It was a good day. Now, i'm off to giants ridge to ride the groomed snow.
I was up on a mountain out in the woods snowboarding and airboarding all afternoon with Anton Tomonovich, Nik Mariucci, Brian Pelletier and Brooke Marden.
Back country snowboarding is back again. Its was -20F this morning, so we dragged our feet until about noon.
2nd Jan 2008, 22:39
comments (2)
Nik Mariucci + ska music + long black shoelaces = one wickedsick snowboard tune up.
A pileated woodpecker stopped by for a Christmas snack. The feeder is only 5 feet from the kitchen table where we are eating Christmas dinner. I've never before seen one this close.
Date: 12/17/2007
Fog does not discriminate, so there was a lot of extra windshield scraping monday morning. Still, it was nice to see the frosty trees.
Even though the real sport of snowboarding is what you do on the way down
the slopes, the ride up on the chairlift is not half bad. You can watch the
kids grinding the rails, the snow covered scenery is always nice, and the
fact that you are hanging from a little wire along with hundreds of other
winter sports enthusiasts fairly far above the ground is pretty exciting in
itself.
The weather agreed nicely with opening GIants RIdge on December 1st,
2007. Over a foot of fresh snow fell over the weekend on top of the snow
that had previously fallen, or been manufactured, and been groomed affording
the Iron Range with the rare opportunity for Midwest powder skiing and
boarding. Great fun for all ... if one can avoid the death cookies and snow
snakes :)
8th Dec 2007, 22:18
comments (2)
Snowmaking started at Giants Ridge in the evening of November 16th, 2007.
After a full 24 hours of snowmaking, I couldn't wait any longer to get out
on the slopes. Of course, this meant I had to hike up the mountain in ski
boots carrying my skis; the chairlifts would not be turned on for another
two weeks. It's quite a hike, but well worth it to be the first one down.
After snapping off a couple pictures at the top of Sarajevo, I headed
down. Only about 50 feet down the first steep, my right ski found a rock
and ejected, leaving me riding just one, on my left foot. It took my
another 50 feet to slow to a stop so I could climb back up and retrieve the
right ski. After that it was a relatively smooth ride, so I again took out
my phone for a little video.
Snow was being made actively on Sarajevo while I was skiing it, so I was
pretty well coated in the stuff by the end of the run.
![First Run at Giants Ridge Pre-Opening Winter 2007/2008 [Nov 17th 2007]](/media/b/e/n/benzolio/thumbs/first-run-at-giants-ridge-pre-opening-winter-20072008-nov-17_tn-6.jpg)
![First Run at Giants Ridge Pre-Opening Winter 2007/2008 [Nov 17th 2007]](/media/b/e/n/benzolio/thumbs/first-run-at-giants-ridge-pre-opening-winter-20072008-nov-17_tn-7.jpg)
![First Run at Giants Ridge Pre-Opening Winter 2007/2008 [Nov 17th 2007]](/media/b/e/n/benzolio/thumbs/first-run-at-giants-ridge-pre-opening-winter-20072008-nov-17_tn-8.jpg)
![First Run at Giants Ridge Pre-Opening Winter 2007/2008 [Nov 17th 2007]](/media/b/e/n/benzolio/thumbs/first-run-at-giants-ridge-pre-opening-winter-20072008-nov-17_tn-9.jpg)
![First Run at Giants Ridge Pre-Opening Winter 2007/2008 [Nov 17th 2007]](/media/b/e/n/benzolio/thumbs/first-run-at-giants-ridge-pre-opening-winter-20072_tn.jpg)