Day 180

180/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Today was my first day of snowboarding for the season.  
I was super pumped to get up to Mammoth because there was a huge storm rolling in. I woke up to 5 feet of fresh powder on the ground and I was ecstatic. I woke everyone up, we got dressed, and we walked to the mountain.


It was snowing all day, which normally would have been awesome. The problem is, it was a really warm storm. Even though it was low visibility, kind of windy, and looked like it was freezing, it was about 30 degrees. Which means you had to bundle up to stay dry (and warm on the lift), but it was easy to get a little overheated when going down the mountain. It also made the snow wet, which was hell. There is nothing that makes me happier than deep, dry powder. Wet powder, on the other hand, is like getting blue balls. You're all excited to hit the trees, you commit and go for it, and then halfway through things come to a screeching halt, and eventually you have to handle the situation yourself. 


This is what happened here. We went big and shot the trees, but the powder was sticky, so we ended up waist-high in swampy, dense snow. We had to unstrap our boards and make the ungodly hike back up the mountain to the trail. Austin is leading the pack, followed by Kyle and Garrett and then me. Going up this hill took forever, and we had to use our boards just to keep from slipping back down the mountain. 


Still, the short powder run we did get was sick while it lasted, and it was totally worth it.