For me at least, skiing in October is usually non-existant or restricted to a narrow white ribbon packed with people and serviced by a groaning full-capacity lift. That's how last saturday started out. An early fall storm cycle began plastering the front range with snow last week, and totals at Loveland and A-Basin approached 20". After a couple of cloudy days in Boulder, I decided to ditch out on the shop with my partner-in-shredding TJ and our good friends Andrew and John to satisfy my fix for a little sliding.
A-Basin was packed as usual, full mazes and a gaper slalom situation on the slopes. Things were decididly unsafe, as Andrew sped into some variable terrain and tweaked his knee. We headed back to TJ's mountainmobile to reassess the safety situation and found a huge cluster in the parking lot. A friendly family from Nevada had driven their minivan into the treacherous icy depths of the Basin's early riser lot, and through a combination of poor tires, surprisingly icy conditions and lack of driving skills had gotten themselves stuck. Utterly bewildered as why their sweet ride couldn't handle the conditons, the family kept spinning tire up the slope looking more and more dejected after every failed attempt.
Enter Teej to the rescue with his larger-than-life gnurly tires. A quick chain up and a little pushing dragged the hapless minivan out of the lot and off to tackle the pass. Oh, and they gave us $100 for the trouble. Thats karma for you. After gaining another unsolicited $20 from the owner of a similarly stuck Camry, we took another stupidly clogged run and decided that it was time for the angels of A-Basin's lot to check out the BC scene.
We loaded up and convinced the laid-up Andrew to pull shuttle duty for us and cruised up to the top of the pass for what was sure to a rock strewn scouting mission. We rolled up to find some more of the DU crew, including our buddy Bryant (soon to be father of some 190 Praxis pow missiles, congrats) whose condo in Breck saved our lives many times last season (yo, tell me what scotch you like and its yours).
It was a dumping gray-jay day and we set off into the bowl to see what we could find. And we found face shots! Incredible. The storms had dumped 18-20 over the past week and some light winds had packed some gullys with waist-deep blower. One turn would be base-painful and the next would be oh-so-floaty and an arc of the white stuff would curl up and over your head. There was enough coverage that most lines were skiable, but not so much that everything was covered. Some sweet tree jibs were available as were nice stylee hops over downed boulders and steep rock shots. We lapped the bowl 4 times, each time getting knee to waist deep shots between gouge inducing rubble. No core shots though, but that wouldn't matter anyways since the shop just picked up some sweet tuning gear, ah the perks of being a shop boy.
All in all, minus the knee tweakage (get better soon Andrew) and plus the face shots and $120 for being prepared for the winter weather, it was the raddest day I've had in October, and counts up there with some good mid-season days. Just goes to show you that life is like a box of chocolates, you gotta poke everything until you find the one with caramel in it.
Yours in P-Tex,
Geoff
alpine-sports.com
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Gaper of the Week
Here's your Gaper of the Week...sadly again from my neck of the woods.
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) - The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said.
The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the incident as a misdemeanor simple assault.
(Copyright Associated Press, All Rights Reserved)
Mr. Pepsi delivery man, please step forward to claim your prize of a 1983 Nissan Stanza with a matching pair of Sears race stock skis. You've earned it
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) - The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said.
The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the incident as a misdemeanor simple assault.
(Copyright Associated Press, All Rights Reserved)
Mr. Pepsi delivery man, please step forward to claim your prize of a 1983 Nissan Stanza with a matching pair of Sears race stock skis. You've earned it
Opening Day: The Epic Begins
Unless you live in Ft. Collins or the East Coast, you've probably heard that ski season offically started on Wednesday at 9am when A-Basin started spinning their exhibition lift. I know what the die-hards say: "Skiing doesn't have a season, just a couple of month you need rock skis for." I somewhat agree, opening day being my 2nd day on snow since the end of summer. However my partner in crime TJ and I were there for the basin's first day and it feels more like ski season now than in August.
As we're both responsible students, the day began after our 8am classes. Stoked out of our minds, we cruised up 70 looking for any signs of recent snowfall. Oddly for opening day, the high peaks along the highway were mostly devoid of the white stuff. The drive up Loveland Pass looked more like July than October and we rolled to the summit with the windows down.
In the first look you get at the basin, there was no snow visible from the road save for a light dusting on the East Wall. Strange we thought as we bombed down the west side of the pass. Right around one of the last switchbacks we got the first glimpse of the run. A beautiful white ribbon of death was plastered on the side of the hill covered in little black dots.
The run has surprisingly good coverage and the basin had a rail and box set up for the big contingent of jibbers that showed up, as well as some fun side-of-the-slope airs that one could hit the first 1s, 3s and in one case, rodeo 5s of the season.
All in all, it was the best single run I've ever lapped in October. If you've got a pass check it out, perhaps you'll run into the pirate who went to one two many music festivals or the red-haired Sox fan that we had the pleasure of riding the lift with. Thats the good thing about the basin, no matter if its day uno, or a 24 inch dump, you're pretty much guaranteed to ride the lift with someone nuts. Not too bad for the earliest opening in A-Basin history.
N.B. 10-18 expected this weekend...
