Ski Day 25: Closing Time @ Ski Bowl

Mt. Hood, from near the top of Radical

Despite all the late-season snow, we got word last week that this weekend would be the last for Ski Bowl this season. I was a little bummed, but I could understand it. At least it was looking like Sunday would be a nice day, weather-wise.

It was.

The upper bowl was SWEET!

It got pretty warm rather quickly, and it was definitely a vest day pretty much from the start. Brett and I had two of our D-teamers up for toboggan tests, and we picked up a guy from A team that had failed his test a while back. We got to make some awesome runs on the sweet groom on upper bowl, then got the guys working with the sleds for some last-minute coaching tips before taking their test runs.

The apprentices getting ready to take a toboggan up the lift...

Liftoff!

The skiing was just fantastic spring stuff all day long. I took a fairly long break after we got the guys tested (and passed), which kind of gave me a little second wind. I took a whole bunch of runs in the afternoon, and was feeling great.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, I decided it was the right day and time to go officially face my demons, AKA the East Traverse - the scene of the crime, as it were. A year and ten days prior, I'd blown up my left ACL over there. I wanted to see if I could pick out where it happened, and see if I could find the route I ended up taking out of the woods to help my rescuers reach me. It was kind of surreal. I skied it slow and cautious, but everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I instantly recognized the site, and recalled what it felt like. I started grinning when I saw the little cut through the trees that I traversed to get to Oh Shoot, then the open spot where I turned on my uninjured leg to the runout that empties onto Accelerator.

I made a couple turns down Oh Shoot, then zipped out the runout onto Accelerator. I felt awesome. I was acting like I'd won a race or something - hands up, victoriously fist-pumping, big stupid grin on my face. I looked back and sneered at the run that had taken my ACL last season, muttered something that I won't repeat here through clenched teeth, and skied down to the lift.

I know, I know. Just a TAD melodramatic.

Made a few more runs, and it was time for sweep. The two D-teamers and I loaded up the remaining toboggans from Rescue Center with the spare backboards, the drills, and some other stuff, and headed on down to Multorpor. We thought that hauling the sleds down might have earned us a tow across the flats to the Palace, but only the toboggans got towed anywhere. We got to hike back. Beer awaited us, but we had to get the sleds inside, and then get our crap together and leave, since we were being told that the operations people wanted to close and lock the parking lot gate. Lame.

Ski Day 24: Senior Moments @ Bachelor

Sunday was all kinds of cool for me. It was my first trip to Mt. Bachelor, for starters. I know what you're thinking... (Actually, I kind of dislike that phrase. Quite impossible, I'd have to imagine, to know that. Let's try again.)

I can guess what you might be thinking...how could I have not been to Mt. Bachelor yet? I've been out here for 13 years (oh HOLY CRAP, really?), and I LOVE to ski, so it really is kind of mind-boggling, but I just never got around to it. Until Sunday, when I went there for the regional Senior Ski & Toboggan test (I guess you could consider it post-graduate work for sled-drivers, or whatever kind of beyond-basic-skill-level type of thing you can relate to). I had to get up stupid early, drive up to Government Camp, and carpool from there with Doug (the other patroller from MHSP who was doing the Senior S&T test with me). Doug drove, since he has a pickup and we were asked to haul the toboggans back from Bachelor. I was certainly glad not to have to drive the full 3 hours and change from my place.

Anyway, we got there earlier than we'd planned, but it was looking to be a beautiful day. We met up with a patroller from Hoodoo (I think) that we had trained with a couple weeks ago, and then the rest of the candidates rolled in, as did the evaluators and advocates (apparently, you get to have someone 'in your corner' on the Senior S&T evaluation, in case something comes up during the evaluation that needs to be addressed). We went through a briefing about the day's planned events, and headed out on the hill.

Pretty much from the start, things were a little disjointed. The first instruction I recall getting was that we'd all meet outside the lodge and do some stretching exercises. This ended up meaning, "meet at the top of the lift and do some stretching exercises". Okay, no problem, the view was better up there anyhow. We were each assigned a number, which would indicate the order we'd go in for the evaluations. Doug and I were 1 and 2, respectively, so I guess you could say we had the advantage of doing most of our waiting around after we demonstrated our skills instead of before.

