The Long Weekend | Squaw Valley
When:
Sat, 04/09/2011
Where:
Squaw Valley
State / Province:
California
Who:
Price, Mouse, Greg, Jake the Snake, and Brent
Temperature:
45F Picking up where I dropped off in part one, I arose on Saturday at the Calgary airport and hopped an early flight to San Francisco. The original scheme was to get to Tahoe to ride on Sunday, cruising back to SF for work on Monday. I quickly appended this plot to include a day of riding on Monday to complete the four day long weekend. Upon touchdown at SFO, I learned that you could scam a free lift ticket with a same day boarding pass. The race was on.
I stepped into a decidedly less pimp rental rig at SFO and didn't step out until she was firmly wedged into a muddy corner of the Squaw Valley parking lot. At 1 pm, with my boarding pass in hand, I ran to the ticket window to proudly claim my prize, a free ticket to ride the expansive Squaw Valley. The added bonus to my early arrival was the opportunity to ride with a slew of original 7YWers from my old riding haunt, North Conway, NH.
The lads led me off to the honey pot, far from the wall to wall weekend crowds. I hadn't ate in a day, not since the poutine pictured in part one, but there was no time for such extravagances when there was wet pow to chew up. 50% of the NH crew dropped out at 3-ish to head for the bubble, leaving Greg, Brent, and I to perform stunts of gnarliness, or at least talk about what we would do if we didn't suck.
At some point while lacing my binders up, I took notice of a unwanted modification. The old Forum Arenas had finally failed, owing most likely to the high speed chowder fumble at Kicking Horse less than 24 hours prior. Nothing pisses me off like a broken binder, however unlike the multiple Drake and Burton binders I have snapped, the Forums rode "okay" with the break. I ended up riding the busted metal for the next three days and probably will roll it until the inevitable full implosion, such is the life of a 3rd tier chooch.
Once I recovered from the anger of the binder incident, the riding stoked started to wash over me. There is seriously nothing better than riding with a positive crew that pushes you.
Okay maybe having a healthy heap of snow is better.
And perhaps having 4000 acres of freeriding paradise to explore is even better. Seriously, where I took the above photo wasn't even at the farthest point of the resort. Incidentally, I hiked up the ridge where the 7YW icon points to score some "fresh" pow. I was rewarded with some hard, loud crusty mess. Don't worry, I am from the East Coast, it was epic.
GNAR happens up there - The Palisades
Ever the New Hampshire local, Brent rode over some trees and then spit chew on my board, that's how they roll.
On my last day of shred, Brent and I were treated to a guided tour by Jake the Snake, formerly of North Conway fame. As Brent says, having a guide is swell. We took a short stroll to score some less tracked spring slush.
It looked just like the photo on the left from the top, and fairly similar to the right photo from the bottom.
Look kids, Brent is updating his Facebook status while ripping. While an obviously badass move, it still scores -5 GNAR points, if I had any say in the matter.
The top of the photo is Alpine Meadows and in between, where the lift towers without lifts are, is White Wolf. Owned by local ski bum Troy Caldwell, the 460 acres of prime riding terrain is slowly being developed. The future of White Wolf is unclear, it could end up being the connector of Squaw and Alpine or it could be a private slope for Caldwell's friends and family. I think it could be one epic Log Reserve.
While the above photos are not the most extreme, and I am sure Brent won't be psyched on them, they just feel like snowboarding to me, a simple air and a switch 3 on a cat track, fun defined.
On the left was my hotel view from Calgary on Thursday morning and on the right is my hotel view from San Francisco on Monday evening, everything in between was rad.
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Conditions:
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Conditions:
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Conditions:
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Conditions:
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Conditions:
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Temperature: 32F
Conditions:
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Ever since the five day work week was legislated, the working man has schemed ways to maximize the weekend. On occasion, if lucky and strategic with a precious few vacation days, the poor slob may achieve the holy grail of the daily grind, the long weekend. I not only pulled off the mythical 4...