Monday, May 05, 2008
Cinco de Mayo @ Alpental
Cinco de Mayo at Alpental with Adria, Bjorn, Dickerson, Teague, and about 6 or so others that Bjorn and those guys know who met us up. It was a sunny day, clear sky morning but the lines were horrendous. Only managed one run before we went to tail gating, drinking corona's and bbqin up some foods for a couple hours. Tried to go back around 2pm and the lines were still long but cleared up finally around 3ish. All in all, did 2 runs on chair 2, down international to sessel and then a run into snake dance, followed by a inspiration/debbie's run and a cascade traverse, which was alot more fun than i last remembered.
Waxing makes a big difference, i waxed my board with the quick flourowax stuff and it worked wonders. Too bad this may be the last snow day for me this seasaon.
...And here's some tail gating pictures:
Waxing makes a big difference, i waxed my board with the quick flourowax stuff and it worked wonders. Too bad this may be the last snow day for me this seasaon.
...And here's some tail gating pictures:
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| Alpental Cinco de Mayo |
Labels: events, hobbies, snowboarding, sports
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Alpental $5 Day / Last Ski Day
I'll be going up Monday with Bjorn, Chris, and Adria, amongst others. Go and look for us!
In celebration of yet another Cinco de Mayo celebrated on Alpental's slopes, we'll be selling $5 lift tickets on Monday, May 5th, 2008 (our last scheduled day of operations). Not a good enough reason to come up on a Monday? 100% of ticket sales will be donated to Outdoors for All. Help us in supporting this great cause and get in your last turns of the season!
Also, don't forget to join us all weekend for our other Cinco de Mayo weekend events including an opportunity to win an 08-09 Big S Pass!
Labels: events, hobbies, snowboarding, sports
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Recent Photos
Here's some recent galleries I posted on Picasa, but didn't link from the blog.
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| April 25/26, 2008 Night Life |
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| Silver Fir Snow Day - April 19, 2008 |
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| Final Weekend Snow Days |
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| Stevens Pass - April 06, 2008 |
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| Alpental - April 08, 2008 |
Labels: events, life, snowboarding
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Snow Days Countdown
Here's a list of the day by day snow report for a most amazing 2007-08 snowboarding season for me.... the season isn't over yet either. My goal is to reach 30 by season's end, apparently being May 5th most likely!
Day 30: Snoqualmie Central 04/19
Went up to Silver Fir for some runs for the extended season and it was snowing! 9" of new snow over night!!! It was weird; like being in a thermal cycle chamber (for you nerds) where every run we got completely different weather conditions. One run would be snowing, the next would be sunny and HOT, then you'd be cold and windy.... very odd. It kept going back and forth all day. But I had alot of fun and going "extreme" or as extreme as you can on Silver Fir/Central Express. Anyway, went with Dean and met up with Laura and later Nate. Fun times; and possibly my last of the year? (doubtful)
Day 29: Stevens Pass 04/13
Final day at Stevens for the season, and it was a nice sunny bluebird. I went with my cousin Alex as usual, and we were going to go with our other cousin Loan but she canceled at literally the last second (like 745am). Today was even slower than Saturday's adventure at Central. The slush was thick and deep. We stayed mostly on groomers again, but found at least one or two good hits and jumped off the top of some rocks on the backside. It was fun.
Day 28: Snoqualmie Central 04/12
Parked at Silver Fir and did runs all over Central with Dean and met up with Kevin. Sarah was there but didnt see her at the mountain, but met her and Kevin up afterwards for dinner. It was beautiful blue bird day though it was all slush. very slow day. we did the little park stuff on the left of Holiday, and that was a little bit of fun. Otherwise, mostly did groomers. This was also the last day for Silver Fir/Central for the season. Sad. :(
Day 27: Stevens Pass 04/06
Went with Alex. It was a little rough, but you can find powder if you look for it. We did, and there was still some great untracked goods out there if you went a bit out of the groomers on the back side. Lots of goodness at the bottom of the bowl. We found some good hits and some new stuff we hadnt seen before. It was a tiring, yet fun day.
