Can I do this? 17 ski days, 11 ski areas and 26 days total on the road. Need beta.

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks Moose Pit, up an down & Mofro261. More to come...

[garyfromterrace]

April 27; # of ski areas 9; ski days 11; road days 16

Funny, when you talk to someone on the interwebz for a while you build up a picture of them. In Alpenchronichabitual’s case he looked kind of like I pictured him, but not really. So, in essence the first sentence of this paragraph was a complete waste of your time, sorry. Anyway, I met the man and his partner, ski chica, and their dogs – Jessie and psychobarkermaniac. Why the latter dog was named psychobarkermaniac (PBM) was evident right from the start, however once I was settled into the living room couch next to the warm fire and little PBM snuggled beside me getting a belly-rub he really warmed up to me. For about 23 minutes. Until I went to the bathroom, and 30 seconds later re-appeared – a totally new man bent on killing his family with my axe and burning down the house and all the evidence (PBM’s thoughts, not mine - jesus, what do you think I am, some kind of monster? Fuck, lay off dude) whereupon he barked, rather psychotically for 10 minutes, until he’d forget about my evil intentions for 20 minutes or so.

So whilst punctuated by the odd barking interlude, I met ACH and ski chica. Great folks who do what they do, to ski. I got the low down on the area, bowed in envy & awe to ACH’s temple of gear (purchased in likelihood to appease an angry post-aware GSA), had a number of bevies, a coupla Canadians and crashed hard knowing I was with another crazed American with a near masochistic yearning for a pre 7am (ski area) start.


April 28 Alpental. The day dawned bluebird, which quickly deteriorated into, and out of, clag.



Chair 2 at 9:15



Chair 2 at 9:40

ACH and ski chica skillfully guided me around their hill, showing me rad little steep shots with loads of interesting terrain features, glide cracks (how cool), and mandatory turn spots. I hooted and hollered the day away chasing little ripping mag-kids like Quincy and Anna, and old ripping kids like Alpenchronichabitual, JTgoat, Zeedashbo, Mofro261, Flowing Alpy, and others (sorry, I'm sure I forgot a few here please let me know and I'll add names).

One of the highlights of my trip thus far had to be the amazing middle pole slow speed double called chair 2. Memories of the old Tod Mtn double chair came to me in a rush. It had been a while since I’d ridden a slow speed double (other than Shames) and I loved it. What a perfect day slaying killer terrain with amazing peeps at a temple of gnar you have to ski to believe. Bring your “A” game though, the hill could eat you up (fall in a glide crack and you’ll hurt, I panic jumped a few), also - wearing your avy gear in bounds here makes a lot of sense some days.

I love Alpental!



Alpenchronichabitual skiing like I thought he'd ski after talking on the interwebz, or, may be not.



ACH's mate ski chica, ripping up elevator.



ski chica going down



ACH in solid form



Non-mag Jim



Jim on the way by. You have got to love the terrain here! If you don't then please stay away, the Alpentalers are quite happy without you.



ACH upping the game on some sweet steeps.



ACH again



ACH continues his flight down



It's not just the mags who rip here. This is Flowing alpy's mate looking solid.

[garyfromterrace]

More of the flowing alpy fam - here's his kid, an 8 yr old on a double black and in control





Spawn of flowing alpy, simply flowing.



Mofro261. I will buy you a beer if you can beat this man down any one of the compulsories here.



Mofro



More ACH



Non mag Eric, flying over the objective hazards.


One little thing among many big things, really impressed me about this place. I was skiing another challenging run (Gun Barrell perhaps) with 3 other mags. It was obvious that the best skiing of the day was on stuff that had been skied. We came over a steep convex roller and hit an area of perhaps 50’ x 50’ x 50’ that hadn’t been skied. Next thing I know, the 3 of them are side-slipping the 1’ of loose wet snow off, making the run better. I joined in, immediately thinking that these are folks that love their hill and this little thing illustrated that in spades! Kudos Alpentalians! My first day allowed me to get a taste of the slack-country (and seriously slack it was, no skins required!). The snow was a bit variable, but a lot of fun. The day ended with multiple laps down Gun Barrel and Elevator and a very very happy, shit eating grinned tourist. Had another nice evening with my gracious host/guides, and tried to sleep while not concerning myself with the fact that the next day would see me trying to ski powder, bumps and steeps with 217cm DH race boards. It was LBD (Long Board Day) eve, and the reason I had even considered skiing at Alpy was because I had caught wind of this annual lunacy.

