New year, New Gear, New Rides

As the warmer starts working its way back into the Carolina's, Dad and I began looking over the maps and planning out our potential rides for the year. Like last year we are planning on starting the season with a bang. On March 10th, Dad, Mike Brown and I will be departing Charlotte, NC in the early morning hours to ride 1500 miles in under 24 hours on our way to Jacksonville, Florida for the 2011 IBA party. After completing the SS1000 last March, we were bit by the LD bug and are looking to continue our progression within the LD community.

Another LD ride that Dad and I are looking into is currently not on the IBA list but we would like to do it anyway. It would be a Smokey and the Bandit Run in honor of the legendary movie with Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed and the iconic Bandit Trans-Am. The details of the route are still be nailed down but I will be sure to post the details as they come about.

Since I have rescued Zeus back in October and my attempt to save some money, I have decided to get rid of my garage and keep the FZ at the house in Lexington. With this, I am expecting my riding mileage for 2011 to be a bit lower than 2010, but we will see.

With the Bun Burner Gold we are limited to the amount of time we can spend off the bike. To make sure that I can eat while riding I have invested in a Sy-Max II modular helmet. Also I have been looking to buy a new pair of riding boots for some time now and as of yesterday I came home with a pair of Sidi Strata Air boots. I have been looking at these for over a year now and with the new season coming up and my old boots showing some significant wear, I felt like now was a good time to replace.

Great looking boots with good protection and amazing comfort.

Inside opening with large zipper and two velcro patches.

Nice soft rubber sole, not slick like most race boots.

These boots are the perfect cross over boots that I have been looking for. I wasn't fully satisfied with the the Icon boots I had been wearing previously as I was looking for more protection. Race boots are great and offer great security but at the price of limited movement. Touring boots have great mobility and all day comfort but honestly lack any protection. These Sidis have protection similar to race boots and have the comfort of touring boots. I am excited to get out on the bike with these on and see how they feel on the pegs of the FZ.

Now that snowboard is put away for the winter, its time welcome the warm weather and miles of smiles on the mountain roads!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

All good things must come to end; or at least for a few months. In the past couple weeks the weather in North Carolina has been unseasonably warm and it had taken its tolls on the slopes in the mountains. In addition, I had been spending a considerable amount of time prepping the bikes for riding season that is about to start in full swing come March 10^th. As we approached the middle of February the crew gathered up again for one more trip to Sugar and Beech Mountain before hanging up the boards and ski’s for the spring/summer/fall.

Friday afternoon in Raleigh, it was 78 degrees out and I was walking out of work at 3pm and heading home in hurry. I had packed up everything I needed for the trip the night before so all I had to do was pick up Zeus, my new Sy-Max II and head west.

It was beautiful day out, so much sunshine and clear blue sky. The windows were down and the radio was up; it was hard to believe I was on my way to go snowboarding! I dropped off Zeus with mom and went across town to pick up Josh and Will before heading west to Boone.

After a couple hours of driving, cutting up and joking about anything and everything, we finally made it into Boone. We stopped at the Lowes Foods off 421 to meet up with Drew and our buddy David who had been recently married back in May or June. (I am such a good friend, lol) We picked up some snacks and of course a few 12 packs that were on sale and then made our way to Banner Elk and up to Echota. Now fortunately the weather had been warm here too which meant there was absolutely no snow on the roads, which was good news for me considering our last trip up to Echota… While there wasn’t any snow, it was raining a bit and there was still a lot of salt/sand on the roads that ended up covering my headlights and windshield making it damn near impossible to see anything. After a few close calls on the two lane up we arrived safely to the condo and settled in for the night, brews in hand. Robert and Carrie showed up a little while later and join us all on the couch to laugh the night away. A couple hours after that, Joel, one of Drew’s good friends came up to ride as well.

The crew hanging out around the fire in the living room.

Telling stories from the trip last month... Robert doesn't remember them...for many reasons.

David chatting it up with Josh and Carrie.

Saturday morning, I was up and moving by 7am and shortly after so was everyone else. Travis Smith was planning on joining us for a day of boarding as was Alicia, so to give everyone time to get up the mountain we decided to get a twilight pass (1pm to 10pm). Once everyone got up and motivated (which was a bit difficult as you can imagine after a night like we had) we headed down the mountain to pick up some breakfast.

