Old School Look at Cypress

It was foggy so I thought I’d try some vintage looks.

This tree is right at the top of the Lion’s Express chair. We watched with amusement today as a ski instructor spoke to his class of about 8 kids, all gathered round near this tree. 7 of the kids were paying rapt attention, but the 8th was facing the other way, wacking at the snow covered branches with his ski pole.

Cypress in the Fog

We had an insane run at Cypress Mountain this morning.

I’ve boarded in foggy conditions before, but nothing like what we encountered this morning on the first run. MB and I were excited to be making first tracks again, but it became immediately obvious after we stepped off the Lions Express chair that it would be slow going.

It was totally nuts. I couldn’t see more than 2 metres in front of me, and subsequently was going dead slow. What I could see was pretty much just white on white. Goggles didn’t help, and other boarders (very few of them) loomed into sight at the last minute.

I quickly discovered that when you can’t see, your sense of balance gets totally messed up (d’oh).

I found myself sliding sideways across the hill when I thought I was going down. I wiped out a number of times on simple turns even though we were on a green run (after bailing off a blue). What if found was that I had no sense of how far I was leaning into the turn, and no proper sense of when to pull out.

Very very disconcerting, and a bit frightening. I can certainly see how people get lost and disoriented in white-outs or heavy snowfalls.

At least it’s not raining.

Looking back towards Guest Services as we walked back to the car

Cypress Boarding Dec 29

Before the fog and snow, we had some mostly clear skies for first lifts up Cypress this morning.

Another awesome day riding.

For more pictures from Cypress Mountain, click any of the photos to go the Cypress set at Flickr.

Cypress Mountain December 28

The heavy snowfall the last couple of weeks is the prime topic of discussion on the lifts. Everyone agrees the conditions are the best they’ve been in years. Even though the season got off to a sketchy start, the last 2 weeks has brought fresh snow almost every day.

For more photos, visit my Cypress set at Flickr.

The Cypress Mountain road this morning, well before the first big hairpin. Early this morning they were stopping cars to check for winter tires or chains, but the road seemed to me to be in better condition today than the last few times we were up.

Loads of powder everywhere. We hit the first lift up again today.

Boxing Day Snowboarding

Great snow on Cypress Mountain this morning. MB and I managed to be first into a couple of different areas and enjoyed carving through the powder. There’s a ton of snow and the temperature is just above freezing - so it’s pretty comfortable riding except for the heavy fog this morning.

We head up for opening and usually bail by noon when the lift lines start to get too heavy. Nice to live so close.

For more pictures, visit my Cypress set at Flickr.

First lift of the day, Lion’s Express chair, Cypress Mountain on Vancouver’s North Shore.

You can see how few people are there at 8:30 in the morning.

Our 4th run of the morning, there’s still lots of powder to be found if you can see through the fog.

Self, with the Optio W30 (waterproof) which spends the winter in my snowboarding jacket pocket.

Cypress Mountain December 23rd Powder

There’s a ton of fresh snow on Cypress Mountain, and it’s still snowing.

Lee Valley Tools Snowboarding Coolness

So you just spent a couple hundred bucks on some super cool Oakley goggles, eh?

You just know they’re going to spend more time bouncing around in the trunk getting scratched up than on your head, right ?

Time to put the DIY back in boarding, don’t you think ?

These babies MB is modeling have plenty of air vents, they don’t scratch easily, and if some random wood splinters came flying at you while you’re doing some sick moves on a double-black-diamond - no worries.

All that and more, for just $9.95 CAN at Lee Valley Tools.

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