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So another solid weekend...it got off to a rocky start, but ended amazingly.

Friday I called off work to go to Patrick Shire's funeral...Patrick was on our team for the previous three years...this year he had moved to Roundtop's team. I only got to coach him for one year, but, he definitely made an impact on my life. He was one of the smartest kids I knew...he was involved in a fatal skiing accident at Denton the previous weekend - 13 years old...needless to say it rocked our team and last week everyone was bummin...the funeral was super sad, but a ton of people showed up and it was great to see all of the support. Patrick will be deeply missed.

The last thing Patrick would want any of us to do is to stop skiing. So, Saturday practice went down...of course, i'm a big idiot and raged it a little too hard Friday night, slept through my alarm, and showed up way late - like noon...I know i know...blah...i was in time for team pictures though, which worked for me! While the photog (who wasnt shooting Canon...lame) was dicking around, I snapped a few of my own, and us coaches started getting a little silly...



The rest of sunday was pretty uneventful - chad amanda and I went over to Wishard's for dinner...I practically fell asleep at the dinner table, then I crashed at Chad and Amanda's.

Sunday sunday SUNDAY! Man, sunday rocked! FIS legal SL course in the AM down Blue Streak. Code Red had a killer set, and it was a fun course! I wanna do that more often...after running that a couple times, i played around on Liberty's backside till lunch time. Despite eating massive shit and my shoulder not functioning for about 10 minutes, the skiing was awesome! After lunch, Amanda, Danny, and I had a parent's clinic for all of the athelete's parents. It was awesome! Our parents rock, and they are only going to get better. Of course, when 1:45 rolled around, it was play time!! Highlights consist of amanda FINALLY boosting a jump instead of sucking it up (way to go!!!!! yes!), teaming the ultra ridge, bashing the wussy bumps on eastwind, death training the booter with dualing spread eagle w/ antennae, and watching curt show up his nephew twice with a solid 70s style spread, and a daffy the second time. Hysterical. Everyone had so much fun...thats what skiing is about. You know you have a solid crew when you turn 600 vertical feet of dirt and "snow" into an "epic day".

Gate training tonight and Thursday, then the Tussey SL all weekend. It's staying cold, the snow is holding up, and everyone is skiing so well. I'm so pumped.


And did I mention we pulled the trigger on Utah tix???? Hell yah! March 7-17 - $200 roundtrip...god bless you Southwest!

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...

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