After our breakfast adventure at the local country store we headed back to the condo to change into our gear and head over to Beech Mountain. We stopped at Alpine Ski Center on the way in to meet Travis so he could pick up his rental gear and Will could pick up a pair of boots for his skis.

When we pulled into the parking lot we could tell that the slopes were going to be packed. Once we got our lift tickets we jumped on the high speed lift and went to the top of the mountain for our first run of the day. We were right in our assumption; the slopes were pretty busy today, but mainly with young kids and with that I decided to hold off on the “drinking and sliding.” The first run we made was down the OZ run which was the run I knocked myself out on last season. The slope was pretty gradual, decent snow coverage but thin in a few spots. It didn’t take long to get to the bottom and once we were gathered up again at the top of the mountain, we took off down the black diamond “White Lightning.”

Somehow we talked Travis into riding White Lightning with us, he was doing great till we got to the steep part and suddenly he wasn’t so sure about things. I am pretty sure he rode down most of the slope on his butt and once at the bottom he was giving me an ear full. Needless to say he wasn’t up for riding that one again.

Back at the top of the mountain, Alicia had texted me and let me know that she had made it to the slopes, so I strapped in and made my way down one of the blues pretty quick to meet up with her. While getting her ticket the group went ahead and went back to the top of the mountain. This gave Alicia and I some time to get some runs in together. She hasn’t had the time to get up on the slopes much this year, but she had improved since the last time I rode with her. We made a few runs down the blues on the side of the mountain until we met up with Robert and Travis.

Chilling at the top of Ski Beech.

Alicia getting strapped in for her first run of the day.

On one of the slopes, Beech Mountain had left a couple sections of their board-o-cross track intact. This included a couple smaller drop off jumps and two berms. The jumps weren’t all that great, but the berms were so much fun to ride!

After we made several runs down the blues and few down the blacks the group was starting to get a bit tired and we were getting close to the shut down time. In the past couple weeks Drew and I had been talking a lot of junk about boarders vs. skiers so with the slopes thinning out and most of our group taking a break we decided to race down White Lightning. We started out side by side and neither of us was pulling away. When we got to the steep section, neither us checked up we just dropped right in which was a bit nerve racking… about half way down I looked over and saw drew starting to carve and check up a bit, so I did the same. After a few cuts were still neck and neck but then when drew made a cut to the right I noticed his ski tips up in the air and snow flying everywhere and he was headed my way… I tried to speed up and move out of his way and just as I started to cut again he ended up catching the tail of my board and spun me around. I gathered myself up and came to a stop since it was apparent Drew’s race was over as he has slid all the way across the slope and lost his skis during the fall. Laughing my ass off I asked if he was ok, he gave me a thumbs up as Joel came sliding over and sprayed us. With Drew ok I stood up and made my way on down the mountain to inform Will of Drew’s crash. Once Joel and Drew made it down we met up with the group and headed back to the truck to go grab some dinner at the Brick Oven.

Just like last, time this place was nothing short of amazing with great food and awesome beers from around the world. Our group took up two booths and I am sure all of those people sitting around us were thrilled, especially when I iced Drew at the end of our meal. There for a bit I wasn’t sure if Drew was going to hold it down, after all he had just ate a huge bowl of chicken parm and finished it off with a nice Oatmeal Porter. A few minutes later we cleaned our table and made our way back to the slopes for a night on the slopes.

Now at this point the temperatures had been well above freezing and the snow had been nice and soft but slushy. However as the sun started to set the temperatures began to fall and I was concerned that the slopes were going to get very slick and icy as the moisture on top of the snow started to freeze. Fortunately this was not the case! The snow in the high traffic areas around the lifts actually took on the consistency of beach sand, it was weird. With the colder temperatures the snow got faster and thankfully the crowds thinned out as well. White Lightning had gotten a bit slick as there wasn’t much power on top of it anyway. So with this we stayed on the main blue runs for the rest of the night. Josh and I made it point to bomb the lower part of Upper Shawneehaw and cut across Lower Shawneehaw into Meadows to hit the berms that were left from the board-o-cross and then make our way to the terrain park. Busting those berms were so much fun, it was almost like being back on the dirt bike again.

At this point Robert had switched over to riding skis again and David had decided to ride Roberts snowboard. David had never rode a snowboard before so Alicia volunteered to help him out a bit and get him going on the board. After a few runs down the bunny slopes David decided to go ahead and ride down one of the blues. Apparently he did really well from what I heard.

Beasley heading down the slopes at Beech Mtn.