Day 26: Alpental 04/05
Went with Dean and Kevin and met up with Laura. Lots of Chair 2 action. Did a run in the bowl and did not like the dust on hard ice feel. Went to the International side and it was great! Did some various runs all over the map and entered into back country a bit in the Elevator gate after Snake Dance. Lots of fun and lots of cool pictures.
Day 25: Steven's Pass 03/30
The third day of three beautiful powder spring days for this weekend. Went with Alex, Jennifer, Brian, and Pete. Kevin, John, Roldan, and Tara were suppose to meet us but couldn't ever get a hold of them. They probably were doing 7th Heaven runs, I'd assume. I stuck with my cousin Alex for most of the day and we went practically everywhere in the Mill Valley backside. Found as much powder as we could through the tree/wooded areas, traversed a little bit, and hit the drops that we were doing last week. Didn't do too much on the front side except for the warmup on Hogsback down International and a final run on Skyline where I was practically dead after 3 days of powder. My legs are going to hate me tomorrow morning, I already know it. I also got a a season pass to Stevens. Dual membership baby.
Day 24: Alpental 03/29
We only managed 4 runs but they were awesome. Dean and I went and did Chair 2 at Alpental with 1 run down International to Felsen, followed by 1 run in the Eidenweis bowl by way of Shluct. That run was fantabulously powder city, as people had not been doing the bowl or something...
Then around 1 or so, Snake Dance opened up and we did two runs down International and into Snake Dance for some of the best terrain I've done all year. It was much better today in that area than the last time I went in January. On the last run, we managed to go into parts of Elevator... oops. Oh well, tons of fun!
we also ran into Bjorn and Teague between the Snake Dance runs. Yay. They looked beat just like we did. :)
Day 23: Crystal Mountain 03/28
First time ever at Crystal and it was glorious. powder heaven! Tons of new stuff on the ground and it was dumping more. I went with Kevin and 3 of his co-workers on our hooky day. Pretty good soft goods.
Day 22: Stevens Pass 03/21
Awesome powder day. My cousin, Alex, and I went with Jennifer and Eric. Alex and I did alot of the tree lines near International on the Hogsback chair and then we went over to the backside and did lots of Jupiter lift runs cutting to the left at the bottom of the first hill, where there were some awesome ledge drops to play on. I was pretty nervous doing it the first time but after landing in a field of pow, it was so much more fun - we kept doing this a few times, later a group made a jump there hah! We proceeded to the tree lines before the cat track on each run... fun times. We also did more hogsback tree stuff and did a single skyline skybowl run and a tye bowl cross over back to the main area.
Day 21: Stevens Pass 03/16
went to stevens with Jennifer, Adria, and Tommy... we did some backside, and hogsback runs for most of the day. lots of fresh snow and lots of fun. yay.
Day 20: Whistler 03/09
Second snow day of the trip was foggy and snowing and occasionally windy, but it cleared up in the afternoon for some great post-snow snowboarding. Mmmm love this resort.
Day 19: Blackcomb 03/08
4cm of new snow and sunny skies plus my first time at whistler. it was great. its like heaven. went on this trip with my cousins vu and alex (babe) and dean
Day 18: Snoqualmie Central Summit 03/02
Went today with Jennifer. Triple 60 was shut down so we moved quickly through Holiday and Gallery and took Jennifer to Central Express for some Alpine and Golden Nugget runs (she's a beginner for the most part). The snow was great, the sun was shining, and just perfect conditions to do stuff in. Did my usual salvo of hits on Alpine and Golden Nugget, and landed basically all of them. Feeling way more confident in myself with those things. After mapping out the entire area with Kevin and Jake over the many times we've done Central, there's so many areas that are pretty awesome in the mountain. Need to do a bit more exploring on Silver Fir runs though, but that area is full of great stuff. Central (ski acres) is pretty underrated I think, because its clumped with the term "Snoqualmie" which used to be exclusive the West summit, which basically sucks. People need to see the other good stuff in the snoqualmie area like Silver Fir, Hyak, and the awesome Alpental Chair 2.
Day 17: Steven's Pass 03/01
Went to Stevens with Scott. It was his first time going in a few years! There was 6" of new POW and more during the day to replenish the goods. It sorta sucked for scott though, cause he couldnt see nor had goggles. My fault really. Anyway, riding on fresh pow was awesome especially after 3+ weeks of no new snow.
