(Continuing on the catch-up, next is our storm chaser mission, tracking another snowpocalypse in the Mid Atlantic)
An early wake-up (5:30AM) started the mission. We knew the blizzard was coming West to East and PA would be getting it before New York, with heavy accumulations. So, if it started snowing here, it was likely already a disaster there. Our destination was initially Camelback, but a last minute audible switched the plan to Blue.
So after a dark and stormy wake-up, I was greeted with a lovely crust of ice and sleet on everything. Already, I was thrilled with the prospects of the 150 mile drive. Over to Trafalgar, Dong and Brown mounted up and we headed out to Pennsylvania. To check out the rest of the story and some video, hit here!
In my attempt to catch-up on all the goings on in this already packed with excitement Shreduary, I'll start with the most recent trip up to the infamous G305.
Everyone on the East Coast, and over large tracts of out West too, have spent weeks, if not the whole season griping about the lack of killer snow. I won't add onto that much as then to state the obvious. Before we got back to the condo, a classic January rain system swept through the entire North East, and demolished solid snow packs. Everything froze solid and great conditions were ruined.
So in the days preceding this trip, we all anxiously hoped for a few inches here and there to repair the damage done. Thankfully, light repairs were made. With Sugarbush getting something like 10 inches over the span of 10 days and firing their guns at full blast - and it being already February - I really wanted to get up there. Hit here or the header to read on and get the rest of the run down.
With the acquisition of a GoPro a few months back, I've been finding more and more ways to play with it. In the last 14 days, I've ridden something like 9 different mountains. In that time I found a whole plethora of uses and awesome ways to get fun shots. Instead of just rocking it as a helmet cam, I used it as a: chase cam, selfshot out front, wobbly cam pointing out, time lapse, car cam, and that's just the start of it. I've seen online all sorts of different ways guys are playing with these things and getting some really neat effects. As shreduary marches on, I'm sure I'll continue to get some awesome stuff out of it.
In this quick edit I've got some mega fresh pow in Blue Mountain and Cannon, mixed in with some awesome stashes at Saddleback, ME. For a season that has been lacking snow, the last two weeks have found my cameras - and myself - buried in it on multiple occasions.
I must say, I'm particularly psyched that I was filming myself when I caught an edge and front flipped. As opposed to trying to protect my body, I kept that awesome fish eye lens pointed right at me. Wahoo.
Whoa! Would have thought that not having a job would have enabled me to update the blog a whole lot more. And look at me, I even missed the TWO YEAR anniversary of the Boloney Blog. What has caused this delay in updates? Constant shredding of course. The last 14 days have seen great riding at Sugarbush, a powder day at Blue Mountain, PA, and then a mega Shreduary tour all through New England. Updates and run downs for all that will come in good time (I'll be on planes and bored a lot), but first I have exciting news.
I've gotten a piece up at SkiTheEast.net - and couldn't be more psyched - and have finished the accompanying edit. Let's call this piece a condensed version of the three updates I sent while I was in UtahinJanuary. Hope you enjoy the video and story! You can get both by clicking the full report here or at the headline.
As soon as I've left D.C. to hunt powder in the North. The snow stopped going there, and instead came straight to the old apartment in D.C. D.C. is right now, the second snowiest city of the years - that's including the snow belt, places out west, and even the Mid West.
So because of that, and because yet another system doesn't look to make it to VT, we're headed West. No, not Utah, not Colorado, but Quaker land itself, Pennsylvania.
An early departure with a Seenbaru full of boloners off to Camelback. With hopes of a pow day, there is much excitement. Let's hope we can plow through the snow on the highways, skip passed the cops, and make it to some untracked PA paradise. Giddyup.
With XGames, Olympic Training, Dewtour, and the Boloney Battle all gearing up to full swing, the crashes are getting graphic. And ugly. And nearly death-inducing. For years now free skiing and snowboarding have gotten more "extreme" and are now resulting in tricks so complicated and technical that the slightest miscalculation guarantees a hospital visit. My call? Shut it down. Shut it down now. To summarize a few:
Kevin Pearce: Olympic halfpipe training. Trying to go for the double cork - ugh, I hate to even say the phrase - didn't quite make it. On the second off axis rotation, he clipped his toe edge on the deck or top of the wall, and slammed, hard, on his head. Even though he was wearing a helmet, he basically gave himself the scrambler and received a severe traumatic brain injury. And get this, he even had a helmet on. He would have been a dead man riding without one. He went from unresponsive to "recovering" while in a hospital near Park City, Utah. Prognosis, who knows.
Simon Dumont: This time, Xgames training in Aspen, Simon slammed on a double flip (I don't know if it was front or back) and according to ESPN "exploded off the deck." Lovely. He then catapulted all the way to the base of the pipe where he lay for 10 minutes. Ugly.
Danny Davis: Another gold medal contender for the Olympics, this guy got shutdown not on some double back cork mcrodeo, but good old Darwin stupidity. Jumping on a quad at 3am, he slammed into a fence after completing - in I believe a Dewtour stop - perhaps the "greatest half-pipe runs in the history of the sport." So excited, he cracked his pelvis and a vertebrate. Great....
But then, Shaun White is nailing tricks that are truly video-game quality. His most recent, which will likely make it into his Olympic run, not just a double cork, but a double cork mctwist 1260. I'm not sure what that is, but take a look.
These kids are getting out of control and paying the price for it. I'm sure they will all heal up and get back on the slopes, but for sure, the crashes will keep coming.
Winter is here and my job isn't. The apartment is in boxes and the furniture on craigslist. Good bye swamps of the Mid Atlantic, hello True North.
As I take my leave from a big boy job to pursue the dream and become a U.S. tax dollar-sponsored snowboarder, my plans for the great month of Shreduary are in place. Not familiar with Shreduary? It's of course somewhere between Shredember and Smarch. My goal? Simple. Attempt to land 15/30 days of snowboarding. Banged up shin or not, I'm getting the shred on.
Mid week days? Check. Out West trips? Check. Icy frontier of Maine? Check. Everywhere in between? Yes. Boloney on hand sandwiches and keystone light? Check. Growing a grungy stache and developing that magical boot aroma? ... well I already did that.
Too further appease Ullr and the rest of the snow gods (Radio Ron included), I make it my solemn duty to rock the award-winning Onesie as much as physically possible.
If this appeals to you, sign up for the Power Seen Shreduary experience now!
And to get you further amped, check out TRice chatting about the North Face Masters at Snowbird:
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