[garyfromterrace]

April 29 Alpental Long Board Day. Once again my nutty American friends are up WAY to early, this time to enable ACH to set up the camper, canopy structure and reserve our perfect parking lot spot vital to a successful LBD. We arrived at the parking area at about 8am, and if memory serves, the keg was tapped at about 8:30. I figured a little liquid muscle relaxant wouldn’t hurt and it appeared this sentiment was rather universal among the LBD-ers. As the maggots kept showing up and proving themselves not only nice guys but ballsy too, I couldn’t help but be a little awestruck with both the numbers and the big ass old school skis that were coming out of cars, off of racks, and put on display. But this was no normal display, these skis came to be skied and that’s just what about 35 mags, maggettes, and a couple of non-mag hangers on, did. Really fucking well.



The maggots gather. jtgoat & mofro261 examining the many tools of the trade on display at Alpental Long Board Day 2012. Super steezy one-sies were quite evident (as shown by ski chica's brightly colored spectacular fart-bag ensemble). A keg of liquid happiness center stage amongst the big stick goodness.



Oh yeah, there was skiing too. Here's Buster Highmen kicking it old school and looking solid. Zeebo and unidentified mag look on with approval.



Buster (clad in super steezy one-sie) like the honey badger of folklore, does not give a shit.



Mofro261. It appears as though the dude could ski on the bumpers of cars and still make us look lame. Ripping it on the man skis.



Mofro again.



After some hard charging, it was time to re-hydrate. Reminiscent of the large cats of the Serengeti (and I might add - the top of the food chain), the mags reconvene around the watering hole.



A brief pause to feed on the $50K prize winning salmon.



More shmoozing and milling about. Oftpiste, with up-turned toe and resplendent in his steezy sweater/pant combo (oft won the award for steezy man of the day, quite an accomplishment considering he did not possess a one-sie, but a testament to just how sexy he was on this day), Buster Highmen looking good along with flowing alpy and SorryBro. Zeebo reclines and has a well-deserved smoke, Alpenchronichabitual gives the thumbs up, as the catcher of the fish (sorry dude, name escapes me) looks on. Meanwhile former US ski team star Phil Mahre (in touque and black one piece) looks on with concern yet approval at the festivities.

[garyfromterrace]

The Zeedashbo sequence. I like my camera, not because it has good color balance, many pixels, or has an excellent manual setting. Nope, it's because it goes clickclickclickclickclickclick really fast if you hold the button down. Oh yeah!



zeebo on em.



yes folks, this is solid. I don't care what you're skiing on, you should all look like this.



Bomber! OK, perhaps the right hand could be a tad more forward, but give the guy a break (jesus, don't be an asshole, you should lighten up man).



Slaying it, absolutely killing it. I like this photo.



UH-OH



Now a lesser man would falter. Not maggot Zeebo! Punch forward and ride it out. Nice!



SorryBro not looking sorry at all



Shin-to-Win looking very good. Amazing, considering he has lost one of the little red dampeners on the tip of one of his Dynastars. I didn't think skiing without those little things was even possible.


If you’ve not skied on those 210 SG’s, or the 223 DH sticks you used to ride everything with for a while, don’t despair. There is a place and date for you at Alpental. What an absolute hoot and a holler to be skiing (terrified at first, but skiing nonetheless) the old school skis. We managed to time one of our rides to the top with that of the “high traverse” opening, so a pack of perhaps 10 of us headed out back, our big longies underfoot and going for the pow. While there was certainly a few backseat tail-rides-to-hip check moves, most of the crew kept it together for the run with minimal big crashes. Personally I went for the gorilla jump turn method of linked recovery. The day was one of the coolest celebrations of skiing I’ve been fortunate to attend, ever. Mags in retro gear, tele-ing mags, mag-wives and girlfriends all having a hell of a time on “out-dated” technology that was working just fine thank you.

