Sultan Guy

To be or not to be....my final day of the season today and what a beautiful day. Hard crust quickly turned slushy on south facing runs, shady runs held until midday. This was the original closing day so they had the usual shennanigans, keg of PBR beer at Tye Mill Chair, dummy downhill, and of course pond skimming. 32 days for me this season. 10 days less then last year, but with early season shoulder surgery followed my mid season new job I am happy with this. Stevens has a SECOND season starting next weekend and going at least thru early May, however my season pass does not work. &%$#@?*??? They either want $39 per day, $99 for three weekends, or my $$$ for season pass 2012/2013. Problem is with my new job I might not be going much next season if I move. Hmmm.... Time to go Stand Up Paddling, and hiking!

Hate to run into that fence!

4/8/2012 Choice Easter Day of great carving. Snow stayed surpringly good all day. Empty slopes made for some mean railing on the Donek FC179 Metal. Edge hold all day. The ski patrol hid a golden egg somewhere on the mountain. Finder got a free season pass! I thought nobody would find it but by 11:30 it was found. Many silver eggs were still unfound. One more day for me this season......

I got TWO dreamy runs in on the backside Sunday morning before they closed everything down. POW WOW! Problems with wind shut the chairs down. What a shame!

Today: Snow showers. Steady temperature around 26. West southwest wind between 9 and 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Tonight: Snow. Low around 18. West southwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming south southeast. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Monday: Snow. High near 29. Breezy, with a south southeast wind around 22 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible. Monday Night: Snow showers. Low around 17. South southeast wind around 8 mph becoming west southwest. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. Tuesday: Snow showers. High near 24. Calm wind becoming south between 4 and 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Tuesday Night: Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 20. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. Wednesday: Snow. High near 30. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. Wednesday Night: Snow. Cloudy, with a low around 26. Thursday: Snow. Cloudy, with a high near 33. Thursday Night: Snow. Cloudy, with a low around 26. Friday: Snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 32. Friday Night: Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 22. Saturday: Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 28

Great vid!! How did they get the entire mountain for just carvers?

February 19, 26, and March 4th 2/19 and 2/26 were big powder days and I harvested the goods on the big Northfork board. 2/19 was especially epic with 16+ inches but marred by a tragic out of bounds avalance that killed three expert skiers. Being present in the general area during this was a downer on an otherwise great day. 3/4 saw me back on the carving board-Axxess 172. Decent day with funky highly variable snow. Firm packed in places and very soft almost slushy in other areas. Challenging conditions. At 9:30 riding up Skyline I saw ski patrol assisting an injured snowboarder. Turned out to be Nate W. He had just collided with a skier. They put his arm in a sling and he was evacuated via the rescue sled. Best wishes to Nate for a speedy recovery.

Sunday 2/12- Great snow this morning, perfect for carving. Crowds about the same as last week. Top of Skyline was icy but all of Hogsback was great. 1 more week of kids classes and then we will have much less people.

Sunday 2/5- Beautiful sunny day. A bit crowded by 10 for my taste but I was spoiled riding all those weekdays. Grooming not so great. Hilly. Saw Bill and his wife. Snow granular on top and hard pack underneath.

Well....back to what makes the Pacific Northwest famous or notorious. Rain heavy at times all day (well at least until 12 when we bailed out) on all that beautiful perfect snow. What a waste! No lift lines in the rain.

Yoga not a "sport" IMO and every yogi teacher I have ever met agrees. More like a stretching thing. My wife is a yoga instructor so I get plenty of yoga :)

Tuesday was a busted day on the hill. No new snow overnight but started snowing at 7:30. Groomed runs quickly became moguls and there was not quite enough fresh for off groom fun. Rode the Donek Metal Axxess. Wednesday I was up early and ready but the road was closed due to an avalanche. Did not reopen until almost NOON so I bagged it and went to the gym. Thursday turned out to be almost a carbon copy of 1/17 with LOTS of fresh and DEEP POWDER. Rode the Northfork Pow Reaper all day on the backside until they closed it. 30+ mph winds with some large drifts. I have this board totally dialed now. Ripped hard and my legs were shot. So few people meant endless runs of freshies. Friday was a bluebird day and despite tired legs I went up with my ski friend for first chair. Rode the Donek Metal FC 179 and it was SICK good. Firm butter. The best heel side high speed turns all season for me. Railing it. Tons of kids today and by noon most runs were chewed up. Switched back to the Axxess until 2 PM and by then my poor legs were on fumes. Stevens has had 106 inches of new snow in just 13 days. Take that CO. Reality starts for me on Monday as I have a new job so will be back to weekends only for the rest of this season. Today and yesterday have been some of the finest snowboarding of my life so at least I ended on a high note.

