Who would have thought...

...that cold weather, a Honda Element, Pennsylvania, 4ds, Sunny D, deer meat, sub zero wind chills, 1 t-bar, 1 double chair lift, 2 trails, and a 300 vertical foot hill with snow could be so much fun? I guess when you throw in three of the most radical mo fo's around (plus me), it becomes a no-brainer...

If you haven't heard or figured it out, The Key Three and Matt (Mascot) made our way to the Tussey/Sawmill race at Sawmill this weekend. It was my first time at Sawmill, and geeeezum crow is that place tiny! 300 vert feet on a good day...two t-bars and a chairlift...probably 6 snow guns...and the most reckless mountain I have ever been to. Between the Ski Patrol almost beheading someone as he came off a blind roller in the middle of a trail, to the groomer that was out grooming an open trail as the public shussed down, and the snowmaker dood that was bombing up the hill on a snow-machine in the middle of the trail, i was moderately fearful for my own safety...The Ski Patrol did serve up some mean Bar-BQ venison though (that doesn't seem legit, but, that place doesn't care...)!

We stayed in Wellsboro Sat night, knocked down some Brass Monkeys and I was asleep by 1030 at the latest haha We left at 4am Saturday morning and I got home at like 930 Sunday night...crazy times for sure.

I haven't quite figured out where the subwoofer is hidden in the Element, but, lordy does that thing bump...har har...junk was cold as anything too - -11 windchill on Sunday. Not too bad if you're moving around, but, when you're standing on the side of the trail, it's not too awesome...anywho...another solid weekend for the books!

God do I need to get back to the Jay Peak story...screw that, I need to get back to Jay Peak...

This thing might become the Accuweather blog...

I dunno if Accuweather is full of drunks, or if they just have a sense of humor...or both, but check out the upcoming forecast...


Hysterical...

Anywho, I've been slacking with the blogging, but, not with the shredding...I'll update this junk sooner or later...

You are ridiculous, Mid-Atlantic...

Another righteous weekend of the shred up at Liberty...early morning gate training yesterday, and gate training today. Cordell blew chunks yesterday when we got home, I'm guessing Amanda poisoned his roast beast sandwich...either way he was out for today so I got to play Coach Chad haha those are some tall boots to fill, but I think I managed...skiing was surprisingly good despite the mercury topping out 'round fiddy degrees...Saw Pauly and the rest of the p-crew which was cool and it was even cooler to see Zander man and his fam out sliding around - even if he did stab me with that damn ski pole about 50 times haha I suppose it was really my fault...

Anywho...this weather is looking like absolute crap...I'd like to bring to your attention to of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen on Accuweather...

Exhibit A
As you will notice in the graphic below, the graph of the high temp is literally, off the charts...



Exhibit B
The Mid-Atlantic is full of wusses. Note that 31 degrees is dubbed "frigid"...



How does that Coheed song go again? ...pull the trigger and the nightmare strops, woah oh...Why can't I be in Cali enjoying the 11 foot dump...grr

It might get a little hairy...

Things might get confusing here...I know I haven't wrapped up this past weekend's events yet, but I feel the need to touch on last night...

Winter finally came back and slapped Liberty in the face...thank freaking god...if conditions at liberty were always like last night, I wouldn't be so pissed about not being in Vermont -- yes it was that good haha

Anywho, your typical Thurs night gate training with the race team. We got shafted on Sneaky Pete with a SL course that was a joke but man that backside was righteous. The Core Four was on the mountain with a few additions. It was great to see Robbie and Jared back on the snow, and as always it was great to see April and Todd. Todd gave us the heads up that Upper Ultra was a little on the outta-control side of things and that there was "powder" to be had. In disbelief and with little convincing, The Key Three and Jared went to investigate...sure enough, the backside was firm, but grippy - in most spots. Lower Heavenly required a few tricky navigational tactics, but nothing extreme. However, Upper Ultra was a dream...loose powder, and tons of launch pads. As usual, the night was too short, but a blast.

All in all, a killer night - this weekend is looking promising too.

