Ok, blog numero dos.

So the day after finishing my finals i headed off to mt. hood for some late spring shenanigans. my plan, to take advantage of the $99 spring pass. i left fort collins with visions of a park a mix between an edit i had seen here and the footage from last years wcs.

after meeting up with paige (ballin' boarder chick for those who dont know her) in rock springs, wyoming, we then balled it out to hood making a clean 18 hours of driving, with 1 stop for a 3 hour nap in boise, and me being a fool for speeding in bumfuck nowhere idaho and recieving a $75 dollar ticket (actually my first ticket, surprisingly).

we got to mt. hood on a friday at 10:30 to sunny skys and 70 degree weather, needless to say, it was a bit slow, paige had driven out with her BFF from PA, so i was left to my own devices while they chilled off the slopes. what i found was the donkey dick blue rail had melted out to about nipple height, and saw the park crew once through out the day, hand sprinkling salt randomly.

on the second day, i met up with a group of oregonians for a little backcountry jump adventure. started nice and early and set out goals high with a large stepdown over a rock gap, which ended up being about a 50 foot gap with a 30-35 foot drop. there was some problems though as the landing wasn't the ideal pitch, but was manage able. after a few hours it was set to go. after some guineas and some reshaping of the lip. we went. on my second hit i went for a 3 critical, but ended up overhucking and 450ed, ripping the binding out of my skis and effectively ending my day. kids took a beating and everyone had a good time, though our eyes ended up being bigger than our stomachs so to speak. Thanks to GUZ for the sweet pics.

Here's an edit the oregon boys put out, the angle was better than mine, and someone got zoom happy with my cam (i wasn't filming as i was one of the crazies hitting the gap). the shots of the jump start at 1:50ish

spring final from matt robertson on Vimeo.

it remained sunny for the next two days, which i lapped the park (no poles cause i hurt my thumb, yay), and learned mutes, which for some reason i had never gotten around to learning properly, and 360 switchups over the rainbow box when they moved it. sunday i had an encounter that showed a certain attitude of the park crew, when i told them there was a hole in their jump (quite litterally a chunk out of the lip), which they shrugged off telling me their job is hard and i cant talk (complete bullshit), i saw them later that day on the jump line and they gave me an "oh" when they saw the hole. monday was just a sick day, it wasn't so hot, so the main jump line on paint brush stayed hitable almost all day.

tuesday it was rainy and i was lazy, so i chilled in govy, wednesday was a pow day surprisingly and they opened the pucci lift so there was some trees to ski in. also i was able to take the alpine trail down to govy, which is surprising this late in the season. thursday was wet, but fun, i got 270s onto the blue down which had finally been dug in, but couldn't get pretzels for the life of me, just kept going to switch (or soft pretzels as i like to call them). this was also the day i figure out a new grab on the mini jumps with some 3s, kinda a cross between a japan and a kang, i think i saw delorme do something similar this year, so its good in my book.

friday, the rail jam finals for the campus rail jam tour in portland. they brought the scaffolding setup right into pioneer square in downtown. pretty cool. i wasn't really feeling it (balance felt off with the nopoles) and couldn't stick anything beside one 270 to swith off on the box, but it was fun none the less. also got to see my parents and go out to a good meal (a distinct change from my PB&J diet i had become accustomed to over the past week). it stayed overcast too and didn't rain, though i thought it was going to so the only shots i have are what my dad took.

saturday i got caught up with my parents in the morning, and couldn't make it up to t-line in a timely fasion so hit up ski bowl instead, cliping a ticket and using the ropetow jib park (most hits you could possibly get). weird features but fun, got blindside switchup, to frontside switchup, to pretz 270 out on the up-flat-down-flat, but couldn't get double blindside.

sunday and monday were weird weather and i ended up just goofing around at t-line, hiking some stuff and adding some new moves to my accro-skiing quiver.

all in all a super fun trip, not getting all that i desired as far as park, and tricks, but im okay with that as i met a bunch of cool new people and got a chance to see my parents which i only get once or twice a year. also kinda bummed i didn't get much filming, as i was skiing alone, then the weather crapped out once my friends got off work and had some ride time. oh well, mobbed it back to the fort, though failed this morning, missing the turn to keep on 84 in ogden and ended up just sticking on 15 and catching 80 down in SLC. (i didn't notice it till i was almost to SLC, yay lack of sleep and lots of energy drinks)

BONUS! My subie killed this trip, no problems other than the radio was funky coming back(thanks pioneer). averaged 26.5 MPG and i wasn't driving slow.