NoKnees
02-20-2007, 12:16 PM
Monday was another nice day to be out riding, but it seems like no one else wanted to go... Spent the day solo, and doing a little 2 hour 'clinic' with Expedition Kirkwood...
First, where was everone Monday? 3-6" fell at Kirkwood Sunday, getting a bit tracked up, but the temps remained colde so it stayed pretty nice up top and in the trees... Got two laps in off Cornice, and was on my first wall run by 9:25am... The theme of the day was "follow the wind, and you'll find freshies". Followed by, "Don't think about what could happen, because it will". More on that one later...
Anyway, spent the morning riding solo, then midday in a clinic. The solo was fun, as I found some nice windblown in a couple minor chutes and even off the face of the Wall. Love a mild breeze to setup some fresh snow the day after it falls...
The "clinic of the day" was almost a great two hour private, but at the last minute another boarder showed up to join in. She was cool, but needed to work on some different things than I wanted to focus on. So, we kept it pretty mellow. Will was our guide for the day, and is Kirkwood's most experienced "adult" snowboard instructor, Expediation guide... Cool guy, knows what he's doing. "G", the other boarder, was recovering from some old knee injuries and just needed to work on building her confidence in flowing through her turns in the off-piste, uneven terrain. While Will worked with her on that, he was scouting out "features" for me to practice dropping, jumping, etc... Worked on getting my grab on and adjusting my balance to match the transition, so I'm not always in the back seat... Provided some tips on spins, but I have yet to apply that much..
Anyway, took one extra run after the clinic, and it turned out to be my last of the day. We checked in with patrol to go over to Sister chutes off the top of "10", as they were still roped off due to early season lack of coverage. They gave us the okay and told us to have fun, so we did. Notch chute is nice and easy, and makes for an easy entrace. We skipped it. Cruised past "Once is enough" just to take a look, and it's nasty. Basically vertical still with minimal coverage. Nasty... Way, way, way, way out of my league... Got to the first Sister, and it was nice... Last couple photos are of the top of it... We dropped this...
I was having an off day, and it was about to get worse... The chute was fine, good snow left side, windpacked & icy right side. So, normal conditions... Dropped in, all good, then I went to air out the windlip onto the apron. This is where it went wrong... Air was a little off balance, and threw me in the direction of the one thing I didn't want to hit. A chunk of ice/broken cornice about the size of a mini-fridge. I glanced at it, and tried a hard toeside turn into the grabby windpacked pow.. Folded the nose of the board and flipped over backwards, head first into the fridge, weird crunching sound, and bounce off.... Layed there in the snow for a minute, taking inventory... Legs movable, check; hands and fingers, check; head & neck, um... feels kinda funny... but seems okay... Stand up, and balance was okay... Alright, no worries...
Proceeded to cruise down the chutes, into the drain, enjoying some nice powder slashes and small drops/jumps... Tried to hit the nice high speed rightiside "hip" jump down in the drain, and balance just wasn't quite there. Stacked on the landing for the first time this season... My favorite jump did me wrong! No worries, though, just slid it out...
Got to the bottom and took a break.... Neck was just not feeling right, and I noticed I had trouble looking around without a lot of resistance, and a bit of pain... Hmmm... Not good.... Decided to call it a day and drive home while I could still move my head enough to drive...
Today, not any worse than yesterday... Lotta drugs... Tomorrow morning apt. with Chiropractor... Hope I last that long.
First, where was everone Monday? 3-6" fell at Kirkwood Sunday, getting a bit tracked up, but the temps remained colde so it stayed pretty nice up top and in the trees... Got two laps in off Cornice, and was on my first wall run by 9:25am... The theme of the day was "follow the wind, and you'll find freshies". Followed by, "Don't think about what could happen, because it will". More on that one later...
Anyway, spent the morning riding solo, then midday in a clinic. The solo was fun, as I found some nice windblown in a couple minor chutes and even off the face of the Wall. Love a mild breeze to setup some fresh snow the day after it falls...
The "clinic of the day" was almost a great two hour private, but at the last minute another boarder showed up to join in. She was cool, but needed to work on some different things than I wanted to focus on. So, we kept it pretty mellow. Will was our guide for the day, and is Kirkwood's most experienced "adult" snowboard instructor, Expediation guide... Cool guy, knows what he's doing. "G", the other boarder, was recovering from some old knee injuries and just needed to work on building her confidence in flowing through her turns in the off-piste, uneven terrain. While Will worked with her on that, he was scouting out "features" for me to practice dropping, jumping, etc... Worked on getting my grab on and adjusting my balance to match the transition, so I'm not always in the back seat... Provided some tips on spins, but I have yet to apply that much..
Anyway, took one extra run after the clinic, and it turned out to be my last of the day. We checked in with patrol to go over to Sister chutes off the top of "10", as they were still roped off due to early season lack of coverage. They gave us the okay and told us to have fun, so we did. Notch chute is nice and easy, and makes for an easy entrace. We skipped it. Cruised past "Once is enough" just to take a look, and it's nasty. Basically vertical still with minimal coverage. Nasty... Way, way, way, way out of my league... Got to the first Sister, and it was nice... Last couple photos are of the top of it... We dropped this...
I was having an off day, and it was about to get worse... The chute was fine, good snow left side, windpacked & icy right side. So, normal conditions... Dropped in, all good, then I went to air out the windlip onto the apron. This is where it went wrong... Air was a little off balance, and threw me in the direction of the one thing I didn't want to hit. A chunk of ice/broken cornice about the size of a mini-fridge. I glanced at it, and tried a hard toeside turn into the grabby windpacked pow.. Folded the nose of the board and flipped over backwards, head first into the fridge, weird crunching sound, and bounce off.... Layed there in the snow for a minute, taking inventory... Legs movable, check; hands and fingers, check; head & neck, um... feels kinda funny... but seems okay... Stand up, and balance was okay... Alright, no worries...
Proceeded to cruise down the chutes, into the drain, enjoying some nice powder slashes and small drops/jumps... Tried to hit the nice high speed rightiside "hip" jump down in the drain, and balance just wasn't quite there. Stacked on the landing for the first time this season... My favorite jump did me wrong! No worries, though, just slid it out...
Got to the bottom and took a break.... Neck was just not feeling right, and I noticed I had trouble looking around without a lot of resistance, and a bit of pain... Hmmm... Not good.... Decided to call it a day and drive home while I could still move my head enough to drive...
Today, not any worse than yesterday... Lotta drugs... Tomorrow morning apt. with Chiropractor... Hope I last that long.