I just added up my yearly totals for all my sports. Here are my totals for 2011 compared with 2010. My system just counts an "event" for a specfic sport. Might be a 12 hour hike or just a 50 minute run. 2011 Hiking/backpacking-20 Running-57 Weightlifting/core-55 Stand Up Paddling-45 Sea Kayaking-24 Snowboarding-45 Snowshoeing-8 2010 Hiking/backpacking-21 Running-76 Weightlifting/core-66 Stand Up Paddling-38 Sea Kayaking-14 Snowboarding-41 Snowshoeing-5 In 2010 I trained for the Seattle Half Marathon so focused more on running. In 2011 I had shoulder surgery on 11/1 which really cut me back for November and December. With LOTS of PT and preserverance I should be paddling pain free in 2012! Overall I am pleased with the balance for my past two years. I love the variety of pushing myself physically into such different sports. I will turn 49 in two months and firmly beleive in the motto "Everything in moderation, nothing in excess".

Delayed opening this morning because they had a cat stuck on the backside. The backside did not open until almost 11 which made the frontside busier then normal. 1-2" of fresh powder on the groom. Used the Donek Axxess 172 this morning. Runs were too soft for decent carving and quickly became moguls even on Rock and Blue. Lots more snow in the forecast. More Pow Reaper days?

EPIC Powder Day!! Just getting to and from the mountian today was an adventure. Snoqualimie Pass was closed for almost 8 hours which sent much traffic and trucks over Stevens. Add in all the powder hounds and it was a mess. Lots of jackknifed rigs. Arrived to find well over 16" of fresh light powder on the backside. Snowed hard all day another 8"+. In the early hours most of the mountain was too deep. Super windy and whiteout conditions on the ridge crests at top of DD and Seventh. Rode the Pow Reaper all day. After an hour or so I was really getting that thing figured out. Lean back a bit and let it go! Real surfy like. Underneath the Southern Cross Chair was amazing all morning. After a short lunch we found all of Aquarius Face was drifted back in so more fresh untouched pow! Went to closing. Legs wasted.

Video quality is poor and not good angles of your turns. Don't reach for the snow. Let it come to you. Looks like you are having FUN!

WOW!! Check out the forecast! I was up there today for the first time on my new/used Northfork Pow Reaper. Too crowded after 11. Looks like this week will be some real POW. Tonight: Snow showers. Low around 13. West wind between 15 and 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 6 to 10 inches possible. Tuesday: Snow showers. High near 15. West southwest wind between 5 and 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 12 to 18 inches possible. Tuesday Night: Snow. Low around 6. West southwest wind around 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible. Wednesday: Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 6. East southeast wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 21 to 27 inches possible. Wednesday Night: Snow. Low around 5. South southeast wind 5 to 14 mph becoming west southwest. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 20 to 26 inches possible. Thursday: Snow. High near 27. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 16 inches possible. Thursday Night: Snow. Low around 25. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Bluebird day and excellent conditions the first two hours. After that the soft snow was pushed off to the side with the hard worn out base on display. Lots of snow in the forecast!

Snow was much better today then this past Tuesday but still icy in certain places. Way less people today then Tuesday for some reason... Great to have a full quad today of hardbooters. That was a first for me at Stevens! Mike, Pusbag, and JD from Mukliteo. Real bummed to hear the story about Mark. Lets all be careful. I ate **** today on my last run probably because my legs were getting tired. Will be up Friday and probably Monday. 8:45 Hogsback.

Some major changes in my life lately... On Dec. 5th I was abruptly let go from my employer of 11.5 years for no reason. Totally caught me off guard. Was working hard that day even. I was stunned and in disbelief. After a few days in a funk I started working all my "contacts" hard, made a resume, and updated my old Linked In account. Got a phone call on 12/19 from a guy I know vaguely at 500+ employee aerospace tooling company. Scheduled interview on 12/19 of four hours ended up being 7.5 hours. Went back for a full day 8 hour second interview on 1/5 and received an offer on 1/9 making almost identical to what I was. Much more opportunity for advancement and they want me to start Feb. 1. Only issue is the distance-90 minutes. Looking into a midweek room for rent situation that is nearby. Just seems amazing that I can be unemployed for barely a month! In the meantime I have been boarding 3-4 weekdays each week. Anyone else have an experience like this?

Still very good carving conditions the first two days. 12/23 was more crowded and very foggy at times. Legs finally in great shape. Going up 12/25 for morning runs then off to the airport in the evening for a week to visit family. Next week will be crowded with all the kids. Back in January on weekdays.

In the parking lot from the car next to mine. "Dude WTF, first I see you put on ski boots and then you pull out a snowboard"

Really want to come back again but.....I just got laid off so $ is tight. Need to see how some leads pan out in January....

Last Friday from some young snowboard kid- "Why are you riding a sled?" I told him a sled was for laying down on and our ski area does not allow those.

YOGA. Being and staying flexible with good range of joint movement will make getting back up on either heel or toe side much easier, not to mention how much easier you can angulate on a deep heel side carve. I like to do some basic static stretches right before the lift opens.