iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

When the snow started falling last night, I knew I’d done the right thing. I spent the past few days trying to get ahead. This morning, Breckenridge was reporting 10 inches of new snow and I was caught up enough to go out and enjoy it. It continued to snow the entire time I was there today. It was an excellent snow day.

On the way to the mountain, I pulled up behind a Nissan Murano and noticed the two snowboards strapped to the top. I stared at them until I suddenly realized that I’ve seen that pattern before - that’s Jayne’s board! Turns out, I’d pulled up behind Jason and Jayne. I thought I would get to ride with them for the day, but I was wrong. They were coming back from the doctor. Jason managed to dislocated his elbow on a jump. He showed me the x-rays. It must have hurt… a lot.

While Jason was down for the count, Jayne came out for a few runs. It was a rather uneventful day. We played in the snow until close. This is the last week for Breck and the base is the thickest it’s been all year. Too bad everything is shutting down when the conditions are so good.

52 days left…

Well, as luck would have it, my first day at Vail was the last day of the season. It got pretty crazy. Folks were shuck’n clothes and drinking heavy. They told us that everyone rides lift 4 up at 4:00 for the big end of season party. We skipped out on the drunken fest. I’m sure it would have made for a lot of great pictures, but we had to get back to the cabin for some chores before the drive home.

I have to say, I’m not very impressed with Vail. The mountain was huge with lots of runs. However, there are a number of long catwalks which really blow for boarders. The parking situation kind of sucks as well. We did find a free spot along the road with a short hike to the lifts. I suppose once you know the area, it’s not that bad. Anyway, while the runs were fun, I didn’t find anything that really stood out above and beyond the other resorts in the area. In fact, the only thing that really struck me about Vail was the overall size.

There were a lot of costumes on the slopes. I wish I’d taken more pictures. What I did take, I’ve posted on flickr. I think that next year I’ll have to come out and get into character myself.

53 days left… (I’m soooo not getting in 100 days…)

Sometimes I realize that I live a rather fortunate life. This weekend is a shining example of exactly that. Velzy invited me up to a cabin near Vail and Beaver Creek for the weekend. I really had no idea what to expect. I was blown away by this absolutely amazing three story cabin. The master bedroom is more than half the upstairs with an unobstructed view of the creek, mountains, and forest. The entire west wall of the bedroom is really one big window! The rest of the cabin is breath taking, but I won’t drone on about it.

Today we went up to check out Beaver Creek. We had about 6 fresh inches of snow fall. The conditions were great. The day ranged between 30 and 40 degrees F with very little wind. I wore the least amount of gear thus far this season. Velzy continues to impress me with her quick progression for having spent so few days on the mountain. She did compliment me on my development as a rider; however, with as many days as I’ve gotten in this season, I better be improving a little bit!

At the very top of the mountain, we found a snow carving of old man winter, so we had to stop for some quick photos. We probably only explored a tiny fraction of the mountain. I didn’t spend much time looking at maps. The one thing that did trip me out about Beaver Creek was the escalators. This is the first resort I’ve been to with escalators. We’re supposed to hit Vail tomorrow. I hear it’s fairly upscale; so after riding escalators today, I can’t imagine what Vail is going to be like. Here’s hoping we get a little more snow tonight!

54 days left…

I decided that I needed to make today a work day. I’m starting a new company and I need to get a whole lot done. I woke up this morning only to find snow out my window. I checked the Keystone snow report - 4 fresh inches. The radio is saying that all of the passes are closed up into the mountains. It must still be coming down up there. After riding hard pack yesterday, this is killing me. I should have worked yesterday so I could ride today! Either way, my snowboarding clothing is all in the wash so I’m not going anywhere for the next hour or three. I have a 5:00 appointment this evening but I’m thinking of trying to sneak off to Echo for a few slides. Oh, the unfairness of it all!

After hitting Echo and playing on pure park terrain on Monday, I wanted to take some nice long runs. So, I went up to Keystone for the day. The conditions were suck. There was slush at the base and hard packed, nearly ice on much of the runs. I still had a lot of fun. I took a few of the jumps in the incubator park. Previously, I had trouble clearing the tops and kept knuckling them. This time around, I managed to completely clear them.

I also took a dive off into what I expected to be a tree run. After a few turns, it dumped out into a narrow run under a lift. The run was nothing but deeply carved moguls. I was able to do a fair job of riding through all but one small part. The steepest section gave me some trouble. Near the end, there was a pretty good lip that I caught some air off of. I went for the front side grab, but couldn’t get to it in time. So close!

The gondola was closed, so I stuck to the quad most of the time. A couple of kids sparked a one hitter on the lift and didn’t even bother to offer me any. So rude. Anyway, they told me that this is the last weekend for Keystone. It’s really sad, there’s still a ton of snow on the ground. We were talking about how hard it’s going to be for mountain biking season because the snow will take so long to melt this year.

55 days left…

I went up to the “terrain park with a lift” that is Echo Mountain Park today. I was treated to about 5 inches of fresh snow. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Echo with fresh snow on the ground. To make things even better, no one was there! There couldn’t have been 20 cars in the parking lot and it seemed like less than a dozen other people on the mountain. After a warm up run, I knew it was going to be a good day.

The landings were nice and soft, so I got brave. I took bigger and steeper jumps - ones I’d never had the guts to hit before. I crashed a few times while I was trying to adjust my center. By the end of the day, I was landing every jump I took - most of them very clean and smooth. On my last full run, I went for the rotation and landed switch fairly clean. It was my most profound 180 thus far. I was a little sketchy, but I stayed up and never so much as touched the snow with my hands.

I forgot the camera, so I tried to snap a quick shot on my phone on the drive up. I went up before the plows ran, so it was an adventure getting there. A few areas had fog sitting in the forest. I wish I’d had my camera as I’ve never seen fog and snow before…

56 days left…