48 hours of hop: Tropical Guam to nuclear winter Kirkwood to hospital to home

[hop]

Imagine you're a skier stuck in Guam with only a few hours to go before you fly home to where the first big storm of the season is plastering your home mountain. All of your friends are telling you how nutters it is and will be for the next few days, and you want in on the action. You're walking around on beautiful white sand beaches
but all you can think about is jumping off something with your skis on, so you find a rock and practice your moves in anticipation of things to come.

Soon enough you're on a plane, and about 18 hours of travel later you arrive home. The temps have gone from about 28 degrees and humid to about 6. It's fucking cold and rainy, but that's good... it means the pow train's still rolling!
The current conditions are the best yet and the forecast is looking good, but you're pretty jet-lagged and you should probably hang with the fam for a while. A nap takes care of the jet lag, but you're still itching to get to the mountains. You gingerly bring up the possibility of leaving and amazingly enough the fam seems to understand. You make some phone calls: you've missed Skier666 and crew by an hour, and Shoe can't do a full day. Lph offers up his spare room... and before you know it you're on the road, a whopping 14 hours after landing.
The drive up is inspiring; it's puking down low and it stays snowing all the way up to Kirkwood.
By the time you find Casa de Jason it's 0100 and you're tired again, but you can't sleep because you're too excited. Morning comes soon enough and everyone gets their shit together, except for you, who brought up some brand-new unmolded boots. You can barely squeeze your feet into them and once you do they last about five minutes before they MUST COME OFF. This won't do, so you roll down to the village shop to get them molded. They're not open, so it's time for plan B: alpine liners. Amazingly enough they fit the tele shells and your feet are happy again! As you rendezvous with the rest of the crew you notice that everyone has the right tools for the job. It's going to be one of those days.

You're a bit tentative on your first couple of runs
but after that it's game on. The snow is good to go and the stoke level is all-time. The group splinters and re-connects and splinters again, but when the backside opens for the first time during this storm that's where everyone goes. The first run down through Danger cliffs makes the 7+ feet of untouched snow appear light and fluffy, and a test huck of little Danger proves it. On to Dogleg, where it's still fluffalicious. It's been six weeks since you've had any pow or air, and now it's time to collect.




It's good. Super insano good. Good enough to race back for another lap! This time you decide to step it up; big Danger must get hit and that's all there is to it.

The landing is soft and even though it's not quite stomped it's still fun as hell. You head back towards Dogleg where you run into the rest of the posse, who must have been just ahead of you. The adrenaline starts to redline because you've been thinking about what you were practicing in Guam and now it's time to put up or shut up. The audience is a bonus, as is the camera, but you give a count anyways. "3-2-1 dropping!"

It's all good until you're just about to land and you realize you're a bit off the fall line. Your skis hit and stick, you bounce over them and feel a twang. You stand up, yep, something's awry and it looks like that's it for you for the day. You ski out with the rest of the group but as they head back to the chairs you head for your car. They're going to keep slaying it for you as you limp back to town to ice your knee. Don't even think for a second that they're going to wait up for you because you know they're not, and you wouldn't let them if they tried. There's pow out there! Get sum!




Everyone is all smiles when they get home, but your knee is not happy. The next day you go to the hospital to get an MRI and your expectations are met: Class 2 MCL tear and no action for a month. That's ok, you got a stellar morning with the crew and that's all you really needed. That afternoon you cruise back home to the fam and do all the catching-up you left the day before. Hey, they're lucky because now they get you for the next month instead of what would have probably only amounted to a day or two! And now with all this time on your hands you can finally get to all those other things you've been putting off for ever. There's no time like the present, so get to work. You've got one month.



The snowy photos from this TR were brought to you by lph, who also receives the MVP award. Most of the photos are of me, but also appearing after I make my exit are AKA and Runethechamp.

[Squirrel99]

Bummer dude. Only a month- it'll be april 1 before you know it.

hope to see you up in Bakerland sometime this spring. maybe I'll even go to a metal show

[Dug]

Fuck yeah, way to kill it!

Get better soon.

[trainnvain]

Snow will be good in April.
Scarpa liners? Those are nasty pains before they get cooked.
Good ya got some.
Good CA's gettin some.

[idiot]

yes..........kirkwood is fun

[Arty50]

You weren't kidding. That new outfit brings photoslut orange to a whole new level!

[hop]

You weren't kidding. That new outfit brings photoslut orange to a whole new level!

That's my Caltrans steez bitches!

[G]

There won't be any more powder until April anyway, so it'll be okay, Hop.

[bigtrubs]

Hop, your tan is WHACK. Thatisall.


Oh, except.... nice pics, and heal up quick.

[PeachesN'Cream]

fukkkkk dude, really sorry to hear of your POP. least it was only an M and not an A... they fix themselves, hooray for you.

good luck with the healin'

[truth]

That's a hell of a ride. Bummer about the tear. Heal fast.

[3snowboards]

Hope your knee gets well soon. You are an inspiration to all peoples. People that aren't inspired by you just haven't heard your story.

[Vets]

Great TR. Solid beginning, happy middle, ... - heal up well to fix the ending and get back to enjoy April storms and corn.

[chaka]

Hope you heal quickly, cool tr thanks for sharing!

oh, are you wearing jorts in this photo?

[nufenstein]

tore my mcl in soccer...got tackled from behind my some slow/goofy bastard...i was back in 3 weeks, playing hard in 5...good luck to you and make sure to go to rehab, its amazing...my doc told me my "skiing legs" aided in my quick recovery....

[nova2]

The TR was deep in more ways than 1.

Hope that mcl heals up good and strong and FAST!

Cuz we all cannot wait to get back up to Kirkwood.

[zIPPY]

Nice Myspace photo!!!!


But for real, nice pics

[Tippster]

Damn dude - sorry you chipped yourself.

[skimoore]

Hop is my hero, heal up quick!

[Arty50]

A little mood lighting...a curling iron...and a few weeks off to grow a beard...

[lph]

Nice, TR hop!

Glad to have you as a guest, sorry this time it was for such a brief stay.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Hey look, Punani even flew all the way in from Australia for this storm



nice TR hop. see ya in a few weeks!

[komo]

stoke!
great report. good luck with the recovery.

nice pics lph

[CRUSH]

Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa", and you were like "whoa..."

[Clack]

But it looked good, and that's what counts. Heal up.