Laundromat Boredom

Putting up this video of Maximus Jones-Drew, my Peke, trying to figure out how to get outside with all the snow we had last week. Man, was that stuff fun to ride in. Got some friends from Jersey coming up this weekend - supposed to be absolutely gorgeous for their introduction to Okemo. I also bought a camera, unfortunately it won't be here in time for the weekend. Eventually. Enjoy:

Yes, afterwards I shoveled a path - he just really needed to get out at that exact moment. How could I not film it?

The Bump @ Mt. Enzy

So with all this powder we've been getting this week, and me working in an office from 8-5, I decided I needed to ride a little bit during the week. Since Okemo closes at 4, I had to improvise a little bit. I decided that the piles of plowed snow that had been adding up all winter would make a good starting point, and that it would be a great idea to build a kicker at the bottom of the highest pile. Here's what I had to start with (the pictures are all taken with my cell phone camera, which of course has no flash. I need to get a camera at some point):

Standing at approximately 10-12 feet, Mt. Enzy rivals most mountains in the Poconos. It is also the only mountain that is 100% lit in Vermont. However, with zero snowmaking coverage, it takes quite a bit of help from Mother Nature to get it open. This particular day dumped about 24 inches of fresh all across Mt. Enzy. That's some nice lookin' pow, right? Not too good for getting speed though. After a few runs down and some work with the shovel and my board, it turned into this:

Much better for what I was looking to do. The hard part was building the actual kicker. I have mad respect for park crews after building this - just getting it to ride right, and be solid enough to not just crumble when someone hits it, is an art. It took a solid hour of building to get it good enough to ride, and another half hour to fix it up the next day to ride again. The work those park crews must put in is insane. Thanks for the hard work - it's appreciated. Here are some more pics of the Bump at Mt. Enzy.

Not awful - nothing great, but it absolutely served it's purpose. Now, onto some of the "features." The picture below was taken from the top, looking down. Depth perception is near impossible, so I added a little visual aid. The lines are at the bottom of the starter, leading into the kicker.

Quickest lift in VT - 'bout a 20 second trip to the top - up the stairs.

And the actual kicker itself, looking from the side. It's not much, maybe 2 and half feet, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing. It's actually way more fun that I expected, and was definitely worth the effort.

I was pretty pleased with the way it came out, and I'm hoping it lasts for more than a few days. Saturday I'll finally get out on Okemo, so hopefully there's still some stashes out there.

Curling - The Most Deceiving Sport on Earth

This past Sunday I went curling with the Rutland Rocks Curling Club at Giorgetti Arena in Rutland. Let me tell you, curling is a very deceiving sport. First, the ice isn’t slippery at all. The surface is “pebbled” with a fine mist, to create traction for sweepers as well as a surface for the rock to slide on – the concave bottom of the rock would create suction on a perfectly flat surface. The rock essentially slides alone these pebbles. It’s also way harder to get those stones all the way to the other end – 140 feet away. The Olympians barely look like they’re pushing the stone at all, but you really have to get a good slide (a difficult task in and of itself) to get the stone down there. And sweeping is just exhausting, especially at the club level. A lot of sweeping is needed just to get the stone even close to the house, or target, and after doing that as hard as you can the length of the sheet really wears out your arms after awhile. Just getting the basics down are hard enough, but once you factor in the strategy and precision it takes to pull off the shots the Olympians do – wow do I have a new respect for the sport. Still, it’s definitely something I want to try again next season. Pictures from the session hopefully coming soon.

16 or so inches of fresh on the ground so far – more supposedly coming, potentially 35 inches by Saturday. Updates from the Mt. Enzy terrain park will be coming in the next day or two, but the weekend needs to get here so I can ride.