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Pure as the driven snow Part II

Amidst the dreariness of the last two weeks here in Southern California- the rather predictable freeway accidents in the rain, mudslides on the burn-areas, the never-ending State Budget crisis, and my leaking roof is the Winter Wonderland that is Big Bear Mountain. Heaven is just a paltry 2 hours away if you're anything like me... And although the so-called El Nina has dampened our winter spirits a bit in between storms, when the storms came they came in waves! The one that came in mid-December was a real doozy and last weeks believe it or not trumped that threefolds! This weeks was not too shabby either yielding a nice 18 inches...

Of course I haven't missed a beat in several years and I don't plan to in the near future. I have been there every step of the way and perhaps even more so than i care to be in this Season. I spent a weekend in Running Springs with some friends without my Snowboards just to experience the Mountains in a more homey kind of way (only to return the day after the trip for some skiing lol). And if I have learned anything in the many years I have been doing this is that if you seek the perfect day "never go during the storm, do it the day after". Somehow this has escaped me because it seems i'm in the eye of the Storm most of the time now... It's really stupid if you think about it because I was the one that introduced this philosophy to my circle of friends.

This week though was a different story. It was carefully planed. With a forecast of 35 and a low of 19 with absolutely no wind and a clear blue skies, Wednesday was it! I know we tend to be skeptical with our Meteorologist around here but give them credit because sometimes they get it right. And on this day? Yeah they were spot on. The day was absolute Perfection! Well save for the fact that Highway 18 was closed at Snow Valley lol (which also means I couldn't take Waterman up). Although they hardly had anything to do with it... Apparently some fallen trees had made it inaccessible forcing all traffic to divert to the rolling and winding Highway 38 (about an extra 30 miles each way. Yikes!). Luckily the majority of the Wednesday hopefuls came later in the day so traffic was fairly light. But with the extra mileage and snow it took just over 3 hours to get there overall. Sigh.

And after a much needed breakfast the first order of business was a few warm-up runs before hitting up some of Summit Mountains delicious off-trails. Typically one run would get me going but Highway 38 takes quite a bit longer than Highway 18 so I thought I'd get an extra run in. And when I finally hit the Pow in between the tall Pine Trees on the West Side of the Mountain, I realized how tired I really was. In fact I was so tired I kept falling all over the place like I was still learning. And to tell you the truth after almost 13 years of snowboarding I don't fall anymore! It was a little frustrating... Then I got to thinking. Between that mishap in Big Bear last week that sent me bed ridden for the next couple of days, a frazzling Valentines Day (ya long story...), a semi-work crisis and Food Poisoning on the eve of this Snowboarding Day that almost kept me up all night, and that long morning drive, well, in spite of it all there was no other place on Earth I rather would have been right at that moment.

A perfect day...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, February 18, 2009