Maybe this week!

It's been another slow start to the season. It was very cold at Thanksgiving, the ski area made snow, but it has long since mostly melted. Thankfully we're in another cold snap and they've been making snow like crazy. It looks like they're going to open for skiing on Monday (12/24) and should have practice on Wednesday. If there's no practice, Bob and Whitney will be heading further afield to find skiing for the day. Hopefully she can get in some practice time with the coaches since she'll have a competition pretty quick in January.

The start line is in sight!

It's getting colder outside, some of the sort of nearby mountains have had snow, and a few semi-local ski areas are open for the winter. Massanutten didn't get any snow from Superstorm Sandy, but they hope to start making snow very soon, with an anticipated opening date of Dec. 8. We'll see!

We had the parent/information meeting for the snowboard/ski team on Saturday. The good news is that the snowboard coaches are back and were happy to see Whitney there. So far she's the only girl on the team but you never know what will happen. Last year there were two, but Whitney was the only one who came regularly.

I've already been checking out the USASA schedules. There's a BX competition at Wisp in January that we're planning on going to. I'm still waiting on the Mid-Atlantic Series to post their schedule, the mountains there are close enough that we could make a weekend trip up to compete. I also need to take a look at Southern Vermont and Massachusetts to see if there's any BX competitions that will work with our vacation.

She's got the gear (well, as of her birthday on Monday), her team coat, coaches, season pass, everything she needs to hit the slopes except the snow. Hopefully that will start falling and blowing soon!

Hurricane Sandy

We were thankfully spared much of Sandy's wrath yesterday and today. One of the things that did happen was some crazy blizzard warnings and snow out in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Shenandoah Mountains. I just looked at Massanutten's web cam and there's snow on the higher elevations and it's been snowing all day. The ground must be pretty warm though since there's nothing on the ground towards the bottom of the slopes. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come this winter.

The team meeting will be the middle of next month, the Appalachian Series is already starting to schedule competitions, snow is falling, we're getting closer to snowboard season.

Getting closer!

Yes, I know it's only early September but we're getting closer to winter and snowboard time. I just saw a post on Facebook tonight that Copper Mountain is going to start making snow in 18 days. It's going to be a lot longer before they start making snow on the East Coast. The weather is getting cooler and the days shorter which means that cold weather and snow making is coming. Pretty soon I should get an email about the team meeting in November and practice will be starting up in December. It'll be another year of trekking to Massanutten then we'll see what happens after that.

Season Wrap Up

Well, snowboard season is over. I looked at the Massanutten webcam earlier and there's only a few spots of snow left on the slopes. Spring has really sprung around here. The cherry trees are in full bloom, flowers are coming up, grass is growing. Dreams of winter are all that we have left for a while.

A few thoughts on the season....we went in not really knowing what we were getting into and ended with plenty of knowledge, especially knowing we'll be back next year. This was kind of a "trial" season, seeing what the team was about, trying out a competition to get a feel for that and also to see if boarder cross was really what Sweet Pea wanted to do. Turns out it is. The season went well, the coaches were great, Sweet Pea learned a lot from them (and I learned a lot from her!). She enjoyed the competition and knows what she needs to work on next year. I'll be spending some time this fall mapping out what competitions we're going to hit in the winter. We'll be heading further out, up to Camelback and maybe another one in the Poconos, possibly trying to work our trip to NH in February to coincide with a competition up there. We'll definitely hit Whitetail again.

This was at the end of the season. The girls and I played hookey one day from our obligations at home and went down to the mountain. It was a warmish day, but nice for skiing/snowboarding. There was only one practice after this and it was a fun one with a team picnic after to use up the food at the concession stand/grill. Sweet Pea got the "Girl Power" award from her coaches (they're so creative!).

She also got her birthday present early. We hit up the ski shop when we were returning her rented board and bought her one, her early birthday present. I think she would totally change the colors if she could - she's not really into white and pink - but it's the type of board that she needs so she went with it. We picked it up yesterday, it's got the bindings on it and has been sharpened and waxed so it's ready to go come winter.

Enjoy your summer! I'll be back with more musings when we see some flakes of snow falling.

Playing hooky...

We got back from New Hampshire last week. Sweep Pea was pretty tired and her leg was still hurting so she skipped practice last Thursday. It ended up being the last weeknight practice. Massanutten switched to their late season schedule which meant they closed at 5 on weeknights. She did go last Saturday and had a good practice.

Monday we got some flurries here but Massanutten got several inches. Only problem was that we couldn't get down until Thursday. Thursday we decided to play hooky, skip school and bible study and go play in the snow. We took Rosie Jane with us and the two of them went skiing/boarding for the day.

Today was the last practice for the season. Massanutten is closing for the season tomorrow. Good thing since it's going to be in the 70s most of the week. Today was a fun practice, they played some games and just had a good time. When they were done their shortened practice, there was a cookout at the Mid-Mountain Grill, which usually supports the ski and snowboard team. Today it was a picnic to clear out the leftovers from the season.

I had a chance to talk to the coaches for a bit. We were looking for some advice on buying a snowboard for Sweet Pea,. It's actually her birthday present but we may get it now since the current season boards are on sale. We'll see what the ski shop still has for her when we return her board next week.

Sadly, A No Go Today

Today didn't really turn out as planned. My lunch date cancelled because she's sick. Sweet Pea cancelled her boarding today because her leg hurt. She's really disappointed since they were going to go to Okemo and she was looking forward to that. Guess there's always next year. I do think she's now spoiled, she realized again how small Massanutten really is and she likes the bigger mountains. She really enjoyed it yesterday at Mount Sunapee and it'll be back to the small stuff Thursday night. I guess it'll also be back to the chiropractor next week.