I was out in Portland, Oregon recently (for some stuff I’ll be talking about a little later), and managed to squeeze in a day’s worth of snowboarding on Mount Hood. I rolled out there with a small, but distinguished crew from Nike and it was both unanimously and unequivocally agreed to be an epic day on the mountain for each of us. Many locals said it was probably the best snow fall most had seen in their lifetime of hitting the slopes there. There were several nights in a row of respectable snow fall, and the night before we showed up, Mount Hood saw around two feet worth of fresh powder. Though I haven’t been fortunate enough to find the time and opportunity to go as often as I’d have liked, this was actually my first trip of the season. As such, my good friend Gavin decided that the best way to celebrate this fact would be to make sure we began by jumping off the lip of a double black diamond that looked to me more like the very edge of the world. It was so high and so steep, I could barely make out where the clouds dissipated and the snowy transition began. A few runs later I was (almost) able to follow Gavin, Julien and Christian on expert runs that mostly comprised of weaving between frozen pine trees. There were definitely some amazing runs we shared that day including one particular run where I finally ignored my inhibition towards death on the mountain side, and decided to just let gravity do it’s thing and pull me down a near vertical snow wall at what felt like terminal velocity. Anyhow, I think it’s safe to say we gave all we had (and then some) and once people’s knees started buckling with fatigue while simply standing in place, we all decided it was time to call it a day.
Extra thanks to Gavin for getting us up the mountain quickly and in style (and for the expert binding help), and to Julien and Christian for the good times and warm hospitality. Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again sometime. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the huckleberry milkshakes these guys turned me onto on the way back down the mountain. Though it took sincere effort to find the strength to get out of the car and waddle on rubbery legs into the Huckleberry Inn, there’s few things in this world as tasty as the huckleberry milkshakes they serve.
Posted on April 17, 2008 at 02:00 PM | Comment (0 comments)
