TR: A few firsts (20th, 24th SSV)
Finding snow was the name of the game for both of the past two days riding. Last Friday (20th) my Dad decided to join us. He had never skied the dive before or wildwest. He and followed me down a small cornice drop into a chute and managed to completely garage sale with one of his skis stopping about 100 meters down the slope. I watched the whole thing and could tell that his bindings were WAY to loose. It was kinda scary getting him across the traverse to fatboy, not because of his skiing skill but because I was worried that he might pre-release on a bump and go for a really rocky ride. We put the din up and headed over to Wildwest in search of snow. We picked the right day to go because it snowed about 5cm overnight, nothing much, but enough to put a nice layer of soft stuff on the hard pack conditions that we would have experianced.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71060.jpg
Dad ripping down Peyto's
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71064.jpg
This was also Tom's first run down Peyto's, I sorta felt like a guide much of the day, touring the other two around to places they haven't been before.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71061.jpg
I found some soft conditions lower down, nobody skis wildwest. It's like Delirium's ugly sister because it doesn't get the publicity and you can get into a lot more trouble in the West than the dive.
My dad hit some stumps under the snow on the way down to the ski out and his ski shot under the snow. We dug around for about an hour before finally finding it. We realized once we finally got back to goat's eye that it was his heel piece that had the super low din, not his toe piece. Duh!
While my Dad and I dug around for the ski, Tom was too low down the slope to help. He shot some pictures instead.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71062.jpg
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71063.jpg
I had a lot of fun that day and I'm really glad I could show a family member the stuff I like to ski all day.
24th at SSV
Jeff and I headed up with thoughts of skiing Wawa ridge and hucking the backdoor cliff band in mind. After sampling the conditions we decided to take one run down Delirium. It was one of my favorite runs down Delirium yet. I managed to get onto two small spines, every turn the wind would pick up the snow I was kicking up off my skis and send it flying at my face. Face shots every turn...but they hurt:) After those two spines I found a small chute that was screaming straightline...so of course I did. We headed into the trees after that to find some more protected spots. I wanted to hit a cliff that I had been eying for a while but wasn't sure if the landing was clear to send it. The bigger the cliff is the faster I want to take it because I land very upright so I can stomp but I pay the price for it if I don't have enough speed.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71065.jpg
I actually landed very close to the camera man on this shot because I wanted to take it with speed. To take this cliff head on you would have to take it very slow and I didn't feel the conditions were right for a slow hot-tub style landing.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71067.jpg
Jeff getting a really nice turn before he took the shot of my drop.
After this we were off to the b/c gate.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71071.jpg
We took the short hike out to backdoor and while having a small pee break I shot this one. One of my favorite scenics of the year...
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71068.jpg
Jeff was the test dummy for the drop and elected for a slightly smaller cliff in order to test the landing. His landing was smooth and looked deep enough to handle something bigger. Looks can be deceiving.
Before the 24th I had never drawn blood skiing. My worst injury to date was a dislocated thumb that didn't stop me from skiing once it was reset.
So Jeff moved into a spot to take the shot as I lined up the biggest part of the entire cliff band. I had hit this drop previously and I knew it was big (for me at least)
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71070.jpg
I had the pleasure of flying through the air and actually landing out of this frame quite a ways. I've been asked why I like dropping cliffs before and now I realized what my answer is. The feeling of stepping off something and then there's a moment where time doesn't exist. Everything freezes. My mind slows to a crawl as I stare down at my landing. During this moment nothing outside of the cliff matters. Your exam marks, your breakfast, your falling apart relationships, none of it matters. Just you and the cliff. I live for these moments.
As it turns out what I thought was going to be a nice soft landing ended up being 6 inches of fluff on top of wind slab. I fully compressed and my knee hit my face. My cheek bone was probably saved by my goggles but my goggles were forced up onto one of my eyes and pushed into it. This hurt a lot. I think that the form in my goggles was pushed out of the way and the plastic of my goggle hit my closed eye. I stomped it clean though, first time for this cliff. As I checked my vision I felt something very warm on my face, I thought at first I was swelling up very badly. When I touched the warm spot it was wet.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71066.jpg
I got a nice gash along my eye lid (can't see most of it). I can only imagine what would have happened if my eye had been open:eek: . So after hiking out there Jeff and I only got 1 hit each off of this drop before I had to head down to patrol to find out if I need stitches. They did lots of cleaning work but the doctor was out and they couldn't stitch it. After getting bandaged Jeff and I took one more run down Wildwest before heading home. I was staying on the ground this run and just shooting photos of Jeff.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71069.jpg
Obviously we like this chute.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_71072.jpg
The run out was okay I guess.
My eye is fine now, vision is fine, and it didn't even need stitches since it closed last night on its own. My date wasn't took stoked on it tonight though:redface:
