Last weekend I had the opportunity to ride some powder at Devil’s Head Ski Board Resort in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, my wife was unable to go due to illness, but some of my friends were able to make the trek up there with me. We actually headed up Thursday night in order to beat some of the weekend crowds on Friday. A mere 4 hours from our house makes this a very bearable trip.
Although it was pretty cold out, the real danger was the weaponry that was being deployed.
…. what? I get the sense you are not buying this. Fine, I’ll come clean, the previous pictures were not from Devil’s Head. I didn’t take the camera with me so I went ahead and threw in some pics from our Colorado trips a few years back. What gave it away, the fact that Devil’s Head is in the Midwest (think flat) or there would actually be a back country there? Anyway, we had a great time. The first day (Friday) temperature was not too bad during the day session (~24 deg), but the wind was cranking through in the 13-15 mph range making the exits off the lift rather blistering. In fact, we could put our arms out and the wind would blow us uphill to the start of the adjacent runs. The temperature started dropping pretty quick after noon and was darn cold for the night session. Luckily we know to keep our board edges razor sharp in the Midwest in order to cut through the ice – nothing like transferring edges and noticing that yellow hue signifying solid ice (no, not THAT kind of yellow snow). I had fallen pretty hard on a mogul run earlier in the day due to being all ice in between the mounds. Everyone with me fell on that run as well, but only I ended up with the third knee – translated… a huge swollen welt on the left side of my left knee. It didn’t seem to affect the motion I needed to board so I brushed it off. This injury coupled with my shoulder that had a cortisone injection a few days before forced me to curtail my rail activities. Linda cautioned me to take it easy this time because she couldn’t drive me home like she usually has to. So very little of this:
A little more therapy on the shoulder and some ice on the knee should have me back on the rails next time we go.
My observations from the week follow the jump
Life Intrigued 