Each time down the slopes Josh and I went through the terrain park to mess around on some of the jumps and boxes. There was a small jump at the entrance of the park that was great for learning on. In addition there were a few boxes that were great as well. One of these boxes had a nice 3 foot gap getting on to it and then an incline up to a flat section before it ended. I watched Josh hit it once or twice before trying it myself. On my first attempt I decided to just get on the box then ride off the edge just to get the feel for getting up on the box.

The approach was clean and the hop up on the box was smooth. Things were doing great until I started heading for the edge of the box. For some reason I decided to try and turn on the box to keep myself going straight. FAIL. When I did this the board went behind me and I fell forwards and caught the box with my chest and shoulder. Somehow I managed to roll over and I am thinking that it was over my shoulder because immediately there was a sharp pain in my right shoulder. As I get myself together and clear landing I begin cussing myself because I said when I came up on this trip I wouldn’t do anything stupid to injure myself before the Bun Burner Gold Ride. Shit.

I got to the edge of the slopes and laid down, stretched my arm a bit and headed down to the bottom of the mountain. After that I decided to just skip the terrain park for the rest of the night and just focus on my carving and having fun.

After a couple quick runs I met up with Alicia and the rest of the group again just before Drew, Joel and David left for the weekend. At this point it was around 8:30 or so and we are all getting tired. Fortunately Travis was there and was determined to ride as much as he could before we had to leave. So he pushed me to keep riding.

During one run Josh and I swapped boards to see the differences between the two. Joshes board was a bit shorter than mine and it made a huge difference! It was like riding on nothing it seemed when comparing it mine. I definitely like riding the shorter board, it was much more nimble compared to mine and I think my next board will definitely be shorter. However, after riding my board Josh was ready to sell his and get one like mine.

After another quick run down the mountain we packed up the truck and headed home for the night. We got cleaned up and headed down to Boone for a night on the town with Alicia and some of her friends. We went from Char to Portifinio having drinks and sharing stories. It was a great way to end an amazing day on the slopes.

Dirty windshield award! This is the hill that gave me so much trouble last time we came up to Echota.

Where we spent alot of time last time...

The next morning we up and moving, slowly, as you might expect. Travis left around 10 that morning but Robert, Carrie and I made our way over Sugar Mountain for a half day. (12-4:30) The snow was much more slushy than Beech was and the crowds were even worse. We started riding down switchback, the longest blue run on the mountain. Things went well, but with so many people on the slopes it got a difficult at times to get around without hitting people.

After our run down Switchback we headed back to the top to run one of the black diamonds. Robert was riding his snowboard today so he was a bit unsure of this, but he managed to do just fine as did Carrie. We stopped along the way down the mountain a few times to get some pictures and talk about ways to improve.

Carrie working her way down the slopes.

Robert was starting to get the hang of this snowboard thing.

Im going pro!

Going up the chair lift for the last time. You can see the bare spots starting to show.

Starting to get artsy on the slopes. Ill try to work on this more next year.

Yea... I hit that sign the first time I went down that slope.

Starting the last run of the season.

It was a great way to end the day and the season. I was tired and sore, but the trip was well worth it. We were lucky enough to get some runs in without dealing with ice though the conditions were not as epic as they were last trip.

The season had sadly come to a close; however the riding season will be starting up very soon. So look for updates soon with the FZ and our travels!

Leaving Robert's place at Echota for the last time.

Stick cleaned and stored for the off season.

Epic In So Many Ways!

Oh where to begin on this trip?

Just before the New Year, Robert and I decided that another ski/boarding trip in Banner Elk was in order, and soon. Somehow or another we managed to set the date for the weekend following New Years, which was rather short notice for our group. A few phone calls and texts were sent out along with a Facebook group and the ball was rolling. This trip the group included: Drew, Will, Robert, Alison, her roommate Graycie and Josh. In addition, Jon Mock had made arrangements to come on this trip! Woot! This would be the first time that Josh, Jon and I had gotten together since the accident back in September and with the three of us together I had a feeling we would manage to make this an entertaining trip.

With Jon living over on the coast, he had to leave work a bit early to make the trip over to Raleigh in time for us to leave at a decent hour. Once I got off work I finished my packing and then headed over to the neighboring Japanese restaurant for some grub. To my surprise, Jon made it in a bit early so he joined me for the end of the meal and ordered a plate himself. After the dinner we came back to the apartment, loaded up the truck, grabbed the dog and headed to Lexington to drop off Zeus and pick up Josh. We were supposed to be picking Josh up around 7:30 that evening from Lexington; however we didn’t leave Raleigh till around 7:00. Oops. After the stops in Lexington, we refueled the truck and headed west.

