Dorokoma™ Power

2nd weekend of March – took Friday off from work and drove up Thurs night; spent the weekend with the oldcal group. Originally started with 9, but we ended up with 11 heads in our spacious june lake cabin. 10 graduates, 1 undergrad.
Fun Friday spent at Mammoth, but then I caught a severe flu on Saturday night and thus my weekend ended early.

The following weekend, somehow made it back up to June just in time to catch the storm of the season.

THREE FOOT STORM TOTAL.
Saturday was amazing despite the winds and visibility going in and out. Almost too much snow.
Sunday was even better. Bluebird, pow settled, amazing turns.  I got a few slashes on the gopro on Saturday, but didn’t bother filming Sunday. Spent the day chasing fresh lines ALL DAY, and also hucked a few backflip attempts off the cat tracks… got around 2/3 on my best attempt before spearing my head into the ground. Need a bigger cat track I guess.

On top of two days of pow, we managed to land two successful sessions @ the hot springs after both riding sessions. First time to hilltop (usually crowded but it was empty at 10PM)…probably one of the hotter ‘functional’ tubs…then little hot creek on Sunday afternoon. The piping is fixed! Apparently, duck hunters that venture into the area like to sabotage the hot springs so they can shoot 360′. Asses.

14 days in. I somehow might be able to salvage my season and get 20+ days in.

This is officially the least I have ever ridden in a season. Including my first season. It’s March and I’m only 10 days in…

On the plus side, I have a week’s worth of PTO left so I’ll be burning a few Fridays off to get 3-day weekends in. Perhaps 6 weekends in March, then maybe I can break 20 before all the snow melts away

At least, I’ve gotten a few really good shots lately.

@ June, rocking my comfy DC outfit that Amy hooked it up with for my bday.

We’ve spent a bunch of awesome evenings out @ the hot springs…the starry sky is AMAZING when you’re in the middle of nowhere with zero urban light pollution…shooting stars and satellites. Keep forgetting to bring the timelapse remote that Paul got me

A new saga begins. 2011/2012.

Sat-Nov/19

Drove up to Mammoth with Kos, leaving at 4AM or so.

Super clear blue sky all day long, but icy as shit in the afternoon once the winds picked up. Seth let us crash at his condo and led us to the hot springs down near the airport…I’ve been looking into camping near the hot springs on a snow trip, but with research I couldn’t really figure out where they were…so finally I know! Can’t wait to try doing that when it’s not so damn cold at night.

I think it was 18′F by the time the sun had gone down and we had gotten out. Drying off was scary D:

Sun-Nov/20

Woke up after a good night’s sleep to a glorious snow shower. Dropped about a foot by afternoon…so much of a contrast to the previous day.

Even though it was only shin-deep (not complaining!!), pow to start the season is always awesome

A topic I forgot to post…

A while ago at Bear, I ran into Jim, whom we have designated as the “wise-mountain sage”. I first ran into him 5 years ago since we’d always be at the top of fat kicker lines catching a breather. Back then, I was just starting to throw corked back360s with consistency and the occasional 540. He was practicing corked 720s. The year after, all I saw him do was 180s and shifty 180s. The next year, underflips. But it just all came together. I realized what unfolded. He was putting together the necessary abilities for destruction.

When I saw him most recently, he hit a line of 4 mid-sized (30~ft) kickers and hucked a rodeo540 on each and stomped clean. ALL FOUR DIFFERENT VARIANTS. Frontside, Backside, Switch Front, Switch Back. My mind was blown. I decided to upgrade his status to “wise-mountain ninja”. He then told me he just learned to throw chicane flips (kinda how I take off with my corked spins, cept he hucks it way harder and does a full front flip while rotating backside). Me? I used to only know BS 360s & 540s. Since then, I’ve learned how to 180/360 each way, but not on big jumps.

Thus, I realized that I suck. I’m learning backwards and not really progressing towards anything monstrous. Probably from all the injuries and fear of wrecking. Lost my balls. Getting old. But hey, who cares…rode pow almost all year, where wrecking is impossible Haven’t quite given up hope on inverts, but I’m definitely not expecting anything crazy soon.

My face is really sunburned. Not my worst goggle-tan, but it’s bad. Day 33 was knee-high pow at some points @ june, although J1 was really icy/crusty underneath. Day 34 was ultra blue-bird slightly slushy but not really sticky funnn.

Got back really late, near 2AM, then had to drive to VICTORVILLE for work (this whole week), waking up @ 5:30AM. And I slept like crap, probably got a good hour in. So tired.

So tired I don’t remember what I had plotted out for the day 34 post. So, I go to sleep now, luckily I’m reporting in at 10AM, but for a longer (10hr?) shift.

I wish last weekend would repeat itself endlessly.

Something like 9 feet dropped in the span of a week @ Mammoth. Unfortunately due to it being almost April, it was a tad warm so the powder was wet and sticky…typical heavy sierra snow I guess. This picture was shot on the morning of day 31. Usually I’m nearing 40 days by April….definitely behind my usual amount, but this year has been QUALITY. So much powder riding, I barely have a goggle-tan. Usually I look like a monkey by this time of the year.

I really need to start jotting things down or taking notes. I always have things written out in my head, especially during my car/train rides, then by the time I get around to typing, everything is gone.