Sunday, February 7, 2010

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.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dood, 6:30 is wayyyyy to early to be awake. Also, why would you hike a mountain, when they have placed a "lift" there just so you wouldn't have to hike.

BTW, some really interesting insights here.