Jason Training Update – Week of Jan 18

Monday – 25 min run

 

Tuesday – 1550 yard swim

 

Wednesday – OFF

 

Thursday – 25 min run

 

Friday – 1650 yard swim

 

Saturday – Snowboarding at Killington.  35,000 vertical/64 miles distance.

 

Sunday – OFF

 

Week Summary

Swim – 3200 yards

Bike – 0

Run – 50 min

Other – 35,000 vertical/64 miles distance of snowboarding

 

 

Snowboarding report:

I’ll keep it simple and let the pictures speak for themselves.  Great day at Killington.  Bluebird conditions.  Temperatures in the high 20’s and no wind.  For a weekend, a pretty small crowd.  Snow was excellent – groomed runs were nice packed powder with some freshies on ungroomed trails.  Woods had a few powder stashes available.

 

Elevation profile and overhead map

 

Parked in the Bear lot, as the Skyeship gondola was on hold at 8am for a hydraulic issue, which was fixed within an hour.  Snowmaking in progress on Outer Limits.

 

First couple of runs were Wildfire and a trip thru the Stash – the natural terrain park.  This was cut 2 years ago using the old 4 Way and Frostline trails off of Skye Peak and then linked to the old Bear Claw trail.  No pics of the Stash, but as you can see the new path on Google Earth which does not reflect the recent trail changes.  Pic from the top of Skye Peak early in the morning.

 

 

After a few more laps off the new Skye Peak Express, and then it was over to the Superstar pod via Skyelark.  Did several new trails today.  Here I did Nivis Walk and a groomed Superstar.  Shots from Nivis Walk looking west and toward Pico.

 

Then it was off to the K1 gondola.  I saw some snowmaking in progress on Double Dipper.  Last year I rode it with no problem so figured I’d give it a shot.  Disaster.  Couldn’t seem to get it together and the steep section was quick changes between wet snow and scraped off moguls.  From there moved over toward Snowden to give Patsy’s trees a try.  Never done these before as it always looked tight at the official entrances.  However, I spotted some other entrances and found it opened up significantly further into the trees.  Found many powder stashes in here.  Here were my lines and a few shots:

 

 

After an early lunch sampled the Ramshead woods off of Swirl which have even more widely spaced trees and surprisingly even more powder available.  Even better, you can link the run to the small/medium feature terrain park on Timberline.  Hit some nice jumps which actually had a transition to the landing zone – by far the biggest I have attempted (although still relatively small).  Pic from the top of Swirl looking down the trail, back at the abandoned top of old Ramshead, and across at Superstar.

 

Here is a shot of the basin with the path of the runs:

Did a few runs off the Snowden triple, including Racer’s Edge which I had never done before.  View of Conclusion from the triple, and a shot of the Peak from Killilink.

Starting to get a little tired at this point so it was time to switch to some more cruising type runs. Took a spin on Solitude which was groomed and actually somewhat fast in places.  Then some runs on Bear Tracks, Bear Cub, Great Eastern, Home Stretch, Launchpad, Northway, Cruise Control, Bearly and Bear Claw.

 

View of Peak from Solitude and South Peak Quad:

 

Finally, here is a shot toward the Presidential’s with Mount Washington visible 85 miles away.  Really shows how clear the skies were all day.

 

 

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Jason Training Update – Week of Jan 11

Monday – OFF

 

Tuesday – 1350 yard swim

 

Wednesday – 25 min run

 

Thursday – 1500 yard swim

 

Friday – OFF

 

Saturday – Snowboarding at Bromley.  30,000 vertical/49 miles distance.

 

Sunday – 1500 yard swim

 

Week Summary

Swim – 4350 yards

Bike – 0

Run – 25 min

Other – 30,000 vertical/49 miles distance of snowboarding

 

 

Snowboarding report:

 

Using a little strategy, I avoided the usual crush of people that inevitably go skiing on MLK weekend.  I picked Bromley because they don’t have as large of a complex of hotels surrounding the base.  It’s kind of ski resort that looks like it was stuck at the side of a rest area on highway (see the google earth map below).  I’ve been to Bromley before, and really like the mix of trails they have as well as the quick lift from the base.  Forecast was for sunny skies, and with the above freezing temperatures it was shaping up to be a great day given the mountain’s unusual southern exposure.  Unfortunately, the mountain was fogged in at the top during the morning although it did clear by early afternoon.

 

Arrival pics, looking up at the mountain (top half in the cloud), and the other direction towards Stratton.

 

 

Another day for the new Ride, here’s a shot of the board:

 

Was in line for first chair, and ended up getting 6th chair up the hill and 2 runs of first tracks with some real high speed carving.  Then it started to get a little more crowded, but being able to use the singles’ line the wait never exceeded five minutes.

 

Wanted to try some of their glades, even though I really struggle with tight, steep or bumped glades.  First up, Avalanche Glade.  Doesn’t look like it in the flat light pics, but a little too steep for me and ended up taking a nice header.

 

 

 

 

Back to some cruiser’s after that.  Here are some shots from West Meadow, including a zoom on the parking lot – full, but its not a gigantic lot.  That’s Stratton in the distance.

  

 

At this point the cloud cover at the top started burning off and got a few cool shots.

Sunset Pass.

 

Pushover:

 

Run Around:

 

Stargazer:

 

Corkscrew:

 

 

Notice the lack of people skiing on these trails.

 

Then I noticed some off map trees that were much lower angle.  I did several runs with these trees. 

      

 

6 hours and no breaks later my legs were fried.  Did just about 30,000 vertical and 49 miles in 24 runs.  Painted a path on most trails.

Couple of different angles from Google Earth.

 

 

 

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Jason Training Update – Week of Jan 4

Monday – 1350 yard swim

 

Tuesday – OFF

 

Wednesday – 1350 yard swim

 

Thursday – OFF

 

Friday – 1200 yards swim

 

Saturday – Snowboarding at Mohawk.  10,000 vertical/18 miles distance.

 

Elevation profile (click to zoom in):

Map of runs:

 

 

 

Sunday – Snowboarding at Okemo.  32,000 vertical/54 miles distance.

 

Elevation profile:

Map of runs:

  

Google Earth 3D view:

 

Week Summary

Swim – 3900 yards

Bike – 0

Run – 0

 

Other – 42,000 vertical/72 miles distance of snowboarding

 

No pictures from the snowboarding.  Too cold to mess around with a camera this weekend, with temps below 0 and some wind.  It was my first time at Mohawk, and while small I still enjoyed it.  It has the same vertical as the closer Ski Sundown, but the trails felt more substantial and interesting.  Same slow lifts though.  I had a great day at Okemo.  I think the cold kept people away as it was fairly empty for a weekend.  Great snow on most trails, but quite windy on the lifts up.  Even with 3 face-masks on it was near frost bite territory.  Was riding the new Ride DH snowboard and really liked it.  Pictures to come in a future report.

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