Day 15-18 OTS Durango Mountain Resort, Feb 24-27 2011

I closed out the end of February with 18 days on the snow total for the season. Better than most full seasons for me here in New Mexico. 15 of 28 days in February alone!! Over ½ of the entire month of February on the snow… I feel like a kid!!!

It was the 9th annual DMR SkiBike festival and we set up on Thursday along with our great friend Patrick from Stalmach. I obviously did not get my skis on at the Creek on Wednesday. I decided to have yet another down day as I would be on the snow for at least 4 days straight and wanted to get rested up. We had nice weather for a few days and even caught a powder day on Saturday morning. The SkiBike festival was a very different one this season as finally all of the in-fighting and animosity seemed to be strangely absent this festival along with one of our vendors. In fact this was the first festival I had been to in 2 missed previous years as I had tired of the in-fighting and DMR politics. My buddy Krusty had went last year without us and told me that things they were a changing and I decided to put my opinion aside and see for myself. I saw true comradery for the first time ever in this industry across all the makes on models. I saw people sharing runs for the first time this festival that had never in 9 years past. Yup, things they are a changing and I was glad to have seen it with my own eyes.

One of the coolest days was on Sunday, I saw folks swapping up gear and each platform user had a new appreciation of what the other could do on their own gear. I myself ended up taking a Snowscoot Boardbike down a 2x diamond without knowing it until my next run up. There is a lot of great gear out there today on several platforms no matter what you have on your feet or how you stand or sit on your gear.

Lots of vendors and folks in the biz showed up. Don Koski, Greg from ASA, Rod from SkiBike world, Devin from Lenzsport, Patrick from Stalmach, Scott from Geary and lastly Cliff and his crew from pedal the Peaks. It was great to see where the sport has arrived after 9 seasons. Most of the gear we played on this festival was not available only 9 seasons ago.

On Sunday I was tired as a dog left outside but was a bit sad to see all this friendship and true comradery end. This festival was a breath of fresh air in the sport and for the first time I saw some true growth in the respect across the sport, platforms, vendors and individual riders. It was truly an incredible festival and I am looking forward to our 10th annual next year. Those of you that don’t want to share the snow together regardless of platform or think you are the only ones that should have access to the slopes..…and you know how I’m talking about, stay away because we have move beyond that old shit and the push forward without you is incredible. We tried to do it with you, now we will do it without you!! You are always welcome if you want to show respect and play nice. Just show up and bring a smile and a hug with you!!

Keep it shiny side up and slippery side down,

Randy

Day 14 OTS Feb 21, 2011 Durango Mountain Resort

I spent day 14 OTS at DMR riding with Krusty and ran into Greg Linder from the ASA and Roy from DMR. I also saw the boys from Pedal the Peaks on the mountain but did not ride with them.

So I was hoping for some deep untracked powder after this last storm some but seems the place was a zoo on Sunday and everyone had tracked most of it out. I decided to ride my Snowscoot Boarder-X for the day and hunt out the soft untracked stuff. After about 4 runs I thought I was done as this bike takes a bit more effort to ride than my Brawler. I got a second wind and rode the Snowscoot up till almost 3pm. I don't think I've ever spent a full day on a board bike but found this day to be a bit different. What a day on this coll machine. Found some fun stuff on upper and lower Hades and hunted for as much ungroomed stuff we could find. I had a blast on that Boardbike today. I'm getting real good on it and if I was a bit younger I would seriously hook this machine in the park and see what I could make it do but at 43, I have no intention to start now.

Rode till I was fatigued quite a bit ~ 3pm and called it a day!! Going to take Tuesday off as a down day and decide if I want to Ski at the Creek tomorrow!!!!

Cheers!!

Randy

Day 4 & 5 OTS

Spent days 4/5 at DMR (Durango Mountain Resort) in Colorado. My buddy Krusty and I hit a nice powder day at DMR on Monday and Tuesday on the Skibikes.

We managed to sneak in Sunday night before it laid down about 6" over night. Fluffy dust on crust but what a day it was. Ripped lots of runs and made lots of stops in the trees. Turned Krusty on to the magic of Crown Royal on those cold ride days. He's a believer.

Stayed Tuesday to get a little more but alas, most of it had been groomed out and very cold that day. Met up with Cliff from Pedal the Peaks in Colorado. Managed to get back into Albuquerque before the weather let loose on the roads too bad. Nice 2 days!!

2010/2011 Season- First day on the snow!!

Well, I felt like a kid in a candy shop on 2 for 1 day!! Headed to DMR to get on the snow on my skibike for the first time this season. I had additional plans to meet up with the great folks from 3Ski, Jason Buckley and Chris Darby. (www.3ski.com) I was picking up some bikes from them for the season to retail and demo with.

Funny how being off the snow for 37 weeks can make you feel like you have butterflies in your gut on that first ride up!! I was stoked! DMR had received fresh snow the night before and continued through the weekend. DMR only had most of the front side and some of the stuff back around chair 3 open but more than enough to get my giggle factor working again. The snow under my boards was amazing!! I always forget just how great it feels to be back on the hill every season. I had wrecked my back over Thanksgiving weekend so I was taking it super easy that day and found everything I turned around, the fun meter was pegging! I think I managed about 5 or 6 runs total for the day. Spent a good chunk of time drinking in the bar and chatting with folks. It was mostly about getting back into the groove of the connection between man, bike and snow. What a day it was!! We met up with the Kiwis from 3Ski later in the day. These guys are great and have an incredible product that is like nothing on the SkiBike market today!!! Jason reminded me that during an email conversation years ago, I told him, "You might just have the next greatest skibike on the market". After many seasons of fine tuning and continued development of his product and having crazies like Chris Darby launching their product through the air and ripping runs with him, they have what I think is the next greatest SkiBike in the world!! Its truly and innovative and down right fun piece of equipment!! Its funny to watch Jason and Chris together. It reminded me a lot of Krusty and I on the hill. Each, pushing and goading each other to do things we shouldn't be doing on the hill!!

We took Jason and Chris out for a nice meal in Durango on Saturday night and was glad to see them get a hotel room for a few nights as the two of them had been living in that frozen RV for weeks!! We closed Sunday with some improvised 3ski lesson training in the hotel room and some 3ski assembly tips and techniques in the RV and we parted ways. Them headed back to DMR to ride and do demos with the adaptive school and us back to New Mexico.

Day 1, down...hoping for 30+ more this season. I'll call it a success. If you all remember, last season, 1st day out, I cracked 2 ribs half day and way out of the game for a few weeks!! This was a huge win for my first day out this season.

Keep it shiny side up and don't eat the yellow snow!!

Randy
www.SkiBikeFun.com