Dave's Not Here

This page is going to be used to keep track of my ski journal, so I know how many days I have skied / boarded this season!

Total Days Skied / Ridden
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* Pre Season: 2
* Post Season: 21

Lifts Running!
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The below entries start after the season opened. Using lifts instead of hiking runs. Look further down below for some pre-season foolishness.

03/18/2012 {#20120318}
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### Dennis, me & Kids

I skied.

Tude Dudes rocked. Did ok on pow pow. Turns are looking good. Solid intermediate now.

Home run ate me up.

03/11/2012 {#20120311}
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### Pete, Amy and me @ Brighton

Millie Rocked!

Cliff signs saved me

Did a little jump — need to get the vid from pete.

03/06/2012 {#20120306}
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### Bright night skiing – Szoke, Derek, Me, & Chris Price

Did Wren Hollow.

Almost did cliff area 🙂

02/26/2012 {#20120226}
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### Neighborhood trip to Solitude

Bluebird. 2″ fresh. About 8″ of softness & powder in trees.

Took both cars.

Dennis & Family

Nick & Family

Snowboarded first. Did Powderhorn w/ Quinn. Sprayed Quinn & Nick
Tammy fell & hit head.

Got skis and skied a bit. Did parallel turns and skis together turns with Dennis.
Icy Apex w/ Nick (one run)

Got board and hit Honeycomb. Too much heel edge. Definitely a double black, if powderhorn is a single black diamond.

02/07/2012 {#20120207}
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### Brighton – Night Skiing

Attendees: Brad, Derek, Spooner, Sean, Steve

We finally managed to leave on time, and get situated. We were @ Molly Greens at around 4:30, which gave us plenty of time to lubricate a bit before the runs. I noticed last time that the runs after dinner (and beer) were always better than the runs before dinner. I’m not saying that alcohol is required to enjoy the slopes. But, it does help to remove a bit of the fear, and that can be entertaining. So, after a couple of Hops Risings, Derek and I headed up to the top.

Since we were heading out early, we decided to see if Wren Hollow was open. I flew down the cat track . . . Derek passed me, of course. And busted once . . When we got to where it was normally closed after dark, it was open! But, it was labeled as double black diamond!

From Snowboarding 2011/12

I’ve been down it before . . it’s a bit steep, very moguly, but nothing I’d call Double Black . . Oh well, time to try it out.

The run was great. I was really nailing the moguls. There was some exposed rock, so I had to be careful not to gouge my board. What really surprised me were all the people stopped and having trouble. I understand that moguls on a snowboard are really hard, but, many skiers were stopped too!

We got to the steep section, and two skiers were stopped at the top, I assume trying to get the nerve to go. I saw the main run, a little chute entrance. I went right over, assuming that I’d just slow down on the way down the steep. I then learned why the skiers were stopped. There was no room to turn. The rocks turned the little chute into a 20′ or so, straight down chute, with rocks on either side. If I were to try to turn, I’d catch an edge on the rocks, and biff. So, I screamed, “Woah Shit!”, and just went straight down, through the chute, until I could turn and slow down. Nailed it. I’m calling that a double black, hands down 🙂

After passing the moguls, we just headed back to the lift to see if the other guys were there yet. I didn’t want Derek to beat me by too much, so I tried to go fast. I ended up beating him to the lift, so I assume he either went and hit something, or biffed.

A few runs later, Derek mentioned that I was flying down the hill . . . he said that on that return he couldn’t catch me. When I looked at my GPS later that night, I found out that I was going 37.7 MPH. Way too fast. I need to slow the eff down. I also caught an edge while I was going that fast . . . just lucky I didn’t bust.

The whole evening, I busted a lot. I hit the terrain park some, caught a little air once or twice too!

I ended up leaving before dinner. Tammy was missing me, and I didn’t want to stay too late . . . I wanted to hang with the family a bit before bedime.

01/24/2012 {#20120124}
——
### Brighton @ Night – Finally with a base!

Attendees: Brad, Derek, Hunter, Spooner

One of the best Brighton nights yet. I mainly stuck to the steeper stuff, but, instead of taking Hawkeye, I would instead take the little trail through the woods, over to the terrain park.

