pushing past that comfort zone

Lucky enough to experience some awesome terrain, I recently pushed myself on a 3 1/2 hour hike for some  higher and steeper terrain I had yet to see.  Needless to say my throat felt a bit coarse but the bar got raised on my stamina level.

2011 not only has brought more snow but it has brought a new mix of Spring boarding and skiing to the table.  The best way I like to describe spring conditions is getting comfortable in a light shirt and boarding pants and looking forward to that goggle tan at the end of the day.

 For the past week and a half Kirkwood has seen clear skies and blue bird days.  Putting more emphasis on grooming, Kirkwood has stepped it up on making sure more runs than normal are being groomed and prepared for the coming days.  We have the luxury of High-Angle grooming which means those double black almost vertical lines will be prepped and ready to ride down at top speeds.  The upside to spring conditions is the change in shape of the snow.  This is referred to as "Corn snow" or "quasi-Corn".  The snow can be referred to as coarse, granular wet snow.  Though it's January and we still have storms to look forward to, we are currently enjoying a taster of what these spring conditions feel like.  The Corn snow takes on a certain shape during it's melting and freezing state, this occurs best during mid to late morning where after a layer has begun to melt but before it is too wet and sloppy.

Enjoy to clear skies while they last!


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