here is the "ride report"
2 days of beyond epic powder 5-6 feet of fresh fell from tues-friday then Mother Nature was kind enough to grace us with blue skies and frigid temps. Avy danger was off the charts, it was red and black checkerboards on the forecast site...now thats scary. We chose to play it safe and keep out of the hills and any path that would put us in any kind of avy terrain...even just to pass thru. Thanks again to Angelo(500 CID) for being the first to speak up and suggest a safer trail head than normal. Was pretty much a stuckfest from the parking lot, so who were we kinding about even making it up a hill
We had a really large group 11
more than I would prefer to ride with, but you know how that goes. I was never more thankful 30 minutes into the ride, as breaking the trail was almost impossible. You needed three people and sometimes a Harmon Jack to get you unstuck, the crowd of sledders never looked better. We ended up leapfrogging past stucks to get into an area that we would never even look over too normally. Spent most of the first day playing in that first large meadow/valley area.
There were a couple of shallow aspects that were impossible to get up in these comditions. Could barely get 20 feet up an incline even when poaching tracks! We ended up breaking a trail around them on these switch backs just so we could go down them, felt like we were skiers making the loop in the BC...lol
51 miles on the XP the out of gas...most days I got 80 miles in that tank....needless to say it was an epic day of playing in the pow.
Day 2 brought more blues skies and powder adventure...little did we know just how much!
Got up to where we had stopped breaking trail the day before and began the process all over again. The snow had set up a little over night but the trail was beginning to get steeper so we pushed thru as far as we could...5 miles. Enough to access a few other areas that we could play in without stuckfest every 10 minutes. Great day of ripping up the powder with olds friends and new. Makes you really appreciate what we get to do out in nature when you get to share it with others.
About to wrap up the day and rally everyone together when the real adventure begins. SKibreeze(Dave is making some nice turns down thru some trees when an explosion of snow and sled comes flying thur the air with no rider in site. Dave center punched a boulder under the snow and it bucked him off, luckily only a little skin off the shin was the only causilty. Guess who will be getting knee/chin guards soon
Well I zip over to check on him and help him out, when I look over and see Boston Racing(Cory) laying on a hillside....under his sled with the track spinning in the air. Appearantly he had done the same thing on another hill, but did not get off as lucky.
He ended up ripping an a-arm and shock off of one side, bent another a-arm and bent up his running board and maybe a bit of the tunnel on his polaris 660. Took a nice shot to the ribs and got a little roughed up. Guess whos getting a tek-vest. This stuff is basic gear...I mean if your going into battle wear full body armour!
Well we are a few miles from the trail in deeeeep powder then 15 miles back to the truck on trail....what to do what to do? Dave (team mechanic) decides the best plan is to go back to the truck and rip off his shock and a-arm then bring it back up, fix the sled and bring it back. Three of us head off on the parts run and 5 stay behind. After a 40 mile round trip and some wrenching Angelo and I return with the parts. Guys have nice fire going and everything set up and ready to go. Slap the parts on put out the fire and rally the troops. Kinda dicey charging chopped up pow in the blackness but we managed to find our way back up thru the trees and onto the trail. Got off the mountain by 7pm and left nothing behind...I call that a great day of sledding! I can tell you I never appreciated having a heated trailer more than that nite.
Thanks to everybody in the crew for coming together and taking care of the situatiion. Its times like these you realize why you ride with who you do and just what you can count on them for.
I have some pics and vids...as do some of the other guys. I will post them up as they get up loaded.
-dizzle
breaking trail day two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0FEKoEhPg
playing around with camera boom I made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVJ3iMIxJqI
2 days of beyond epic powder 5-6 feet of fresh fell from tues-friday then Mother Nature was kind enough to grace us with blue skies and frigid temps. Avy danger was off the charts, it was red and black checkerboards on the forecast site...now thats scary. We chose to play it safe and keep out of the hills and any path that would put us in any kind of avy terrain...even just to pass thru. Thanks again to Angelo(500 CID) for being the first to speak up and suggest a safer trail head than normal. Was pretty much a stuckfest from the parking lot, so who were we kinding about even making it up a hill
We had a really large group 11
more than I would prefer to ride with, but you know how that goes. I was never more thankful 30 minutes into the ride, as breaking the trail was almost impossible. You needed three people and sometimes a Harmon Jack to get you unstuck, the crowd of sledders never looked better. We ended up leapfrogging past stucks to get into an area that we would never even look over too normally. Spent most of the first day playing in that first large meadow/valley area. There were a couple of shallow aspects that were impossible to get up in these comditions. Could barely get 20 feet up an incline even when poaching tracks! We ended up breaking a trail around them on these switch backs just so we could go down them, felt like we were skiers making the loop in the BC...lol
51 miles on the XP the out of gas...most days I got 80 miles in that tank....needless to say it was an epic day of playing in the pow.
Day 2 brought more blues skies and powder adventure...little did we know just how much!
Got up to where we had stopped breaking trail the day before and began the process all over again. The snow had set up a little over night but the trail was beginning to get steeper so we pushed thru as far as we could...5 miles. Enough to access a few other areas that we could play in without stuckfest every 10 minutes. Great day of ripping up the powder with olds friends and new. Makes you really appreciate what we get to do out in nature when you get to share it with others.
About to wrap up the day and rally everyone together when the real adventure begins. SKibreeze(Dave is making some nice turns down thru some trees when an explosion of snow and sled comes flying thur the air with no rider in site. Dave center punched a boulder under the snow and it bucked him off, luckily only a little skin off the shin was the only causilty. Guess who will be getting knee/chin guards soon
Well I zip over to check on him and help him out, when I look over and see Boston Racing(Cory) laying on a hillside....under his sled with the track spinning in the air. Appearantly he had done the same thing on another hill, but did not get off as lucky.
He ended up ripping an a-arm and shock off of one side, bent another a-arm and bent up his running board and maybe a bit of the tunnel on his polaris 660. Took a nice shot to the ribs and got a little roughed up. Guess whos getting a tek-vest. This stuff is basic gear...I mean if your going into battle wear full body armour!
Well we are a few miles from the trail in deeeeep powder then 15 miles back to the truck on trail....what to do what to do? Dave (team mechanic) decides the best plan is to go back to the truck and rip off his shock and a-arm then bring it back up, fix the sled and bring it back. Three of us head off on the parts run and 5 stay behind. After a 40 mile round trip and some wrenching Angelo and I return with the parts. Guys have nice fire going and everything set up and ready to go. Slap the parts on put out the fire and rally the troops. Kinda dicey charging chopped up pow in the blackness but we managed to find our way back up thru the trees and onto the trail. Got off the mountain by 7pm and left nothing behind...I call that a great day of sledding! I can tell you I never appreciated having a heated trailer more than that nite.
Thanks to everybody in the crew for coming together and taking care of the situatiion. Its times like these you realize why you ride with who you do and just what you can count on them for.
I have some pics and vids...as do some of the other guys. I will post them up as they get up loaded.
-dizzle
breaking trail day two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0FEKoEhPg
playing around with camera boom I made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVJ3iMIxJqI
when you got back.
