thoughts of skiing...

Slowly but surely the days are getting shorter… as winter slowly gets closer the urge to skiing gets stronger… 

My mind drifts back to a series of days back in May…

I had been stuck inside for days, studying for finals at the U.  Finally I was all done with school for the spring semester.  Psyched to go skiing for the next few days I headed up Little Cottonwood. 

Spring had been in the air for several days and I was excited to get some spring skiing in.  However winter did not comply…  The first day I spent in the mountains was a dreary day.  It had decided to snow a few inches the night before creating a dust on crust situation.  The day was not all a waste though … there were still pockets of soft wind blown snow, I got some good pictures, and skied with a cool hippy tele skier that I met in the parking lot.  He was a very interesting fellow and we enjoyed good conversation while we skinned. 

The following day was such a contrast with blue skies and the warmth of spring.   This time I was able to enjoy the company of one of my good friends, Andrew.

The day was beautiful and mellow as we headed into Grizzly Gultch.  Psyched for another day of fun in the sun we found a little jump to goof around on below a nice slope.  After some shenanigans, a few aerial tricks, and a couple crash and burns, we spotted a fun jump across the way.  A take off was perched a little ways away from a roll over.  This setup was great for having plenty of airtime with a nice soft landing.   Excited and nervous at the top I strapped my purple straight old school skis on, that I had purchased for 15 dollars at the thrift store.  The first jump went well and I headed up for one for jump, this time for more than just a straight air.  The sun was getting close to setting as I floated a nice three over the jump.  Another great day concluded we headed back down to the city with the idea of coming back the next day. 

The next day arose and we headed back up into the mountains, this time with some more legit skis.  We got a nice fun run in before we headed back to the jump spot for some more shenanigans. 

We built a small lip on the roller and did some fun warm up spins, flips, and hand drags. 

After some fun goofing off we moved on to hitting the main jump and doing a few threes. 

With that behind us it was now time to move on to concrete goals.  I was hoping to get a nice flip over the gap before the day was done.  My first attempt I was a little too nervous and went just a tad too slow.  I got my lincoln loop around barely as the fronts of my skis collided with the knuckle.  My skis came to a sudden stop while my body kept flying forward.  I flew through the air without the greatest of ease and went sliding down the landing straight on my head.  With a crazy fall out of the way I wasn’t so nervous to try it again.  This time I went a little faster and brought my tips around just in time to stick the landing.