Day 16: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/26
Night skiing with Mike C and Dan C and a whole cast of other people, i probably forgot everyone's name but lets met think: dimay, joe, faye, bruce, ahh shoot i forget there was a bunch of people. :)
conditions were alright, actually pretty good for what the weather's been like. did a bunch of express runs, mostly golden nugget, and also tried out central park stuff. was pretty much a fun time.
Day 15: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/23
Did a bunch of Triple 60 and Express runs at Central. Mostly did Golden Nuggets and the various faces off of Triple 60. Went with Dean, Jake, Kevin, Kate, Patricia, and met up with Laura at the mountain. The snow melted creating some a soft surface but it hardened up around 4pm or so and it was only a couple more runs before we gave up.
Day 14: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/16
Went on a bunch of Silver Fir and Central Express runs with Kevin, Nate, and Lan. Not very crowded surprisingly, and snow was still pretty decent despiite lack of snow and some rain fall. Stayed to do a couple night runs but it was very hard compact by then.
Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!
Day 13: Diamond Peak @ Incline Village - Lake Tahoe 02/10
Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!
Day 12: Squaw Valley USA - Lake Tahoe 02/09
Went to tahoe with Neil. Day 1 was at Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Did runs all over the mountain, mostly on my own as Neil hurt his foot early on with some smaller than fit rental boots. Beautiful scenery, so-so runs.
Day 11: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/03
did silver fir and central express runs and did a couple of triple 60s on super bowl sunday. First time the place was fully open since the huge 6+ feet of snow in the past few days. The roads were completely bare, DOT did a great job. Only hang up was that the Avalance Control, done by helicopters (!!!) at Alpental took way too long and shut down I90 til 330 or 4pm. So I ended up missing half of the super bowl, but I got back to watch the most exciting parts... great game!
Day 10: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/28
night-time snowboarding with Dean, Svet and Josey. Mostly stayed on Central Express goofing off on lips and jumps with Josey, and then did some Triple 60 stuff with Dean.
Day 09: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/26
Went with Jake, Dean and Kate - met up with Laura.
Did some triple 60s and silver fir runs... and some bunny slope stuff with the newb kate
Day 08: Snoqualmie Summit Central & Mt Hyak 01/19
went with Jake and Kristina. The traverse was long to Hyak, but the way back was so much easier. Silver Fir is awesome. Lots of neat trails and stuff. Too bad the lift took FOREVER to get up. Mt Hyak (East Summit) was awesome too. Both places had nice powder spots, and Hyak had some really good tree-lines to go through and around. No lines here. Yes!
Day 07: Snoqualmie Summit West 01/16
Wild Side Wednesdays @ West - went with Bjorn, Kevin, Nate, and Laura for night ski action.
Day 06: Alpental 01/10
Night skiing with Catherine, Sarah, Kevin... met up with one of our managers and program managers
Day 05: Stevens Pass 01/05
2nd time up for Lan and Kristina... Alex (babe) and I went to the backside for the majority of the day... tons of good stuff back there.
Day 04: Alpental 12/31
NYE at Alpental - went with Ted, Marko, Don, and a couple others. First time I went up to Chair 2 and International in 5 years... it was great!
Day 03: Alpental 12/27
Went to Alpental with a bunch of people: Kevin, Roldan, John, Dean, Prof. Flinn, and Pete from work. Actually all of us work at Boeing... anyway, fun times!
Day 02: Stevens Pass 12/22
Took my sister Kristina and cousin Lan up for the first time ever! Also went with cousins Alex and Vu, and friend Deaniac!
Day 01: Meadows @ Mt Hood 12/17
Awesome day to kick-off the year. Went to Mt Hood with a bunch of friends. Half the people went to Meadows... it was good times.
Day 30: Snoqualmie Central 04/19
Went up to Silver Fir for some runs for the extended season and it was snowing! 9" of new snow over night!!! It was weird; like being in a thermal cycle chamber (for you nerds) where every run we got completely different weather conditions. One run would be snowing, the next would be sunny and HOT, then you'd be cold and windy.... very odd. It kept going back and forth all day. But I had alot of fun and going "extreme" or as extreme as you can on Silver Fir/Central Express. Anyway, went with Dean and met up with Laura and later Nate. Fun times; and possibly my last of the year? (doubtful)
Day 29: Stevens Pass 04/13
Final day at Stevens for the season, and it was a nice sunny bluebird. I went with my cousin Alex as usual, and we were going to go with our other cousin Loan but she canceled at literally the last second (like 745am). Today was even slower than Saturday's adventure at Central. The slush was thick and deep. We stayed mostly on groomers again, but found at least one or two good hits and jumped off the top of some rocks on the backside. It was fun.
