A good classic yesterday up at eldora. Zarlengos and porqupine with some petersons and roller coaster thrown in. felt completely thrashed, which is wierd, cuz it wasn't a particularly tough week. It was still really nice out there.

A day up at loveland today. extremely varied I would say. went from man-eating-bullet-proof-sestrugi to creamy trackless pow in seconds.

And finally, the day ended with some antics, crazy punk stuff, like buttering somersaults and headstands.

Nordic Log: Saturday~12km, Season to date~296km

two days of tough nordiking with the team this week. Classic intervals out on beavers and mill iron. Skate speed work on wednesday. pretty frickin chilly at hell-dora. good for some start green. not ch7. looking at the leadville loppet and the cb alley loop for this year. maybe.

Rode the wanker trail yesterday. Not all bad, considering its the first ride all season, i couldn't find my riding shoes. Definitely felt very rusty. and a good wake up that low profile cross tires and steep, ice covered descents do not mix very well. only one dab though.

got to try a brand-spankin-new spot 29er belt driven singly. as far as i can tell, it preforms very well on hardpacked dirt roads. word.

Perfection

perfect ski.
perfect route.
perfect glide.
perfect kick.
perfect tracks.
perfect snow.
perfect light.
perfect weather.
perfect music.
perfect zarlengo, antelope, and jenny.
perfect.

Today~17km, Season to date~264km.

as a continued testament to why loveland ski area should NOT try to be hip. check this. (warning: while this subject matter may be conducive to laughter, experts have noted that severe side effects, including nausea and a burning sensation of the eyes, have been observed. Proceed with caution.)

I was not aware that a completely flat box was able to make an utter fool out of this many people. Some of the boarders aren't that bad, but if any skier looks like they're pulling something sweet, I guarantee you that the photographer just closed the shutter at an opportune moment in the flailing mess.(except the guy with the libtech skis.) So, whats the moral of this story? Do not come to loveland with the intention of displaying your jibbing, steeze-ness, park riding capabilities, or any other manner of new school riding. chances are, you'll just get made fun of.

Powder day at loveland today. not quite on par with last weekend's trip to monarch, but the day was good none the less. it was chilly up there, and the wind was making these wild ground blizzards all over the place. the snow was... varied. bullet proof, creamy, crusty, soft, blower, you name it, it was up there, and we skied it.




nordic skiing log, wendesday~9km, thursday~14km, season to date~247km

politics

forewarning: if politics, or economics, etc. is either upsetting or boring, I would recommend doing yourself a favor and ignoring this rant.

So today, in my u.s. society class we had a conversation of some interest to me. basically we just talked about how screwed america is. while thats some what of a lighthearted generalization, serious shit is going down. look for example at the stock market. Rumor has it that the Countrywide financial(one of the largest home loan companies in the market) is filing for bankruptcy, and caused a major drop across the board. Not to mention the problems with citi group and washington mutual. All of this is piled on top of a housing market thats worse than the great depression. and thats not even the worst.
there's a severe surplus of labor, lowering wages, and increasing prices, basically the ingredients for stagflation and recession. bummer. credit card debit and arm loans aren't helping to solve any problems. and we're still paying taxes to fight a war that has been deemed by some of the leading government officials needless. public education is in a downward spiral, and americans' hard earned dollars are being lost in a murky mud-pile of bureaucracy and inflation. And yet our fine upstanding leaders in Washington continue to squabble over illegal immigrants, iranian speed boats, and campaign tactics.

I may be a sixteen-year-old kid. I haven't even finished high school. I'm not a financial analyst, and I dont have a degree in economics. Hell, I'm not even allowed to vote. But i can sure as hell tell the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, and bad and worse. With the elections coming on soon, we have a chance to derail this one-way-train-to-the-bottom, and still all around me i see people not wanting to take a stance in politics because someone looks weird, or has a bad haircut, or is a different religion. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE FUCKING COFFEE PEOPLE. Being given the right to vote is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. I have a lot of time left in this world (hopefully) and i dont want to see it fucked up before i have a chance to make a difference.

School starts tomorrow. Out of the last 18 days (winnter break) i've only not skied 4. Pretty sweet. lots of downhill skiing at loveland, steamboat, and monarch. with some ridiculously good skiing at the last two. Particularly at monarch. a pacific storm managed to drop some three odd feet atop the mountains in the three days that we were there. blower.

Driving up into the mountains with high winds and blue skies.

skating, somewhere,
sometime.

in the midst of a day at snow mountain ranch

riding the lift at monarch

a line in the trees in mirkwood basin. at monarch. this is about a 10 minute hike from the lift, and it was face shots every turn.

Lots of nordic skiing too. snow mountain ranch, eldora, and at the steamboat touring center. They opened up the antelope creek loop at eldora, and while the top bit, which is out of the trees, was scoured, the long gentle track winding back down to zarlengos was perfect. sweet. winter break nordic total~34km, season to date~224km.