Driving into my third turn, I laid into a deep toeside bottom turn and began pulling G’s like a drop at Waimea on a big day. Over a rise, the board got a bit light then loaded as the nose compressed in a dished out area of the hill. I felt the nose flexing but my weight was good. I stood on my front foot to adjust back to center as there was no way I was going over the bars at that speed. The last time I did that I ended up in a patrol sled with a ride to the bottom and a broken collar bone.

As the board continued to flex, I felt great, just indestructible. It was at about that time that I heard a loud SNAP! Then…., I was floating through the air. I knew I was upside down, launched from the energy release of the recoil. With my trailing hand, I felt for the ground below – there was nothing but air. Realizing I was higher than I thought, I pulled my arm back, tried to tuck up into a ball and land as best I could. I rolled over and the first thing to hit was the back of my helmet. Then the broken end of the board dug in as I rolled and the rest was just a cloud.

Ski patrol showed up pretty quick but everything was feeling fairly good, all things considered, so we gathered up the pieces, a friend loaned me one of his skis and we headed on down. The loss of that board was painful but as I would be told over and over that day, things could have been so much worse. Another friend offered to loan me another board but I declined and grabbed some skis. The rest of the day went without incident and blue sky flowed into a sunset that looked something like a night time lava flow – just stunning. The snow was so good I stayed until well into the evening - all in all, really a pretty damn good day.

The metal bottom sheet below the petex layer tore like paper, the wood core snapped and the kevlar top sheet tore like the bottom sheet....

Happens to the best of us. But my good buddy "Tortuga" once said:

"They make more"

Sunday: 1-10-10

8'0" WRV GUN

"they make more"

(sorry bout the board of course)

Geo, you want to buy that 7'6" Hank Werner back?

I bet Boberto has got 7'+ in past few weeks.

I hit mammoth immediately after those series of storms that lasted a week. They got 8' that week and the top had been closed all week. Saturday was a Zoo with chairs opening slowly and staggered due to Avi potential on mountain. I have a few decent photos I should post later.

SWEET! THat must havae been amazing!

Ya know, the best thing to do is keep doing it. Hit medium jump lines in the park. work on position in the air. stay over your bindings. don't get in the back seat.
THen step it up to the bigger stuff. also hit cat tracks at high speed (with a spotter of course ). Ya just gotta spend time in the air or it'll go away. also, stay away from flat hard landings. knees hate those as does your back, ankles and skis.

Practice, practice, practice. Ya just gotta be comfortable. You feel better about it and you're actually safer - even going bigger. Then, know your line (takeoff and landing/runout) and you still gotta ski the conditions and know when to walk away. If the conditions say stay on the ground then that's what ya gotta do and just have fun carving it up!

They're callin for 12" - 16" here tonight and the whole state is in a panic

I hit some small/med size stuff this weekend. That on felt good. The 6-8' couldn't have gone worse, looked super soft but it was hard pack underneath!

I demo'd some skis. K2 Explorer! All I have to say is WOW. The new shaped skis are insane. I've been riding the narrow shaped skis and had mine for about 9+ years. The fatter skis are insane in the Pow!! INSANE!!!

Smooth landings off cliffs/jumps into Pow. My narrow skis would sink and cause me to face plan 50% of the time when landing in 12"+ of freshies. These just ease into the landing and you don't sink as far.....unbelievable.

If someone else posted this photo, I would automatically respond saying I would tear that thing up and it looks mellow, well that would be easy to say from sitting behind my computer. Riding it with someone else would have been different but solo is whole new ball game.

A wipeout would have resulted in skipping down the entire chute to the bottom where those 2 guys are. There would have been no chance to stop yourself after a fall, only if you hit a tree or a rock.