Day 28: Snoqualmie Central 04/12
Parked at Silver Fir and did runs all over Central with Dean and met up with Kevin. Sarah was there but didnt see her at the mountain, but met her and Kevin up afterwards for dinner. It was beautiful blue bird day though it was all slush. very slow day. we did the little park stuff on the left of Holiday, and that was a little bit of fun. Otherwise, mostly did groomers. This was also the last day for Silver Fir/Central for the season. Sad. :(
Day 27: Stevens Pass 04/06
Went with Alex. It was a little rough, but you can find powder if you look for it. We did, and there was still some great untracked goods out there if you went a bit out of the groomers on the back side. Lots of goodness at the bottom of the bowl. We found some good hits and some new stuff we hadnt seen before. It was a tiring, yet fun day.
Day 26: Alpental 04/05
Went with Dean and Kevin and met up with Laura. Lots of Chair 2 action. Did a run in the bowl and did not like the dust on hard ice feel. Went to the International side and it was great! Did some various runs all over the map and entered into back country a bit in the Elevator gate after Snake Dance. Lots of fun and lots of cool pictures.
Day 25: Steven's Pass 03/30
The third day of three beautiful powder spring days for this weekend. Went with Alex, Jennifer, Brian, and Pete. Kevin, John, Roldan, and Tara were suppose to meet us but couldn't ever get a hold of them. They probably were doing 7th Heaven runs, I'd assume. I stuck with my cousin Alex for most of the day and we went practically everywhere in the Mill Valley backside. Found as much powder as we could through the tree/wooded areas, traversed a little bit, and hit the drops that we were doing last week. Didn't do too much on the front side except for the warmup on Hogsback down International and a final run on Skyline where I was practically dead after 3 days of powder. My legs are going to hate me tomorrow morning, I already know it. I also got a a season pass to Stevens. Dual membership baby.
Day 24: Alpental 03/29
We only managed 4 runs but they were awesome. Dean and I went and did Chair 2 at Alpental with 1 run down International to Felsen, followed by 1 run in the Eidenweis bowl by way of Shluct. That run was fantabulously powder city, as people had not been doing the bowl or something...
Then around 1 or so, Snake Dance opened up and we did two runs down International and into Snake Dance for some of the best terrain I've done all year. It was much better today in that area than the last time I went in January. On the last run, we managed to go into parts of Elevator... oops. Oh well, tons of fun!
we also ran into Bjorn and Teague between the Snake Dance runs. Yay. They looked beat just like we did. :)
Day 23: Crystal Mountain 03/28
First time ever at Crystal and it was glorious. powder heaven! Tons of new stuff on the ground and it was dumping more. I went with Kevin and 3 of his co-workers on our hooky day. Pretty good soft goods.
Day 22: Stevens Pass 03/21
Awesome powder day. My cousin, Alex, and I went with Jennifer and Eric. Alex and I did alot of the tree lines near International on the Hogsback chair and then we went over to the backside and did lots of Jupiter lift runs cutting to the left at the bottom of the first hill, where there were some awesome ledge drops to play on. I was pretty nervous doing it the first time but after landing in a field of pow, it was so much more fun - we kept doing this a few times, later a group made a jump there hah! We proceeded to the tree lines before the cat track on each run... fun times. We also did more hogsback tree stuff and did a single skyline skybowl run and a tye bowl cross over back to the main area.
Day 21: Stevens Pass 03/16
went to stevens with Jennifer, Adria, and Tommy... we did some backside, and hogsback runs for most of the day. lots of fresh snow and lots of fun. yay.
Day 20: Whistler 03/09
Second snow day of the trip was foggy and snowing and occasionally windy, but it cleared up in the afternoon for some great post-snow snowboarding. Mmmm love this resort.
