Month: February 2010

Chevy on the Bunny Hill

Posted on by Smoke

Something like 6 runs for the little girl on the bunny hill today.  She’s not quite on her own yet, but she’s getting close.

She’s getting a bit of a carve there.  You can even see some snow spraying up from the edges (plastic ones though they might be).

I got this pic of some random competitor at the Nor-Am bump comp going on.  I was hitting up some pocket pow inbounds, and popped out of the trees just in time to see this guy throw down a full/full in the bumps.  I can’t get over the level of skiing going on around here.

Ummm…make your own caption.  I can’t do this one justice.

In case you’ve been wondering why I’ve been showing so much skiing and not biking, here’s your answer.

Coaching, Etc

Posted on by Smoke

Now that Jorgen, head of the coaching program for the younger ski racers at Apex, has wrecked his collarbone (a long story involving some high tech skis, and out of control snow blade-r, a rough epoxy job, and some bad judgment while fore running a downhill race), it looks like I’ll be doing lots more coaching.

5 year olds are amazing.

I can remember skiing this mountain when I was six, and believe me, it wasn’t like how these kids ski.

I think part of it might be how they’re sizing skis for kids now.  You used to put your arm straight up in the air, and that was how long your skis were supposed to be.  I like this new program with the short fat boards.  The most impressive part of this gig has been the six year old asian girls.  Double black diamonds and big airtime.  At six.  I love ruining stereotypes.

Speaking of stereotypes, it’s the idjits from North Shore Ski and Board.

If you look carefully, you can see Bret’s tracks off the roof of the ski shop in the background.  It’s amazing how similar those tracks look to a strained MCL in a knee, eh?  Good luck on the rehab, Bret.

Another week, another set of fresh tracks on the north face of the shoulder.  That avvie debris is not as gnarly as it looks from this vantage.   It was a small cornice drop that pushed some light sluff down. Apex remained surprisingly stable all season, and laying down solo runs in the off-piste was not a risky proposition.

Keeping with the Olympic spirit at the local luge track.

Another nice day ending at the Heavens.  Sunshine and cold brews.

More Olympians

Posted on by Smoke

Weird, a sunny day.  Hardly any pow left on the main runs (still lots in the trees though).  Russia, France, and Finland had their Alpine Snowboard teams out training today.  I rode the lift with the Finnish team.  She’s very nice.

Here’s some Frenchy in tight pants.

Actually, I like this one a lot better.  For some reason, she looks a lot better to me in lycra than that other dude.  Must be the light.

A couple of Russkies carving the corduroy for you.

Actually, this one is for Tippie (he still rides the hard plates and a vintage 20th century carving stick when he’s not cackling down mountains on his bike).

Meh, with all that groomed snow around, I had to go for a little walk.

I wish I had the time to get over there, though.  We’re having a big year in the Okanagan for snow.

OK, another Olympian.  Svetlana something or other.  She didn’t have much english, and my Russian is limited to ordering several shots of vodka at a time.

The Mexican snowboard team.  Those birdbrains didn’t qualify for the Olympics, though.

Ahhh, my lunchtime tracks.  You can see last weeks avalanche pretty good from this angle.  It looks worse than it really was.  A bit of cornice fell off.  There’s gonna be a big avvie cycle later, but it’s bomber out there right now.