drunkencomputing

Over the past few days, I’ve been trolling ski resort websites, NOAA, and some ski forums to get the stoke level up for the season.  I was excited to see snow flying in pretty much all parts of the mountains…snow in Colorado, plenty of snow falling in Tahoe, and some more snow coming down in Utah.  Just the still images the web cams captured was enough to really get me pysched for the season.  But more than images, I got really geared up when I got…well, geared up.

I bought a new jacket and boots this year.  I figured that four seasons in a jacket that was still perfectly usable, it was time for an upgrade, and that after 3 season on one pair of boots that I was already outskiing, it was time for new boots too.  Last night, I strapped on my boots and wore them around the house like a huge nerd, trying to form them and pack them out a bit so they’d fit good come the start of the season.  The girlfriend thought I was a pretty big dork (it’s true), and it was a pretty good laugh to watch me clomp around the kitchen doing dishes.  But the entire time I was wearing those boots in the house, I wasn’t worried about what I looked like (or sounded like), I was just excited to get back on the snow.

The other exciting part is that a good friend of mine, who’s been skiing longer than I have, finally decided to get off his ass and get geared up properly.  He’s gone out West to go skiing with us a few times, but he’s always borrowing sticks that are more conducive for the mountains.  On top of that, he was still using some old and busted race boots and an old race jacket.  He complained about the need for new equipment (especially that nasty jacket), but never took the stop.  The other day, I got him hooked up.  New boots?  Check.  New Gore-Tex shell?  Check.  New skis?  Check, and CHECK, because not only did he get one pair of bomber skis, he got TWO.

Now he’s even more stoked to ski than I am, and all that does it get me even more excited.  Skiing is great, being in the mountains is even better, and fresh snow and the pure silence of your turns slicing down a open bowl is simply heaven, but in all honesty, skiing is really made wonderful by being able to share it with someone.  And when that person is just as excited as you are, it only helps feed the habit.

Now I’m getting some ski movies in, so I’m going to really get my excitement level going.  And, it’s a little less than two weeks until I’m on a plane to CO to make some early season turns with said friend above.  With all that put together, I’m more than excited…I’m ecstatic.  Here’s to the 2008-2009 season.

The air is getting colder.  The days are growing shorter.  The gear shops are changing inventory.  The turn is happening.

During the turn, my thoughts of golf and backpacking, camping and biking, turn to thoughts of fall camping and leaf watching, snowshoeing and skiing.  But mostly…skiing.  When the weather calls for a frost advisory at night, I get a little chill (literally) thinking that snow is on the way.  When I wake up and go to work and I don’t have to put on my sunglasses, I know that snow is on the way.  And when I start planning what skis I’m going to buy…I know that it’s probably just a boring day at work.

Fact of the matter is, I’m excited for fall and winter.  They are my two favorite seasons.  Fall means winter is near, but also brings about some of the greatest weather…warm days and cool evenings.  Winter of course means skiing and snowshoeing, but also is one of the most quiet and tranquil times of year.

This year’s ski season will be quite different than ones before.  For one thing, two of the people that I constantly ski with have moved out West.  For another, our normal pilgrimage to Utah probably won’t happen for that same reason.  Instead, I may have to go to Colorado for the first time since I strapped skis to my feet.  I’ll also have to go to Tahoe, which I’ve never been to.  On top of that, my quiver has to change as well.  New skis, new skiing locales, and no good friends to ski with make me nervous about the season…but that will never stop me.

The turn is happening.  For better or for worse, it’s happening.  And I couldn’t be happier.

I’m heading to Salt Lake City again for the weekend. While I’m gone, you can check out some of the pictures I’ll be uploading from the Blackberry:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23331&l=aa68f&id=506272688

Word.

482 miles. 30 cans of Coors. Two resorts. One bottle of Schnapps. These are the numbers reflect the first weekend ski trip since April.

Dave and I packed up late Friday night to head down to Wild Mountain for the first turns of the 2007/2008 season. We awoke at 7am after a night of White Russians at the Belknap and warm Beefeater/Tonics at home to drive the two hours to Taylors Falls, MN, where one run (as opposed to the “4 to 6 runs” they said they would have open) awaited the poaching. It was the real White Ribbon of Death: 500-600 feet of super-soft man-made snow. On top of it, only one lift tended to the crowd of 300 who hoped to get early-season turns in.

Dave and I met one other guy from the shop and Josh, who amazingly came out to play. We skied through the throng of people all day, stopping only to swap out skis at the demo tents they had setup. Fortunately, we got comp’ed the lift ticket and the demo fee (read: free) so even though it was busy as balls and the snow was shit, it was free, and hey—turns are turns.

Throughout the day, we waited anxiously for word to come in if Lutsen Mountains would be open on Sunday. Lutsen had missed their opening day that day (Saturday, the 18^th) due to poor weather for snow-making. Finally, at 3:30pm we called and they said they’d be open. We were relieved: no more skiing the gnar at Wild and dealing with the gapers and wanna-be gangsta park rats. Although we were going to miss what surely would have been a drunken night in Taylors Falls, we were happy to go back to our Alma Mater and make turns in the much longer and less-busy Lutsen. We had been anxiously awaiting the day Lutsen would open for months: checking their snow report, calling the resort, and praying to whatever Gods we wanted for optimal weather for snow making (wishing for snow at this point in the season would just be a waste of a good prayer).