I wouldn't say there was added pressure for going 1-2. Doug and I both had a lot of confidence going into the test, since we had a good training session a couple weeks prior at Meadows. "Just a walk in the park, Kazansky," I said to Doug (that's from Top Gun, for you kids out there). I made sure I didn't say that too loud - I didn't want to be known as "that cocky jerk from Hood'.

Anyway, we did a warm-up run over off the Outback Express chair, and the snow was fantastic. Really good day for showing off. We started in on large-radius carved turns, and the inconsistencies in the directions we were given from one evaluator or advocate to the next started showing up right away. Normally, when we train, when you stop after a drill, everyone stops below the person that went before them. It's safer than stopping above. So that's what I did. The next guy stopped below me, and so on, but then we got told to change the order we were standing in, so we had to either sideslip down or sidestep up to re-shuffle the order. This was, of course, pointless. We all had numbers, so we knew what order to go in - it wasn't like it mattered where we were standing.

Anyway, the directions on which way to line up got flip-flopped at least once more before we even finished the carved turns portion of the evaluation. At least we got to have a little fun skiing in between some of the drills, some of it due to Doug and I lobbying one of the evaluators to let us ski this one pretty sweet pitch with fresh snow on it.

Once we got all the ski skills out of the way (Doug and I basically kicked ass), we went in for a break and then grabbed the toboggans to start the toboggan-handling part of the program. The weather had been changing quite a bit all day, but for the most part, the snow was getting softer and stickier towards the afternoon. The slightly-more-grippy snow made things a little easier, IMO. That, and the added fact that we were on trails that weren't as steep as the stuff on which we train our apprentices, made me feel like maybe we had the whole toboggan part sewn up before we started.

That pretty much turned out to be the case. Doug and I both continued to represent the patrol well, and at one point, we each got paired up with one of the weaker candidates, presumably to see if that would make a difference for them. The too-many-chiefs syndrome reared its head once again, with different people telling us to park the toboggans across the fall line at one point, and down the fall line at a later point, and then arguing about it. The poor guy trying to herd all these cats did the best he could, though, so my hat's off to him. Once we finally finished up with the evaluations, we hauled the toboggans down to the patrol room and went into the lodge to await our results.

It seemed unnecessarily dramatic, the way they had us go in one by one to this 'council of twelve' kind of table arrangement, but whatever. They asked me how I thought I did, and a number of exceedingly smug or arrogant things to say flashed in my mind (I was *this close* to saying, "are you kidding me?"), but all I managed to say was, "I felt good out there." I must have had a look on my face that indicated that I felt more like what I almost said, because I swear I heard one of them stifle a laugh. Anyway, they asked me something about how I felt the test was, if it was difficult enough or whatever, and I don't really think I gave a helpful answer. I'd had a headache most of the afternoon, and I just wanted to get my certificate, help load the sleds in Doug's truck, and get the hell out of there.

Despite how I was feeling physically, I was really pleased with how Doug and I represented our patrol. It was a good experience overall, meeting patrollers from other areas and getting a feel for how they train and work. And it was definitely nice to finally ski Bachelor. I really want to go back as soon as I can and check out the rest of the mountain.

Hey, look - I went a whole blog post about skiing/patrolling without mentioning my knee. Oh wait...dammit. :-P

Happy 1st Birthday, New Left ACL!

One year ago today, I started the long road back to skiing. A month before that, I had destroyed my left knee quite handily in a stupid little crash on the way out to check out Scotty's Way (AKA East Wall) at Ski Bowl. I won't go over the whole thing again - if you want to read that story, go here.

And I won't recount the story of the surgery, either. That's here, if you're interested. This blog turned into The Knee Show for a while there, so there's plenty to read if you're bored.

No, today's post is more about celebrating the journey. I've acknowledged the great people who helped me get back in the saddle, not just for skiing just for the fun of it, but to be back on the mountain making a difference as a ski patroller and a toboggan coach for the incoming patrollers. They know who they are, and I thank them silently every time I'm up there making turns. Heck, sometimes I thank them quite aloud. Like last Friday, when I was in Heather Canyon and thanked my orthopedist (Dr. Montgomery) while the Barkers and I were grinning like idiots after ripping up a pitch of knee-deep pow.