On the last run of the day, Spooner was following me. I took things a little faster, and managed to find the very high entrance to the terrain park, just under the Majestic lift. All evening, we had been looking at the hidden pockets of powder, that there would be no way to get enough speed to hit. I finally managed to hit them!

The terrain under the Majestic lift was moguly powder. It was really soft, and, wasn’t steep at all, since I was traversing, instead of going down the steep part of the slope. As I was traversing, I realized that if I went straight down, across the resort, I might be able to find some powder. Going that direction, fast, would be impossible if Brighton was crowded. But, the lifts were stopping, and the resort was closing, so, it was easy to avoid people 🙂

I went across the slopes, and found a stash of fresh powder. Went all the way across it, slowing down a little, crossed a run, and found another stash. Now, the powder wasn’t steep, and, it was slowing me down a lot, so, it wasn’t epic or anything. But it was a nice way to end the evening.

01/22/2012 {#20120122}
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###Solitude – First Powder Day!

It finally snowed! 2-3 feet worth! So, we planned on heading up to Solitude with the kids. Angela got sick, and Tammy didn’t want to drive up alone, so it ended up being me, Dennis, and the kids.

We left the kids in line to get in a run, while they were getting their tickets. We were amazed at the quality of the powder. We met back up with the kids, and showed them how to have fun in pow pow. We eased them into it, first finding runs off of Moonbeam, then finally hitting some of the steeper runs off of Apex.

We split up for a bit, and Dennis and I hit Powderhorn. It was pretty eaten up, but, with the steepness, and the powder, it was still fun.

We finally hooked back up with the kids, and decided to try out Eagle Express. I love the blues under Eagle, and I was looking forward to hitting some of the blacks on the top there. I was sure that the kids could handle it, covered with powder and all. But, they got freaked out, and decided to do the main face instead. Took them a long time to get down it, but they did really well. Bailey and Amy did turns all the way down it. Quinn got in a couple of turns, but, basically stuck to heel edge most of it.

After Eagle, the kids were tired, and wanted to do Moonbeam some more. Quinn wanted to do Tude Dude, so we went and found that run. It was one of the better runs of the evening, and was full of pow and bumps. Quinn followed me into the trees, and ended up falling into the powder. Only his head was showing. We took a picture, but it didn’t do justice to the corporeal head floating in the snow. We did Tude Dude twice more, then finally decided to call it a day.

01/17/2012 {#20120117}
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###Brighton – Another icy night

Tonight was probably the iciest night yet at Brighton. And, I learned a while ago, that on ice, it is easier to just go fast, than to try to stop. Brad wasn’t feeling well tonight, so he stayed home.

I followed Derek down a couple of steeps, and tried to stay off of my heel edge.

Like the last icy night at Brighton, I didn’t try anything too hard, because it would hurt if I fell.

We had some Ba Ba Black Lager at dinner. (2 pitchers split between three guys) So, after lubrication, we got a few more runs in. I was having trouble keeping my speed up. And, the wind wasn’t helping either. But, the lubrication helped to keep the speed up. And, I was finally able to scrape off some wax, so I could ptex some of the hits I got at Solitude with Nick & Dennis [#20120108].

01/15/2012 {#20120115}
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###Solitude – Learning to Ski

I wanted to try skiing with my new skis, so I decided to take the kids up to Solitude. I was hoping that the snow would be soft, since there was a small dump a week ago. (It wasn’t)

Tammy was going to come, but, when I checked the temperature online, I had to advise her to wear her hot chilis. That was just enough to convince her not to go.

I got a couple of good runs in. I had to rest about every 2-3 full mountain runs. I’m just not used to skis. The kids came with me, and were happy to rest every couple of runs.

At lunch, I discovered that they had my favorite beer in a can (Johnny’s American IPA)

I was doing so well, I decided to try Apex. I had skied on Apex early in the season, and did fine. But, today was icy. Big difference. The steeps were steep, and solid ice. I ended up having to side slip 200 yards. Every time I tried to do a turn, I’d get an edge hung up (because I was scared), and went back to side slipping.

After I had slid down about 50 yards, I heard a blood curdling scream. Amy was flying down the slopes, head first, on her belly. I quickly assessed the situation, and saw that she wasn’t in any real danger. If she got near the trees, there was powder, which would slow her down. And, it was just a blue slope, so, it would eventually end. However, Amy didn’t know any of those things, and she was scared. It took me 10 minutes to finally get down to her, due to my lack of skill on skis. I was really sad that she had to wait so long for me.