A $50,000 prize winning (really) smoked salmon was ravaged, the bar-b was kept hopping with tasty brats, the keg brought by Workinforturns (Thanks Man!) was well beaten by the end of the day. Not related to the latter (it must be said) but by about 3:00 I was starting to fade a bit on the big sticks so I traded down to my regular set up for one last rip down elevator (sorry LBD faithful, but you can kiss my tourist ass). All in all it was a remarkable day. ACH suggested it was likely the largest turnout ever for an LBD, and da man gets a shit-ton of credit for making it happen. Thanks to all of you loonies who made it an amazing event worthy of blessing by the GSA. You guys also kept it real, and in the true spirit of saucer boy - nobody took themselves seriously and most of us (OK Zeebo and Mofro perhaps not YOU freaks) knew that we’d suck for at least a portion of the day trying to get used to free-skiing on 210cm +, circa 1985 technology in most cases . Alpental and PNW LBD maggots and non-mags alike – fuck yeah!

[garyfromterrace]

LBD 2012

The apricot schnapps sequence. I brought this baby back from a little farm/restaurant in Germany last year. The owner of the farm/restaurant made the schnapps and after a coupla beer it was actually quite tasty and I convinced a number of people to help me put a dent in it. I like this sequence both because I could show off my fancy sweat shirt (a gift following my 1991 yurp tour), and because of the reaction of the cute girl looking on. Enjoy.



"Wait!", I exclaim. "You must photograph the back of my sweat shirt while I drink the elixir".



Oh yes, schnapps is everyone's friend. (Girl in photo is happy now).



As the schnapps pours effortlessly into my soul, the cute girl is concerned.



The girl's reaction to prolonged swigging is gold!


That evening I checked weather forecasts for WA, OR, and northern CA. It appeared that Shasta was going to have some sun over the next day and everywhere else within 500km was rain, so, the following morning it was time to hit the road for a serious travel day. After saying farewell to ACH, ski chica, Jessie, and the PBM it was time to make some miles. Pouring rain at about 35 degrees for the first hour of the drive confirmed the decision to get the hell out of dodge.

[garyfromterrace]

Apr. 30
Definitely saw some interesting terrain on my trek south. Highlights did not include Smith Rocks (which for some reason, I didn’t think was THE Smith Rocks climbing area or I would have checked it out, putz….) but did include Columbia River Gorge, some interesting bluffs, and lots of semi-arid terrain and rolly hills. The landscape and sage brush was quite reminiscent of Drumheller, AB where I grew up thousands of kms away. The highlight was seeing Mt Shasta from about 900kms away (I think), as it got closer it got darker out and about 80kms away I had a beautiful view of the mountain awash in alpenglow. A few kms further I pulled into Weed in the darkness, and while trying to hold back snickering regarding the name of his town, I asked a cop working a radar trap about Weed accommodation. His advice was to get back on the highway, drive to Mt Shasta and stay at the Best Western. I did just that, and after stowing some stuff in the room, I hit the bar hoping (faint hope mind you) for some beta, since there was only a half dozen customers.

I struck up a conversation with a few of the patrons who were just slightly interesting and who thought my idea of climbing up Shasta to ski it down was rather stupid. One of the local patrons overheard me talking about Shasta and suggested that I talked to James, one of the guys sitting at the bar.
James had climbed Shasta numerous times and of course suggested (as any good American would) that I get up at 2am, climb with a headlamp and be prepared for a 16 hour day. Oh shit, oh dear. “No, James” I say, “I cannot get up in 3.5 hours and summit, a possible plan I mention would be that of tomorrow bivying up high, and summiting the next day. James suggested that I stop in and talk to the dude at Shasta Base Camp, which seemed to make a lot of sense given my objective (whatever the hell that was). Had a great chat about skiing, touring and climbing with James before calling it a night.



Scenic zone photo stop. Drumheller? Nope, somewhere in WA, OR or CA.



