Bluebird Day at Tuckermans Ravine

May 21, 2010

What a perfect way to close out the season especially since I dedicated it to Brad. Brad's brother Jamie flew his plane over Tucks then down to York, Maine for a lobster dinner with me and my dad. The gullies were all that was left for good snow. The chute looked trashed and proved so after Dennis set off a wet slide that made it look like he pooped his pants up there. The event did make the official Tuckermans Ravine avalanche report too. The right gully skied very sweet. The corn pulled off the surface perfectly. The lunch rocks being so exposed this late in the season made it definitely a no fall run. I really had fun in the left gully too- a nice non stop with lots of skier bumps to play with on the way down-squishy. After a nice long season it's time to think about summer.

And once again as Brad said,

"May Your Turns be Deep and Ever So Sweet"

SIP

Bradley C. Gamble

campGAW!

fun race-nj community skiing at it's rock solid best. a super season!

bigrockpark colorado february 20

a little sumthin'.

got boots?

oh brother!

brought andrew's boots back to the us just to ship them back to canada

wiggley world

Wiegle got nothing on us... cept the helis.

uh oh ! triangle trees- right side

davey drops

I'm in the background skiing the line on the gully lip, skiers left ahead of Dave and then I stop below and watch the show...

Asulkan Glacier-rogers pass bc-triangle trees-left side

Asulkan... and now...back east

It took me a full 10 days to recover from the 10 day backcountry adventure. Got back to Nj and hosted an ice skating birthday party for Nina at the Ice House in Hackensack last Saturday. It was really fantastic too. Had to miss the 5 foot dump in JH and it was worth it. At 8% water content that stuff was heavy. I'm sure everyone enjoyed it and packed it out for a great base. Back to coaching and instructing at Campgaw. This little hill has sucked me and Nina in. A great crew and lot's of slalom turns on ice. Perfect training for Nina to negotiate an icy entrance to a powder filled couloir in her future. Or how about the only woman at the Asulkan hut who showed up with her husband (of course) and... her dad. They toured up and over the glacier on Young's Peak dropping the 50 degree first step of Paradise onto a windslab. They continued over the next six steps of windblownpow. How old was dad? probably about 65!!! Will any of our daughters become backcountry skiers and invite us on this kind of trip? - we all hope so.

We had a super group. The Magnificent Seven. Four canadiens and three Americans. We skied really well together. Our US contingent really took to the newly named "American Tree Triangle" Popping over pillow lines. Landing ten footers on some tight western steep lines with big pines that funneled into the top of the moustrap. We even hit it on our way out of the hut. Each day we farmed a new area rarely crossing our own tacks. By the time we were finished, the whole place looked tracked out. Yeah, we did that. And it was time to leave it all behind... until the next one. But thie next one won't include the 13-15hour car trips from JH. Thanks to satellite radio and Dave's obsession with classic rock, the radio sustained us and we did great out on the open road.

Crossing back into the US, the border guard asked "Where you guys been?" Response, "Touring on Roger's Pass." She hands us our passports back immediatley, "Oh you guys are Hardcore." That sounded so sweet! Keep skinning, and...

"May your turns be deep and ever so sweet"

Evening Ridge-near nelson bc

A great cup of coffee and breakfast sandwich at Oso Negro with Dave. We toured up evening ridge. Skied off the backside fora arun. Sketch!!! Had to negotiate around some bad aspects. But with a bluebird day and the storm having passed, we were psyched to be out in the sunshine. The perfect pb&j lunch and then down a 1000 foot beautiful tree run. The snow was very spongy and the drifters floated. Out to prepare final fixins for dinner. Well actually Ian took care of that.

Stormy Stormy

Skied Whitewater-full on lift service . Bell to bell. Pillow lines deep cream cheese. The wind was howling.
A lot of discussions between Andrew and the other guys coming with us about when to go to the hut. The weather was real rough all day. We decided to delay our trip to the Asulkan hut by a day to be safer. Tomorrow a tour...

Border bs

Driving Driving Driving. 13 hours Rotated through drivers during fill ups. Border gurds slowed us down. After pulling us into a side area and searching a couple bags, talking mountain biking, skiing and keeping in touch with old friends on facebook, they had enough and let us go. A minor pia. Arrived in Nelson in time to see the entire Creighton family before they headed off to Vancouver early the next morning.

