Today was my 100th day on snow for this season and I’m stoked! My personal goal was to hit 100 and now I have accomplished it, with a couple days of hiking and more to come.
The crew is back in town or free from injuries…die hards that still want to ride so I made my way down to summit to hit up St Mary’s Glacier for the first time. The crew was TJ, K, Lauren, Jon and myself.
There’s a beautiful lake right below the glacier and the hike to get up there wasn’t too bad. A lot of rocks to get through and I was hiking in flip flops to get up. The great news is by the time we got there you can see the snow and how much there is even now in July.
There were a lot of hikers around enjoying the lake or the snow but we were the only snowboarders up there to make turns. We made it up to the bottom of the snow and got ready putting on our snowboard boots and gear for the hike.
The elevation of St Mary’s Glacier is 10,000+ feet…the snow is probably around 11,000ft right now. When you are hiking at those heights, it’s a lot harder on your body. We made sure to put on a lot of sunscreen, bring food and water to keep us hydrated on the mountain.
The elevation of St Mary’s Glacier is 10,000+ feet…the snow is probably around 11,000ft right now. When you are hiking at those heights, it’s a lot harder on your body. We made sure to put on a lot of sunscreen, bring food and water to keep us hydrated on the mountain.Enjoying the hike up through a mixture of snow and rocks.
TJ, Lauren and K ended up stopping further up to partake in a jump on the snow.
Jon and I kept going to get to the top and ride the entire glacier down. The hike was further than we expected and Jon made sure I didn’t start riding before the top.We took a lot of breaks as the hike got rougher further up. No point in using all your energy on the hike, when you still have to ride down the mountain and enjoy it!
The picture of me hiking it up with the NS Evo R
Jon enjoying a break. He was riding the NS SL R
It was hard to see from the bottom and midway up how far the snow went, but we kept hiking and eventually made it to the top of the snowpack.
Jon did it!
The only 2 who hiked to the top: Jon and I.
After taking a break on the top, we started our run down. The snow was really soft up top compared to the bottom and less bumpy. Jon started down and I took to taking photos while making turns.
Jon enjoying July turns
Jon took the camera and got this photo of me riding down the glacier.
I waited up for Jon and tried to hide in the bumpy snow…didn’t work too well
We rode down to where everyone else was at, hitting up a jump and features they created.
K got the best crash of the day. I took a sequence shot of him ollie’ing over the shovel stick and he really dived right into the snow.
Lauren with her awesome skill showed everyone how to do it
When all else fails get creative during jibbing.
Here’s TJ and Lauren doing nose taps to each other
A classic shot of TJ lying down with his board strapped on and Lauren jibbing the board above him.
My favorite photo of the snowpack and weather rolling in. The snow doesn’t look that great, obviously it wasn’t an epic powder day but any day you can ride in the summer is epic despite the riding conditions.
Jon and I rode down and waited for the others to ride down to get them on film. This was my favorite since K is riding with 2 shovels swinging all over the place following TJ and Lauren.
We hung out at the lake and got a shot of the 4 of us goofing off. From left to right: K, Lauren, TJ and myself. Jon took the photo so he wasn’t in it.
The shot of me at the lake at the end of the day
Zboy
July 20, 2008 at 2:26 pmShay that’s so rad! Looks like a blast, can’t wait for the snow to start falling…
xadness.com
July 20, 2008 at 5:50 pmThat’s awesome you met your goal! I am stoked for you! 100 days!
I have 64 days and live in NYC so no hiking… however we did built a ramp + powderpack + box and set up shop in a park in Brooklyn. After 3 sessions the park ranger made the executive decision that we needed a permit so that was the end of that.
Now we are looking for an indoor space and are planning to build a park.
I like your blog! Keep it coming!
🙂
Shayboarder
July 20, 2008 at 10:01 pmThanks! Yeah living in CO is very nice with the high elevations and long winter snow that lasts.
I am very stoked to have met 100 days, today was 101 and I still have Hood riding next month that I’m looking forward. The season hasn’t ended for me and I am glad people are getting stoked on this upcoming winter.
That’s sweet about the indoor park, definitely a need for that in the US.
Anonymous
July 22, 2008 at 1:32 pmShannon – where do you find the energy?
cripes, you most be the most active girl I know – I love seeing the pictures of all your adventures and the hottie on the top is easy on the eyes too !
killjoy
July 28, 2008 at 6:57 pmhey thanks for the blog. i heard about st. marys from some friends but they don’t ride and i didn’t want to waste the time going up if it’s not worth it. due to the pics and your blog i’ll be heading up this sunday hopefully to try out my skunk ape thats coming through ups this week. probably not the best snow to test out my new ride but i’m too exited to wait for fresh 2 months from now. guess i’ll just watch out for rocks.
Shayboarder
July 29, 2008 at 9:30 amHey Killjoy, awesome you are heading up. There is still a ton of snow, but it’s really snow, bumpy and snowcrust…so it’ll be great for testing out a board…I find if you ride in a board in bad conditions…and it rides good, then your solid when it hits good conditions.
The lake is beautiful up there, if your friends like hanging out and fishing or camping…there’s a bunch of hiking up there with beautiful views.
I might make it up this weekend, we’ll see if my friends are up for it and what the plan is.