Marc's Public Blog - Skiing / Snowboarding / Snow


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This is a collection of my blog entries about snowboarding.
You can find all the pictures I've taken here, and read below for the more recent trips that I have recorded in blog entries:

Table of Content for snow:

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2005/12/21 Kirkwood, I missed you
π 2005-12-21 22:46 by Merlin in Nsnow, Snow

Well, last weekend, I was a bit busy :) and this week wasn't looking much better, but when I saw that bad weather, I was just hitching too much so I decided to drive my own sorry butt there (I usually never drive, I really hate that drive :) ). While I didn't really have the time to go, Wednesday looked like the best bet, so I got up at 05:15 (ouch), and headed out around 06:10 after refueling my car.
I did great time there (2H40) considering the school buses on the road, trucks, and other people who didn't feel like driving twice the speed limit :)
Note too self: there are too many cops on this road, even in the morning.
It did get interesting when I got closer to Kirkwood, the temperature dropped to 2 degrees C, and I had to worry about black ice. First, my car started going sideways when I was passing a truck in a straight line and a passing zone (apparently the back left wheel hit some ice). It took for some quick countersteering and dynamic stability control (i.e. fancy traction control) to kick in for the car to go straight again.
Later, I was able to use my sideways driving skills (i.e. mild powerslides) in the turns before I got to kirkwood: the road was mildly icy, and my "do not use in snow" race tires aren't really designed for this. It was a good exercise :)





I got to Kirkwood at 08:50, 10mn before opening time, so by the time I was ready, it was not too long after the first lifts were sent up. Yay!
The ski conditions were ok. The snow wasn't great (definitely not powder), but it wasn't icy either.
I stopped around lunchtime, and met my good friend but now distant coworker, N, who happened to be at kirkwood for a few days, so I took a well needed break to chat with her.
By the time I got back outside (13:00-ish), everyone was there before the lifts had just been shut down due to lightening that had just hit the mountain.
Unfortunately, they only got turned back on by 14:45, leaving for another 1H15 of snowboarding, but I made the best of it, especially as most people had bailed by then. I also used the time waiting, to work on my laptop in my car.





I'm told the snowboard helmet hair works for me :)




The drive back wasn't as fun. Not only was it pouring rain, I narrowly avoided two other cops, and then my car started saying that I had a tire failing (although it wasn't nice enough to tell me which one). Since I had hit a pothole at kirkwood, I was a bit worried. I pulled over under the rain to visually check the tires, but they looked ok.
When I started driving again, I was wondering what the odds were that my tire sensor was wrong. I knew that in my car it used the ABS sensors to measure how many rotations each tire was doing, and would detect a slow deflation since the decrease in diameter would cause that tire to turn quicker.
When I finally hit a covered gas station, I checked the pressure in each tire, but they were all good, so I just continued the drive home, and got there almost 3H40 later. This reminded me how much I don't like driving to Tahoe: 6H20 on the road for 4H of snowboarding... (and I can't even complain, a 6H20 round trip to Tahoe is not actually that bad)
But in the end, it was still worth it, at least I got to see some snow before february :)

Oh, on the way back, I found a very decorated house close to Hwy 88 and Hwy 99. This reminded me of John Steward saying "What part of god bless the USA did you not understand!!!" after the terrorist attacks...
The rest of the pictures are here




More pages: February 2024 January 2024 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 April 2022 February 2022 December 2021 November 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 October 2020 March 2020 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 April 2015 March 2015 December 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 December 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 March 2011 February 2011 December 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 March 2009 February 2009 December 2008 April 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 December 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 December 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 November 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004

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