This really could be Drumheller. But it's not, it's in the states. Everyone should go here and take a photo. It is located somewhere between Alpental and Mt. Shasta. Enjoy this spot with friends and family and pretend that you're in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Think of the fuel you'd save by visiting this spot instead of driving to Drumheller.



These are called the Selah Cliffs. If this was located in Drumheller, the first nation people would have driven buffalo off the cliffs and feasted on the tenderized remains at the bottom of the cliffs. Instead, I would think that your first nation people likely invented hang gliding in this area.



My first view of Mount Shasta. I believe I am about 900km away from the mountain at this point.



He he, getting closer to Weed... hahahaha. Their town is called Weed hahahahaha.



Mount Shasta. And, a UFO as a bonus in this award winning photograph.

May 1, Mount Shasta

I got up at a very civilized hour (about 8:30ish) and had a nice breaky, finally rolling out of the hotel at about 10 and headed for Shasta Base Camp for some beta. The owner was extremely helpful and pulled up some weather info that suggested winds of 100+mph were likely at higher elevations that night, “er.. um.. that’s miles right?” Uh, screw the bivy idea. My new plan was to just climb as high as I could, hopefully getting above 10,000 since I hadn’t been there much in my life under my own power. I left the store by 11am, hit the busy (in my terms) parking lot by noon and had climbing skins under foot by 1230. Nice alpine start shmuck, I’m thinking to myself.



The objective - get as high as I can.



A much more intelligent (and less lazy) skier, enjoying the carve-able snow in the early afternoon sun. Oh, to be an American that gets up early...



A happy glissader. This was the last person I ran into on the mountain today, it was 5pm.

[garyfromterrace]

One advantage of such a late start is that I met pretty much all the skiers coming off the mountain by 4pm, and the last glissading straggler by about 5pm – thereby having all of Shasta to myself in the alpenglow at 6:30 when I decided I’d climbed far enough at 12,000’. The downside of course is that what was once firm but carve-able snow became hard, with a lovely matrix of frozen chicken heads poking up at random intervals. An added bonus of skiing the entire mountain alone, was that I had no witnesses to my classic move of failing to scrape the ice from underfoot the front binding when going from above freezing to below freezing temps. This brilliant maneuver was the former cause of a near death experience tomahawking 300’ down a previously un-skied couloir at Burnie Hut 7 or 8 years ago, miraculously self-arresting following 5 ass-over- tea-kettle cycles. This time, although the ski travelled about 20m down-hill, I was able to self-arrest immediately and with a seriously loud “fuck” I scraped the binding clean and resumed my descent.



Close to my high point underneath the Red Banks.



The route down. Does not really show how serious the descent was.

The scenery was first rate while the snow conditions could best be described as sporty. At least until the last 1500 vert. From there down the snow had remained above freezing longer and was very nice corn that skied beautifully right back to the vehicle. A 5000’ descent in a new zone pleased me. I was thinking that given the number of vehicles in the parking area in the morning there would be a swinging après ski scene, nope. One vehicle in the lot and it’s a mag from Pemberton and his woman. Twinone had just come from an enjoyable time skiing another Cali volcano (Lassen) and had summited Shasta before. I killed the last of my clamato mixing a 50/50 with one of my Coors chatting to Twinone about touring, skiing, and mutual acquaintances. Nice wind up to an awesome day.



A last look back at a very beautiful and majestic monarch.



The back lit cinder cone.

Got back to the hotel and had a very nice evening with Jacuzzi tub, pool, relaxation and TV (a novelty in my life). Slept very well and long.

