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Thread: Urban Turns (Seattle 1/06/04)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Sea-gary
    Posts
    181

    Wink Urban Turns (Seattle 1/06/04)

    It was a ghost town at work and the snow had been falling most of the day. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and left just before 4:00, mumbling something about not wanting to drive home in the dark. Free from work, I cruised past wide-eyed, white-knuckled drivers hunched over the wheels of their Ford Explorers. Arriving at my house, I tore off my work clothes and pulled on my ski gear faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth. I grabbed my gear and skied out of my driveway for the tour d'Maple Leaf.

    Scoffing at the gentler slopes of Roosevelt and 15th, I made my way to the baddest terrain around, 98th St. North - about 200 vertical feet of steep city street. But on my way there, I took a long look at 97th St. 97th is not quite as steep, but it is a more consistent pitch, and was considerably less tracked out from plastic sleds, inner-tubes and the few intrepid cars that had challenged gravity.

    I made my decision and ducked around the "closed" sign. Scowling at the VW bug poaching my line, I waited for it to clear and dropped in parallel. My fat skis provided just enough float in the powder along the shoulder to avoid bottoming out... as long as I didn't use any edge whatsoever. I skied down the side of 97th, cut over a block, and finished the run down lower 98th St. Grinning like the kids sledding down the hill, and ignoring my neighbors' quizzical looks, I charged back up the hill for a few more runs. Eventually, the streetlights were the only illumination, and I made my way home. Today, 97th and 98th are sad piles of slush, so I will have to wait for the next "storm of the decade" before challenging the local steeps again.

    Anyone else get some urban turns yesterday?
    D'oh!!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Deep Playa
    Posts
    4,821
    Ok, which one of you Seattle Minions is this masked man?

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2001831250.jpg
    A partially-dressed skier is pulled by a truck on 16th Avenue Southwest in Burien yesterday afternoon. The unidentified skier yelled out, "It's summer, isn't it?"

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    28,545

    Re: Urban Turns (Seattle 1/06/04)

    Originally posted by Chronic
    Scowling at the VW bug poaching my line, I waited for it to clear and dropped in parallel
    Moguls the size of VWs are weak. Now, moguls that are VWs, that's a different story!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Sandy UT
    Posts
    3,405
    Good Post Chron

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    EWA
    Posts
    23,141
    We've got this amazing bowl up at the Stable (maybe you remember it Chronic - off to the west of the barns). I was thinking about how sweet it would have been (esp. since the stable already had a solid 5 inches of snow from the week before ) but alas it was not to be as I couldn't even make it up the road.

    It was a winter wonderland out in Woodinville yesterday.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Sea-gary
    Posts
    181
    Originally posted by Punani
    Ok, which one of you Seattle Minions is this masked man?

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2001831250.jpg
    A partially-dressed skier is pulled by a truck on 16th Avenue Southwest in Burien yesterday afternoon. The unidentified skier yelled out, "It's summer, isn't it?"
    That picture tells you all you need to know about Burien.
    D'oh!!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    159
    Originally posted by Chronic
    That picture tells you all you need to know about Burien.
    I was thinking the same thing about Kent.
    Are we part of the solution, or are we part of the pollution? -M.F.

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