the roofs and gutters. It’s a sign that winter is still around but slowly disappearing.

Okay, seriously? Did I just try to justify a post about icicles? Who does that? I think it’s safe to say that this is a clear sign I really need to find a woman. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone and watch out for falling icicles!

Welcome to the White Room

After many close calls, we finally got the dumping of snow that we’ve been long overdue for here in the SC. It’s been plenty cold this winter, but until this past weekend we’ve had very little accumulation of fresh. Other cities around us have been getting crushed this year, so the 15 inches we managed to record were a welcome sight. It wasn’t enough to break out the snorkels but we knew that in order to get the goods we’d need to be up early and earn our turns.

After about four hours of sleep, Saturday morning started at six with fresh coffee and a trip to Spring’s for waffles, scrapple, bacon, and more coffee. The plan was to be at the mountain and booted up in order to begin hiking by eight thirty and like any good powder hounds we managed to stay on schedule. We weren’t the only ones with this idea but we were the first to start breaking trail. After a brief slog through some knee deep snow on the steeps we dropped in to make first tracks on a virgin powder field.

There’s something special about riding in powder. It’s like no other feeling. There’s just the quite comfort of the board as it cuts through the snow while you float along. It requires a different riding technique and can wear you down quick. We’re lucky if we get one storm like this a season so it’s almost a requirement to drop everything and do what it takes to find as many fresh lines as possible. After a few hours everything was all tracked out and I was thoroughly worked. The one bad part about big snow storms is shoveling out my driveway but it’s a small price to pay for slaying the pow.