Jumping Journal: January 07, 2008

Warm, yes I said WARM.  Today was the warmest day I have seen since November 27.  Granted this warm streak isn't over yet.  Right now it's 37 degrees at 10PM and the forecasted low temperatures aren't supposed to drop below freezing until Wednesday night.  Tomorrow night the temperatures aren't suppose to drop below 40.

 

The typical January thaw is on full blast.  Last year temperatures were too warm to jump.  Ten years ago the area was suffering from a major ice storm that struck on January 6th.  I had just arrived back home in Ohio from a trip up this way over New Years.  Seeing the pictures on television of spots I had just visited all devastated due to the ice storm left chills running up and down my spine.

 

With the warm temperatures come soft snow and slow snow.  Seeing good jumpers who normally jump 40+ meters only being able to jump 32-35 meters is rather unusual but it was the case tonight.

 

After helping out with running the lifts for the high school alpine racing practice I headed over to the jump inn and stretch some before suiting up and heading up the hill.  After doing some ski packing all three of us, two juniors and myself headed up the tressel for lay down yet another skied in track.  WOW, has this ever gotten rather unusual this winter.  I'm loving it but it's been a while, like 2001 since I've had this much practice with skied in tracks.  Tonight would prove how long it has been.

 

The first jump went...well...not the greatest to say the least.  I was a bit shaky getting into the inrun position and had my butt down by the time I got to the takeoff.  I ended up landing quite short, around 25 meters.  It was one of my shortest jumps in quite a while on the K50.  Admittedly, the first jumper down the inrun only went 30 meters, he normally jumps 40+ meters.

 

My second jump wasn't much better.  I did have a little better inrun position but somehow I ended up crossing the tips, doing an inverted V briefly.  This jump ended up short as well.

 

On the third jump I did manage to avoid crossing the tips but it still wasn't going anywhere.  It seemed like I must have jumped one footed, strangely one ski tip came up and the other followed a second later, instead of both tips coming up at the same time.

 

The fourth jump I went back to crossing the tips again.  At least it was seeming like I was doing a better job at keeping my weight balanced over both feet while riding the landing hill.

 

The fifth jump ended up being the best jump of night.  It did seem like everything came together for this jump.  It still needed plenty more to get the jump totally right but at least I did manage to make it down to 29-30 meters.

 

The sixth and seventh jump didn't have much to offer other than having another semi decent jump on the seventh and final jump of the night.

 

With the forecast for warm temperatures to continue through Wednesday it might be a little questionable on the possibility of jumping either of the next two days.  The landing hill was in pretty decent shape tonight, better than I expected it to be.  The continued warm temperatures could cause the landing hill to become too soft, only time will tell.  Hopefully the jump will make it through the warm stretch and we will continue jumping the next couple of days.

 

Crash