[garyfromterrace]

May 2. Mt Shasta to Bend.
The next morning, it was time for more Jacuzzi relaxation and then a total gear re-organization. I pulled everything out of the suburbehemoth, and the pile was large. About midway through putting it all back together, dude approaches and says “hey, dude, don’t hike down there”. Pointing to a ravine 100’ away, “there’s thorny bushes”. OK, at this point I should have said – dude get the fuck away from my stuff, and leave me alone. I didn’t, and there begins –

The hitchhiker incident:

I was wondering where you’re headed?” he asked. “Bend”, I reply.
“Yeah man, my Nissan 280z broke down and the repair bill was worth more than the car to me so I’m heading to Portland and could I get a ride north with you?, I’ll pay for gas”
So, I’m thinking to myself that I’ve got at least 6 hours of driving ahead of me, and it would be nice to get a bit of a subsidy for driving the fuel hog, so what the hell. “Yeah ok, you can pay for gas and I’ll take you as far north as makes sense”. First I had to drop off a Shames sticker to Shasta Base Camp. Things started to go a little wanky after that point. I ask dude for directions to get out of town and on to the I-5N. We end up on this little 40mph road that is heading north, but it’s not an interstate. Ah, whatever I’m thinking, I’m not under any big time pressure I’ll go with it.

We finally get on the interstate and it’s time to get some fuel. We hit a gas station and hitchhiker dude asks the gas station cashier if he’s got change for $100. Sure, he says. So I fill up the gas-beast and $120 later, it’s full and I say to dude, “OK – how bout some cash?”. He tries to use his bank card in the machine, and it doesn’t work and so he says, “Oh shit, it’s not a “blue star" (or something, I forget) machine – we need to go to a Chevron”.
I pick up the tab for the gas, by now thinking to myself that our partnership may soon be over but I’ll give him another shot ($100 buys a lot of wine in your country). About an hour down the road there’s a Chevron, we stop, he runs in and tries to use the bank machine. Dude comes out and says, “oh shit – since I spent so much money last night I can’t withdraw until 4pm”. I consider this for a coupla seconds and then think - what the hell, I’ll find another Chevron in the next hour and a half and dump this dipshit. No confrontation, just a pleasant feeling that I sort of have the last laugh on dude, because he thought he’d found a mark. Just to put the nails in the coffin – as we’re driving along dude suggests that I drop him in Eugene, a mere 20 minutes from my destination Bend (uh yeah may be 2.5hrs gomer).

About 4:05 I find a Chevron and stop, letting off my hitchhiker to go to the bank machine again and to have a nice life, asshole. I had a good chuckle as I pulled away and got back on the interstate ramp knowing zipper-head was going to come out, look around and be sad.

I took a scenic route from the Interstate to Hwy 97 via the gorgeous North Umpqua Highway. Although I enjoyed the scenery, I sped most of the way thankful that no Highway patrollers were about and pulled into Tap’s place in Bend a bit later than planned due to the hitchhiker incident. I still managed the pleasure of meeting Tap’s lovely family and had some tasty vittles waiting for me. I used Tap’s ski shop and put some much-needed wax on the bases of my hill skis, which I knew were going to get a number of consecutive days on them. Also, had a chance to admire Tap’s house. Nice pad buddy! In fact there seemed to be a sub theme to my house/cabin visits to the states this trip. All of you scurvy dogs have nicer houses (and in some cases “cabins”) that are nicer than my house. Hmmmmm. Oh yeah, you guys have families and kids and stuff that require spacious accommodations. Still though, NICE (you bastards).

May 3 Mt. Bachelor. Tap and family adhered to the normal American (at least in my experience on this trip) insanely early wake up call. Out of bed at about 6:30 on a non-work day gave me a bit of a queasy feeling however much practice on the trip allowed me to have such an idiotic early rise without too much emotional health trauma. Had a nice chat with the young Tap man, and soon - after a perfect gefilte fish on toast breaky, I headed out to experience Mt. Bachelor.

I had been told to skin up the cone as an early warm-up, but of course I arrived too late for a cone lap without losing out on first tracks, so I climbed a coupla of hundred feet up before bailing and changing into down hill gear. I managed 5 or 6 laps off the chair in both directions (right & left) enjoying enough snow to rate higher than dust on crust, but certainly noticing spots where the wind had blown things in a bit more than a skiff. No visibility meant mostly sticking to lift towers and tree edges but that was fine by me and I had a hoot skiing fairly low density pow again!

