Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

I'll skip most of the details, suffice to say Christmas Eve was spent with friends (John and Karen hosted). We ate a ton and played games! All very fun.

Christmas day was cool, I got up late, made a Duct tape wallet, met up with some the guys and ate loads. The two Victors are Chefs and the rustled up 5 raks of chops, garlic mash, divers scallops and then cinamon apples and pears . . . was most fantastic!



Today was the the important day. Today was Day 6 up the Mountain for me. It was really hard work. mainly because there was 18 inches of fresh snow! It was pretty warm too, making it the 2nd wettest I have ever been outside of surfing. . . It is crazy how much you sweat and with it snowing at the same time it is impossible to stay dry! It looks good doesn't it!



We hit the first lift about 10 am and by 2 pm Ben and I were dead and buried (Christa was over it by about noon, but she worked hard out there!)



Ben and I had an amazing last run. I followed him under the Mt Hood express chair, a black diamond run, through some trees. Ben jumped out left of the trees and went high and right, I went out to the right and carved a huge left turn with hand drag, switch to my other edges with another hand drag (and this was a seriously steep bowl!) The people on the chair lift were cheering "looking good! Nice carve". Fatal last words. I am not sure if a land mine went off or a truck hit me, but next thing I am rag-dolling down the rest of the bowl in DEEP powder. I botom out on a flat and had a short hike up to the piste.

On that particular run Ben and I must have bought it a good dozen times between us, and Ben has been riding for nearly 20 years!

It was excellent! My favourite run of all time!!! Ben muttered "One more run?" To which I said NO!!!!! I have no legs left!!!!! After that I hit the bar and a beer :)

This is the view of the hill as we left.

And this is hte car. As you can see I actually have snow chains on. First time for everything! Look how much snow there is in that parking lot, impressive isn't it!



Enjoy the pics :)

Oh, and this picture is for the 2.5 Richardsons out there, soon to be 3 :)

I should not leave it so long between blog entrys. To much has happened for me to put in one entry!

SO in summary, I have been up the mountain lots, well 5 times in only a few weeks. Not sure if I will acheive 40 days for the season, we will see!

I hurt my foot playing football, went in for a big challange, won it, but at the cost of my foot hurting for the last 2 weeks!!! grrrrr. . . Still I don't feel it much when riding.

I got my hair cut too . . . finally!

Any how, pictures . . .


Below is a picture of I84. Imagine the M1, same thing. Please note I went this route to go up the mountain as it is meant to be a more relaxed drive . .. Was it hell, this was one of the times I felt confident enough to get a picture and one lane was snowed out and the lane I am in is 80% black ice . . . it was a very ropey drive up!


This picture of Crabman has me in stitches! He looks like a right `ol farmer Giles! But trust me, he is the best rider I have ever been up on the mountain with, respect when due and all that!


And here is Crabman in his natural habitat, he forgot his coat, which had me laughing for about 3 hours :) But he survived!!!


And one of me :) Please note that this year all the workers at Meadows are in Orange jackets . . . what a nightmare . . . It was a fab day, lots of fresh snow, lots of tree runs, lots of pain in my legs and my bloody foot!


And not to forget the Mighty - MIGHTY Fusion, in all its snowy glory. It has been under more snow, but this is the only time I have bothered getting a picture.



Back to the snow, I have been trying to ride pipe more this year, I really enjoy it! Such hard work on the legs. I think I will spend most of the holidays in the pipe, see if I can get some air out of the 18ft superpipe! I can worry about freeriding when in Whistler.

Oh! that reminds me, the RV is paid for, the RV site is paid for, the big truck thing to get around town is paid for . . . . all we need now is to get to the end of January and we can play in the Canadian snow :)

Anywot, I am tired and off to bed! Speak to you all soon, well, cept for Andrew, who I called by mistake today . . . at midnight UK time . . opps! Sorry Stone!

I had a very nice Saturday snowboading. I am very tired and going back tomorrow for more. Crabman is comming tomorrow too. I have some pictures and I will post them at some point ;)

Wow, toooo much good news . . .

I bumped into the apartment manager and I have a parcel from Australia waiting for me. I just need to get there when it is open . . . I got a gift aid from my mother, a snowboard magazine and a copy of national geographic (Had a whole big thing on Saturn in it!!!!!!)

I yielded to Dave's wish and changed my "count down to Meadows opening" counter to . . .well . . . you can see yourself.

Now don't go getting a big head Dave, click the meadows link on the left and see why . . . too lazy to do that? Well, I'll tell you then.

MEADOWS OPENS ON SATURDAY AT 9AM!

No prizes for guessing where I will be on Saturday morning! I get to break in the season pass at last :) I am soooooo happy! All I need is for Smurf to be here for Christmas and I would be as happy as a pig in . . an organic, vegan, Muslim farm!

I am off to do a victory lap of the living room :)

Not much to say at the moment! I had a great time at TImberline on Friday night and I am looking forward to a full day up there on Saturday :)

In the meantime I hope you like the funky counter I have on the page!

A quick thnks to Mother for the magazines!

A quick Hi to Smurf and Em, hope the boat was ok and the Birthday was fun!