Turns in the Yard.

A shot of the house from halfway down "Free at Last" |green|
One of the things I noticed last year is the north facing aspect of the backyard holds snow pretty well. It even collects powder during our many wind storms from the trees west of the property. In years past I've had to wait for a big snow storm before I'd be able to ride "core-shot" worry free. In fact the snow on that face would never really setup and riding it sometimes had you breaking through into rotten snow and taking a nasty rock gouge. Bummer.

But this year I thought I'd be pro-active and tromp down the snow pack as we got it. I buckled into an old pair of snowshoes (nell too) and packed down our first handful of snow storms. Walking up and down the mountain moving rocks and branches so that uncluttered lines for future accumulations remained. Packing the layers from each storm helped the snow setup and cover rocks and other obstacles in the yard. This was a thankless task for about three months, as our base was still too shallow for riding...until.

This weekend snow storm brought the base to a decent depth and now we only need a few inches of fresh snow for a green light. Makes for about an hour of shralping and boot packing. I have roughly 5 lines at this point. Jumps and Hippie Jibs (made from forest) are to come.