By about 11am I had hooked up with one of Tap’s buddy’s, a strong tele-er named Kurt, who showed me some really fun terrain. The volcano had created some large almost runnel-like features that collected snow in the middle of them. Here was 1 to 2 feet of dry wind transported pow on a 30ish degree slope. Super fun, cruisey, high speed terrain that elicited giggles. Kurt also was quite into boot packing and after hiking up the cinder cone (skiing a really fun line) and then doing a really high traverse/climb, we poached a hike above the running lift and headed toward … uh somewhere. White out made for a real need for a local guide, and after 20 or 30 minutes we put our skis back on and started down a superb fall line run. Not really steep but with interesting terrain features and more of the cool giant runnel-like volcano goodness. At the bottom we got on a cat track back to the operational part of the resort and had a nice walk and a great chat, on what I firmly believe was the largest downhill ski boot-pack day of my ski career. At least 2 hours of hiking in ski boots through the day (and the day stopped by 2pm). Although I was skiing an operational hill (and hiking a shit load), what did I care – thanks to mag forty, the skiing was free.

That evening I had a nice meal with the Tap fam, cleaning out my cooler again (kudos to Mrs. Tap’s cooking). Great conversation (Missus Tap and I had both been in Barcelona in 1991) was followed by a Canadian while hitting a very cool pub with big firepits outside for hanging out around. Great concept! Talked lots of skiing and other man-shit with Tap & Kurt along with consuming a few very tasty greyhounds. Back to Tap’s place for another great sleep and a plan to hit Batch again with Tap the next day.

May 4 Mt. Bachelor. And a great day it was. A little more snow and a fair bit more wind overnight made for the big reset button being pushed which lead to some truly great turns throughout the morning. Tap showed me the goods on his hill and I had a blast. We did a couple of hikes to the cone and the pow was very nice indeed. My guide this day had to hit the office after lunch though, and I decided that I had skied most of the hill’s offerings and with a longish drive ahead of me, I bailed about lunch time making for Alpental with a quick stop for a very righteous bbq brisket sammy at a smoke house in Bend.



Freshies and a cinder cone.



Tap in the mist.



Mo Tap



Tap's buddy non mag RJ getting after it.



Mo RJ. Hey if the camera goes clickclickclickclick and you get 2 shots in a row? Publish, I say.







A nice Tap sequence (clickclickclickclick). Before the explosion eh Tap?

[userA]

this has been fun gary retracing the journey south, the zipper head story was awesome.
....but you did get back up north right?

[garyfromterrace]

I pulled into Alpenchronichabitual & Ski chica’s place by about 10pm, said quick hellos and promptly went to bed, the requisite impending 6:30am start looming over my lazy ass.

May 5 Alpental - Cinco de Mayo. Got to the hill well before 9am for my first Cinco de Mayo and conditions were very very good indeed. A fresh dump and the hill being closed for a few days prior made for some really quality turns all day. I had to put the skiing in high gear when I gave a serious effort to keeping up with that rapid bastard Mofro261. Kid not only rips but he knows the hill like the back of his hand and does not wait, period. I had some of the best skiing of the trip when I attempted to stay right on his ass for a run down something I can’t remember. Classic tree skiing with glide cracks, rock bluffs, mandatory braking, in-bounds coolie and enough interesting terrain even on one run to make me feel that this ski trip was the best idea I’ve ever had. I was pretty pleased with myself when I arrived at the bottom mere seconds behind this ripper. Though it could very well be that mofro held back a little to make the canuck feel good about himself.

The rest of the day flew by, party spirit in the air, Flowing alpy making the killer tacos and JTgoat making the amazing cerviche in tribute to the life of the Mexican bordello owner Seniora Cinco that the holiday is named after. Had some of the most heartwarming skiing this day as well, skiing behind and with mag’s families like JT Goat and his wife and kid Anna, & Flowing Alpy’s wife and kid. This is what skiing is about brothers and sisters: inter-generational charging down very cool terrain with fun people who have their priorities in life straight.






Cinco is fun, people wear their fancy dress up clothes



I met a giant skiing penis, that doesn't happen to me very often. Well, most of them don't ski anyway.



This giant penis really could ski.



