My first week back at work dragged on and on, I had a couple good days and a couple gnarly ones. Friday was a hellish afternoon and by the time I made it home my brain was numb, all I could think about was getting into the mountains to regroup but rush hour loomed over me so I sat tight til 6ish and then took off. Even then the drive was lengthy, I need a new route. At 8:30 Jeff met me at the shop and we went over all the new stuff I ordered, the stove, tv, and a bunch of little stuff. The foghorns were dialed in and now are louder than ever….makes me pretty happy to sound off at night in the lot now. After all that we went for burgers at a local joint and hung out for a few hours trading stories and watching the honkey tonk band strumming the place up, eventually getting busted by night-timin’ moto-gypsys Jeff and CarolAnne who then caravanned with me to the top of the mountain. I dropped anchor around midnight, a few buddies came over for drinks and then everybody hit the rack around 1:30. Last call, first chair descibed the weekend, and every night would follow this very pattern. The snow was really good over the weekend, as usual we found the prime pow back deep in the trees off of select runs on the front sides of the mountain. Not once did I venture to the backside, the weather was too warm for any quality runs and the chairlifts back there are too slow for me. I get alot of mega fast vert and killer stashes off stuff like Tye Mill and Chief, if you’ve never dug around offsides on either of those chairs then you should, this weekends’ playground was all around the black diamond trees at the powder shack off of Tye. I took a chairlift with a couple skiers who were lamenting the snow on Saturday and I offered to take them with us down to the powdershack (where they store avalanche explosives) and jump around in the tress and mini cliffs but they said we were crazy; I laughed since it really isnt too much, half of it is mental. We did sessions in both areas above each motorhome lots this weekend as well, the snow was spectacular back there but only if you know where to hunt; 500′ above the lower lot was pure crud, just about unrideable in fact but it was overshadowed by the great turns we got just getting there. Saturday night a bunch of us got a table at the Foggy Goggle and watched a quasi Irish Folk band belt out a few standards….one of the few things I cant resist in life is a banjo and fiddle in the same band so i got out and twirled a few girls around on the dancefloor, doing my crooked jigs much to the delight of my friends but only because I was wearing snowboard boots. Dancing a jig and twirling a girl at the same time is impressive, its a wonder I didnt step on any toes. Sunday evening I pulled anchor and headed off the mountain, halfway down the pass…..just above Deadmans corner in fact, I saw a skier hiking up the pass, in boots and poles with skis on the back. I cant imagine what they were thinking when they made the decision to ride down the mountain like that. Needless to say it looked miserable, I looked at coverage from that point and wondered how far he/she had to hike OFF the mountain itself, just to get to the road.

On Friday night a boulder crashed onto Highway 2 just above Leavenworth and kept the road closed for all of Saturday so the mountain was pretty empty, every one there was from Seattle….I thought that was pretty sweet. Check out the size of this thing: (via wsdot)

I love the title WSDOT applied for the photo, “rock in road”. hahaha

Here are the White Rabbits: Percussion Gun

It took me 2 hours to get to the motorhome on friday night, I went my usual route up 5 to highway 2 and through Monroe to get to the drop point, but its taking far too much time in traffic so Im looking for a new route. I dont like the Bothell route, Redmond is ok I guess but Im thinking about going Fall City way next time. Which way do you guys get to Stevens from Seattle?