Some days you just need to help the oil companies stay in business and go burn some gas. That was our mission last night. My buddy Bill and I wanted to get out and enjoy some afternoon sun and get up into the mountains. We stayed close-to-home again and just headed up Hogback trial, but instead of concentrating on skiing like last time, we concentrated on riding our sleds and hitting some jumps. With a fresh cover of snow, it made for a fun ride. Once we got near the top, I spent most of the time photographing Bill hitting jumps and launching off cornices.
When it comes to my snow machine, I am still a little apprehensive about jumping. The very first time I decided to try jumping, I was practicing in order to gain confidence in my ability. I started by hitting jumps slowly, and barely lifting my skis off the snow. Even Bill’s kids laughed at me. Then I started to gain some speed and airtime. Before I knew it I was catching mega air, and I was the king of jumping. So I ramped it up and followed Bill up a hill for some serious air. OK, so it should be noted that ‘mega air’, ‘king of jumping’ and ‘serious air’ may be slight dramatizations. Anyway, I went up, up, up and nothing could stop me. I was feeling great soaring above the mountain below. Then, I came down fast as a bag of bricks, nose first, burying my snow machine up to the windshield, flipping myself over the handlebars. I was like a freaking lawn dart. I almost broke both skis on the sled, and got a serious bruise on my thigh that lasted over a week. Needless to say, I haven’t jumped much since.
So here are a bunch of pictures of Bill jumping and me enjoying the day…