Here's to 2 days and 98 more,
Geoff
As we're both responsible students, the day began after our 8am classes. Stoked out of our minds, we cruised up 70 looking for any signs of recent snowfall. Oddly for opening day, the high peaks along the highway were mostly devoid of the white stuff. The drive up Loveland Pass looked more like July than October and we rolled to the summit with the windows down.
In the first look you get at the basin, there was no snow visible from the road save for a light dusting on the East Wall. Strange we thought as we bombed down the west side of the pass. Right around one of the last switchbacks we got the first glimpse of the run. A beautiful white ribbon of death was plastered on the side of the hill covered in little black dots.
The run has surprisingly good coverage and the basin had a rail and box set up for the big contingent of jibbers that showed up, as well as some fun side-of-the-slope airs that one could hit the first 1s, 3s and in one case, rodeo 5s of the season.
All in all, it was the best single run I've ever lapped in October. If you've got a pass check it out, perhaps you'll run into the pirate who went to one two many music festivals or the red-haired Sox fan that we had the pleasure of riding the lift with. Thats the good thing about the basin, no matter if its day uno, or a 24 inch dump, you're pretty much guaranteed to ride the lift with someone nuts. Not too bad for the earliest opening in A-Basin history.
N.B. 10-18 expected this weekend...
Here's to 2 days and 98 more,
Geoff
Breaking Freshies!
Check out the latest from the National Weather Service:
STORM SYSTEM HEADED FOR COLORADO.
.A STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS COLORADO LATE TONIGHTAND SUNDAY AND MAY PRODUCE HEAVY SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS ANDFOOTHILLS OF NORTHERN COLORADO AS UPSLOPE FLOW DEVELOPS. OVERLOWER ELEVATIONS PRECIPITATION SHOULD FALL AS RAIN ALTHOUGH RAINMAY CHANGE TO SNOW OVER THE PALMER DIVIDE SUNDAY MORNING BEFOREENDING SUNDAY NIGHT.
A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM MDT THIS EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON.SNOW WILL GRADUALLY INCREASE BY TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGHSUNDAY AND MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF10 TO 18 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON ESPECIALLYON EAST FACING SLOPES ABOVE 7500 FEET.
Awwww Yeeeeah!
STORM SYSTEM HEADED FOR COLORADO.
.A STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS COLORADO LATE TONIGHTAND SUNDAY AND MAY PRODUCE HEAVY SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS ANDFOOTHILLS OF NORTHERN COLORADO AS UPSLOPE FLOW DEVELOPS. OVERLOWER ELEVATIONS PRECIPITATION SHOULD FALL AS RAIN ALTHOUGH RAINMAY CHANGE TO SNOW OVER THE PALMER DIVIDE SUNDAY MORNING BEFOREENDING SUNDAY NIGHT.
A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM MDT THIS EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON.SNOW WILL GRADUALLY INCREASE BY TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGHSUNDAY AND MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF10 TO 18 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON ESPECIALLYON EAST FACING SLOPES ABOVE 7500 FEET.
Awwww Yeeeeah!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Opening Day!!
If all you skiers and riders out there have this funny warm feeling deep down in the cockles of your heart (maybe even lower than the cockles, in the subcockular region) its because high on a mountaintop in Colorado, mother nature with a healthy bit of help from modern snowmaking technology, ski season has started.
That right, A-Basin made the surprise decision to open yesterday; the earliest opening in it's 61 year history. One run, one lift, but it's good enough. America is .005% open with 9 acres and an 18" base. Pretty Rad. The run, from the base to the top of the first lift is pretty anemic and looks downright ridiculous. The front range has gotten barely any measurable snowfall since the beginning of October and the run is surrounded by the rest of the resort still in summer mode with one or two patches of snow.
I'm in between classes right now, so I don't have the time to do a full posting on the day, but suffice it to say my knee-droppin' comrade TJ and I were there and it was way better than being in classes.
Coming soon: Opening Day: The Epic Begins
Snowmaking 1, Global Warming 0
Geoff
That right, A-Basin made the surprise decision to open yesterday; the earliest opening in it's 61 year history. One run, one lift, but it's good enough. America is .005% open with 9 acres and an 18" base. Pretty Rad. The run, from the base to the top of the first lift is pretty anemic and looks downright ridiculous. The front range has gotten barely any measurable snowfall since the beginning of October and the run is surrounded by the rest of the resort still in summer mode with one or two patches of snow.
I'm in between classes right now, so I don't have the time to do a full posting on the day, but suffice it to say my knee-droppin' comrade TJ and I were there and it was way better than being in classes.
Coming soon: Opening Day: The Epic Begins
Snowmaking 1, Global Warming 0
Geoff
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Gaper of the Week Award
Here is a story from my hometown:
$1 Million Bill Buys Jail Time
By The Associated Press
posted: 09 October 2007 10:56 am ET
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Change for a million? That's what a man was seeking Saturday when he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage, police said.
The man slammed an electronic funds-transfer machine into the counter and reached for a scanner gun, police said.
Police arrested the man, who was not carrying identification and has refused to give his name to authorities. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
Since 1969, the $100 bill is the largest note in circulation.
