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Well hello!  After a LONG delay since my last post near the end of the 08-09 snowboarding season (at the end of which I made a final trip to mammoth but didn’t even write about it, how lazy!)  at long  last I am back.

It’s been a long slow summer and I was feeling not really enthused about boarding this winter even though I have a Mammoth Mountain season pass so my riding days are basically paid for.  This is because I’m currently inbetween jobs and so trying to plan trips is kinda sketchy with the money situation.  But, I still wanna get out there and enjoy life regardless, because in the end, all you really take with you are your memories and life experiences. 

OK enough philosophizing!

Taking advantage of my current status of “funemployment,” on Monday, Dec.  14, 2009 my good friend Tone and I made a day-trip up to Snow Summit.  We bought cheap tickets from someone on Craigslist and made it up there in 2 hours.  The conditions were great since on Sat/Sun the entire SoCal area had big winter storms - rain in LA and of course nice snow in the higher elevations.

It was completely empty because it was Monday, people weren’t off for the holidays just yet, and of course the ever-present “economic situation” has definitely affected people’s disposable income.

We did get to the mountain a little bit later than was planned, but we still squeezed in about 10 runs apiece.  Tone was a good fast skier - after all he did grow up in Colorado!  There was good coverage everywhere and we went down almost all the different runs available (although we did not hit the park.)  It got warmer and a little slow/melty later in the day - I learned my board definitely needs waxing before I head up to Mammoth in two weeks.

All in all it was a good warmup day and I’m looking forward to our 3 days in Mammoth starting on 1/15/10 (which is my birthday!) 

It was cold enough that they were blowing snow on a few of the runs and had them closed.

As always, Big Bear Lake is beautiful and scenic!

Why oh WHY, when there are loudspeakers playing music on the runs… do the ski
resorts usually play classic rock? And even in the bars… wtf?

Please! Don’t make me hear Runnin’ On Empty by Jackson Browne again!

At least in the parks there is more contemporary music: Incubus, Linkin Park, and the like. Not necessarily my style, but I don’t think anyone but me would appreciate some deep or progressive house on the hill.

Resorts… listen up! We’re not a bunch of graying baby boomers who are down for some ZEPPELIN when we’re out snowboarding! At least throw us a bone with some 80s or something. I would love it if I was cruising along and heard Rio by Duran Duran

Saturday I woke up at 5:45 and hit the road at 6:45 to drive to Big Bear where I was meeting Cheryl and her husband Eric for a morning of practice/warmup riding before my snowboarding trip to Whistler in a little under two weeks.

(here comes Cheryl)

We were pleasantly surprised by the conditions! They had made a bunch of snow and there was at least two feet of coverage on all the open runs. (Coloradans and others, please don’t mock us about our lack of snow here in the local mountains)

(snowmaking machines below Chair 5)

The temperature was like Goldilocks’ porridge - not too hot and not too cold, just right! Runs were a teeny bit icy in places but for the most part it was as good as it gets at Snow Summit. Plus, there were NO crowds… we think everybody was getting in a last day of Christmas shopping! What a pleasant surprise.

Bonus… we left before 1pm so we got the “Getaway voucher” for $19 off our next ticket. All in all, a great day at Snow Summit!

(pizza & beer after our riding.)