pow pow

Okay so 6 inches isnt much...but today it was enough.  On top of the fresher snow we got a few days ago, the six inches made some trails soft enough to plow through and fall in.

I got out early with Dan, Steel, and Doug.  We went up the gondy to thunder, took a couple runs at thunder, then headed to sublette.  While I was strapping in at the top of Thunder, two mountain hosts (kind of like patrollers) went by, and the older said:  "I'm still looking for my glasses, so lets take another run."

So I followed the hosts into Laramie bowl, where the gettin was good.  yeah it's a little scrapey under the six inches and there are distinct moguls everywhere but hey...

Our group wasnt really staying together but no one seemed to care.  Helps when everyone has a decent sense of where they're going.  

I met up with Marta at Sublette.  We met at that first open mic I went to, and then reconnected through her classifieds ad for lift tickets.  She's 27, from Seattle, and spent the last three years mostly working on a boat in Alaska doing scans of the ocean floor.  A lot of the work is for the government, oil companies too.  She said the longest she's spent in one place was 4 months, although she lived on a boat for 1.5 years.

I hitched a ride with some of her friends to the Hootenanny last night.  The Hootenanny's an open mic for people that are "on top of their stuff" or so I'm told.  The music was pretty good--mostly bluegrass and folk, but it was standing room only.  I'll definitely go again but earlier next time.  Too bad I dont have an acoustic to play...

I met Marta's friend John from Bozeman.  He was a character, and played rippin viola tunes.

So I rode with Marta for the rest of the day.  We were about at the same level, and both ride goofy, so we pick similar lines.  I often snowboard like I ride bikes--by following people, so it's convenient when the person you follow wants to take the same turns you do.  But I try not to follow on a day like today, you have to find your own stash.

We rode Sublette a little, it was meh.  Rode thunder a few times.  I had a great route from the top of thunder with everything from steep trees (lots of these here) to super fast chop to gullies.  

We met a bush pilot turned jet pilot on the lift, and checked out the hobacks.   en route to the Hobacks we dropped into cheyenne gully through the best stash I've found without hiking.  It was glorious.  Definitely up to the knees in points, pow in your face as you check speed coming out of a tree chute.  Killer.  Hobacks were scrapey, and thankfully the pilot could keep up through it all.

A couple more, then to casper, to moran, to gondola.  Fullest day I've had yet, tomorrow's gonna be similar I hope, but I'll probably have to find people at the mountain to ride with.