Day 19: Blackcomb 03/08
4cm of new snow and sunny skies plus my first time at whistler. it was great. its like heaven. went on this trip with my cousins vu and alex (babe) and dean
Day 18: Snoqualmie Central Summit 03/02
Went today with Jennifer. Triple 60 was shut down so we moved quickly through Holiday and Gallery and took Jennifer to Central Express for some Alpine and Golden Nugget runs (she's a beginner for the most part). The snow was great, the sun was shining, and just perfect conditions to do stuff in. Did my usual salvo of hits on Alpine and Golden Nugget, and landed basically all of them. Feeling way more confident in myself with those things. After mapping out the entire area with Kevin and Jake over the many times we've done Central, there's so many areas that are pretty awesome in the mountain. Need to do a bit more exploring on Silver Fir runs though, but that area is full of great stuff. Central (ski acres) is pretty underrated I think, because its clumped with the term "Snoqualmie" which used to be exclusive the West summit, which basically sucks. People need to see the other good stuff in the snoqualmie area like Silver Fir, Hyak, and the awesome Alpental Chair 2.
Day 17: Steven's Pass 03/01
Went to Stevens with Scott. It was his first time going in a few years! There was 6" of new POW and more during the day to replenish the goods. It sorta sucked for scott though, cause he couldnt see nor had goggles. My fault really. Anyway, riding on fresh pow was awesome especially after 3+ weeks of no new snow.
Day 16: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/26
Night skiing with Mike C and Dan C and a whole cast of other people, i probably forgot everyone's name but lets met think: dimay, joe, faye, bruce, ahh shoot i forget there was a bunch of people. :)
conditions were alright, actually pretty good for what the weather's been like. did a bunch of express runs, mostly golden nugget, and also tried out central park stuff. was pretty much a fun time.
Day 15: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/23
Did a bunch of Triple 60 and Express runs at Central. Mostly did Golden Nuggets and the various faces off of Triple 60. Went with Dean, Jake, Kevin, Kate, Patricia, and met up with Laura at the mountain. The snow melted creating some a soft surface but it hardened up around 4pm or so and it was only a couple more runs before we gave up.
Day 14: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/16
Went on a bunch of Silver Fir and Central Express runs with Kevin, Nate, and Lan. Not very crowded surprisingly, and snow was still pretty decent despiite lack of snow and some rain fall. Stayed to do a couple night runs but it was very hard compact by then.
Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!
Day 13: Diamond Peak @ Incline Village - Lake Tahoe 02/10
Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!
Day 12: Squaw Valley USA - Lake Tahoe 02/09
Went to tahoe with Neil. Day 1 was at Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Did runs all over the mountain, mostly on my own as Neil hurt his foot early on with some smaller than fit rental boots. Beautiful scenery, so-so runs.
Day 11: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/03
did silver fir and central express runs and did a couple of triple 60s on super bowl sunday. First time the place was fully open since the huge 6+ feet of snow in the past few days. The roads were completely bare, DOT did a great job. Only hang up was that the Avalance Control, done by helicopters (!!!) at Alpental took way too long and shut down I90 til 330 or 4pm. So I ended up missing half of the super bowl, but I got back to watch the most exciting parts... great game!
Day 10: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/28
night-time snowboarding with Dean, Svet and Josey. Mostly stayed on Central Express goofing off on lips and jumps with Josey, and then did some Triple 60 stuff with Dean.
Day 09: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/26
Went with Jake, Dean and Kate - met up with Laura.
Did some triple 60s and silver fir runs... and some bunny slope stuff with the newb kate
Day 08: Snoqualmie Summit Central & Mt Hyak 01/19
went with Jake and Kristina. The traverse was long to Hyak, but the way back was so much easier. Silver Fir is awesome. Lots of neat trails and stuff. Too bad the lift took FOREVER to get up. Mt Hyak (East Summit) was awesome too. Both places had nice powder spots, and Hyak had some really good tree-lines to go through and around. No lines here. Yes!
Day 07: Snoqualmie Summit West 01/16
Wild Side Wednesdays @ West - went with Bjorn, Kevin, Nate, and Laura for night ski action.
Day 06: Alpental 01/10
Night skiing with Catherine, Sarah, Kevin... met up with one of our managers and program managers
Day 05: Stevens Pass 01/05
2nd time up for Lan and Kristina... Alex (babe) and I went to the backside for the majority of the day... tons of good stuff back there.
