The
Last Weekend Ride of the 2003/2004 Season
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Matt, Kei,
Joann, Ed and David at the top of June Mtn. |
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last couple of weekend snowboarding only trips that I’ve taken ended
up costing me way too much money. I heard talk of another trip being planned
for the last weekend in March. I purposely stayed out of the planning part
and let everyone else handle the details this time. About a week beforehand
I called The Gas Company and got squared away on the when, where and how.
Most everyone headed up Thursday night and got on fresh powder Friday morning
at June Mountain. Kei and I had to work on Friday, so we rode up EARLY Saturday
morning. Brauning and Brian were out, because of an engagement party for
Brauning’s sister that they were putting together, but both of them
really wanted to get on the snow that weekend. Kei and I decided to go to
Mammoth Mountain and ride on Saturday. We rolled into Mammoth Lakes around
10:00am and were on twelve inches of beautiful fresh powder 30 minutes later.
The weather was outstanding! It was 55*F, the skies were clear and blue,
the sun was out and we rode in t-shirts. The lifts were relatively empty
and every run we hit was fantastic! I got into the trees and glided through
deep sugary untracked white fluff run after run. Kei and I worked the shit
out of the mountain, hitting trail after trail and running this lift and
that. The late afternoon found us on the very top of the mountain and headed
down to the super empty #13 and #14 lifts. |
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A view
of the valley that contains June Lake from the top of June Mtn. |
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left the mountain around 4:00 and after an hour of confusing bus and gondola
transfers found the truck and headed to June Lake to meet up with the other
members of The Gas Company (Membership includes: Joann, David, Ed, Chris,
Brian, Kei, Matt Talley and Matt Brauning), who were hold up in a hotel
at the foot of June Mountain. After changing we went into town as a group
and stuffed ourselves at dinner. As we waddled out of the restaurant a couple
of us called Brauning to rub the good times and fresh powder in his face.
I don’t think that he appreciated our gesture of friendship and goodwill.
He said mean, dirty, hurtful things into the phone that I dare not repeat
here… |
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Some
of us just before eating. |
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were up and out on the slopes the next morning by 8:10am. Kei, Chris and
Joann were having equipment and boot issues, so David and I decided to hit
a run or two while they worked it all out. The snow was a little icy, but
the runs had been groomed the night before and were untouched. David and
I carved, jumped and edged our way down two runs just loving life before
the others caught up. We all then headed to the top of the mountain to get
on everyone’s favorite black run: Deerbowl. As the lift crested a
small rise we could see that Deerbowl had been groomed as well and there
was only one set of carving tracks on the slope. We were so STOKED!! David,
Kei, Ed and I flew off the lift, strapped in and bombed down the run with
abandon, only to do it four of five more times in a row. |
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David sitting in
his "snow cave." |
Ed on top of the mountain. |
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temperature hovered around 55/60*F all day and the slightly icy conditions
that morning turned into wonderfully soft fluff by 10:00. Right after lunch,
I filmed everyone coming down Deerbowl. David, the best boarder in the group,
came bombing down the run while I followed him closely. Somehow, someway,
he hit a small bump, caught and edge and I captured a horrendous
crash that was America’s Funniest Home Videos worthy!
They’ll have to edit it though. My normally profane mouth coupled
with the outrageous crash led to a stream of expletives caught on the audio
portion of the tape. David turned out to be fine and we watched the replay
over and over again sitting in a snow bank at the bottom of Deerbowl. David’s
balls-out riding was over for the day, so he took the video camera and taped
us for the rest of the afternoon. He caught some great stuff: A snow ball
fight, everyone riding in a group down a run with Chris, me falling on my
ass in the trees and Ed’s monkey chatter. The funniest moment caught
on film was when Ed and I were mooned the camera while we rode down the
slope. My part of the incident was small and not really that noteworthy,
but Ed took mooning to a whole new level. He lifted his shirt, did 360s
and sang a mooning song down the run. My sides hurt with laughter. |
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Matt, David
and Joann just before going down a VERY unhappy run. It was humbling. |
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3:00 were grouped up at the upper lodge and were about to head home when
I heard “Talley!” I looked back and I’ll be damned if
it wasn’t Brauning and Brian standing there with boards in hand. They
decided to go to Mountain High that morning to get on some snow and the
conditions were horrible: slush, ice, rocks and mud. After two runs, they
packed it in and on a whim headed to June Mountain to meet us. Kei and I
got in two runs with them before the lifts shut down. They were giddy with
the conditions and decided on the spot to stay an extra day and ride on
Monday. Kei cancelled her plans for Monday and decided to stay and ride
with them. Crazy bastards!
It was such a great weekend and really nice cap to a great
riding season. I am looking SOOOO forward to November and the snow that
comes with it.
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While
it looks like Ed is removing his pants and Chris is flashing us, we were
just taking off some cloths because it was hot. Ed took his pants off
on the snow later that day though... |
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