Continued...
Thursday brings us nearly a foot of snow and another cloudy day. Not the
best for taking pictures or filming, but pretty damn fun for cruising. Mt.
Brundage ski area has a bowl called "Hidden Valley" that has more rollers
per vertical foot than nearly anywhere I've been. This area seems to have
the most challenging terrain on the mountain. As most of our crew stands
below a cliff band, a confident Brundage local calls out, and I quote "point
those cameras up here, that's gonna make you some money, you guys gotta go
big!" He proceeds to "go big" and comes down in the "bathtub" as it is became
affectionately known.
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Packed in the cat. On a very early morning. |
Near the bottom of the bowl we find a fun transfer jump. Tom was the first
to hit it and it becomes affectionately known as the "Gille pig" for every
jump thereafter. It has one of the steepest landings of any jump I've hit
this year. Super smooth but sort of use the force'ish. When hit right you
don't even have to bend your knees to land. When hit wrong, you come up in
the flats below. Before long it is too hard to keep our goggles clear and
we spend the late afternoon making high speed laps in snow that is approaching
knee-deep.
We call it a day once the lifts close and head directly to the Brewery for
another 5 bucks on the Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, we don't have another
enjoyable evening in the game room. What is it about playing pool and drinking
beer that breeds rocket scientists? Until this point everyone we had met
was nothing but friendly. We are pretty beat and our lack of fondness for
the local opponents helps us decide to head home early. We huddle around
the TV until we fall asleep hoping for a clear day on the snowcat.
Six o'clock doesn't seem quite so early when you know it's clear and knee
deep. There isn't time for The Pancake House this morning, we settle for
bananas and Nutri-grain bars. We race our cars up the road to meet guides
Les and Dave. They put us through the typical, bury the avalanche transceiver
and have people find it, routine. It makes one feel better, but I pray it
will be that easy in a real avalanche situation. After a short 25 minute
ride, we are one ridge over from "Hidden Valley," watching people at the
area ride our leftovers from the previous day.
The snowcat terrain is even more bouncy than Brundage Mountain. There are
some runs that have us spending more time in the air than on the ground.
We find terrain much like the ski area, and a bunch of 15 to 20 foot rocks
to jump. There is a lot of terrain to explore in just one day, and our guides
are kind enough to show us their secret stashes. The cat driver is a 19 year
old named Clint who seems skilled enough to get us up or down nearly anything.
Apparently he had been driving heavy equipment since he was 9. That's right,
while we were all playing with Tonka trucks he was playing with the real
thing. After as many runs as possible, we call it a day. Sunburned and tired
we see the biggest cliff of the trip as we are driving out. Everyone is thinking
the same thing though, "next time."
Okay, everyone out here. |
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Angie and Brian are heading to Utah next and need to be in Boise by eight
that night to make their flight. Dave and Tom drive them while Jason, Artie,
Jim and I watch Captain Ron on the tube and rest with store bought frozen
pizza, beer, ice cream, beer, french fries, beer and chips. Usually when
you lose the photographer, that's the end of the story. However, this one
goes on.
Continued...
SOL | Snowboarding Online |