Day 04: Alpental 12/31
NYE at Alpental - went with Ted, Marko, Don, and a couple others. First time I went up to Chair 2 and International in 5 years... it was great!
Day 03: Alpental 12/27
Went to Alpental with a bunch of people: Kevin, Roldan, John, Dean, Prof. Flinn, and Pete from work. Actually all of us work at Boeing... anyway, fun times!
Day 02: Stevens Pass 12/22
Took my sister Kristina and cousin Lan up for the first time ever! Also went with cousins Alex and Vu, and friend Deaniac!
Day 01: Meadows @ Mt Hood 12/17
Awesome day to kick-off the year. Went to Mt Hood with a bunch of friends. Half the people went to Meadows... it was good times.
Labels: snowboarding
Monday, March 31, 2008
Mill Valley: Falling off Hills
Take the Jupiter or Tye Mill chair on the backside of Stevens (aka Mill Valley) and go straight down the initial hill of Gemini. Then proceed to the left at the bottom into a small cat track and then go straight towards the first hill at the bottom of Corona Bowl. Then hit that, and go straight up (with a small hike) to the next hill, and hit that again, and then go down into some powder-ful tree lines. W3rd.
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| Mill Valley Video Snapshots - 03/30/2008 |
Labels: snowboarding
Tragic Snowboarding: Live at Whistler 2008
Here's some snapshots from footage taken at our recent Whistler/Blackcomb trip earlier this month.
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| Whistler 2008 Video Snapshots |
Labels: snowboarding
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Ant Update
Not been posting lately but that's because I've been pretty busy lately. Been doing OT days at work alot lately, going out every night, and snowboarding the weekends. Whistler trip was awesome, and been doing alot of Stevens snowboarding lately, which has been great. I haven't used my Snoqualmie/Alpental pass in almost a month now, so I need to get back into the swing of things there.
Other than that, I guess I'm out of hibernation now, and am going out alot again. I've been going to shows, hanging out, it's been fun. I'm also really strongly considering buying a home now, might put an offer down on a place soon, and I just recently paid off my car loan with a big lump sum! yay.
Apparently I'm also going to be a Seahawks season ticket holder next year! Wooohoo! Thanks to Sean for allowing me to take over his package next season, but it'll be sad to see you move out of town.
Scott's only here for another week and half or so too. And Neil's in town this week but I haven't had a chance to see him yet... lots of stuff to do, and so little time to do it. I sort of hate being responsible.
Other than that, I guess I'm out of hibernation now, and am going out alot again. I've been going to shows, hanging out, it's been fun. I'm also really strongly considering buying a home now, might put an offer down on a place soon, and I just recently paid off my car loan with a big lump sum! yay.
Apparently I'm also going to be a Seahawks season ticket holder next year! Wooohoo! Thanks to Sean for allowing me to take over his package next season, but it'll be sad to see you move out of town.
Scott's only here for another week and half or so too. And Neil's in town this week but I haven't had a chance to see him yet... lots of stuff to do, and so little time to do it. I sort of hate being responsible.
Labels: life, snowboarding, sports
Monday, March 03, 2008
Last Post: Follow-Up
My friend brought up this topic at lunch today, kinda coincidentally, about Snoqualmie. He thinks I'm crazy because I think the Snoqualmie area is cool. I bet alot of people do, but then again, alot of people haven't gone to the 2nd chair of Alpental, or even knew there were more lifts on the other side of the trees of Central Express, or even do any sort of tree lines, powder stuff, or know what Hyak is (because its the farthest east on the freeway):
Here are my fav mts I've been to:
1. Insert Whistler/Blackcomb here as 1/2 following this weekend
2.
3. Mt Baker
4. Meadows
5. Alpental
6. Silver Fir (Ski Acres)
7. Mill Valley (Steven's)
8. Steven's (front side)
9. Squaw Valley
10. Hyak
11. Central/Ski Acres
12. Incline/Diamond Peak
13. West
need to visit Crystal!
