Hey all,
Been awhile for the posts, been a strange week. Two supposed eight inch dumps rolled through, the first with incredibly high winds. Spring has definitely sprung as the tops of benchie and old mans are skiing well with the new snow, but the lowers are scratchy and firm underneath as seemingly all our days of snow are followed by sun and extremely warm temps. Calling a bit of bullshit on the snow measurement, as neither day reporting eight inches seemed to be that deep.
Had and interesting run with my friend who’s first EV run was on Saturday. Went out to tweeners in the late afternoon and was stoked to see little activity, giving us room to do beacon work and orientation of the lay out in EV. Hardly noticed the two no pack boarders wandering up behind us. We went down to tweeners to look at it and stomp some cornice before dropping in. A decent snow day with some tracks I dropped in after a cornice stomp broke the cornice behind me and dropped me into the run. Didn’t ‘t eat it, but a wake up call about the wind stiffening the once soft cornices into unpredictable slabs.
My buddy had to witness this mistake and probably wasn’t the greatest introduction into EV, but shit happens and I was able to get into a good spot for his entrance, directing him to the smallest cornice part while I waited. Out of nowhere, with no warning no pack number one without looking flew off the cornice landed square on his ass, setting off a small soft slab right of me. Took me a second to process what was going on, without no pack number two launched right on top of him, star fishing ten feet above his buddy who was stopped in the middle of the run.
My buddy was still on top waiting to drop in, staring down at the carnage. My mouth hung open at the stupidity and lack of any protocol.
I yelled over to no pack one what the hell are you doing. I actually had to yell it twice as my first inquiry got him to pull out his ear buds. My next inquiry was met with an invitation for a fight in the middle of tweeners. I declined as my friend was waiting up top and he was technically in the middle of an avie path. No pack one and two proceeded to roll down tweeners, sliding and ass checking their way down.
Wally was finally able to drop in and we were able to ski tweeners as we intended, alone and one at a time. He stuck the drop and skied it well. The rest of our run was decent and uneventful, moderately good snow conditions and a nice clear day to point out terrain features and different areas.
The bus ride was met with no pack one and two sitting next to us with no pack one explaining his inability to stick the three foot drop was due to the fact that his photographer wasn’t with him. He explained his motivation for a EV run was to find Vail locals and harass them, because EV sucks and he’s been around the state on his sleds in bigger badder terrain. Apparently his Dillion residence and Nuggets jersey has his steeze points off the charts, to a level my old self couldn’t even fathom.
He mentioned his allegiance to Strange snowboarding. I checked out the video of these high rollers on you tube and saw three minutes of aimless hucking on vail pass with a ten percent success ratio, although the repeated head injuries revealed by the video shed some light on the decision making process shown by team Strange
in EV.
The badgering continued for the whole bus ride and even had no pack one following me up bridge street continuing with the harangue, challenging me to a race up EV as well as a challenge in the big boy line in the park, to fights, whatever. I deferred kicking his ass. I never got an explanation as to why, with the thousands of acres of terrain available they decided to follow and drop in on us.
Admittedly I am old and after 1100 or so runs in EV I do believe it is to an extent, my home. I have never gone to Breckinridge lined up in the park dropped in on someone and proceeded to talk shit to the locals after hacking it up, I never will. I have no problem with the young guns out there discovering a place I really like. There is no stopping the youths and having them safely explore EV is fine. Couple guidelines though.
Don’t drop in on people you are not skiing with. Ever.
If you can’t stick the three footer, don’t talk crap about having your own photographer, you sound like an idiot.
Carry gear. A beacon with a Melo jersey is not avie gear.
Show bit of respect to the locals, where ever you might be.
A shout out to the Nightmare Strange crew from Dillion, I look forward to your return. I think the name is perfect for you guys.
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