01/08/2012 {#20120108}
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###Solitude – day after a little snow

Saturday it snowed about 6 inches, so we decided to hit Solitude with our new neighbor, Nick. Nick told us that he was a blue skier. We told him that we’d have no problems sticking to the blues.

After a couple of runs, with Nick killing it on the blues, we decided to try to see what Honeycomb Canyon was all about, and headed out. The center line is rated blue when groomed, and black if bumpy. Due to the lack of coverage, though, today was a bit different.

We headed over to the _______ lift, then took the annoying cat track / hooptie runs to get to the summit lift. When I got there, I noticed that there was a sign at the base of the lift. It said, “Thin Coverage / Experts Only”. Dennis had his new S7’s, and I knew he didn’t want to hit any rocks. But, Dennis and Nick were already on the lift. Oh well — I hope they saw the sign.

When we got to the top of the Summit, there was a gate on the way over to Honeycomb Canyon. I have never been there before, but, I was pretty sure you normally did not have to pass through a double black diamond gate. We didn’t want to damage Dennis skis, and, the coverage on the front side, that we could see from the lift, was pretty thin. We finally found someone to ask, and they said that the canyon coverage was better than the front side, so, we decided to go through the gate.

Honeycomb Canyon rocked. Even with thin coverage, there were plenty of powder runs! We had to carefully pick our lines, to avoid rocks and trees, but it was a blast. Dennis started a VERY SMALL sluff avalanche, so we became extra careful, and started going down the steep stuff single file. I found a great run through some trees. I was so excited about the powder run, that, when I found some more powder to jump, I forgot to lean back, and ended up endo-ing face first into a powder bank. I was cracking up 🙂

The slim cat track back was uphill many times. I had to constantly unstrap and walk. If Honeycomb Return was running, it would have been worth it.

All in all, this was the best ski day yet of the season.

01/02/2012 {#20120102}
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###Night Skiing at Brighton

Tonight was our first official team building night. Many people attended, but Hunter couldn’t make it, due to some last minute Jazz tickets.

The super slick ice wasn’t in front of the lift any more like on [#20111220]. But, the mountain was still very hard, and not very forgiving.

On the last run, I attempted a 2′ high rail. I got onto it, but, my center of gravity was off, so I biffed it backward — hard. I’m not sure if I hit the rail, then bounced into the ground, or just bounced into the ground. I didn’t get injured or anything, it was a solid all-body thud 🙂

When returning to my car, I went to just board across the parking lot, like I’ve done the last few weeks. Problem was, the ice had melted. I ended up going across about 4′ of dry asphalt. Mega damage. Ouch!

12/26/2011 {#20111226}
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###Post Christmas Fun with the Kids at Brighton
I have long been told to never go to the slopes the day after Christmas. The reason: Too many kids, with new equipment, who refuse to get lessons. I was bored this year on the 26^th, so, I decided to give it a try . . .

We headed up majestic, then trekked a bit over to a run that would take us to the Snake lift. Finally, we got down to snake, and took that lift up to the peak. From there it was a short cat track to get to Sunshine. I thought the kids would love sunshine. But, they didn’t really seem to like it. Amy was doing great, working on her turns. But, for some reason, Quinn had regressed, and was going heel-edge down the whole mountain.

When we FINALLY got to the base of Snake, Amy needed to go to the bathroom, so we went the rest of the way down, grabbed a snack, and hit the bathrooms.

On the next run, since no one really liked Sunshine (except me), we went straight over to Crest. And, we took the steeper cat track over to the far run. I figured if the kids weren’t riding right, I might as well hit the baby terrain park. At the terrain park, we did have some fun. We hit it 2-3 times, and walked back up each time. The baby park has ski-on / ski-off rails, so you can get the feel of things, without having to jump. I got my mojo back, and the kids got to get a little taste. They soon learned, that, at their level, getting the speed and approach right is harder than the rail itself 🙂 I bet they nail it next time.

12/20/2011 {#20111220}
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###Night Skiing at Brighton

Today was our first official Team Building evening at Brighton. In attendance were: Me, Brad, Derek, David S., Ryan, Hunter, Chris P, and Chris S.

