Blind Date

I have only been on one real blind date in my life and it was a disaster. It was in Australia and with a teachers daughter who, for whatever reason, needed a date. So I went and ended up with BO and wanting no part of my date. So I have been a little against blind dates.

But today’s date was not necessarily blind, we had exchanged emails and probed into each others lives through Facebook. So I kinda knew what my date was all about.

But not really. Paul has been riding for awhile but has just converted over to the dynafit splitboard set up, and he is psyched to get after it. So with no real understanding of his comfort levels, physical fitness or snowboarding abilities, we headed up and into the white out. End destination Ursus Minor.

Paul followed us up and around through the whiteout with no real idea where we were taking him. Just an undeserved faith that we would bring him home. He did well. He toured fairly quickly, did not falter at some of the exposure through the small rock steps, and was excited on the summit. He then followed us down the ridge and into the south chute. Which had some pretty decent skiing in it.

I think it will be fun for Paul to return soon and see the terrain he traveled through, since we really saw none of this today. I hope he enjoyed our first “date”.

Breathing deeply

As i mentioned I am pushing hard to finish this month on par. So I didn’t call anyone and headed up solo to Balu. So many skin tracks in anydirection, sometimes its hard to choose. I headed up Ursus Minor, which is always fun and the headed down a new direction to set myself up for Video peak. The ridge ski descent was okay and was a great way to link up to Video. Heading up Video peak I was excited to go ski any aspect, but somehow I couldn’t resist the untracked north chute. Its been 7 years since I skied this line and it felt great to ease into it. Short but steep I would love to really shred this line under nice light. You could let her go and  just enjoy the speed. Today the light was flat so I skied slowly and enjoyed each turn.

Great times and then a loop back around and up 8812 for the third summit of the day. Good turns off the north side and then down Balu. I had hopes to ski up Grizzly but the day was waning and so were my energy levels.  11500 feet of good times.

Playing catch up

Needless to say Las Vegas was enjoyable. There is no place like Vegas, and it has to be seen to be appreciated.Good food, Cirque du Soleil and a total gamble of 11$. Pretty fun.

Due to lots of different reasons, January has not been a huge vertical month for me. First off, I had to get in shape to make big days easier. So that took awhile. Then I had to balance family with obsession and I was heading away from home for 10 days so needed to ensure I had some good kid time. And then I was at the Outdoor retail show and trying to squeeze in skiing around the show. So since I returned from Vegas I have been a little on the hunt. We got home at 7:30pm and by 9:30pm I was touring up our local hot spot. Digging deep and running fast I had 10 000 feet done in around 4.5 hours.Home by 2.15 am.

Then I awoke and had some skiing with my Dad and I met Aaron at 12pm to go in to the Slackcountry. We quickly headed up to the main summit and skied the NE face. When Scott Newsome and I first skied this on April 1 2001 it was the biggest line of my life and possibly one of the first “first descents” of my career. I was so excited and it was epic, I skied the green line and Newsome skied the red line. Today we skied the red line and it was fun. Good in some places and crusty in others.

We then skinned and boot packed up another 1000 foot chute and had some fun and then up and back into bounds for one more chute. Good times, all three lines were new for Aaron, which makes them even more fun.

I sought out some balance and played Dad for awhile and then headed out at 8.30pm to turn my day into another 10 000 feet. Today I skied with the kids; who are both improving daily and then toured 5300 feet at the fingers. Which was remarkably good. So I am catching back up and I should end this month at Par, or just under.