Earlier in the week, the northern NC Mountains had been pounded with a few good storms that brought with it a substantial amount of snow and to make things even more interesting, a storm was rolling through that area Friday night as we were making our way over. We knew this going into it and were watchful of the roads as we made our way in to Boone. Sure enough, the snow had been falling for quite awhile as the roads had a nice layer of fresh snow across the top of them. Realizing that the condo was on the top of the mountain in Banner Elk, I made a quick phone call to Robert to see how it was looking up there and if he thought we could make it up that night. (He had been there for a couple hours with the rest of the group since we left late) It wasn’t looking good. Drew and Will had a time getting up the road to Echota in Drew’s Jeep and Robert and had put Alison’s CRV in the ditch at some point on the way up as well.

Fortunately, I had made some friends in Boone while I was visiting quite frequently last year and was able to crash at a friend’s place near the base of Sugar Mountain. When we got to Banner Elk, it was apparent the storm was serious as the roads were covered with a couple inches of fresh snow and it was coming down fast. We met JVC (Josh VonCanon), Fluffy and Suzy at a bar just down the road (literally) from their house and had a brew or two before heading in for the night. On the way out we decided to have a little fun on the roads in the snow, so we slid the truck in a large parking lot and cut the fool a bit where it was safe to do so and then drove another ¼ mile to the house. The snow was nice and heavy which made it ok to drive in and still have some fun.

I parked the truck just down the road from the house in front of a machine shop, backed it under the awning of the store front and hoped for the best in the morning. We eventually got our stuff in the house and crashed in the loft upstairs. JVC warned us on the way in that he had been throwing some parties recently, so the house wasn’t the cleanest. He was right, it was a bit rough but I didn’t expect much to be honest. LOL. The loft wasn’t much, a couple twin beds and rug on some hold hardwoods, but it warm and it was free so we weren’t going to complain. We made a few jokes about our situation as we got settled and set the alarms early so we could get some nice runs in on fresh snow. We intended to go to bed rather soon, but we couldn’t help but continue to laugh at the situation we found ourselves in and wondering how we always seem to have the strangest things happen when the three of us are together.

Calling it a night in the loft at JVC's place.

5 hours later the alarms were going nuts and we slowly got up and got our stuff together for the day. Dressed and ready for the slopes I headed out to the truck to fire it up and clear a path out of the parking lot. As I opened the front door to the house, I was taken back…. It must have snowed a good eight inches in the time we were sleeping and it was still coming down!!!! I made my way to the truck, fired it up and started the defrost, knocked the snow off the windshield and started clearing the snow in front of the truck so we could get out. Josh and Jon came out a few minutes later, boards in hand and ready to go, when they saw the snow, they started to get rather excited. They knew that if the base of the mountain had this much snow, there was no telling what the summit was getting. FRESH POW!!!!

We got out of the parking lot easily, the roads weren’t great, but weren’t impassable, so we made our way up past Sugar Mountain to get some breakfast and some Uncrustables from Food Lion for a snack on the slopes. On the way out I pulled into a small garage that had been advertising snow chains for sale, so we stopped in to see what they might set us back. 200.00, we politely declined and made our on down the road, slowly. We pulled into Food Lion first as we were realizing that it was going to be tough to go much further the way the roads were getting. However, luck was on our side that morning as there was a Subway that served breakfast in the same shopping center. We knocked the snow off our boots, went in and had a nice warm sandwich as we watched the other motorists slipping and sliding up the hill next to Subway.

The truck outside of Subway.

On the way back to Sugar we were stopped by a volunteer fireman who had shut the road down to allow a tow truck to get a couple cars out of the ditch. The snow was still coming down hard and the cars were having a hard time getting around after the tow truck got them out. Once clear, I tried to move on through but the fireman stopped me and said that he has been told to hold traffic until the plows come though. A few moments later, a plow came through being escorted by a local police officer in an SUV. The snow was coming down so hard and fast that within a few minutes of the plow coming through, you couldn’t tell he had been there at all. He ended up making 4 passes before he let us go on our way, and in all we had been sitting there waiting for about an hour. I called Robert to see where they were and unfortunately they had gotten a lot of snow the night before and there was no way they were going to be able to get down the mountain to go ski. They were snowed in with 4 cases of beer, a few bottles of liquor and nothing to eat.

