Day 6: Snoqualmie

It's been one of those kickass weekends... I did everything. Friday night Amanda and I went for beers with Phil, Michelle, and Chris at TGIF. A few big-beers later and we were doing great! Most of the crew converged at the Juanita Manor for a night of fooze-ball, texas hold-em, and Settlers of Catan. I lost all my money but Amanda managed 2nd place out of 6! She was also the only girl playing. George stopped by and it's great to see that his shoulder is recovering. It must have been a month since his surgery. Soon I hope to see him up on the slopes!

Saturday wasn't amazing but we were productive. Derek, Phil and I are trying to seal the windows in the living room with plastic. It's not pretty but that room's always cold. This old house is beautiful but the single pane windows are a pain (ouch). I waxed the rock-board in preparation of Sunday's trip to Snoqualmie. The roads mostly dried up and it warmed well over freezing so I decided the R6 needed a rip. I installed a fog-city face-shield which is a film that sits inside my helmet visor. It prevents any fog from occuring and I don't have to crack my visor at all! It should come in handy on cold and/or rainy days. That night Amanda and I just watched 'The Hulk' which was weird, but worth watching for free.

Sunday was the main event. Tom and I decided we were sick of the long drive in traffic to Stevens or Baker so we decided to try Snoqualmie. It's a quick 50 minute drive from my house and you follow the freeway right to the mountain. The day started on a down note because the Central lifts were closed and they still want $45 for an early season ticket. After two warm-up runs on the West lifts we decided to visit Alpental. That's when things got sick. If you look at the trail-map you can see the Edelweiss chair to the top. There was some great coverage and deep, chopped up snow on the runs leading under the chair. We also found some untouched snow in the trees above the Cascade traverse and farther down. A couple of times we cut under the ropes to get some virgin powder turns but for the most part stayed in-bounds. The areas are probably closed due to large, pointy rocks just below the surface. Our boards got a few base-hits but should recover with a little p-tex. Better my rock-board than my body! Tom should have some pics up soon.

After such a full weekend I don't want to get back to work. At least I'm prepared. I managed to check-up on things tonight and get everything ready for tomorrow. My boss asked me to help out with a test-pass which will run until Christmas. Just when I thought things were slowing down for the year... at least I won't be bored!