Here are my fav lifts of the NW that I can remember the names of (which are going to be composed of stuff from Snoqualmie and Stevens):
1. Edelweiss (Chair 2) at Alpental
2. Silver Fir at Central
3. Jupiter at Stevens
4. Southern Cross at Stevens
5. Keechelus at Hyak
6. Armstrong Express at Alpental
7. Central Express at Central
8. Tye Mill at Stevens
9. Skyline at Stevens
10. Triple 60 at Central
11. Hogsback at Stevens
12. Wild Side at West
13. Pacific Crest at West
Here are my fav mts I've been to:
1. Insert Whistler/Blackcomb here as 1/2 following this weekend
2.
3. Mt Baker
4. Meadows
5. Alpental
6. Silver Fir (Ski Acres)
7. Mill Valley (Steven's)
8. Steven's (front side)
9. Squaw Valley
10. Hyak
11. Central/Ski Acres
12. Incline/Diamond Peak
13. West
need to visit Crystal!
Here are my fav lifts of the NW that I can remember the names of (which are going to be composed of stuff from Snoqualmie and Stevens):
1. Edelweiss (Chair 2) at Alpental
2. Silver Fir at Central
3. Jupiter at Stevens
4. Southern Cross at Stevens
5. Keechelus at Hyak
6. Armstrong Express at Alpental
7. Central Express at Central
8. Tye Mill at Stevens
9. Skyline at Stevens
10. Triple 60 at Central
11. Hogsback at Stevens
12. Wild Side at West
13. Pacific Crest at West
Labels: hobbies, snowboarding
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Snoqualmie vs... everything else.
I feel like ranting a little bit today, and I havent been posting any blog entries lately so this is just another reason to do so. This weekend was joyous for the Pacific Northwest. There were snow showers on Friday and 8" of fresh snow accumulated on our various Cascade mountains. It's the first new powder in a few weeks now, and it was beautiful. I was able to make two days worth of snowboarding; Saturday to Steven's Pass, and Sunday to Snoqualmie's Central Summit, formerly known as Ski Acres. Now that's where I want this post to begin - that's my segway.
I always hear people gripe on the words skiing or snowboarding and Snoqualmie! "Snoqualmie sucks." What are they referring to? Snoqualmie is actually, now, made up of 4 different mountain locations: West, Central, East, and Alpental. They all have very different feels to them.
West is your beginner mountain, which is just hills essentially with very little unique terrain except for the diamond heavy Wild Side, which is hidden to the far left.
Central is your all-around mountain with beginner hills on your far right, triple 60 which is a mix of everything, Central Express which is your intermediate with lots of nice hits for boarders and a big snow park, and then you have your hidden gem, Silver Fir, which is basically a whole thing of its own. That's your Steven's Pass, shrunken down, and removed of all the stupid stuff. It's got all sorts of terrain: traverses, moguls, big steep faces, lots of trees, winding corridors, and tons of spots for all sorts of fun. And there's the big traverse to the other mountain; Mt Hyak.
Hyak, also known as East, is barely used, never a line, and has some awesome terrain, if you like powder, trees, and that sort of stuff. It's also got nordic skiing for you cross-country skiers.
And then there's Alpental. People may go there and say... "dang this place is small." That's probably because they stayed on the lower mountain and yes, that's true, it is small. Only 3 lifts. But there's another chair, at the top of Armstrong Express, which takes you to the summit, and theres just tons and tons of stuff to do up there, in every which way you want to go.
So what's my infomercial for?
Because.... sometimes when I ask people if they wanna go snowboarding with me, they ask where, and i say Snoqualmie. They'll reply, I dont like that place. Boo! Maybe they went there a long time ago, and went to Summit West, which used to be called "Snoqualmie Summit" and never went to Central, which used to be unaffiliated and called "Ski Acres", or Silver Fir, or East, which as mentioned before, was called "Mt Hyak" or gone to Chair 2 at Alpental. Actually even Armstrong / Debbie's Gold is a good run.
I went to Stevens yesterday, and I've gone there many times; The back side is nice and all, and the place as whole is a lot bigger than any of the individual mountains of Snoqualmie, but is it really better than Silver Fir or Alpental? I dont know if I agree. I can see skiers liking Stevens more, but for snowboarding, I think Central takes the cake. I havent gone to Baker in a couple years and I really did like that place, it's awesome and its only weakness is its distance from Seattle and its crazy drive up. I havent had a chance to go to Crystal yet but I hear good things and want to someday soon.