Sugar Mountain was just around the corner as was the Alpine Ski Center. Judging by the road conditions and the truck only being 2wd I was a bit unsure if we could make it up to the parking lot, so we decided to just pull into Alpine’s parking lot and walk up to the ski lifts.

Josh getting impatient waiting on the roads to clear.

What we were dealing with that morning.

Once we got our stuff together we began the hike up the mountain. Jokingly we stuck our thumbs out as cars would pass to see if we could get a ride to the top. After a few small cars passed by without stopping a Jeep came along that did. He was headed up for a day on the slopes as well; he told us to hop on in and away we went!

We arrived at the slopes safely, lol, paid for our lift tickets and headed to the top. It was extremely cold, and the snow was still coming down, in addition the clouds were low and it made visibility poor at the top. However, there was one really good thing about all this… fresh snow, everywhere! (deep too) It took all three of us a moment or two to get used to riding in the powder, but after the first run we had it figured out and were out throwing it everywhere as we rode.

We stopped off at the terrain park to see what it was like as we had been hearing that Sugar had added some new features and what not. They had, but it wasn’t much, just a couple boxes and rails though we were told they had added some jumps. What they did have however was a snow bank that was set up as a stop for when the jumps are in place. It wasn’t supposed to be a jump, but we made it one…

Josh decided that it would be a good idea to hit it with speed and see what happens… well there wasn’t a back side to it; it was more like a spine ramp than anything. He flat landed on the other side (bank was a good 7 feet tall) and ate it pretty good. With all the fresh snow, it didn’t bother him too bad. He picked himself up and we carried on. (Laughing)

Back at the top we made a run down the black diamond, Tom Terrific. With all the powder the runs were in great shape, it was amazing. I even made a run down the double black this trip and it went surprisingly well. Much better than it did last time! With the fresh snow on top, turning was easier and the ride was much more enjoyable. I still fell, that was inevitable, but I had much more fun with it this time.

We continued to make runs on the terrain park when we got to it. Mainly just doing 50-50’s on the rails, even attempted front side board slide. Didn’t quite get the rotation, but didn’t fall. At one point when we were making our way off the terrain park I hit the snow bank with a good amount of speed and got a good bit of pop of the lip. Ended up landing on the bottom of the bank on the tail of the board and rode it out. Don’t know how I did it, but it was sweet!

With the weather being so cold and all the moisture in the air, the three of us kept having problems with our goggles fogging up and freezing over. We had to stop a couple times throughout the day to go inside and wipe them out and re-coat the lenses with anti-fog goo. At one point mine decided to freeze over at the top of the black diamond, had to ride it down blind… not fun. Later in the day we rode the double black diamond again, this time it didn’t go so well. As I was making my way down, a skier behind fell pretty hard and lost his skis, one of which came down the mountain after me! There was another boarder on the side of the slope watching all this and he yelled, “Don’t jump” just as I was about to flip sides. I stopped and looked at him and at that moment the runaway ski went right next to my board on my left side and it wasn’t slowing down… That guy had a long walk down the mountain to retrieve his ski.

Josh getting geared up for the day at Sugar.

It seemed like every time we got back to the chair lift line the thermometer was dropping a degree. On our last run I think it was somewhere around 14 degrees at the base. The last run was amazing though as we started off at the top going to Tom Terrific. I nailed it, didn’t crash at all then we cut over to right and headed down Sugar Slalom which was great all day due to little traffic on that slope. Jon was leading, with myself following and Josh bringing up the rear. Jon was moving quick but I was doing all I could to stay with him. We were dropping over to the sides of the run and dipping into the virgin snow. As we got towards the end of Sugar Slalom we made a hard right and cut over on to Big Red which is typically used for skiers to practice their race skills. It was open today so we made it a point to bomb this slope ofte. Passing the chair lift we continued on through the trees on the end of the Upper Flying Mile. At this point the trail was choppy and I was exhausted. Determined not to let Jon get too far ahead of me, I lowered my stance some more and did my best to soak up the ruts and bumps that were in the snow. Once at the bottom, Jon came to a stop, turned around and started looking for me expecting to wait a bit. He didn’t have to wait for me, I was right beside him. Josh came along a little later; he stopped to help a lady up that had fallen in front of him. We stepped out of the bindings and headed inside to warm up before we started our walk back to the truck. It was about 4pm when we called it quits. We were tired, hungry and cold.

