I'm just gunna stick this here: http://www.skiwhitewater.com/blog/?post=368
Gnarly!
Now that I'm thinking about snowboarding... (thanks a lot JimmEh!), I thought I would do a little season recap.
I should start by saying 2010/2011 was the most epic season I've ever had; it is the measure to which all seasons will be compared to. 2011/2012 wasn't bad by any many means, but it wasn't the same onslaught of pow day after pow day of the previous year. My season started off early, we spent a couple days goofing around in the back country up at the top of Highwood Pass (I bet you could still ski there now). Two days there plus an early season opener at Fernie meant that I had 3 pow days by the end of November. The winter was looking promising!
P1060319 by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
P1060326 by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
Kicking Horse opened up shortly after, and we headed there for opening weekend. The mountain saw a huge dump the week previous so we were anticipating a pretty solid day. But, we couldn't get out until Sunday, when we discovered that most of the mountain was tracked out from the two previous days. The day wasn't a total write off, I managed to find a really rad tree jib/drop that ended up being way bigger than I anticipated. vaportrail will attest to that!
After opening weekends we took a bit of a break. It was the week between Christmas and New Years, the forecast was promising and as the week went on, nature delivered. I managed to get the Friday off and headed out to Kicking Horse with canehdianJ and wrxtasy. We were greeted with epic snow conditions, 40 plus centimeters on the entire mountain! We rode the gondola with a cool local kid who offered to show us a few of his favorite spots. As if the conditions weren't good enough, we got a private tour, taking us to some of the gnarliest, best kept secrets on the mountain. I had two of the best runs of my life that day, not the best, but definitely top 5.
Two days later I headed back to Kicking Horse with MRS EDJ to celebrate New Years. Each day we were there new terrain was opened up. We hiked T1 for the first time and enjoyed soft snow all weekend. Definitely a great couple days!
P1060341 - Version 2 by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
P1060343 by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
The next time we got out was the beginning of February in Whistler. We planned the trip months ahead of time, which is always a bit of gamble. This time we lost. We rode 4 days there and barely saw one centimeter of snow. I felt really out of my element because all of the terrain I like to ride was super tracked out and not worth the pain. The first day I was really discouraged, I sucked hard and everything I tried never really worked out. Decided I need to change the attitude and headed to the park to learn some new tricks (literally). I got backside 3's down and started working on methods. Turned out to be a really fun trip even though I didn't get to ride any of the gnarly terrain or deep snow Whistler is known for. Maybe next time...
P1060379_Snapseed by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
P1060394_Snapseed by
THE EDJ, on Flickr
That's it, that's all.