Spent an uneventful weekend at my favorite Michigan ski area, Crystal Mountain. Saturday was warm & slushy, turning to rain overnight. Sunday saw six inches of snow which was instantly swept off the slopes due to the 40-mph winds which made a balmy 20 degrees feel like 0 degrees. I put in a few hours of riding both nights, although not nearly as much as I’d have liked. Sunday was cut short by a freak accident which had me rolling backwards off a ledge and breaking/jamming my left thumb in the process.

Last year’s adventure took us to Lake Tahoe. This year for a number of reasons, we’ll be driving somewhere east instead of flying somewhere west. The front-runner right now is Mont Tremblant, Quebec; although several areas in Vermont are also receiving consideration.

In other news, all the snow we received in Southeast Michigan during the past week evaporated over the weekend, which puts the brakes on an idea I’ve had for a new genre of snowboarding which may involve axes, shovels and hiking boots. The skinny is that I’m not terribly impressed with the “urban” renaissance in the sport, but I kind of like the approach. So I’m going for a primitivist approach: think “urban” sans “urban.”  Exploratory work has been completed, now all I need to do is wait for some fucking snow.

43 degrees yesterday, with sun, made for a nice morning of riding mashed-potato-esque snow.  35 and cloudy today was not beckoning me, although if it turns to ice overnight, I’ll be kicking myself for not going this evening.