Anyway, just keep in mind that Snoqualmie isnt just West. There's alot of lesser known gems in the area. I'm not going to go out and say that Snoqualmie is the best, or anything like that, I want to say that you shouldn't pass up a good snow day because you think it's "snoqualmie" and its small.
I always hear people gripe on the words skiing or snowboarding and Snoqualmie! "Snoqualmie sucks." What are they referring to? Snoqualmie is actually, now, made up of 4 different mountain locations: West, Central, East, and Alpental. They all have very different feels to them.
West is your beginner mountain, which is just hills essentially with very little unique terrain except for the diamond heavy Wild Side, which is hidden to the far left.
Central is your all-around mountain with beginner hills on your far right, triple 60 which is a mix of everything, Central Express which is your intermediate with lots of nice hits for boarders and a big snow park, and then you have your hidden gem, Silver Fir, which is basically a whole thing of its own. That's your Steven's Pass, shrunken down, and removed of all the stupid stuff. It's got all sorts of terrain: traverses, moguls, big steep faces, lots of trees, winding corridors, and tons of spots for all sorts of fun. And there's the big traverse to the other mountain; Mt Hyak.
Hyak, also known as East, is barely used, never a line, and has some awesome terrain, if you like powder, trees, and that sort of stuff. It's also got nordic skiing for you cross-country skiers.
And then there's Alpental. People may go there and say... "dang this place is small." That's probably because they stayed on the lower mountain and yes, that's true, it is small. Only 3 lifts. But there's another chair, at the top of Armstrong Express, which takes you to the summit, and theres just tons and tons of stuff to do up there, in every which way you want to go.
So what's my infomercial for?
Because.... sometimes when I ask people if they wanna go snowboarding with me, they ask where, and i say Snoqualmie. They'll reply, I dont like that place. Boo! Maybe they went there a long time ago, and went to Summit West, which used to be called "Snoqualmie Summit" and never went to Central, which used to be unaffiliated and called "Ski Acres", or Silver Fir, or East, which as mentioned before, was called "Mt Hyak" or gone to Chair 2 at Alpental. Actually even Armstrong / Debbie's Gold is a good run.
I went to Stevens yesterday, and I've gone there many times; The back side is nice and all, and the place as whole is a lot bigger than any of the individual mountains of Snoqualmie, but is it really better than Silver Fir or Alpental? I dont know if I agree. I can see skiers liking Stevens more, but for snowboarding, I think Central takes the cake. I havent gone to Baker in a couple years and I really did like that place, it's awesome and its only weakness is its distance from Seattle and its crazy drive up. I havent had a chance to go to Crystal yet but I hear good things and want to someday soon.
Anyway, just keep in mind that Snoqualmie isnt just West. There's alot of lesser known gems in the area. I'm not going to go out and say that Snoqualmie is the best, or anything like that, I want to say that you shouldn't pass up a good snow day because you think it's "snoqualmie" and its small.
Labels: hobbies, snowboarding
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Lake Tahoe Photos
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Snow Fun
I've been going snowboarding at a greater pace than previous years. I've had 6 powder days already and hopefully 2 more by this time next week, which already is more than I went last season.It's definitely helping out too. I've improved dramatically over the past 2 times up and also have gained more confidence in myself on more challenging runs.
On New Year's Eve, I went up with Ted, Don, and some others to Alpental and worked on some simple stuff that I needed improvement on, then built some confidence going on Chair 2 to International and Snake Dance. Then Ted ended up pushing me pretty hard (for me anyway) on the last run at Ingrid's Inspiration and I was mostly able to keep up with him, even landing a few lips and whatnot on the way, which usually i botch up :)
On Friday, I went to Steven's with my cousins and sister, and my cousin Alex (aka Babe) left my sister and Lan on some beginner tracks and went to the backside on Tyme Mill, which I never had done before at Stevens. That was a whole lot of fun, with tons of powder. I think I really improved and refined my abilities a bit there. It was so much fun! yay.
I need to go buy a helmet though, really should have gotten one of those a while ago, but I think I really need one now. Any sort of fall.... it could be bad news.
Labels: snowboarding, sports
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