Once we warmed up in the lodge we started our hike down the mountain and as cold as it was we quickly realized that this could be a long walk… Fortunately, Josh noticed a guy in a big 4wd Dodge truck that was about to pull out. Josh walked over to the guy, told him where we were parked and asked if we could ride in the back of his truck to the ski center. The guy agreed, so we loaded up and bummed our second ride for the day. The three of us pulled together a couple bucks to pay the guy for the trip as he dropped us of behind the truck.

The three of us rode from about 10am to 4pm, almost non-stop at Sugar and loved every minute of it. The fresh snow made it so much fun to ride, even though it was a work out to do so. It is so hard to time those conditions just right to where you can enjoy it, especially when you live so far away from it. We really got lucky this trip.

It was looking as though the salt and the moments of sunshine helped the road crews a bit as the road conditions had improved a great deal since that morning. After battling the frozen door jams, I fired the truck up and got the heat going as we packed up the boards and got out of our outer layers.

Snow was getting deep!

Earlier in the day, Jon had found out that one of his good friends would be riding at Appalachian Ski Mountain later Saturday night on the terrain parks. App doesn’t have the largest mountain and their runs are rather short, so to make up for it they have built some of the best terrain parks in the region and stay open till midnight. So after we got back in the truck we made our way to Boone and stopped by Pizza Hut for dinner. As we were sitting down I realized that the last time the three of us ate Pizza Hut together was after the tubing incident during our Deals Gap trip back in 2009. Josh and Jon got a kick out of that and we of course retold the story and laughed about the situation once again.

We arrived at App around 8 or so, geared up for the extreme cold that had set in and made our way to the ticket booth. App had implemented a safety test that year for the terrain park users due to the increase in traffic. So we had to fill out some paperwork and get ID’s made before we could get on the slopes. Once on the slopes we realized that the conditions at App were nowhere near as nice as they were at Sugar. The high winds had blown most of fresh snow off the slopes and into the trees surrounding the area which in turn made the slopes very hard and slick.

Seeing as how none of us had been to App this season, we figured we would start on the beginner park. After one run we realized it was a bit too easy and we were all looking for a more of challenge that what that one offered. Not saying it was a bad set up, it was actually very nice for a beginner and I would have probably spent some time on the rails there had the wind not been so bad. It was blowing so hard on that side of the mountain that you could not get any speed up. The wind would literally bring you to a stop before you even got to the jump!

So we switched lifts and went over to the only other park that was open at the time which was the intermediate/advanced. Josh and Jon were pumped and were eyeing the jumps that they felt comfortable on. Most were larger than I was ready for so while they were working on clearing some of the larger gaps, I was working on my basic jumps and landings by jumping the landing ramps (knuckles) and hitting the boxes on the way.

After a few passes I was starting to feel better and decided to try hitting the first jump in the park which about an 8 foot gap and was more or less a table-top (to those that are familiar with MX). My first run was good; I got off the lip clean and kept my balance throughout the jump. My speed was a bit low and I came up a couple feet short of down-siding the knuckle. But I landed clean and rode off fine; it was a great first attempt. On my second attempt I hit it with a bit more speed, determined to down side it. As I made my approach I checked up a little and then straightened the board out as I neared the lip. As the nose of the board got air born I lost my center and my tail started to come out and I began rotating over to my back side. I was at the right speed to down side the jump, had the height and everything… however I didn’t have the board where I needed it. I came crashing back down (on the down side of the jump mind you) on my ass and slid to the bottom. Instant pain! Josh was waiting for my signal to let him know he was clear to attempt but with me down on the ground trying to gather myself up, Jon (who was standing on the landing ramp on the next jump) motioned to Josh that I was down. Since there was really no one out with us that night, I laid there for a minute to make sure I was ok, then slowly picked myself up and cleared the landing zone. Oh man did that hurt, without any fresh snow to soften the impact it was like falling from 6 feet onto concrete.

Josh and Jon finished their run down the park hitting the remaining boxes, I decided against that and just headed for the chairlift. Realizing what I did wrong, I was determined to do it again and land it. On the lift ride back to the top the three of us talked about what I did wrong and ways to avoid doing what I did. Back at the top I was nervous and it showed as I approached the jump again. I felt like I wasn’t straight as I hit the ramp and I bailed at the last minute. Wasn’t the bravest thing, but I didn’t want to eat it harder than before. I brushed myself off and continued down the run. On the way I hit some of the smaller jumps just to get some air beneath me and get my confidence back.