Wed January 13th

We had hoped to ski the resort today but it just doesn't have the snow. So we toured again on Teton Pass with Dave, Tom McKay "Crawdad", and Ian. Tom put a couple of roses in a tree in remembrance of Big Wally and Jay Moody . We went out to Edelweis Bowl and skied The Nose. It was again variable and we all managed to find some good turns. A nice pb&j lunch and a great day to really get the skins under us. Tomorrow the drive...

tuesday january 12th

Woke up at 4:20am and Ian and I arrived at the Newark airport early for our 7am flight. That was the theme for the morning. Arrived ahead of schedule in JH and Dave took us out for an afternoon tour on teton pass. We skied in some real mixed conditions with a very low snowpack. But we managed to acclimate a little and get our kits together. Exhausted, we crashed early, but only after Ian made a killer fajitas dinner that we shared with Dave and his girls. A good start to the big tour coming up in Rogers Pass. Received a text message from Nina- 'what- you are driving to Canada?! Yep in two days...

Sunday's Ski Race

Nina raced her first usssa gs race. It's really strange taking my daughter to a ski race. The parent trap of wanting her to have fun and do well. The adventyure began when Nina got carsick 15 miles before we got to the ski area. We pulled over on the side of the road in Warwick, NY.-done, still on schedule and it's only 7:45am. After we got to the area, Nina noticed that she didn't have her glasses. She said they were in the door pocket. Well, the only time we opened the door was... yes 15 miles back up the road. The coaches said don't worry we got Nina while I hustled back to the "spot" and drove slowly on the shoulder until I saw the glasses in the snow. I rushed them back and Nina was just going out for course inspection. I The coaches were great during inspection.I helped out a little but my duties were to be a dad. So after Nina's first run, I was waiting at the bottom and she had a nice run. She was crying and saying that she fell on her way skating out of the start on the way to the first gate. I told her I was proud she finished the run. She said her hands were shaking in the starting gate and she was really nervous. After wiping her tears and a cup of hot chocolate with her friends and teammates, she said she was ready for the second run. She skied it well and asked if she could do more races. "Dad", she said, "Ski racing is really obsessive."

Coaching...

The tuesday and thursday night training sessions have begun at campgaw.

Summit Elevation: 719'

Vertical Drop: 269'

Skiable Acres: 15

Trails: 8

Lifts: 5

Snowmaking: 100%

Night Skiing: yes

Community based skiing in one of the most crowded areas of the world! First night out I skied the voile drifters with my ten year old racers. They liked the big wood skis. And we made fun big turns with snow guns blasting...lots of ankle rolls to go with our california rolls, sake and sashimi.

Thursday I worked with the j2 girls getting ready for their local gs race. And when the ten year olds saw me without my drifters they shouted, "bring back the big wood ski."

Happy New Year!

Skied Alta for 5 days with a beautiful 17" storm right in the middle of the trip to set up a perfect full moon torchlight parade for the New Year! Family time was super sweet. Mom at 70 got into Eddies High Nowhere from the Gunsight entrance. Les Tate guided her and was super patient. Dad at 74 was sure footed on his new Mantras and tore up the groomers. Brad was scheduled on the calendar to join us. We all thought about him a lot since he was with us last year. Les and I got first tracks in Gunsight during the powder dump on BOTH days. Entering from the rollover on thirds we powered straight into the barrel of Gunsight and looped matching arcs on the far right wall. Face shots surrounded us and the new Drifters skied perfectly. Nina, at ten, hiked to Catherine's for the first time and it was like she found Jurrasic Park. She continued to hike and ski it each day leading friends into her newly discovered playground. I did get "Tatered" on the first powder day with an incredible morning with Leslie Tate and then some power laps with Mike Tate in the afternoon. Ed and Abigail stopped by from Solitude for a bluebird powder day on New Year's eve. From Ballroom to West Rus, Stone Crusher and Greeley to a final trip out to Catherine's to end 2009. Happy New Year!!! And...

May Your Turns Be Deep And Ever So Sweet