July Snow

Wow. What a weekend. The one run was tiny but it was still fun to be boarding. It got majorly slushy out there in the afternoon but the first few hours of each morning were pretty good.

Summary of happenings:

• Met boy who became boyfriend. (How did that happen??)

• Got too drunk. (Look up Pass Out. It's the greatest game ever)

• Got totally stoked on moving up to Tahoe. (Kid won't be stuck in the city for much longer)
• Destroyed a 7-11 slushie.

• Pulled some bs180s out of nowhere. (I had never tried but guess I can do them.)
• Attempted bs360s. (Ended up as 320s because the jumps were so small/sticky)
• Slashed up my shin on a rail. (both are now fairly bruised and swollen)
• Went back to that rail and did a clean 50-50 shifty.
• Got nasty boot bruises

So yeah. That was it. I'm so in love with snowboarding AHHHH I want to snowboard again now. Those two days were such a tease. Oregon in August? Hopefully...

Sick day at Sierra

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been kinda sick. :/ Here's the story;

I drove over to Sunnyvale in the wee hours of the morning to catch the Bay Area Ski Bus. My stomach was feeling kinda funky but I was like "whatevs. I'll get on the bus, go to sleep and it'll be all good." So at 4am I boarded the bus and tried to sleep. I made it for like a half hour before I had to go to the bathroom andddd I puked. Lost all my yummy dinner from the night before. Oh and I hadn't eaten lunch the day before either. So all I had left in me (if anything) was the pancakes I ate for breakfast at 8am the day before. But those were probably gone too. Anyways, I go up to the front of the bus and I was like "Do you have any snacks or anything that I could eat right now. I'm not feeling good." And this old guys is all "Well I have some airplane peanuts" and this Asian mom is like "I have some juice." I took those, ate a few of the peanuts and half the box of apple juice and still wasn't feeling good. An hour or so later I was in the bathroom throwing those up. Unpleasant. Oh an I was totally sweating up a storm too. I stripped down to my long underware in the bathroom because I was like dripping in sweat.

By the time we got to the mountain I wasn't feeling so hot. I thought about not boarding and just hanging in the lodge but I was like "No way. I paid $115 for this day. I'm boarding." So I strapped in and felt better once I was on the mountain. I was having an okay time at the park but I wasn't really about to go full out because I had no energy at all. At like 1pm I was seriously having trouble staying conscious on the mountain. Like, as I was boarding I was getting dizzy and having to concentrate on keeping my eyes open and staying up. I figure it was time to take a rest. I was dehydrated and all that crap. I went to the lodge and got a cup of water. I didn't want to eat though because I didn't know if it would make me sick and there was no way I was going to throw up while boarding. I grabbed me a cup o' water, drank some of it and laid down to rest for an hour.

I then went back out onto the mountain and took like five more runs before I had to get back onto the bus. When we stopped for dinner I still didn't want to eat so I just got a piece of bread from Subways, which they gave to me for free. All in all, the day wasn't horrible. I lost three pounds and wasn't able to go as hard as I would have liked. It was still time on the mountain though so it's okay in the end. I'd give the day a C-.

Powder day at Kirkwood!

Favorite shot of the day. Taken on my iphone in colorcross mode.

Woke up to this sight. Fresh powder right outside my uncle's cabin in Kirkwood.

Took the lift up to Kirkwood's famous Wall Ride with Tim. He told me it was basically a blue and the Experts Only warning signs were just a trick. See the big rock in the middle of the photo? It's directly on the right of the rock. Google "Kirkwood Wall" to see a better shot. It was so windy at the top that I had to crouch down and push myself with my hands to get onto the actual run.

Me at the top of the Wall. They had one of those signs at the bottom of the lift as well so no one got on it by mistake. The skull and cross bones may be a little extreme. I mean, its not a run for the groms, but still... Whatever. I wanted to back out so badly but I'm glad I didn't. It was one of the sickest runs I've ever done and a major adrenaline kicker.

My little cousin Luke at lunch. He's on skis for now but he'll start boarding when he's a bit older. I guess three year olds don't snowboard? He's hilarious. All he wanted to do was jump and go straight down the hill. No slowing this little guy down. With the middle name Burton, this kid will be unstoppable.

Tim Rice, my uncle's friend that I was shredding with, shot this after lunch. Just a nice view of the barely tracked powder.

My board stowed away at the end of the day. Tim's kids Vance and Shannon are on the other side of the truck. Vance rides and Shannons about ready to do the ski>snowboard transfer as well.

The mountain as we left.

First track to last chair, talk about a complete day. I had one bad fall jumping over a stump. My board got caught on the wood and I went flying. I ended up being a quarter of a rotation off from landing an accidental front flip. Other than that it was a perfect day. It snowed a bit during lunch so we basically had fresh powder all day. We also found a bunch of kickers hidden between trees and stuff. Kirkwood is theb no doubt.