Rachel and I got in days 9 and 10 at Snowshoe this past weekend and were treated to the best conditions of the season so far. We drove down Saturday morning after spending Friday evening at Ned’s with Eric, Maria, Beckie and Jamie and arrived in time to get 2 runs in at Snowshoe before heading down to Silver Creek for night riding. Conditions were actually a little icy at SC, so we didn’t stay too long. Bought some beer and headed to the hotel in Marlington to watch “Old School.”

Woke to snow Sunday morning and got ourselves together as quickly as possible to head up to the mountain. Passed an overturned VW Beetle in a creek and stopped briefly to contemplate if we could be of assistance, but ultimately determined that the 20 or so people already standing around were enough.

As we twisted and turned our way up the snowy roads, Rachel said that she noticed an owl sitting in the hole of a tree. We drove a little further then decided to head back to try to get a picture. Once we found the spot, I was amazed to see that the tree with the owl in it was actually about 30-40 feet off the road and I couldn’t believe that she had actually seen the owl at all. It was a very cool sight though and I looked all over the truck for the camera (which we’re been terrible about using this year). We never did find it though and finally started to press on.

Conditions at Snowshoe were awesome and we started off with some runs through the park. I rode the big park nearly top to bottom, but kept coming up short on all the jumps. Tried some more boardslides in the smaller park and still seem to have my weight positioned all wrong. All in all though, I feel like I’m improving. We finished up over on Cupp and rode until our legs started to burn. Rachel kicks some pretty serious butt these days and was always right there by the time we reached the bottom.

Driving back in the snow was tortuous, as we got stuck behind every slow-moving local in the region. We actually didn’t make terrible time getting home, but it was painful to be driving so slowly much of the time. Once we got home, we found the camera in the bedroom closet; no where near where I thought I had left it…

Our New Year’s trip to Jack Frost was a blast again this year despite the relative lack of snow. Only 50% of the mountain was open, but we managed to enjoy ourselves just the same.

Friday night started off with a brief meet-up at our place at what I thought was to be 5:30. Of course I had it wrong and was half an hour late, but Eric and Drew were running even later. Carla called me while I was on my way home asking if she was at the right house. She was, but apparently everyone inside (Lewis, Ben and Steph) were ignoring her. After we straightened that out, I talked to Eric and we determined that we should hit the road without him. We were able to meet up at Roy Rogers in Thurmont shortly after that though so that we could caravan the rest of the way to Reading and share Nacho Libre quotes on the 2 way radios.

Our stop in Reading was quick as we unloaded Burton and his gear and everyone checked out old photos of my on the landing of my parent’s house. The ‘mullet’ photo is always a favorite. Back on the road we had about another hour and half to go to get up to Jack Frost. Laura called about a half hour in to get instructions on checking into the house. Apparently I had forgotten to include anything about checking in in my last-minute email I sent out. Worse though, I had forgotten to bring along the combination to the front door and Laura and John spend probably 15 minutes trying various combinations of 5,4,3 & 1 to try to get in. We finally found the homeowner’s number and gave her a call, but by the time I called Laura back, John has already cracked the code. We arrived about an hour later and the drinking began (or conitnued, as the case may be). That left just Rachel and Ike as the ones not there yet and they arrived around 2:00am after driving up in a rented Malibu from Philly.

We managed to make it up until about 3:00 saying that we were going to get up at 8:00 to hit the slopes, but that didn’t come to pass. Eric text messaged me from upstairs asking if we were up. I was, but Lewis wasn’t. Feeling the effects of the night before, we all decided to sleep in and try again at 10:00.

10:00 came and finally started getting ready, but it would be a while before we finally made it over to the hill. Steph had already pre-showered so no one could blame her for being late. With 11 people, it’s just tough to get moving.

After a run together down through the beginner park, we split up for a little bit and Lewis, Eric, Drew and I went over the few blacks trails that were open.