Tuesday, August 23, 2011

2010/2011 season recap....a few months late.

After a roughly six month hiatus, I figured it was probably time I posted something to the blog to let everyone know I didn't perish in an unfortunate cliff dropping incident (although there may have been a close call at one point this season).  So ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages........I AM ALIVE!

I can't honestly say where I got so sidetracked with my blogging.  I actually had two full posts written and ready to go chronicling two separate weekend trips, but they obviously never got posted.  At that point, I'd like to say I was just too busy shredding to get caught up on my blog.  So here I am months later with no blog posts to show.  Instead, I'll attempt to recount the high points of my season in one (maybe two) recap blogs.

Well, I've had an absolute BLAST this season, shredding a total of 34 days that covered 11 different mountains in four states and one Canadian Province.  Of those 34 days, I got my first taste of cat boarding in eastern BC (I plan on writing up a separate post on this adventure), explored Cowboy Ridge at Stevens Pass, spent a week in Colorado riding four different resorts, and completed the obligatory three Whistler trips.  I also dropped my first 20+ foot cliff, with less than favorable results though.

One thing I've come away with this season is a terrible case of powder fever.  Whether it was waking up at the crack of dawn to hit first chair on a powder day, laboring through a killer hike for the hidden pow stash in the side country, or getting untouched fields of backcountry powder from the cat, I found myself riding way more powder this season than I ever have before.  One late season pow day at Baker made me realize how bad my pow addiction was.  By noon, all the in-bounds pow stashes were gone, and without a riding buddy for the day, the backcountry wasn't an option.  I found myself uninterested in riding groomers the rest of the day and completely content on driving home......At noon on a bluebird day!  From that point forward, I realized that I was officially a powder snob.  There's just something about that euphoric, surfy feeling of riding untouched powder that I just cannot ever get enough of.  If you give me the option of riding a full day of non-stop, lift served runs or a day of hiking for two or three powder runs, I'd take the hiking option all day, every day, no questions asked.

There are a few things I didn't accomplish this season that I would have liked to.  While I did push myself  beyond my comfort level quite a bit, I feel like I could have pushed myself a bit more.  Maybe I should have taken one more run at that cliff that owned me, or hucked myself off that bigger windlip instead of settling for the smaller one.  On the upside, this only fuels my passion and drives me to be a better rider than I was the day before.  The day I am content with my level of riding will be the day I quit snowboarding, and I hope that day never comes.

Well, I hope this is the jump start I need to get back in the swing of things in preparation for the upcoming season.  In the meantime, enjoy a couple of my favorite pictures (and one video of me) from this last snowboarding season.....


Shuksan from the lot @ Baker Opening Day


Heading up Chair 1 @ Baker on opening day - my favorite picture of the season.


My Slackcountry in its natural habitat @ Whistler/Blackcomb.


Early morning beauty @ Mt. Bachelor in mid January.


Sniffing out the powder @ Schweitzer on the Highlife.


Me taking in the Superpipe finals @ the X-Games in Aspen.


Gotta layer up for those -20 degree days @ Beaver Creek.


Me taking the time for a quick picture in the eastern BC backcountry.


Powjunkie checking the stability on the backside of Cowboy Ridge @ Stevens Pass


Powjunkie dropping Tye Smalls, the drop that owned me.


Big Chief pow field in the Stevens sidecountry.


Me gathering my thoughts on top of Cowboy Ridge @ Stevens Pass.


Heading up Chair 8 @ Baker looking towards Shuksan.


Beautiful late season pow @ Baker.


Me getting grabby at Whistler on my Highlife.