Jumping Journal: December 22, 2007
A cold, snowy December. Water pumps on the fritz, leaving jumpers in the shi--. Oh what a weird winter it has started out to be.
The last time the high temperature in the area has been over 40 was on the last day of November. Thus far in December the highest temperature we have seen has been 37 on both December 8th and 12th. Most of the month hasn't seen high temperatures above freezing. It has definitely been one of the coldest December's that I ever remember.
The average snowfall for the month of December is 10.7 inches. So far this December we have seen 34.1 inches. Almost two feet more than normal. I currently have 15 inches of naturally fallen, not shoveled snow in my backyard.
It seems like this should indicate that the jumping has been going on for quite some time, but the exact opposite is the true case. I figured we was going to start jumping the weekend of December 8th and 9th. At least until I got the email for another member of Lunatic Fringe on December 4th indicating the water pump was out being rebuilt so snow making hadn't even started yet. It was suppose to be back within a couple of days and then snow making would commence.
On December 9th the emails were coming across that the pump should be ready by the 11th and it would probably still be another week before we would start jumping, err the 18th.
During this whole time the area was getting hit with at least one snow storm per week bring 6-10 inches of snow each time. The only problem is the snow here in New England is quite dry and trying to make snowballs to have a snowball fight is not very easy, the snow doesn't pack. This makes for undesirable snow on the landing hill hence why man made snow is needed.
Finally, the pump was put back in and snow making began. By the 15th it was figured that by the time last weekend was over that the landing hill would be ready and the plan was to keep the inrun and outrun natural and not make any snow on them at the present time. The K25 was also going to be handled the same way. The plan was to start jumping Wednesday.
Wednesday evening I headed up to Storrs Hill and found the landing hill still needed some grooming work plus the inrun needed a track cut. We completed the work and the plan was to let the groomer hit the landing hill Thursday morning and get the landing hill cut back down to to grade, in some spots, around 30-35 meters, it was at least a foot above the grade boards.
Thursday evening I arrived at the hill to hear the news the groomer ended up digging a couple nice trenches down the landing hill while cutting the landing hill down to grade. When I looked at the landing hill it looked VERY unjumpable. We spent Thursday evening shoveling snow into the trenches and getting it back into shape.
Today I arrived at the hill expecting anything. The winter has definitely started off on a bad foot already so why should I be surprised by anything. I was already in a downer mood thanks to the late start and the continuing trouble wasn't help my attitude any at all. I guess you call that life.
Cannonball was getting some of the young kids ready to jump the K10 and K25 but a track did need to be put back in the K50 inrun since we did receive another 8 inches of snow on Thursday and cutting the track in the inrun th evening before. Like I said the natural snow is getting a little out of control.
One of the kids finally decided to go ahead and ski in the track and jump since he wasn't going to be around for afternoon jumping session. He jumped and survived, shall I say. The landing hill was still shaky down around 50 meters. I guess it had a nice bump in it that played havoc with the jumper.
All morning long I couldn't even get up the urge to jump yet alone to put on the jump suit and head out to jump. My attitude hs been that bad right now.
After lunch three of us finally made it out the door and up the landing hill to the takeoff. Cannonball wanted each of us to ride the landing hill to make sure the work he did on the landing hill helped to get rid of the bump. I don't think any one of us would have taken our first jump without riding the landing hill first anyways. Everything seemed fine so we headed on up the jump.
I was the first to jump in the afternoon. Boy...what a treat. I haven't stuck like that on an inrun ever before. I was waiting to come to a dead stop on the inrun. I was sticking all the way down the inrun. No...I didn't bother waxing before jumping, I didn't figure it would be that bad, it never has been before.
The first jump ended up being VERY short, one of the shortest jumps I've had on the K50 in several years. I know I didn't make it past 25 meters and I doubt I even made it past 20 meters. At least I did clear the knoll, but not by much.
In between jumps we did a little bit of work on the top of the inrun so we could start from house versus from the second bar down. A big pile of snow needed to be shoveled out of the way. It was blocking where you would normally stand to start down the inrun. The track down toward the bottom of the bars needed a little maintenance work as well. There was a bit of a bump in the track which we took out to make things smoother. It wasn't really noticable when starting from the the second bar but starting from house it would have been much more noticable.
My second jump went slightly better but it still needed desperate work. I still wasn't feeling like my old self. I was slow getting down into the inrun position and it seemed like my mind was all over the place instead of nice and focused.
Each jump was progressively improving in one area or another. The only two jumps that I had any kind of real trouble on was the second and fourth jumps. I dragged my hands BIG time on the second jump. It seemed like the bump around 50 meters was causing my left ski to want to slide sideways a little and that would leave me sitting behind on the ride through the transition. On the second jump I dragged my hands and on the fourth jump I went down and the left ski came off. Yes, first crash of the season. Gee, it took me until mid season last winter before I had my first crash.
By jump six and seven things were getting better jump by jump. I was focusing more, trying to be more agressive at the takeoff and trying to avoid from snapping the knees back like I had been earlier in the session.
After getting the seven jumps I headed back inside the jump inn and waxed the skis up for tomorrow. Admittedly, I used the wax I had on hand, cold snow temp wax not the warmer stuff like would have been better to use. To make matters worse, tomorrow is suppose to be the warmest day this month, thus far. It's so to be 42 degrees with rain. Joy, now that the jumping has started Mother Nature will turn her ways against us. Why does it seem like this is not going to be a good winter at all.
Time shall tell. This was about the latest that I have ever seen for opening day on the 50.
Crash
posted by Ryan Crawford at 9:26 PM
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