Jumping Journal: January 01, 2008

A new year...a new start...a new pair of skis...OOPS!!!

 

Well...i guess you could say today was a day of changing plans.  They changed countless times.  I guess you could expect anything when things change so often.

 

Last night I got the email from Dan saying that today was off.  With the incoming snow storm it was decided to wait until tomorrow before jumping.  I figured since I was out running around until about dark last night and had plenty of things to catch up with around home before going to bed that I would just wait until today before I waxed the skis.  MISTAKE NUMBER 1...or is that two.

 

After getting 6.5 inches of snow yesterday the weather forecast was for the snow to start up once again today sometime around high noon.  The forecast has been for anywhere from 4-12 inches of snow before everything dies down tomorrow.  Yes, does the word yikes mean anything.  December 2007 goes down as the snowiest December on record in Concord, NH and the 4th snowiest December in Burlington.  I believe Concord saw 43 inches and Burlington was 45.7 inches, compared to 10 inches in December 2006.  Yes, it has been snowy thus far this winter and the snow is still falling.  It's only January 1st!!!!!  Hence why the decision was...supposedly made to skip jumping today.

 

This would have marked only the second time I've been able to jump on New Years Day.  Normally NYD is skipped due to everyone having been out to NYE celebrations.  2002 we jumped on NYD but haven't since then.  I got to thinking it would be interesting to see if I could pull off jumping on both NYD and Leap Day.  I only get the chance once every four years and this would mark my second time jumping on Leap Day.

 

After going to bed WAY early, like 10:30PM last night.  I finally woke up around 6:30AM this morning.  I saw the weather radar and the snow was already into eastern New York and was moving this way. It looked like it was going to arrive earlier than what they were saying it was suppose to.  I checked email and then spent the next couple hours doing some other work on the computer.  I was getting things finished up I decided to grab breakfast.  I also decided to check email again.  It was around 9:40AM.  I saw an email from Dan saying they had changed their minds and they was going to try to outrun/jump the snow storm and jump at 10AM instead.  The original plan was to jump at noon.

 

I gobbled down breakfast and headed off for Lebanon.  As I was waiting for a stoplight to change I noticed what looked like small water droplets on the windshield.  In the next mile and a half or so it took me to get to Storrs Hill the water droplets turned to full blown snow...snow coming down at a nice pace.

 

Turns out Bill had been in yesterday and packed out the inrun and it was finally nice and firm from one edge to the other.  You had to normally watch where you walked on the 50 while trying to tracolate or anything else.  The inrun is still all natural snow and up until yesterday the chances of sinking into the snow was pretty good when you stepped on it around the edges.  Bill's job of packing yesterday took care of that problem.

 

After Dan and I waxed we suited up along with Bill and Cannonball and headed out to ski pack the hill in the falling snow.  It was now coming down at a very nice pace.  I headed down to grab the bottom of the landing hill and the first part of the outrun.  I put on the left ski and everything seemed fine.  I went to put on the right ski and close the front throw.  The top screw on the front throw popped right out.  My fear became my reality.  I figured my jumping for the day was pretty much over unless I could weasle around and come up with a better way of keeping the screws in the the front throws.

 

I headed back up to jump inn after getting the packing completed.  Cannonball came up and suggested I look around for another pair of boots that would fit the Silvretta style bindings.  He thought their should be a pair that would fit my size 13/50 feet.  I looked around and found a pair that provide a tight fit, tighter than the pair I normally wear but not so tight that it would cut off circulation.  They could lead to quicker cold toes than the boots I wear normally.

 

Today would be a day of new beginnings, all the way around.

 

Now back to the weather..

 

Yes, it was still snowing outside, harder than previously, probably in the range of an inch an hour and maybe a little bit more.  The wind wasn't a factor, thankfully.  The last time I jumped in similiar conditions was during the McCrillis Cup jump meet in Newport back in 2004 or 2005.  The day started off fine until practice began and the snow started and never stopped until after the meet was over.  The inrun and landing hill was raked out in between practice and the meet.  The inrun was being raked out between every jumper during the meet thanks to the wet snow that was falling at a very good clip.  Most everyone had trouble on the inrun on at least one jump that day.  Even the best jumpers, like Cannonball, had trouble.

 

Today would be interesting to see what would happen.  I walked up to the knoll and knew I had to ride the landing hill.  I hadn't waxed the skis I was going to be using since they weren't the skis/bindings/boots I was planning on using.  I rode down the landing hill and it didn't seem like I was having and trouble sticking but I did notice somethine strange around the transition.  It made me question if I would have trouble at the bottom of the landing hill while jumping.  It did seem like I slowed down when I shouldn't have.

 

I walked up for the first jump and after Dan set a beautiful track, very straight, each of the four of us took our first jump.  I started down the inrun and did bobble slightly once or twice but did better than what I figured I would do.  It's not very often I get the chance to jump on an uncut snow track.  While it hasn't happened once in the past two or three years it has happened a couple of times already this winter.

 

It did seem like I was sitting back slightly on the inrun.  I jumped...very whimpishly, and did a bad job at cocking the ankles.  I landed one of the shorter jumps in quite a while and started down the landing hill.  It was going fine until I got to the transition.  I lost it and went down.  I didn't think that's what meant by skiing powder.  I had snow all over my face.  After shaking off the snow I got up and walked back over to the stairs.

 

I found even more snow on the googles by the time I was back up top for the second jump.  I knew this time I had to focus on keeping my butt up on the inrun.  It seemed like things were better.  The takeoff came and I jumped a little better than I did before.  I landed and started down the landing hill to find myself losing it once again in the transition.  I got up and took off the skis and decided I was done for the day.  I knew not to take another jump.  The conditions were getting the best of me and I knew not to continue.

 

I walked back up to the jump inn not realizing what had occured on the last jump.  After changing clothes Cannonball came walking in and he decided to call it quits after three jumps.  He couldn't see out of his googles.  I knew I made the right decision.  My old saying has been "I'm out here for the fun of ski jumping, and not competition.  When it's not fun anymore I'll find something else to do that is fun."  Today was the day to remember that old saying.

 

As Dan came up to the jump inn he had something in his hand.  He tossed it as Cannonball.  Turns out when I crashed on the last jump I also ripped the cord that goes between the heel block and the back of the boot.  Good thing I had decided to call it quits after the two jumps.  It would have been irritating to get back to the top of the jump to only have to walk back down because of equipment trouble.

 

After getting home and shoveling myself back into my house I checked and saw we had seen 4 inches of snow thus far as of 3PM..  It sounds like most of the snow is over now for the short artic blast, highs of 8F on Thursday, before the weekend warmup, 40F on Sunday.

 

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash