October 5th. We roll into the P-lot and there are lots of cars. We see skier dads getting ready to go shralp, while me and RyBo joke about it knowing it's only a rail jam session. But huge thanks to Stevens Pass (Joel, Nate, Jules and crew), C3: CAPiTA - Union - Coal (WWD), and Casual for making riding Hogs and jibbin' tubes possible! In fact, I decided to not pay for the $12 for a single ride up Hogs, and I was stoked to walk up. When I got to the top of the lift, at about 10 am, I was pretty amazed to see how many people actually were already there. This looked like the rail version of the
Mt Baker Sesh-Up.
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| Not a rail jam |
I decided to shoot the shit for a few minutes with all the faces I haven't seen over the summer. And then I look up at Cowboy, and there is
Hot Lava Snowboarding, RyRy and RDub, hiking up "ArMonty's" line. So Ian, his girl Dani and myself decided to catch up to them. Hiking up through the rock gardens with about a foot and a half of snow covering thousands of big ass rocks made for a tricky, but fun hike up, and an even a more ridiculous time getting down.
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| Hiking up our lines |
We caught up to the post-holers, about 50 feet from the top of the ridge was RDub, not able to hike any higher up the steep chute. We each took a line mid way down the open 7th Heaven terrain, slashing the shmooy pow and popping of snowy rocks and trees.
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| As far up ArMonty's we could get. @deweydyslexia |
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| @rwmclaughlin jammed on this rock! |
We then hiked up a normally mellow chute to the top of Cowboy. We got a good look of our familiar surroundings, in a different stage. Actually we ended up shredding down the normal boot pack, to the 7th off-ramp, to jump off that thing a couple times.
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| The dirty pillows await.. |
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| Her last go down Cowboy |
The ride back down towards the event was extremely fun, but so sketchy at the same time. Mandatory rock boards. Biggest, longest "pillow" run of my life. Lots of scraping, smashing and falling. We were all lucky to get out of there unscathed.
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| Ian charging. No gloves needed for these pillows |
After watching final minutes of this now muddy, rail jam session, a crew of locs (RyRy, RDub, Tone, Peppa, Goodell, Roy, TClaught, JBone, and others) decided not to catch the last lift to download. Instead we figured we will all chug beers while taking one of the bike trails down! Although this turned into mainly dirt, rock and roots, this shit was the most fun part of the day. Don't fall, because it will hurt, don't turn, because you need all the speed you can get. The crew made as far as the traces of snow allowed us to, and my TFA went the way of the dinosaurs as she finally cracked all the way through the base. (She's been on her last life for the past few shredding days anyway). I wish I was able to take some pics of the final run down, but was way too occupied managing the bike trail, the bridges, the dirt and rock, and of course my beer.
All in all, this preseason session was a damn fun day and a great way to kick off a season.
