When you least expect it, it’ll be a powder day. Last night I watched two friends DJ in town, left the bar at 1am where there was no new snow on the ground. When I woke up at 7am, I found that the good light fluffy snow had fallen on the ground.
I rocked the vholdr cam again today, I think I have the angle dialed and it lasted all morning charged and plenty of room for filming. Unfortunately the lighting today was flat light and some of the video came out foggy. I came home with 17 clips of footage. Here’s the mini film I put together for today.
The reason it was an early day was because I was a substitute for straight talk and photo of the day. I occasional take the photos when we need them but this was my first time straight talking for the mountain. Straight talkers get to wear the jacket, get up on the mountain early and write about conditions in a report that goes out. Here’s my write up for the mountain. The rad part is you get to take a friend who will be your photo model so I got Steve to come out for some shred time.
So the highlight is getting on the mountain early, the gondola opens at 8:30am and I was allowed to get on the gondola at 8am. When it’s a powder day, getting those 2-3 chairlifts before anyone else does is a luxury and a damn fine one. Since not everyone gets that opportunity, people pay to do the First Tracks in the AM which lets them go as a group with an instructor to enjoy early morning turns.
First Trackers getting ready
We let the First Tracks have their own riding and turns, we headed away from them to not poach their territory.
Steve and I soon found out that the runs that were groomed the night before were the best for powder turns. The ungroomed runs were choppy bumps and in some spots, huge bumps. That was a wake up call for my legs and I felt bad for Steve waiting for me as I took my time through them.
On the good spots…it was great! The days where you choke on snow as your riding are the best. I wasn’t expecting today to be one of those until I started to realize this is more than 2-3 inches of fresh…this is easily 10+ in spots.
Here’s the photo of the day and my favorite, Steve in the light fluffy powder making a wave of snow as he turns.
I walked off the mountain with snow hair and Steve walked off the mountain with a amazing snow beard.
The camera today got covered in snow, I put it in my pocket but it still got some snow on the lens. Steve took the camera and got a shot of me riding down. I hate not wearing my monster jacket but I had to rock the employee jacket today (time to behave). I look like I have no legs in this photo.
I’m definitely looking forward to the next time I get an early start and if I’m lucky, it’ll be a powder day.
On the good spots…it was great! The days where you choke on snow as your riding are the best. I wasn’t expecting today to be one of those until I started to realize this is more than 2-3 inches of fresh…this is easily 10+ in spots. 
I walked off the mountain with snow hair and Steve walked off the mountain with a amazing snow beard. 
The camera today got covered in snow, I put it in my pocket but it still got some snow on the lens. Steve took the camera and got a shot of me riding down. I hate not wearing my monster jacket but I had to rock the employee jacket today (time to behave). I look like I have no legs in this photo.
I’m definitely looking forward to the next time I get an early start and if I’m lucky, it’ll be a powder day.
Anonymous
January 4, 2009 at 7:34 pmhaha that’s epic man looks similar to the opening day I had up at silver. Of course there wasn’t any real base snow at the time though but a shit load of fresh powder!.
Shayboarder
January 6, 2009 at 4:43 pmNice! Yeah it was a really fun day, not expected at all on how much snow there was. We’re getting dumped on today and tonight, so this week should be great.