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Weekly RAA E-lert>
50 ft of snow? Time to Play - Take advantage!
April 29, 2008
http://rediscoveradventure.blogspot.com/
To see the images accompanying this text, please use the
URL above.
It was a crazy year for snow on the North Shore this year.
Grouse Mountain, which is a 15 minute drive from my house,
or an 8 minute drive from my daughther's school, has a
great deal on annual passes if you buy early the previous
year. An annual pass is $50 for my daughter and $275 for
me. So for a few hundred bucks we can ski anytime and be on
the mountain in no time flat.
The terrain ranges from easy to pretty burly, steep
double-black runs. Indigo did her first double black this
year, in fact. There are also two terrain parks with pretty
serious jumping possibilities. (I remember skiing growing
up and having to luck out to find a jump anywhere. They
just knocked them down as soon as they were made. Now they
build behemoth jumps for everyone - awesome.)
I had my 8YO daughter try one action shot toward the end of
the season - in the smaller park, mind you. She actually
framed the shot and timed it well.
In any case, Grouse got 33 feet of powder this year. The
season is finished and there is STILL more than 20 ft of
snow as a base.
Indigo and I had a guy just ahead of us FALL off the lift
with his snowboard and drop about 35 feet landing on flat
ground. He was actually alright, though probably shaken up.
The little crater next to him in the photo was where he
landed. The lift attendant is running up to scrape up the
body and was shocked that the guy actually stood up and
began walking off. I heard him say, "Lucky the snow was so
soft." On a different year, he would have fallen 10 feet
further onto hard snow. I took the picture from the lift
after we passed, you can see how far down it is.
At Mt. Seymour, there was more than 50 FEET of powder on
the ground. They closed with a 30 foot base! A friend and I
took our kids out for a night of snow cave camping one
night about a month ago. The cave is still there. Damn,
that was fun.
Snow cave by candle light is magical. We had fondue (cheese
and chocolate - don't laugh) and read before settling in
for the night.
The next morning. We had snow overnight. Surprise.
Dimensions were 12ft x 10 x 7ft high.
Dan and I probably moved about 6 tons of snow, I'd think.
That was work, but well worth it.
Heading back to the car.
And a 25 minute drive would get us back down to the house.
Gotta appreciate the seasons you are given, right? © Kerry Ward 2007-2008
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