Pole planting between your testes, takes skill. Skiing in this suit takes balls.



jtgoat, could well have been utilizing performance enhancing margaritas when this was taken.



jtgoat's daughter Anna, does not need performance enhancement. She rips very very well naturally. She's also a helluva sweet kid.



jtgoat again



flowing alpy's wife and kid ripping up elevator again (and again)



flowing alpy trying to keep up with his family



Anna happy to be dragging a little sprog or two down elevator.



Alpenchronichabitual solid as always.



These people at the top of Chair 2 all waved their poles in the air and shouted - "we love you Canada and we promise not to elect another douchenozzel like george bush again, sorry bout that one". Hmmm, without even prompting... weird...




Zeedashbo heading home in a hurry as usual.



Mofro261 slowing down enough for me to set up and get one last action shot at Alpental, home of the boner inducing gnar.

[garyfromterrace]

flowing alpy family portrait



jtgoat family portrait



jtgoat's amazing cerviche



Americans have perfected the art of the tail gate party, well played USA-ites.

So that was it. Finito, it was time to vamoose (in the vernacular of cinco de mayo). People of Alpental, I will not forget you and this will not be the last time you see garyfromterrace. You guys showed me the love, and the generosity, and the terrain. You also showed me the soul. Many talk about "soul skiers and soul skiing" but this place possesses the former and oozes the latter. I am smitten.

After a coupla Canadians it was time to hit the road to Crystal (Greenwater), had a 50th B day party for Joedabaker to attend after all.

Following an un-eventful drive, I cleaned up at Scotsman’s cabin and headed out the door and onto a forest trail on a search for the sounds of party. Minutes later I heard the sounds and I sampled some of the sacrificial lamb that Scotsman had cooked in the traditional Argentinian Asado manner over the open fire for 8 hours or so. It was very tasty, and well worth every minute Scotsman spent drinking beer while watching the gentle lamb become a tasty, tender, treat. After some champagne and an all too reasonable number of drinks I stumbled back to the cabin, hitting the sack after a Canadian nightcap, and readying myself for another pre 7am start (fucking americans).


May 6 Crystal Mtn (the end of days).

The last ski day of my trip was absolutely bloody amazing. Though it started with mags Scotsman50, PNWbrit, their wifes and Oftpiste, it soon became just Scotsman and I. Scotsman resigned himself to the fact that I wanted steep gnar for my last lift serviced day of the year, and he showed me some ass-kicking terrain. Elk Chutes, Banana Chute, more steep bumps and perfect snow conditions for ripping. The snow in Elk Chute was almost winter like and it became my co-favorite run on the mountain. After a few laps we hooked up with tay-er joedabaker and his mate and ripped a bunch more runs. Joe was happy to meet someone who quite liked a bit of steepness and some sporty snow and the feeling was quite mutual. We rode hard until last chair and I finished the skiing part of my ski road trip with a run down Elk Chute and then a final run down the Ranier Express lift line bumps, a fitting run that was in beautiful shape if you liked big spring slushy bumps. These were my two favorite runs at Crystal (although granted, the entire mountain was never open during my days here). Scotsman graciously offered to ski with my pack and camera, so the final day of the trip I had the camera pointed at me for a few runs, thanks buddy!








Me on Elk Chutes





joedabaker on Elk Chutes



joedabaker's mate on Banana Chute. It's ok guys, she skis better than most men.

[garyfromterrace]

Me again on Elk Chute. This run down was one of my better lines of the trip. Not only did I not suck for a significant percentage of the run, it was pretty steep and even a bit technical.



joedabaker not sucking, because that's what he does (at least whenever I was looking at him anyway).



Although I look short in this photo it should be noted that I believe joedabaker and scotsman are well over 7 feet in height.

A lovely little après session was held at the lodge deck, following which it was time to say heartfelt goodbyes to Oft-piste, Scotsman, PNW Brit, JoeDabaker and their wives. I really had a blast at Crystal and it is another place that will see the bases of my skis again (and it's not just because I really really like scotsman's cabin). The place has a lot of potential, and given the fact that the snow wasn't that great and I still had an absolute hoot, and enjoyed some truly fun terrain means a return visit is in order. I also realize that vast amounts of the hill were not open, and much of what I saw (but couldn't ski because of hard closures) looked like it would be pretty damn good with decent snow. The locals were proud of their hill and I get that. There is much to be proud of here, and the scenery was spectacular.

