This car smells like feet!
Posted by simplisticthoughts , Tuesday, January 18, 2011 8:24 PM
If you did not hear, Sunday I took off with four other ladies to Mt Hood, Oregon for the Burton AM Slopestyle competition. Our story goes like this...
Prior to our trip, Dylan Sifford and I had to head up to our local mountain to gather our gear and pick up our pal Kelley. Today the mountain was a sad sight, it had been pouring rain all day but in an odd way it worked to our advantage because Rachel and Kelley ended up getting off work early, thus enabling us to leave on our trip earlier. As Dylan and I are about half way up the rain soaked mountain, the windshield wipers on my car flutter and abruptly stop!! Concerned, we pull over to the nearest turn out to inspect the problem- apparently, a rock came up and lodged itself at the base of my right wiper and ended up burning out the mechanism that rotates the wipers. Since we had to get up the mountain, we continued our trek without wipers- gnarly! We made it to Bogus safely, gathered our things and Kelley and make a stop at the mechanic shop on the hill to see if they could fix it...but alas they could not. Oh and I slipped on the ice- twice!! Now, I am covered in water and have to drive back down wiper-less. Finally we made our descent home, met up with Rachel, picked up Sarah in Caldwell and hit the open road...life is a highway remember?
Our drive contained of typical girl antics, laughter and car games to pass the time and yes, we got a lot of it on camera. We set up camp at a country home-cookin' themed hotel with a single queen bed for five girls. The four all slept sideways on the bed and I opted for the floor with minimal blanket...but hey, this is what road trips are all about. We rose early the next morning, because we had to register and get checked in on the mountain by 9am. Pumped and ready we head out to the new challenge that awaited us. Mt Hood Meadows greeted us with freezing rain and high winds, but we still kept our excitement. We get all registered and head up the lift to begin our practice rounds- we had an hour to get as many runs in as possible. We see the set up from the lift and it looks like the first jump is about 30/35 ft, the second is 45 ft or so and then two lines of two rails each below the jumps. Butterflies fluttered in our stomachs because none of us have actually hit any real jumps this season, so we all touched our nose to see who dropped first- Sarah lost so she is first. On the second jump, all we can see from the top is her getting a lot of air and then moments later people running over to the landing, so we hastily scuttle down to the landing to what appears to be Sarah with a dislocated shoulder! Ski patrol wraps her up, toboggans her down while the rest of us follow them to the ski patrol building. It is a dislocated shoulder, so patrol sets it back into place and allow her to rest- she okay'd us to continue the competition so we get back out on the slopes...this time a bit more intimidated! Our girl just went down and we missed the practice runs, so our qualifying runs, the two that we were allotted would be our first time hitting these features!! Talk about pressure!
The girl competitors had to wait for the guys to get their qualifying runs in before we could drop. The wind was crazy and the sleet did not give up, but we mingled and did what we could to keep warm. There were thirteen girls competing, apparently twenty signed up but only thirteen showed (that is still more girls than I have ever seen at one comp). The four of us met and talked with some of the other women competitors, it was refreshing to meet some really great female riders who could actually throw down. The time had come for the women's heat to ensue and then we were approached by the event coordinator who was asked if we just wanted to skip the qualifiers and go straight into the finals, thus making our next two runs the "all or nothing". Since the weather was not agreeable, we accepted the offer and away we went. Surprisingly the jumps were amazing and not scary at all! They were super soft and forgiving! Our runs were not our best, but considering the circumstances, we were all proud of ourselves. None of us walked away with prizes, but as a Lifetime Original Story would end- we walked away with some self-confidence and a sense of pride. We all did something we had never done before, we gained some experience and who knows, maybe next year it could be any one of us on that podium. All in all, it was a great trip with lasting memories- nothing like getting the girls together and going snowboarding...except "this car smells like feet".
