Snowboarding skiing video rant
 

Well, last Wednesday I packed up some camera gear, and headed up to Whistler with 3 friends to shoot some footage.
By the time we got the the parking lot, the snow was coming down like... like... well like alot. I took the camera up anyway, just in case the snowing stopped . And of course, it snowed more! Over 6 hours of riding, I didn't take it out of the backpack once for fear of snow getting in it somewhere. I made the mistake of sitting my gloves in the snow for 30 seconds while I did my bindings up, and found a half inch of snow in them when I put them back on. It was pretty windy too (the peak had a 60kph wind warning, although it was more like 30, plus total white out conditions). I decided the camera was just safer tucked away, as I don't have a full rain cover for it.

The riding however, was just awsome. It was a huge dump with freshies all over the hill. As I said, the peak/ridge/bowl area was almost unridable due to about 15 feet of visibility. The snow on the ground in that area had 0 definition, except at your feet. Too dangerous to have fun on, when you can't see a ditch until you drop into it. Plus snow stings the face pretty hard at 30+kph.

The only sucky part of the day was getting up at 4:30am so we could get first chair (but didn't anyway).
Back to Cypress again this week. Just thought I'd share with all the snowbaorders/skiiers out there.

I was just in Whistler this weekend. Spend most of the time on the peak -- complete whiteouts, but the snow was AWESOME! I had a really good time. Brough the cameras too, but it didn't leave the hotel room (with the exception of the last day when I took my SLR out to get a few shots of the puddle of water at the bottom of the Wizard chair!).

I wish I had a nice little scuba case for the camera so I wouldn't have to worry about weather. I still maintain that if Fischer Price made DV cameras, they would be the toughest around!

Wants me to go out and ski too.... But no snow around for a 1000
miles or more (or something).

Rob,

Here's an old West Texas trick (West Texas is as flat as the Netherlands). Go find an overpass or dike with grass on the sloped side, get a sled-size piece of cardboard, and voila! Cardboarding!

Those mountain-types don't know what they're missing.

Perhaps I'll try that out with enough booze.... :) Thanks.

AAAAHHHH!! Cypress, Grouse, and Seymore just closed!!!
I think Seymore has a tow rope and one run going. This brutally sucks.

We were up at Whistler January 5 for a week. You guys had the snowfall; we got the fallout. It was still good and there were no crowds! We are going back up February 9, four days after we return from Hong Kong. :-) Does skiing and jet lag go together?
Sandy

Don't feel bad.......
 

We are completely blown Dylan......
It looked like it was going to turn around a month ago but that was about it.

At Alyeska the terrain park isn't even open..........
This place is the home mountain of Tommy Moe, and has the "North Face" (the slope the high priced jackets were named after).

It's dismal at best right now........

Now if I only had the time and money for helicopter skiing, that would be another story........

We've only been out snowmaching twice so far this year, and the last time we "forced it" since we drove the whole way out there.

Ugg...........

Yep, this is the worst season I've seen in the 11 years I've been boarding. OK, many of those years were in Ontario, where it's a whole lot colder but it still sucks.
At this point, Cardboarding looks good!

We've got a trip to Big White planned at the end of Feb. Maybe it won't suck. My parents have a condo there. So far their rental revenue is about 60% of what it was last year. Which means I'll have little trouble mooching a few free nights out of them! :)

Craig Kelly killed by avalanche
 

Craig Kelly, one of the most influential snowboarders of the 80s was killed near Revelstoke BC, Canada.
http://snowboard.mountainzone.com/craig_kelly.html

Craig will be sadly missed in the snowboarding world, especially his handplants in the pipe wearing fluro jackets.

Yep. :(
That was last Tuesday I think. One of the guys I went to Whistler with was supposed to go on a backcountry trip with Kelly as a guide in Feb.

Sounds like you fellows need to snag some decent damp weather camera gear so you don\'t miss the good shots.
For instance~http://www.epiccam.com/ or http://www.wavelengthstudios.com/ebay/dvf4/index.htm
have reasonable priced gear or even a kata bag or something. A good snowing will produce some great pics if you can get them without ruining your cam\'s.

Kenn, some neat solutions there. The Epiccam.com ones look great and reasonably priced too! Don\'t think their biggest one will fit a XL1 though, although it\'d be great for GL1/2, VX2000 owners. Thanks for the link!

ugg
 

It was 38 degrees and raining today.....

Anchorage is now the worlds largest skating rink !

You all need to book some tickets and head over here. All the resorts are rocking many with over 3 meters of cover and lots of storms rolling in from outta Siberia. My only problem is I\'m having problems getting to the mountains with work at the moment.