Matt Duffy
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/29/00, but due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Gasp… I can’t see!!!! Ahhhhhhh! Mmmm… That’s light, melts in my mouth… Still can’t see!!! Smoke is clearing…vision partially restored… Right sfffffff, left sffffff, big swooping leaning over elbow dragging right fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff, big fast swooping leaning over arm dragging left SfffffSSSSSSSffffffSSSffffffSSSffffffSSfffff, <BR>SffffffffffffffffffSSffffffffSSfffffffffSfffffffff… I can’t see! Gas it!SSfffffffffffffSSSSSSSSfffffffffff, SSSSSSSSSffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff…. Still can’t see!!!!!! That feels awesome fluttering against my chest and in my armpits. This is like a bubble bath! Smoke clearing, vision partially restored WHOAH! That was close… Gas it! SSSSSSSSSsssffffffffffffffff, SSSSSSSSsssfffffffffffffffffffff, SSSSSSffffffffffffSSSSSfffffff…. Can’t see!!!!! Gas it!! Yeahhhhhhhhh!!! Whoooh! Whooh! Whooh! Whooh! Divebomb! Snorkel! Submerge! Divebomb! Snorkel! Submerge! Get air out of it! SPLASH!! Gasp! I inhaled it! I CAN’T SEE!!!!!! Sffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff, Sfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff Gasp! I inhaled it! WHOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! <BR> <BR>Timing could not have been better for this. Right in the middle of the week, there was a passholders private powder day. Then another. Then another. There were no lift lines at all for the duration. Smugglers reports 32" out of this and I can tell you first hand there is more than that in most woods. 20 foot drops feel like tiny little speed bumps. I’ve never skied woods so fast in my life. Not half as fast. Ultra steep back bowl chutes were an amazing rush. Instead of making the normally necessary multitudes of quick turns, I was straightlining them to their ends into openings; then making huge, foot-to-the-floor super arcs down steep wide opens. Euphoric blindness. Numbing levitation. Did various back bowl runs non-stop, without tiring. One in particular couldn’t have taken more than 3 minutes. Three minutes of ecstasy; of blindly taking big zero impact drops at full speed without even looking first or after, of pointing straight down very steep pitches, then making 7-10 consecutive blind turns in a whiteout, of yelling out exclamations of approval, of throwing a match on a mountain just immersed in highly flammable, fresh, light & dry pow. I threw matches on every blazing, whitehot run- all off the map. The woods were on fire. Smoke was everywhere. I was engulfed in it. <BR> <BR>On Wednesday, my buddy Lou called in with powderflu and every run we took was in the woods. 1st deep tracks on every one. On a certain very narrow, very ledged and very vertical one, I felt like I was riding down a speedy elevator from the top floor of Heaven. Each turn resulted in literally surfing sideways for 10-20 feet at a time and keeping pace with the fast rushing, belly-deep, silent sluff slide all around me. Somewhere near the 2nd or 3rd floor, the bottom opened like a trap door and dropped me into an accelerating free fall through the air. My stomach jumped like it does when I’m on a plummeting roller coaster. Landing was in an obscene six foot sluff pile on top of the 2-3 feet of untouched. I didn’t feel a thing. It took a while for the smoke to clear and when it did I watched an unstoppable flow of dust showering off the edge of that very tall ledge for a full minute+. That is a lot of snow. <BR> <BR>It was a whirlwind of a day that I can’t fully summarize without writing a book. Bottom line is it was so full of deep powder, it was <BR>spilling over the brim.