On the next run I started closer to the jump, didn’t check up any and just hit it straight on keeping my weight low. I had just enough speed to clear the jump and down sound it cleanly. I continued on down and meet Jon at the top of the next jump. There were a couple people up at the top who had witness my last couple attempts and with my successful landing they were cheering for me as well as Josh and Jon. However, I kinda killed it as I came to a stop near Jon on the face of the next jump. I was so excited I lost focus on what I was doing, spun the board around caught my toe side edge on the snow and went face first into jump, leaving a nice dent in the snow with my helmet. The applause changed to laughter. Oh well, I was still happy I nailed it.

We made a few more passes that night down the park, I was a bit sore from my fall so I didn’t hit the jump anymore but I did manage to stick a board slide on one the boxes and worked on my landings some more on the knuckles. After another hour the three of us were beat and decided to call it a night and head home before we hurt ourselves. It had been a very long day and we had done a lot of riding.

On the way out I called Drew and asked if he wanted us to bring them some food as it looked as though we were going to try and get up to Echota and get warm showers and sleep in clean sheets. Drew said that Cookout would be amazing and he would pay me well if I brought him some. After leaving Cookout with 9 trays of food we headed to Echota in hopes that the road would be clear enough to make it up.

The entrance road was looking good and aside from a little slush it was fairly clean and only lost traction a bit in a few of the tight corners. After about a half mile climb we had to turn off the main road and onto a secondary that led into the resort. It was a tight left hander that went up hill and unfortunately I lost too much speed making the turn and ended up coming to a stop about half way up. It was apparent that the plows hadn’t worked this road in a while… I called Drew and told him we were getting close but we had gotten stuck but I was certain I could get out of it and to go ahead and get ready in the event I needed him and will to help push.

I backed the truck down the hill and went on past the tight corner up so that I could get a run at the hill that had previously given me trouble. We started to spin a bit towards the top, but we managed and continued on. For the next mile things were going great and I knew we were getting close to the top however we came up on a low spot in the road and following it was a steep hill with a sharp left hand corner. We didn’t make it halfway up and the truck came to a stop. Josh and Jon tried bouncing on the bumper and pushing but we really didn’t make much progress. I was revving the truck more than I would have liked and was spinning the tires on what asphalt I could get to. At one point I backed down the hill and tried giving it another shot with more speed. It was at this time I realized that my goofing off in the Camaro from time to time did have its advantages. When I hit the corner with a bit more speed the back end of the truck started to slide. I didn’t want to slow down too much and lose my momentum so I stayed in the throttle, peddling it slightly just to keep the back end under control and brought it back straight as I exited the corner. I managed to make it about 50 feet further that time, but still no dice. I called Drew to let him know that we were stuck and that I could used some help.

A few minutes later Drew, Will and Graycie arrived. They tried pushing and bouncing but with little luck, so with all of them in the back we decided to back down the hill and try again. With 5 people in the back it was difficult to make the corner backing down as my front wheels began to slid and struggled to gain any traction. Josh and Jon got out of the bed and went to the front of the truck and stood on the front bumper to help offset the added weight in the rear. I got as far up the other hill as I could in reverse and with everyone in the back we tried again. The added weight helped, we managed to get further than we did previously but as I started to slow down Josh and Jon bailed and started pushing as Will and Drew started bouncing. We were so close to the top of the hill and I knew we were only a little ways from the condo, I wasn’t about to give up. After spinning and fighting for traction we finally inched our way to the top of the hill! Drew told me there was an easier way to make it to the condo from where we were, so I pulled into the parking lot for the pool, backed onto a dry piece of asphalt and made a run for the next grade. It was clear sailing from there and we made it to the condo.

We unpacked the truck, took the food inside and had our dinner. It was apparent that the guys had a hell of a day. There were beer cans scattered all over the place and Robert was passed out in the bedroom. I hit him in the face with a pillow multiple times to wake him up, he would grunt and then fall back asleep.

After our showers, Josh, Jon and I passed out quick. The day took its toll on us and we were ready to rest. The rest of the group made plans to get up and head out to the slopes for an afternoon session on Sunday but we opted out and decided to head home.

Overall it was an amazing weekend and with some great riding and I hope that I will have the opportunity to ride in conditions like that again, soon.

The truck Monday afternoon at work...