Happy New Year!

Say bye-bye to 2008....these 24 beauties have their own special expiration date I don't want to miss.

Merry Christmas

I'm spending the week at the mother-in-laws home in the San Bernardino's of SoCal and we have a stellar snowfall to ring in another Christmas season. I took a few turns this afternoon in the mini-bowl contained within the "backyard" after digging a pit. I have to say...my first column isolation gave me a scary Q2 fracture at ~40cm depth on the surface between the 1st and 2nd storm of the season before I even started the test....basically as I was isolating the back of the column on a 30 degree slope. It was a surface characterized by very spherical graupel and sugery faceted crystals > 2mm in size with 4 finger density as the bedding surface for the Q2 failure. The overlying layers were fine grained stellar crystals <.5mm, ~30cm deep, and 1-2 finger density capped by a 10cm graupel/rain/ice layer. I isolated a few more columns in the same pit and got a safe 10-10-10 from the wrist, elbow and shoulder each time....so I chalked it up to a fluke and proceeded to ski the nastiest mank I've seen...ever. I gave up after 3 "runs" of roughly 200ft vertical per run....rain crust which barely broke under ski, but gave just enough to entrench my skis thus making it nearly impossible to bust out any sharp turn. After that...I drank more beer and took a walk with Mrs. maad and shot the following. Merry Christmas

Mrs. Maadjurguer needs a new camera

Saying no to skiing is perhaps the toughest call I ever make. I have been planning a trip up to Flag to ski some of the Cinder Cones with tRoy on Thursday, however I was eying the road conditions approaching Flag and it was not looking good. Raising snow level to 7000 means rain and icing conditions from just north of Camp Verde all the way to town. I've done it plenty of times, but never enjoy it. I'd rather drive a 2 wheel drive vehicle up Wolf Creek Pass in a whiteout than drive I-17 with half an inch on the ground with a 4x4....AZ crews can't clear roads worth a sh!t. Still, with a few feet over the past couple of days to include another 10-14 inches tonight...I was feeling the strong pull of the snow. This is a feeling which won't abate until the first 100 degree day of 09' smacks me in the face. Wanting to delay the inevitable decision I had to make and hoping something would shake lose in my brain, I headed out for a sundown run of the Hawes loop before calling tRoy to discuss tomorrows plans.
















Something about that warm glow makes my bike look like it belongs here.

















The recent rains perked up the most stubborn bushes and cleared the air for a beautiful sunset.
















Shadows loom over the bajada while Four Peaks basks in the glow of sunset and......Snow.....damn, I'm here to clear the snow off my brain....not have it rubbed in my face!

Coming down to earth, both literally and figuratively; I head back down the hill to complete the loop. Along the way, I decided to shoot some moving video for some B-roll on just about the most benign section of trail out there....and proceeded to drop my wife's camera. Just do me a favor: as you watch it here, imagine Samuel Barbers, Adagio for Strings playing in the background. Doesn't ring a bell, then this will....it was the Adagio playing in the movie Platoon when Willim Defoe's character was being riddled by bullets as Tom Berringer's character left him to die. The video here is especially poignant when after the camera goes down, it continues to record for a period of time, looking up with it's last bit of life, hearing me roll to a stop, dismount my bike and crouch over it's terminally wounded body....apologizing.

I suck....I know it. Did I not just post a while back that I need a POV cam for this crap....now it looks like Mrs. Maad will be getting a new camera. This was the final nail in the coffin for skiing with tRoy tomorrow. I'll go to work and steal away on my lunch break to buy another camera...hopefully before she reads this post. Early Christmas present honey!

My Dumps are Big and Fluffy

If you want to know what has me drooling on my keyboard right now, just check out the Wolf Creek and Snowslide Canyon weather feed on the left menu.

Trip Report: Wolf Creek 7-12 DEC

In three words: Early Season Conditions. Wolf Creek is a bit thin right now, but is about to get the blast from the sky it takes to make a strong base. Too bad I had to leave right as it was coming in. From what it looks like, Wolf Creek may get three feet of snow out of this next storm rolling in early this upcoming week. Wolf Creek is always fun simply because of the greater than average potential to ski fresh snow in-bounds. Last week was no exception, but it had it's hiccups. For starters, we received about 4 inches on Monday during the day which in some spots was wind-blown to boot-top depths....not a bad 1st day of the season. Tuesday dawned with about a foot of fresh snow added to the previous day's totals. Again, in some spots this was wind-blown to knee deep. We ate as much of this up as possible in the trees, tracking out most of it by the end of the day.