Police believe the $1 million note seized at the supermarket may have originated at a Dallas-based ministry. Last year, the ministry distributed thousands of religious pamphlets with a picture of President Grover Cleveland on a $1 million bill.
Congratulations, Gaper of the Week. Please step forwards and identify yourself so that you can reciever your prize of a pair of Skiblades and a lifetime supply of Dallas Cowboys starter jackets. You've earned it.
$1 Million Bill Buys Jail Time
By The Associated Press
posted: 09 October 2007 10:56 am ET
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Change for a million? That's what a man was seeking Saturday when he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage, police said.
The man slammed an electronic funds-transfer machine into the counter and reached for a scanner gun, police said.
Police arrested the man, who was not carrying identification and has refused to give his name to authorities. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
Since 1969, the $100 bill is the largest note in circulation.
Police believe the $1 million note seized at the supermarket may have originated at a Dallas-based ministry. Last year, the ministry distributed thousands of religious pamphlets with a picture of President Grover Cleveland on a $1 million bill.
Congratulations, Gaper of the Week. Please step forwards and identify yourself so that you can reciever your prize of a pair of Skiblades and a lifetime supply of Dallas Cowboys starter jackets. You've earned it.
Monday, October 8, 2007
The 7-Day Challenge
Yo, hey you. Yeah I'm talkin' to you. How about this. I have a challenge, nay a quest. It begins with yours truly, a year ago this week. As a poor college student, prostituting himself to higher learning for hopes of one day owning a Porsche with a ski rack I was unable to scrape together enough funds to buy that holy grail of ski paraphenalia: the Season Pass (cue angels singing).
The flakes began to fly and I found myself at opening day at A-basin sans lift ticket. If you've ever been to the Basin on opening weekend, you know that the pass is really just a ticket to stand in line for one or two hours between 700' runs with a bunch of drunk Front Rangers, so I gave it the big F-U and decided to walk it. I strapped my skins to the lightest set up I had, a pair of 175 Cabrawler Pro Model bump skis, BCA Alpine Trekkers, and my trusty when not agonizing to walk in Salomon boots and started trekking up the main and only run open.
I passed all the first day traffic, skinned up through the jib park they had set up to the cheers of those hiking to save the lift line and up to the top of the lift. I repeated the shot 7 times, which was the same number of runs my lift-riding buddies got in by the end of the day. I continued this commute for the next 6 days until some 3 of the hottest girls I know bought me a pass for my birthday and saved me from having to walk the rest of the season.
I mention this because those 7 days were probably the best first 7 days of a season I've had so far. I met tons of cool folks wondering what the crazy guy was doing, tons of cool folks who know what I was doing and joined me and got some turns how people used to have to get em. This wasn't a rad backcountry trip or the usual "earn your turns" kind of excursion, it was resort skiing in slow-mo.
So here's the challenge. For the first 7 days of your season, walk it. Try to walk it at the resort. It will kickstart your training and you might meet some cool people on the way, not to mention walking and getting the same number of turns as your hitchhikin' buddies is pretty bad ass. If you're at the Basin opening day, keep an eye out for me. I'll be the bump ski-touring guy with the green hat. I hope you'll go for a walk with me. All those who complete the task, let me know I won't send you anything but I'll raise my glass to you sir, for you are a worthy knight of the pow table.
Keep on truckin,
Geoff
www.alpine-sports.com
The flakes began to fly and I found myself at opening day at A-basin sans lift ticket. If you've ever been to the Basin on opening weekend, you know that the pass is really just a ticket to stand in line for one or two hours between 700' runs with a bunch of drunk Front Rangers, so I gave it the big F-U and decided to walk it. I strapped my skins to the lightest set up I had, a pair of 175 Cabrawler Pro Model bump skis, BCA Alpine Trekkers, and my trusty when not agonizing to walk in Salomon boots and started trekking up the main and only run open.
I passed all the first day traffic, skinned up through the jib park they had set up to the cheers of those hiking to save the lift line and up to the top of the lift. I repeated the shot 7 times, which was the same number of runs my lift-riding buddies got in by the end of the day. I continued this commute for the next 6 days until some 3 of the hottest girls I know bought me a pass for my birthday and saved me from having to walk the rest of the season.
I mention this because those 7 days were probably the best first 7 days of a season I've had so far. I met tons of cool folks wondering what the crazy guy was doing, tons of cool folks who know what I was doing and joined me and got some turns how people used to have to get em. This wasn't a rad backcountry trip or the usual "earn your turns" kind of excursion, it was resort skiing in slow-mo.
So here's the challenge. For the first 7 days of your season, walk it. Try to walk it at the resort. It will kickstart your training and you might meet some cool people on the way, not to mention walking and getting the same number of turns as your hitchhikin' buddies is pretty bad ass. If you're at the Basin opening day, keep an eye out for me. I'll be the bump ski-touring guy with the green hat. I hope you'll go for a walk with me. All those who complete the task, let me know I won't send you anything but I'll raise my glass to you sir, for you are a worthy knight of the pow table.
Keep on truckin,
Geoff
www.alpine-sports.com
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