My Physical Therapist has mentioned to me a few times that my own diligence was as much a factor as anything she did for me during PT. So I guess, "Go, me!"

I also have to give a nod to the folks at Genesis Medical, who fitted me with my brace, and Bledsoe Brace Systems, who made it. Hopefully, I won't need it next season. The doc said I shouldn't have to. I imagine that since it didn't take too long to be skiing with confidence once I got back into it, that it won't take too long to be comfortable without the brace. We'll see.

Sure, there have been days where I thought it was going to take forever to get things feeling right, and some days on the mountain where I thought maybe I'd rushed back too soon, but I'm pleased with how things turned out. One of the somewhat surprising side effects of all this has been that I feel like my skiing has improved. In large part, this is due to all the balance work that Amanda had me doing in PT. I'm more body-aware, and skiing more focused than I ever did previously. Skiers, I highly recommend adding a good deal of balance work to whatever workout routine you're doing, if you aren't already. Get yourself a Bosu ball, and a 6"x36" foam roller, and use them. You'll be pleased with the results.

I don't, however, recommend blowing your ACL as motivation.

Ski Day 23: Epic "Me Patrol" @ MHM

I guess I should call it "we patrol", since there were 3 of us. But that sounds kind of odd. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to blogging about last Friday. My blogslackery knows...uh...well, SOME bounds. I guess.

After looking at the week's forecast after Ski Day 22, I told myself I absolutely MUST ski that Friday. Fortunately, my boss is awesome and didn't have any problem with me taking the 2nd off to go ski. Even more fortunately, because I prefer not to ski alone, a couple of super cool people that I know also took a 'mental health day' on Friday. Barkernews and NoPoGirl are even more dedicated to skiing than I am, so I was very glad when they agreed to carpool and make turns with me.

We got up there a tad later than we probably wanted to, but I don't think it mattered much to any of us once we started skiing. It was pretty much all shit-eating grins and whooping and hollering while we tore up the fresh snow. We managed a couple trips through Heather Canyon before the avy danger closed it, but we pretty much found awesome stuff to ski in everywhere we went.

It's such a freakin' BLAST to ski with people who are genuinely having a great time, and Friday was a textbook example. If they put that sort of thing in textbooks. And they should.

My only gripe was that I didn't ski with a backpack, so wasn't carrying a proper camera. I could have taken some shots with my iPhone, but with the weather (it was snowing and pretty damn windy), I wasn't terribly interested in taking it out of my high-tech waterproof case (quart-sized ziploc freezer bag).

I was having too much fun to give a damn about counting runs, but we packed it in kind of on the early side. I was kind of relieved that B-news and NPG had to leave a little early to get their daughter out of daycare - it got me off the hook for having terrible endurance. While the knee has been holding up well most of the time, skiing all that powder was more and different work than I'd had to do for a full day all season. We were all getting fatigued by the last couple runs, though, as evidenced by the falling...

...which reminds me of why it's awesome to ski with people instead of solo. I had made a couple sweet turns in some untouched stuff on 1 Bowl when I let myself get bounced a little too far forward, causing my right ski tip to plunge. The ski felt like it dug in, and it definitely released (felt like I walked right out of it) when I fell. I swear it felt like the ski just stopped, so I asked NoPoGirl - who was above me - to help look for my ski. We didn't realize, until he held it up, that Barkernews had my ski. It had torpedoed underneath where I had fallen, and shot down the hill his direction. He pounced on it, saving me from having to search for it. I skied down to him on one ski, which was probably as stupid as it was impressive. Okay, not all that impressive. I fell twice, strangely (to me) when I was turning on it as my downhill ski. *shrug*

Anyway, it wasn't long afterward that we decided to call it a day and head home. It was an absolutely freakin' AWESOME day of skiing. I'll let one or the other of my fellow powderhounds from Friday decide whether or not the trip back to town gets any blog attention. ;-)