Heading down the hill, I made for flowing alpy’s place for the night. Entering Emumclaw (BTW has anyone considered changing the name of this town? I mean really, even writing it down it feels as though I have a speech impediment. How about "Nearcystal"? Just saying...) I noticed a little BBQ trailer shack on the Crystal side of town, and decided to get some ribs for the road. Good call! This place rocks, and is great value for money - the half rack fed me for two snacks and a meal, very friendly staff too.

The drive north was uneventful. Had to change vehicles in Seattle to get a rental I could drive across the border, unload all my gear at a trucking company in Vancouver (to send back to Terrace), then headed to the Vancouver airport. The insurance company covered a luxurious night at the Fairmont Airport (and a serious bar bill that night), and my flight home the next day. Finally on May 8 I found myself getting off the plane in Terrace with a couple of thousand photos, and a big ass TR to compose. Editting photos and writing had to be put on hold for a bit. I had a day to rest, get my life somewhat sorted, then on May 10 I jumped on a ferry to Haida Gwaii where I was booked to cook on a sailboat while cruising around Gwaii Haanas national park for a couple of weeks. Such is life .


The trip by the numbers:

ski areas 12
ski days 17
rd days 27
vertical walked up 23,500
skiing vertical 261,000
psycho hitchhikers 1
maggots 28
pathological maggot skiers 28
maggots I liked 28
"Best skiers on the mountain" who I said their ideas were "fucking stupid" 1
maggots I told to fuck off 5
maggots I told to fuck off who were fine with that 5
maggots whose "cabins" were nicer than my house 2
maggots whose houses I visited 5
maggots whose houses were nicer than my house 5
vehicles totalled 2
nights sleeping in a vehicle 2
nights sleeping in hotels 5
nights on a ferry 1
nights at mag's houses or cabins 18
last time I headed out on a solo ski road trip with the intent of hitting more than 6 resorts 1989
number of resorts I hit in 1989 on that road trip 2 (Skied 2 days at Lake Louise then ended up spending the rest of the ski season, then eventually moving to, Tod Mtn for 6 years)

Hope y'all enjoy the TR, and thanks USA, for the memories and the hospitality. You guys all have a place and a guide here.

[userA]

well you pretty much explained everything buddy, almost got a tear in my eye, but it was just a cat hair.

you have mastered the ski-vagabond-storytelling aspect of tgr and the stoke you provided on your visit is still around the ski areas you graced.

there will always be a seat on chair 2 for you gary
bobby and family

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks bobby, nice of you to say that. Give my best to the fam!

[PNWbrit]

Glad we could be part of your stokecationroadtripathon.

Come back soon mate - we still have that rain-check for a Rainier summit ski remember. Oh and by the way we're all coming to visit you next winter. OK?

....Says something that some of my very best days this season were skiing with Gary, whether it was his hill or mine whether on epic snow or in mank.... he's clearly the common denominator.

[userA]

placed a shames mountain sticker on the lift shack top of chair 2 for you today buddy.

[ex-powderbroker]

Well played, Gary!

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks PNWbrit, the pleasure (at all the places we skied together) was mine!
flowing alpy, ml242 - cheers.

[D(C)]

What an adventure! Nicely done. Thanks for taking the time to write about it.

[Buster Highmen]

Well played Gary; classic roadtrip - Divine Right hits the slopes.

[ACH]

Excellent TR GFT!
Was a great pleasure to have you as our guest.
Oh, Ozzy (the f'ing prince of barkness) says hi.

[Greydon Clark]

It was nice to meet you and I’m glad you made the trek to Shasta, even if the descent was a bit firm.

[Moeghoul]

Best thing I read all day and month so far! Bump to the top!

[Zeedashbo]

Way to be Gary. You are the man. i think everyone here can agree that it was a pleasure. Hopefully my trail will take me to the far north sooner than later.