"Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty."
- Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Mammoth (Jan 6-10): Only place to go is up!

The beginning of the season competitions always set the bar for the rest of the season. The good thing about setting the bar low, is that its pretty much guaranteed that you will improve! 

We packed Clifford, the big red van, to the brim on Thursday morning and set out to mammoth for the Burton Am. After nine hours of top 40 hits, a couple dead birds, and a lot of nevada gas stations, we made it to Mammoth. Friday was a beautiful sunny day, and we spent the majority of the day hitting the airbag. It was strange at first to be throwing myself into a big blue bag, but after a couple runs of running into the bag instead of landing on top of it (oops), I started getting a little more used to it. We went to check out the competition course, and besides a little head wind and couple massive overshoots, things were looking good. After a good day of riding we headed home to rest up for the contest on saturday. Woke up Saturday morning feeling confident and ready to take on the day. The competition set up was perfect with 3 jumps (about 35 ft, 40 ft, 45 ft), a hip, and two rail options. The jumps were immaculate. Feeling pretty confident after a couple runs of practice, all the girls sat around for about an hour and a half waiting for the boys. Finally our turn was up. That confidence did not last very long as I overshot my frontside 360 on jump 3 to my back on my first run. Ready to combat the second run, toning it down a little bit in hopes of making it to finals since hardly any of the girls were landing their runs, I took an extra subconscious speedcheck between jump 1 and 2, and landed on the knuckle then bounced about 20 ft down the knuckle to my face, and finished up the run with some rail tricks. To say the least, I did not make it to finals. However, wasatch project rider Jessika Jenson swept the competition and landed best trick. After a long day of beating myself up, I headed home and pretty much straight to bed. We woke up Sunday with hopes of hitting the airbag, however it was so windy that the airbag wasn't up and everyone was so sore, we hiked a rail for an hour or two instead. We packed up Monday morning and tried again to hit the airbag, but once again the wind and cloudy skies overtook us, so after a couple of pictures with the mammoth, we packed up Clifford and began the trek back to Utah. 

While the competition did not go as well as it could have, it was still an awesome couple of days at Mammoth. I got to hit my first airbag, and am feeling more and more comfortable on snow everyday. I have got to give props to their park for probably the smoothest jumps I have ever ridden. It's nice to be home riding Park City for a day or two. 

Off to Colorado on wednesday for Gatorade Free Flow!
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 11, 2011 at 12:07 PM

    Lucyann:

    I've known about Human Biology at Stanford for some time, but who knew they offered the program that you've created?

    I'm sure that the admissions office (and the post office) will be after you when people read this and see what you're up to as there will certainly be an avalanche of mail from those who want to follow in your tracks (on the slopes, if not on campus).

    I especially like your photo with the check from the Am Series (certainly better than the close up of your ACL) so please post more of those.

    Vicariously yours,

    Bruce Gellin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andy AltmanJanuary 11, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    Lucy,

    You are the best.

    ReplyDelete

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