Jumping Journal: March 13, 2008

Nice stable weather conditions what more could you ask for.  Gee, with the nice fast conditions Tuesday night, tonight couldn't be any slower...NOT!

 

Yeah, the weather has been spectacular the past couple of days, at least if you like to ski jump on snow.  The high yesterday was in the upper 30s and low got back down to the mid teens.  Today it only made it up to 35, barely above freezing.  By 4PM when I arrived at the hill the temperature at the hill was 30 degrees.

 

This morning started off cloudy and then the sun came out by noontime.  It looked like it was going to be a real nice day.  By the time I got done helping with the lift the clouds had moved back in.  Did I say clouds???

 

Things can have a way of changing in a hurry around this neck of the woods.  I saw that this afternoon.

 

It looked like it was going to be a nice day for what would 'normally' be the last 'regularly scheduled' practice of the winter.  The clouds wouldn't make way for a nice sunset to finish off the 'regular' season, but I couldn't complain given the temperatures weren't 40-50 degrees and their is plenty of snow to last a couple more weeks at least.

 

After helping with the lift I made my way back to the lodge and Cannonball was up raking the landing hill.  Since it had boned up quite nicely, thanks to the great weather we've been having, he decided to grab the groomer and run it through the outrun and the bottom part of the landing hill.  Everything was looking good...so far.

 

I had already seen that Nick had showed up and was quite surprised to see he was there, he hadn't been the past two or three Thursday evenings.  I wasn't expecting to see him tonight.  It turned out no one else showed up to jump the K50 and it was going to need to have the outrun groomed on it as well.

 

When I saw no one else was around I was wondering if I would end up jumping the K25 tonight once again or not.

 

As Nick, Esky and I were standing out on the deck of the lodge I noticed some snow flurries starting to fall.  Then the pace picked up.  Then it picked up some more.  Then it picked up some more.  Pretty soon it was snowing the hardest I've seen in snow, at least in daylight, in quite a while.  The snow was starting to collect on the deck within five to ten minutes of when it started falling...yes, it was snowing that hard.

 

By the time Nick was leaving and I was walking up to the jump inn to suit to jump the K25 it had let up a little but not much.  I grabbed the skis and headed back to the K25 and by the time I got to the steps going up to the knoll I was noticing how much the snow was already sticking to the bottom of my boots.  I then noticed how much the snow was sticking to my gloves.  I knew this fast night had just vanished.

 

I got up top the inrun and after a couple of kids took their jumps, Mike, a parent of the new girl that started jumping this winter, took his first jump of the evening.  I saw him jump at the takeoff while putting on my skis.  It was watching how short his jump was when I realized just how slow condition were going to be.  Slow would be an understatement.

 

With the snow still falling I got the signal from Coach Cannonball and kicked out of house and started down the inrun.  I wasn't more than a skis length down the inrun when I knew it was VERY slow.  I even said outloud as I headed down the inrun, "Man, this is slow".  I would say I went no more than 16 meters on the first jump.  Talk aobut a contrast in comparision.  I was starting to like jumping the K25 once again thanks to the past two times I have been out.  I was starting to get spoiled.  I guess reality has to set in sooner or later, LOL!!!

 

The next several jumps were short as well and it kept on snowing through the fifth or sixth jump before it finally started to let up.  By jump seven or eight it had stopped and Cannonball came up in between jumpers with the tracolator and ran it down the inrun to see if he could get it back down to the icy base that is underneath the fresh snow that had fallen.

 

The next jump or two seemed about the same but by the time I took my last two or three jumps of the evening I was noticing that either my technique had dramatically improved or the inrun speed had picked back up quite nicely as I was starting to get back down to the 20 meter range once again.

 

What started out looking like it was going to be a real nice evening ended up about the same way.  It was just the in between that made things a little depressing.  I end the evening on jump thirteen.  It leaves me with thirteen more jumps I need to hit jump 400 for the winter.  Granted I still need four more days of jumping this winter to hit fifty days, but I don't think that should be very hard.  Cannonball mentioned to the kids after practice that he is planning on extending the season, even on the K25, through next week.  Like I said though, after that we will probably have another week left on the K50 before it's done for the season.  Right now the forecast for the next week is calling for temps in the low to mid 40s with mix precipitation tomorrow night through Sunday and then sunny until next Wednesday.  The forecast is sounding in our favor, so far.  There is a ton of snow to melt before we are finished for the winter.

 

Time shall tell,

Crash