This past weekend was again spent

up in C-wood. With Friday off, we headed up Thursday night to catch 3 days of

Ontario’s best bumps. The weekend did not start off to great, with two bunnies

hit in a 5-minute span near the end of our journey; our luck didn’t seem to be

very good. But seeing as tomorrow was Friday, it would be Blue nice and early

before the crowds hit it. Living right in front of Blue has its advantages, it

means you can wake up at 8 and still get one of the first chairs up the hill.

But Blue being the mountain they are couldn’t coordinate getting the right

tickets to sell thus leaving us waiting till 9 before we picked up tickets.

Mind you at $19, that’s a steal. Well….maybe not, they ended up only having 4

runs open, with guns shooting which didn’t make ridding Ontario’s best to

great. So I figured lets check out this park they have. The previous weekend

had included a trip to St. Louis where their park had 9 features setup

including 2 jumps, so I expected the biggest resort in Ontario to have

something. But after talking with countless clueless lefties and hiking to the

other end (skiers left) of the silver bullet, not park was setup. So 11 o’clock

was our calling and we packed up to hit the backyard jumps.

Yours truly with the MJ crotch grab, eagle included (Vitols photo)

Shot of Rob sitting-taking-a-crap-with-MJ-crotchgrab Steeze

Guess what my new trick is called?

Rural Stall

Sunday forecasted a good bit of snow,

so again we headed out early, knowing the weekend crowd would not be far

behind. Getting out of bed and walking into the kitchen area to grab whatever I

could find, I looked out side, and suddenly wanted to go right back to bed.

Noisy blowing winds made for a chilly scene. With a flick the weather network

was on and claim a –25 C with wind-chill. Well I had taken the effort to wake

up this early, so I figured why not go. So we packed up and headed out, with me

foolishly passing on a facemask. Instantly we knew we were in for a cold one.

As we unloaded our skis, we knew our time would be limited, but the site of at

least 10 runs open and new snow made it a bit easier on us. First chair up,

they had snow guns blazing to get as much snow down with the temperatures so

cold. Passing through the blowing mist, stung the face, like sand on a windy

beach. The first run down was filled with snowdrifts and very low light. With

skis being used thanks to Kevin, which were a good 7 cm bigger and a good 20mm

wider than I was used to, were not fully under control although the drifts made

for a good work out. The 2nd run was worse, with pretty much zero

visibility, whiteout conditions and random snowdrifts knowing the tree line and

finding your way down the hill was a matter of keeping a couple ski lengths

behind someone else, who hopefully knew what they were doing. After 8 runs, and

my face being numb….until someone stated the side of my nose was frostbitten,

so I knew I needed to warm it up ASAP, me not thinking took my whole hand and

held it there for a good 30 sec. Till I notice my hands was frozen so I stuffed

my hand back in my glove and headed to the lodge. After warming up and the

acknowledgment of some lost skin, we headed out for till 11, till frostbite had

come back and decided to call it a day.

The rest of the day was spent conjuring up possible jibs,

all fairly unsuccessful, but enjoyed.

Boy does that new 70-200 f2.8 work

I guess this is what you call a rural drop

It seemed to always be snowing

Me on our atv contraption-worked great

This is how Rob takes out the garbage

Big thanks to Kevin (Kev-hal) for hooking me up with some

sticks to demo, and the Vitols for once again making the weekend a Latvian one.

Kudos.

Way overshot, but in the air is what matters in the camera

These are the first shots with my new 40d and 70-200 f2.8, which is a true sexy beast, i hope to have a review up in the coming days.

Have a great week.

-Pippin Lee