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Colors in the wind

I dropped anchor at Stevens Pass sometime around 7pm Friday night, met by a rowdy and fun RV Lot. Lots of new rigs were already there amongst the old guard and most of them had set up shop thoroughly, with outdoor kitchens and good sized crowds. Once settled, half our local crew went up to ride while the rest of us stayed back to build fires and for my part, settle in for the weekend. We spent the evening catching up around my fire, talking stories and planning Saturdays schedules, eventually  racking out around 1am for the 8am rush. Right before I went to bed I realized I forgot just about all of my food, left it in my pickup down at the drop point where I switch from the truck to the moho. Wasnt sure how that would work out so I shrugged it off and went to sleep, knowing I had just enough for a good breakfast.

Saturday was an epic session, we rode/skied for 8 hours straight all over the hill:  in the trees, on the grooms and everything in between.  Our squad had 4 to 8 skiers in it all day at any given time plus a rider and myself as well, we tore the place up. I saw a bunch of people hiking up Chief Bowl on Saturday afternoon since Double Diamond has been out of service for two weeks, I snapped a few shots but they didnt turn out the way I hoped…not nearly as dramatic as it seemed at the time. I heard today that Double Diamond is out for the season which means we too will end up hiking the bowl at some point this month. Its nice up there, one of my favorite spots. Also flirting with disaster is Brokeback Hogsback chair, still running on auxiliary power after at least 2 weeks.  No one really knows what the deal is with that, but its loud and spews alot of deisel in big black exhaust dumps. We always chuckle when it coughs out its smog like clockwork; one of the leading arguments the Mountain is taking to the Forest Service with the issue of letting us park in the Lower Lot (generator use lot only) is the carbon footprint we may or may not be leaving on the environment, thusly staining an otherwise “green” mountain.  Methinks its called: IRONY. Our alleged footprint pales mightily in comparison to their bootstomp. We did notice the Forest Service patrol truck come through the Lot on Friday night, an encouraging sign to all of us, a reminder that we are their guests, on publicly funded, federal land.  If you park in the Lower Lot, join us in attaching your Northwest Forest Pass in the window of your rig, as a sign of support and gratitude to the Forest Service for letting us use the land. If you dont have one, pick it up at any forest service office or your local REI, they cost 30 bucks and guarantee your passage on to any Forest Service lands including the Lower Lot, a trail-head for the Pacific Crest Trail.

On Saturday afternoon we rode down to the motorhomes, exhausted after a full day of snow….the upper conditions on the tree portions were stellar, but the final couple hundred yards to the moho were just brutal. I decided I wont be playing back there again until it snows next….its just gnarly.  Sitting out front of the rig having a drink, a small crowd began to grow and soon enough we were at it hammers and tongs again with the stories and drinks, success and so called failures of the day. I was walking to another motorhome and I slipped on some ice and took a huge fall but saved my drink, then fell down two more times and lost my drink, just trying to get back on my feet from the first fall. I got a few hearty laughs from nearby observers and asked if I needed a sippy cup from now on, so I wouldnt spill. It was pretty funny, I wish I could see it on film, it was a classic fall.

The day ended with another fire, and probably the earliest finish in the history of that crew; all of us racked out at 9:30 and up again @ 7am for a quick session before most of us rolled out for home. The morning found fast groomers on every chair, it was a perfect sesh.  We were sitting  in the lift line before the mountain opened this morning and I saw an old man in a crazy one piece that no doubt was original; the guy looked like a typical gnarly old ski bum and I smiled at him, seeing dudes like him still out there, haggard and old always make me happy; I wondered where he lived, and if he ate breakfast this morning…he was really lean. About an hour later my buddy and I were sitting in a remote section of the mountain just above a black diamond run that was groomed overnight and we heard the snow scuttle above us, turned and saw the old timer in the one piece come screaming down the snow!! It was insane seeing him dominate the hillside which had nothing but scrobble and really poor snow on it, we waved and yelled him on as he flew past us, probably chuckling at the young bucks sitting above a run. We were in fact, planning a hike on a distant ridge for another day but he wouldnt have known that, regardless we both watched him sail down the steep in awe. Good for you, old man. Here we are, picking lines for a hike just moments before the old scrote blew by.

The weekend was good but short. Lately I have been getting up there late and it really cuts into my time but there’s not much that can be done for now so I will keep on showing up as soon as I can. Next week I wont be up til Saturday around 2am but at least I will be there. About my food mishap this weekend: it was kinda cool not having a ton of food around to munch on; everybody offered me plates and so forth but I enjoyed having nothing but a roll of ritz, some hard candy and summer sausage. It reminded me alot of the early days when all my money went to cheap gear and duct tape; food just didn’t matter much when I was broke, or I just knew people who owned restaurants. Will I forget all my food again? Lets hope to Christ not.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget: if you park in the lower lot, get your Northwest Forest Pass.

Hench.