Our first problem was actually meeting up. Seems half of us were in the parking lot, and half of us were behind the building. I’ll send out clear instructions next time.

The evening went about like it did last year. Chris S was learning to board, so he was a bit slow. Chris Price Sr hung back with him a bit. Hunter met a friend at the bar (He always finds people he knows at bars . . . ), who hung with us the rest of the evening, after dinner.

In general, the rate was VERY fast, which was a bit scary, since it was really icy, so falling was going to HURT. It was so icy near the lift, you would lose your edge, every time, no matter how much you tried to avoid it. I’ve never seen ice that slick. Luckily, I did a few spastic maneuvers, but never fell.

We ended up leaving just a few minutes before closing. And, we were all VERY tired. I’m looking forward to our next run on the 3^rd. There’s GOTTA be snow by then!

12/17/2011 {#20111217}
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###Avalanche Training Day 2 (Brighton)

For our second day of avalanche training, we brought snow shoes, just in case. But, we didn’t need them (Not everyone in our group had them). We learned a lot: How to use our probes & Beacon, how to properly dig, and, how to assess snow conditions.

When the class was over, we got to board back down the mountain (one run). But, for that one run, we took Sunshine, Pete’s favorite run. I have to say: I’m a fan. It’s a nice green cruiser. You can really get moving on it if you want, and it’s nice and wide, so, even when there are people on it, there is plenty of room to just carve.

12/16/2011 {#20111216}
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###Solitude Half Day with Dennis

While I was at my Day 1 avalanche training, Dennis invited me to go out on Friday. While I couldn’t take the day off, it was already in my calendar to leave early and ghost the kids. So, Dennis and I ghosted the kids. Dennis snowboarded. I thought about skiing, but, figured he was a better snowboarder than I was a skier, so we just went for it.

The day was great. The snow was even soft. There was some powder near the trees, but going into the trees was a bit sketchy. There wasn’t enough coverage to adequately cover the rocks & branches. After an hour or so, we grabbed some beers, and decided to head to the top of Eagle Lift. That’s where some steeper blues are. And, that’s where Dennis met his match.

There was some foreshadowing. On the way to the base of the eagle lift, on a slightly steep blue, Dennis had to keep to one edge. (So, he got to eat up his thighs). When we got to the top, it was great, until we hit Sundancer (Well — really just the main trail down the Sunshine bowl). Right now, without snow, it is more of a face than a bowl. I know when I stopped to wait for him, every 50 yards or so, whenever I dropped to my knees, I’d start to slide . . . so . . pretty steep, and pretty icy. Dennis did not like it, but he made it down safely. That’s the difference between skis and a board. Of course, now, for payback, he wants me to try that run on skis. I’m going to die.

12/15/2011 {#20111215}
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###Avalanche Training Day 1 (Brighton)

Brad and I showed up for the first day of Avalanche training. All we knew was that we were supposed to bring gear (Probe, Beacon, and Shovel), and that we had to buy a lift ticket. So, we bought two $24 lift tickets (Thank you Pearson’s Nut Roll Discount!), and drug our gear over to the building.

That was when we discovered that the first day was 100% classroom oriented. Crap. But, the class let out at 7:30, and we made it back to the lifts by 8:00 — which gave us an hour to hit the slopes. We hauled ass. We managed to get in 6 runs in an hour. I know I was going close to 30MPH a few times. And, Brad managed to find his speed too — I could barely keep up with him!

11/20/2011 {#20111120}
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###Solitude with Quinn, Amy, Tammy, Dennis, Angela, Bailey, and Tyler

My family does NOT like to get up in the morning. Not even to go skiing. Amy was ready bright and early, at 7:30, but the rest were comotose. Dennis called me around 8:30, and let me know that the roads were clear. Cool — we’ll have company. We finally started heading up around 9:00.

Once we got there, Tammy’s boots immediately started hurting. I was going to try skiing, and, I can’t say mine felt good. But, since they’re so worn (read: old), they weren’t too bad. We got all geared up, started to walk toward the lift when I looked at my skis. I had forgotten to scrape off my summer wax. Yet another 15 min delay while I ask (very nicely) the rental guys to please give my skis a quick buff. I think they both thought I was an idiot.