At the end of the day at Wild Mountain, we met up with a rep and went to dinner at the Border Bar in Taylors Falls, MN. The burgers were delicious and the beer was cold. It was the perfect end to a decent enough day. We piled back in the car, gassed up—forgetting to pay for the gas on the way out of North Branch (which I did call them up and pay for over the phone with a credit card later)—and headed back to Superior. We crashed out early—9pm—and awoke the next day for the turns that we felt were now owed to us.

We got a hold of Kelly—who hasn’t skied with us for over a year—and headed out around 8am. We got to Lutsen at 9:30am, got our season passes, and waited for the lift to open. As it turned out, the lift wasn’t going anywhere that morning. Apparently the snow-making crew left a snow gun under a lift tower which froze up a cable and the fly wheels. So we sat around the trunk of my car, listening to music and drinking Coors Light. I lost a bet for $5 to Dave about if Ryan Phillpe was in “Hackers” (he wasn’t). Finally, after an hour of arduous work by the staff at Lutsen, the chairs were spinning and we were making lightening fast turns down Ullr mountain. There was only one run open, but that didn’t matter: it was dead, with maybe 25 or so other people there. The snow was the best man-made I’ve been on in a long time: firm and well groomed. My new Elan Speedwave 14s edged so well I wanted to cry. The turns were almost automatic, instead of the super-forced turns from the day before in the slushy snow of Wild Mountain. We skied as many runs as the slow-ass lift at Lutsen would allow, then would take short breaks to drink some beers. We had lunch at Rosie’s Café, then went back out and made more turns. Kelly skied my Speedwaves (she loved them), and then she skied the longest skis she’s ever been on—181s. I skied my favorite skis ever (the Elizabeths) and we just enjoyed the waning hours of the day.

When it was all over for the day, we sat around the back of my car again, drinking Coors and talking about skiing trips. We stayed there for a couple hours, enjoying the setting I’d missed for so many months: surrounded by ski hills and snow. We hopped in the car after we felt we’d had enough enjoyment, and headed back to Superior.

Today—nearly two days later—my shins are bruised as hell, and my calves and thighs are sore. It’s OK, though. I got my first-season turns in. I know I’m out of shape in the legs area and that’s OK too. The only thing I can hope for now is colder weather so Spirit and Lutsen can make more snow, and I can get more turns in and get in better shape before the main ski trips for the season.

So it wasn’t a glorious ski trip. The snow was man-made and it was busy. The weather was warm and the runs limited. But, like someone once said, “turns are turns,” and I got ‘em.

I came across this from another forum, and thought it worth sharing: Accuweathr blog: Madness Winter Outlook.

I like that the guy is optimistic about the winter, saying we’ll get our fair share of snow this year. I’ve been checking out the NOAA predictions, and they do show that we will bode better for snow in the Midwest than last year, but their predictions only show “average” amount of snow fall. Since last year was rated as “significantly below average,” I’m happy with “average.” But now I read this dude’s blog (not sure who he is, or how right he’s been, just that he’s a weather dude), and it gives me hope.

Let’s review last year’s snow situation:

Ski hills, such as Spirit Mountain, were significantly delayed in their opening days. Spirit missed their opening by a few weeks, if I recall. Lutsen made their opening weekend, but they suffered without having enough quality snow-making weather to actually get as many runs opened as they wanted. The season progressed with extremely limited snow fall, but temperatures managed to plane out enough to allow for snow-making.

When we did get snow fall–the natural stuff–it didn’t stay long. At least twice that I can recall (once in December) I went to Spirit to enjoy 3-5″ of fresh, only to find it slushy and slow–and foggy! It was ridiculous.

The season hung on, and then gave us a last-gasp dumping of 20th-century-Midwest blizzard-like conditions around March. Most of the ski hills were at their limited hours, however, so people didn’t get to enjoy the snow (except those who hiked). Still, all the resorts made their tentative closing dates: temperatures allowed for the mostly man-made base to loiter into the twilight of the season.

In the upper peninsula of Michigan, however, things were different. I got three trips to the U.P. in, and all of them blessed with snow. The first was a last-minute trip to Bessemer, where we enjoy 8″ of fresh (other nearby areas got up to 2 feet of snow, as Josh pointed out when he called, as he almost literally passed me on the highway coming back from Bessemer from a snowmobiling trip). The next trip to the waaaay northern tip of the U.P. we got fresh snow at least the day before, and during (though not much). Already there was a large amount of accumulation, and we hand shin-deep snow for most of our turns, and the people we were sledding with also enjoyed a similar time. The last trip occurred in the middle of April–APRIL–when a front moved through the Lake Superior region, and piss-pounded 4 feet on the U.P. Our favorite Yooper resort, Mount Bohemia, opened back up and we–along with 6-10 other hardcores–got to enjoy mid-April turns…something unheard of in the Midwest.

In the mountain area (specifically Utah), we again got blanked…not a single powder day. Snow conditions in the mountains seemed favorable to us (of course, we’d take pretty much anything due to conditions in the Midwest), but according to a lot of the locals, it was down from what it normally was. The second trip we got to enjoy optimal spring coverage as well. But still, the locals complained it was lower than normal.

So the snow conditions were mostly bleak last year. We’re in need of something better. We DESERVE it. I’m rallying behind this guy’s outlook, because for one, I love the snow. For two, NOAA said he’s probably not that far off the mark.

And three, we need the fucking snow. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.