so rewind to last friday, well even before last friday, let's say that week. i returned from my brothers wedding to a snowy seattle, and the first of seeing how people drive in the NW in poorly plowed snowy roads. the entire week at school everyone was sure we'd have some sort of delay or day off during the week. i learned that it doesn't take much to cause a closing or delay on the peninsula, but each day it didn't snow or ice hard enough to close the schools. thursday looked to be our best bet, but i woke up to schools being open. i figured friday would go by fast enough, i even packed a lunch for friday when i heard while playing WoW from Lois (the school's secretary) that we had a 2 hour delay. i got a call soon after from the teacher above me on the call pyramid. i thought it was cool that we get to sleep in at least! morning came and i got a call at like 5:30am from the same staff member that schools were closed. i thought it was odd because the forecast called for like an inch of snow tops. when i woke up and looked outside it was beautiful and sunny, and there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground.
i got a call from darren asking if i wanted to go snowboarding somewhere. i wasn't expecting much, maybe just find something to dork around with, a hill to cruise down, or something. i stopped by darrens and was content with just riding down the hill by his house, but he suggested trying to find something to ride. i hadn't really explored the peninsula too much for street stuff because i heard it never really snows up here. sure there's a couple rails up by the schools, but that requires a lot of work to make happen, and darren had never had any experience with that kind of stuff. we ended up driving toward what looked like a decent hill (probably as big as boston mills) in hopes of taking some turns. we drove on this backwoods road which i had no idea went as far back as it did. the hill was way too grown in with trees, even around the powerline structures. we came to a dead end, a sign about some goose hunting grounds part of the state parks. we got out and walked up hill to what looked like a maintenance facility. after exploring i saw some potential for some fun to be had. i think darren was skeptical. anyways after we set the thing up, it turned into a blast of a session. reminded me of riding with the dudes back in ohio.
darren shot this tailpress of me. fun times.
later friday i embarked on the voyage to portland. i soon realized that roads get pretty treacherous as the elevation rises. what should have been a little over a two hour drive easily doubled as trees fell on roads, and people swerved into ditches, shutting down 26 for an hour.
we woke up the next morning intending to get a late start and avoid the traffic to the mountain, as well as the pass picture line. nate had arranged for us to stay with leia at the burton demo center in government camp. basically in the summer, when government camp turns into a mad house of ski and snowboard summer camps burton has this place where the kids can go to hang out, play wii, watch snowboard videos, and demo next seasons gear. the first floor is the shop/lounge, the second floor is an apartment. leia has always been super nice and let us crash on a couch or the floor which makes getting up to the resorts a breeze the next morning.
(alright so i haven't been able to take any decent photos with my DSLR, these were taken from my crappy point and shoot.)
the drive up
sunrises on the drive up
government camp blanketed.
the burton demo center.
icesicles
so the season for hood was looking pretty bleak for awhile... it was thanksgiving and there was no snow at all. people kept saying how odd it was that there was no snow. then last week it started snowing. a lot. i think as i'm writing this 110" has fallen since last week. it's not showing any signs of stopping either. they're calling for 1-3ft by sunday morning of new snow.
we headed up to meadows to get some late riding in. i had never ridden hood in the winter, so it was a new experience for sure. i'd like to think that i adapted pretty well though. we rode together as a crew, we would find something to hit then stop and watch everyone hit it before moving onto the next part of the mountain. it was a blast riding with everyone. leia and her roommate christy came up with us as well, and they were shredding! we rode for a few hours before the light faded away into the night. we went back to the burton house, and nate made some amazing dinner. i crashed pretty early as we were planning on getting to meadows as lifts were opening. we had another amazing day of riding, and i started to figure out my way around the mountain, as well as pushing my riding in this new environment.
we came back to portland sunday afternoon and it was chaos. the city was getting paralyzed by snow, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. i decided to brave the roads and try to make it back up to the peninsula, which was a challenge in itself.
i spent a few days up on the peninsula letting my muscles recover, and just all around relaxing. went into school one of the days and got some work done. received a new project, so spent some time figuring out how it works. i made plans with kyle (one of nate and evans friends who rode with us on sat/sun) to ride meadows on christmas day. it seemed like we were the only ones still around for christmas. we made the voyage to hood early thursday morning and were blown away to find the resort blanketed in waist deep snow in most spots. we were like the eigth chair up the mountain and had endless amounts of untouched snow in front of us. it was surreal riding such deep snow. as the day went on, things started getting tracked out more, but we found some way fun things to ride.
we headed back to portland, grabbed some chinese food for dinner, and retired to kyles house. the plan was to ride this morning, but they mountain received roughly 4 inches of new snow... not spectacular, and it didn't help that i did not stretch yesterday, so when our alarms went off at 6am, we both seemed to hit off rather than snooze.
i'll be meeting tony and cody who are flying in from ohio to ride out here for a week. we plan on taking a trip either up to baker or down to bachelor. ride hood a bunch, maybe surf up here on the coast for a day, and overall just relax the rest of my break.
(here are a few random SLR shots from a few weeks ago that i enjoy)
the walk to short sands beach in oregon.
short sands. light breaking through the trees.
chris about to stand up at waikiki.