Another notch on the ol' belt...

Sunday Dec 30th 11:09pm

a-c-c-u-w-e-a-t-h-e-r-.-c-o-m

The radar looks like this:



With the prospects of first tram at Jay Peak with full on winter conditions in Decemeber on my mind, I call Cordell in hopes of the typical Mid-Atlantic, 50-degrees-and-rain weather spelled an early ending to the day's training at Liberty. No luck - I leave a long winded pointless voice mail.

Immediately, I call Amanda:

Hello?

Haaayyyyyy gurrrrrrrrl!

haha What's going on Dave?

Nothing. Just loking at the weather, I think we need to leave as soon as Chad gets home, not at 9pm. Can you get home motivated when he gets home?

Fine, I don't think that will be an issue haha

Sweet. I'll see you at 4.

Cool, later.

Ok, bye meow.

3:24pm
The house phone rings. I usually never pick it up, but for some stupid reason I did...some dood that had an appointment to do an appraisal on the house at 4. With mom and dad no where to be found, I was at a bit of a loss. Call them up, turns out they're in Frederick shopping for furniture...jesus christ...Long story short, I end up sticking around the house til 4 to let this jackass appraiser who parked on my dad's precious new lawn into the house.


5:00pm
Arrive at Cordell and Company's. Strictly business mode - quick hugs all around in between tossing skis in the box and the strategic game of packing the car.


5:30pm
All packed, and in a cloud of good-byes and I-wish-you-were-coming-with-us', we pile in the Element, Amanda at the helm, Cordell shot-gun and I'm in the sleeping seat.

The road trip starts out with the typical Vermont-shred-trip vibe filled with anxious conversation about skiing, biking and getting radical, to photography and counting how many times Matt yells at Wishard in a day...all is well, we're slated to arrive at Jay way early to just on time - dependent upon the weather, err the condition of Pennsylvania high ways.......


Around 7:45pm
The Element gets rocked by a pothole the approximate size of Delawhere...like the rockstar she is, she takes it in stride.

Around 8pm
We FINALLY find a god damn Taco Bell. While ordering, we notice the potent scent of fuel...figure it's just the Taco Hell, we go top er off with fuel.

Around 8:10pm
The fuel scent is still pretty strong...we pull over to inspect and find a massive hole in the bottom of the fuel tank. Shit. 2hrs from Greencastle, 8hrs from heaven...Get Wishard on the phone, he thinks we're joking...sadly we aren't. We quickly come to the conclusion that we need to get the hell back to the Castle, transplant all of our gear, and see if my car lives up to it's winter-killing-mode look.

We pile back in the Element - the anxious conversation has ceased, as we all watch the gas gauge die and focus on getting the hell back. I go straight into sleep mode as the snow hits in anticipation of the most ridiculous road trip to date.

10:45pm
After the longest drive ever from Allentown to Greencastle, we finally make it back. Move everything from the Element into the Scooby in record time, tell Wishard what went down, and we're off.

11:00pm
On the road again. Northbound 81 is in alot better shape than Southbound was. I pretty much rocked that high way with an average speed somewhere in the 65-75mph range...from here out is basically a blur....stopped in Jersey for gas around 1 or 2, started puking snow on the thruway, passed a ton of cars upside down, snagged first tracks on the highway through 3 or 4" of powder snow, blew by a cop that putting along in the right lane, bumped elbows with death everytime I passed one of them big rigs and my windshield was plastered with 3inches of snow, and starred into that annoying Windows star screen saver for what seemed like forever.

3:30am-ish Monday Dec 31st
Hand over the reigns to Cordell and totally pass out in the passenger seat - Amanda is still sleeping in the back...


More to come later...I have to get some work done hahah

What the hell am I doing...

Holy crap...got home from Vermont 6 hours ago now I'm sitting at work...Jay got a foot of snow...what the hell am I doing...


More to come later...


PS - Great idea Amanda Chad (sorry for the mix up - the past two days are a fog of amazement, details are somewhat lost) :)