The Season is Now.

We are now in the full swing of snowboarding season. The snow has melted around our home making it easier to get to Mt. Hood Meadows in a reasonable amount of time. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of digging out the van every time I needed to go somewhere.

Marni and I took a trip to Meadows on the 25th. For the first time we had excellent conditions. The snow was just right, dry, soft and fluffy. You couldn't make a snowball if you wanted to. If you tried the snow would just crumble apart. In fact the amount of powder on the ground was ridiculous. Almost to much to walk through if you got stuck in the flats.


I spent much of the day on the Black Diamonds. Really wore out my legs, but had a great time. Its not often we get to go up and experience such perfect conditions.

My last run I took the Vista lift up. While riding the lift I noticed it looked like it was a lift to nowhere. Vista was not so good. Lots of rocks in nearly whiteout conditions made it difficult to navigate, but I was able to cut across to a closed area of the Cascade that was virtually untouched. Smooth, deep powder with enough of a fall line to really get going.

By about 1pm most of the hills were skied out. So we called it a day. I was looking forward to dozing off to sleep with fresh memories of carving up smooth snow. I'm guess I'm becoming a bit of a snow snob. Its not that I don't enjoy boarding on the groomed runs, its just late in the day my legs get tired. Case-

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It just keeps coming.

Even now it keeps snowing, even though the news said it should have been done by now... That is until Wednesday (Christmas Eve) when the next storm hits.

I was going to drive to Mt. Hood today to go snowboarding, but we decided to wait till the 25th for the roads to clear. Last Sunday was one heck of a trip.

Everyone is trying to make the best of this massive snow storm. I took my friend Jay up the street to try out snowboarding. Jay surfs a lot so I think snowboarding is something he will enjoy quite a bit


Looks like Jay might be a natural. Now its just a matter of getting him to the Mt. to try it for real. Everyone says they wanna go, but when it comes to getting up at 5am for an hour and a half drive that's another story.

I am posting another round of photos because every time I think I have a photo of how much snow we have more comes along and makes the last photos look wimpy.

Remember you can click on any photo for the full size image.
Yeah, I know I went a little photo crazy. Marni also took a few of the photos as well. Case-

Urban Snowboarding

Blog update! Marni and I were taking out the trash and decided to have some fun. Case-

Arctic Blast 2008! Dunt Dun Dun!

Its been snowing for days. Most of the snow has melted as fast as it came except for today Dec. 20th 2008.

I woke up this morning to a white city. It been snowing without a break for about 12 hours now.

When all this started the entire city shut down. Nobody went anywhere.

Now after 10 days, people are driving around and going on with their lives. It always happens the first few days of severe weather. Everyone freaks out and hides in the safety of their homes. Then they give up on trying to call in absent to work, or putting off appointments.

Today we have had more snow all at once than the whole last week. Marni and I were out shopping and it was like business as usual. Thats a good thing. You can only stay at home for so long before you start to crack.

We have chains on the van so we are getting around very well. Tomorrow we get to drive up to Mt. Hood to go snowboarding. Its looking like its going to take a little extra time, but we are up for it.

Today however, we were able to enjoy the snow right here in PDX.

This is the street side of our little home. The above photo of the street is the same street I took the photo of my new bike a while back. There will be no riding bikes for now.

We live on the side of a hill in an area called the "West Hills" here in Portland Oregon. Hoffman Avenue is a side street off Broadway drive that zigzags through the hills much like some of those roads you see in Italy. One lane and lots of houses looking out over the city.

Some of the downsides to this are an occasional land slide, and slick roads when storms like this hit. Lucky for us Broadway Drive is a main road that runs through downtown Portland. So ODOT keeps up on keeping it clear. Its a lot of work, but they do a good job.

Right now the news is telling us things are about to get worse. Possible freezing rain on the way later tonight. No doubt they will come up with a catch title for it.

I snapped some photos today of the snow at home and while driving around town. Portland rarely looks like this. It will be fun to remember the "Arctic Blast" (as the news channels have labeled it.) later in the summer when its so hot you wanna spend all your time up at Timby on the Palmer.



The steps leading down to our apartment are almost to treacherous to walk on. I took some time to clear them with a shovel. By the time I was done, the steps already started to get snowed over again. Right now the snow is still falling.

I love the snow and wish this would happen all the time. Makes me wanna move to Alaska.

For now please take some time to enjoy these photos.

When we loaded the van with our snowboarding gear I was able to skate down Hoffman Ave. on my snowboard. Should have got some video of that.

It would be nice to get a few feet. We could drive up to Council Crest and do some jumps, or just slide down some of the back streets. For now there still isn't enough snow to not damage the base of our board.

P.S. We decided to take the cats outside for a bit since they were sleeping all day.

They didn't seem to like it all that much, but later Mortisha wanted to come out and visit with me a little. Maybe she wanted to prove she's tougher than she look?.

I have posted to youtube video at the end of the photos. Case-

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