Finally, out on the slopes. I was VERY happy that skiing came back to me. My new free skis (Thanks, Karen!) are VERY long. So, I couldn’t even start to do wedge turns. Hello parallel ones! I managed to do nice turns even on the steep greens. From the lift, I caught a glimpse of Quinn and Amy, both doing nice turns! They are finally starting to get it! They might be able to stay in the blue ski school class now!

We took a lunch break, where I had another meal of a Murphy’s Stout, washed down with a Murphy’s Stout. And back out to the slopes. The kids wanted to try a different, slightly harder lift, Apex Express. I made it, but, by the time we got back to the top of Moonbeam, I was feeling the fatigue. I decided it was time to get my board on, and hit the hard stuff.

After a nice run down, trip by the car, and a shoe change, it was time to try Eagle. Dennis and I went up it 3-4 times. There was some great powder, much steeper runs, and just all around goodness. On the last run, we explored through the trees, and Dennis found a nice rock to sign his new skis. I felt a few scrapes, but it was always while I was trying to slow down, so I met all the rocks with nice metal edges. All in all the runs were very good, with lots of nice powder. I guess my only complaint would be that the snow was a little shallow. But, what do you expect on November 20th?

I was VERY happy that my ski skills are starting to get better. I hope to explore Alta this season, so I at least need to be really confident on steep blues before I head over. (I’ll have fun with Alta’s free lift until then!)

11/13/2011 {#20111113}
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### Solitude with Quinn, Amy, Brad, Dennis, and Bailey
Three days after the season started, we decided to get a taste. We all piled into Tammy’s Ford Flex (We need a roof rack — badly) and headed for Solitude. Tickets were half off for adults and children, so I got our kids both passes for a bit over $50. (And, I used my prepaid card).

We parked in the wrong section, which meant we had a very slow ride over to the MoonBeam lift area. Dennis needed boots, but, managed to strap in his snow shoes into his board, and made it down the bunny. After getting set up, we started hitting the bunnies. The kids were doing ok. But, they wanted to stay on the bunnies a bit longer. We let the three of them stay together, and we hit the Moonbeam lift a bit. Baily hurt her knee, so she and Dennis headed to the lodge. Brad, Quinn, Amy, and I decided to do one more run before taking a break. About half way down, we decided to try a blue fork. The kids bailed at the last minute, so we told them we’d meet them at the lift. When Brad and I got to the lift, we realized that we were at the WRONG lift, and had to hike about 1/2 a mile back uphill to the kids. Just before we got there, I missed a call from Solitude. Amy had tried to use their phone, but then found Dennis and Baily. Lunch time!

My meal consisted of a Murphy’s Stout, with a Murphy’s Stout to wash it down with. Perfect meal.

After lunch, all of us played a bit more on Moonbeam. We all got a lot better, before taking a second break, and, finally, calling it quits. Very successful first day. Tammy is going to LOVE Solitude.

Pre Season
==========

## 11/06/2011 {#20111106}
### Hiked up Alta for a run with Brad and Dennis

This time, we decided to poach Alta. Well, I was the only one with a board, so, I guess *I* decided to poach Alta :). The climb was much easier than the time at Brighton. The snow was packed, and we climbed up a nicely groomed cat track. When we got about 45 mins in, we had had enough climbing, and decided to try a run. The snow was MUCH better than at brighton. There was some powder, and a lot of nice soft pack. There were some little ice boulders near the bottom, and, then, finally, right at the end, freshly groomed powder. This run was VERY worth the hike up. We were contemplating a second run, but, we ran out of PBRs, and decided to go down the hill and get some dinner instead 🙂

10/07/2011 {#20111007}
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### Hiked up Brighton for a run with Brad

Brad and I decided to try our hand at hiking a run this season. I mean, how hard could it be? *hard!*

It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get just below the big climb up to majestic. (About 3/4 of the way up to Majestic). There was about a foot of fresh powder everywhere. Maybe eighteen inches. When we finally had to start our descent (Tammy was not amused that I was coming home late for this!), the run down was pretty difficult too. It was powder, so it behaved like powder. And, there wasn’t much of a slope, so it was hard to keep my weight back. I busted a few times. Since it was so shallow, it was completely unforgiving when I dipped my front end — even just a little bit.

After the run, we decided that the run was not worth the hike. But, we like to hike. And, hiking up but riding down was much more fun than hiking up, and hiking back down.