However, early season conditions prevailed and any attempt to ski off-piste or steeper sections was met with the feeling of grinding rock to base and edge, hitting downed trees, stumps and nut-whacking baby tree growth. I don't mind any of those, to include the nut-whacking baby tree growth as long as there's powder involved...but hooking a ski under a downed tree is just plain demoralizing...especially when you do it twice. Good thing I lowered the DIN on my Dynafits before heading out on the second day. Something told me I would need it and I was right.

Never one to learn my lesson, I continued over to the Alberta area on Wednesday in search of some untracked in an area I like to consider my own private Valhalla. I call it this because to access a sweet apron of snow with perfectly spaced and monument-like old-growth spruce; you have to enter a chute with a blind-roller at the end. The chute itself is carved into a cliff-band with towering trees angled in towards the chute's entrance, giving the feeling of entering a great hall while tempting Odin and Ullr. When the rest of the area gets tracked out, I've always been able to find untracked here year after year. I found the spot again, but not after having to dead-end at the cliff-face which had failed to fill in yet; forcing me remove my skis and downclimb. Last year at this time, I was able to pop a few turns in the chute to access the apron below...this year, downed trees and rock prevented me from repeating. Still, the apron below was untouched after 48 hours of savage attacks by the hordes of powder-sluts which descended on the area for the 2nd big storm of the season. Just count me a bigger powder-slut than most. Enjoy this lame video I pulled together...I really need to get a POV camera because holding my wife's nice digital in hand while skiing pretty much prevents me from shooting anything interesting.

Awesome

Knee deep pow in the trees, eatin it up.

Floatin on the Freshies

Day 2 at Wolf Creek. 12 inches of fresh overnight, 4 inches yesterday. 19 degrees below windchill. Rock On!!!!

1st turns of the season

I'm here in the lodge at Wolf Creek eating my homemade energy bar, thinking about the first turns of the season enjoyed on 3 inches of fresh. Its been snowing all day and the rumor is that tonight and tomorrow, the area will see SIGNIFICANT precip. I'm thinking we could see a two footer storm before we leave. Rock on!

Mack Brown's BCS declares Huns winners!

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II
US Ranked 4th

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

"Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work--including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule--our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking."

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated "The US only had two major victories--Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren't influenced by head-to-head contests--they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event."

German Chancellor Adolph Hiter said "Yes, we lost to the US; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks." Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn 'style points' to enhance Germany's rankings. Hitler protested "Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces."

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented " France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2."

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines.

Sickness = Rambling post

I'm heading to Wolf Creek this weekend for a week of skiing and a week of not working. As usual, I get sick right before I go on vacation. Massive head cold, sinus congestion, swollen lymph nodes in my neck, lethargy. To top it off....Mrs. MaadJurguer will not be able to come because her boss has some sort of walking Pneumonia and she has to step it up for a few weeks. The hit's keep on rollin'! Hopefully I can muster my strength and get it together before skiing.....oh yeah, I'm still going on vacation, just without my wife. Saturday night is not going to be much help either, what with the Big-12 championship going down. Guess I'm gonna have to buck up. If I can manage, I'll blog some during the trip via the blackberry.

Because of this funk, I have not ridden two days in a row. Not counting trips out of town, I have not been off my bike two days in a row in.....I can't remember. If abstinence gets me better for Wolf Creek....I'm all for it. I've had my stomach set on some Nacho's from Bear Creek Saloon in Pagosa Springs since last year....they are the best Nacho's this side of the Kuiper Belt.

Speeking of food; I've been experimenting with my own energy bar recipe since this summer. I finally got a mix which is pretty darn good. I've been shooting for a blend of slow release carbs and instant carb boost via natural ingredients. My most recent blend starts with irish oats, buckwheat flour, ground flax, cinnamon, blackstrap molasses, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, whole almonds, dried cherries, dried currants, dried apricots, dried dates, golden raisins, dried strawberries, dried blueberries and white chocolate chunks. I bake them up on a 9x13 pan in the oven for 20 minutes, cool, cut into bars, flip and cook for another 10 minutes. The result this time came out crunchy and chewy.....in other words, perfect. I'll be carrying a bunch with me when skiing and riding, so holler if you want one.