Jumping Journal: March 27, 2008

Day 51.  Spring jumping...better than yo could ever hope for.  Did I say SPRING????

 

Well, the past two days has been very spring like.  Wednesday saw highs of 51 in Lebanon under sunny skies that lasted into the early morning hours today before the clouds started to move in.  Last night never got below freezing and today managed to make it back up into the upper 40s.  I was really wondering if their was going to be enough snow at the top of the inrun to allow us to jump.  I figured we MIGHT be able to jump from the bottom bar but nothing higher than that.  I also had a bit of a feeling that the K50 might be done for the year, well kinda.

 

I arrived at the hill about 5PM and found Dan walking over from the jump inn toward the K25 with the tracolator in hand.  I figured right then that the K50 was done for the winter, kinda.  Turned out I was wrong.  He had already tracolated the inrun and was bringing it over so Cannonball could get the K25 ready for the kids.  Yes, the kids were out jumping this evening once again.  Definitely the furthest they have ever jumped into spring.  The outrun on the K25 had already started to show some color change indicating that mud was not far off.

 

Cannonball said he would finish getting the K25 ready and then come on over and flag us.  So Dan and I walked on over and suited up to get ready to jump the K50.  We both decided to play it safe and test the landing hill and outrun.

 

The outrun definitely has started to show its spring nature.  Normally the outrun well soften up where the sun hits it.  It doesn't generally soften up very much until you get across the bridge and start to head back up hill. Today their was watering laying on the landing hill side of the bridge that Dan tossed some snow on and managed to help absorb some of the soft/stickness.

 

Dan was first down the landing hill and it looked like it went pretty decent.  I missed it as he crossed the bridge since I was putting my skis on.  I did notice right after the bridge that he kinda acted like he hit a slow spot in the usual location.  The entire area from just before the bridge until on the uphill after you get across the bridge looked like it was wet, soft and potentially stick.  Boy, can looks be intimidating...and wrong.  Dan yelled something up at me but I couldn't quite hear what he said thanks to the brook running right behind him.

 

I waited until he got back up the stairs and ask him what he said.  He said the sticky part was right at the top of the landing hill and he was right.  The area that looked like it was going to be sticky down by the bridge wasn't that bad, it was slightly sticky but it didn't really bounce me any like it has in the past.  I went down the landing hill and found things to be pretty decent.  My mind was still worried a little about the outrun though as I would let it get the best of me on the first jump.

 

I headed up and found Cannonball and Esky waiting to flag us.  Dan took his first jump and it seemed like it was a pretty decent jump considering what I would have expected given the temperatures.  I walked up and put on the skis at the top bar.  The house was unusable.  In fact until you got down to the bottom bar the track on the inrun was the only place that had snow.  The snow was only track wide.  The rest of the buffer up top had all melted away.

 

I got the skis on and scooted on out onto the bar and got the signal from Esky.  I headed down the inrun and found the speed was still there, not quite as fast as over the weekend but still quite fast given the temperature in the upper 40s and nothing below freezing in over 24 hours.  I jumped at the takeoff and had a nice flight down to 32-33 meter area and rode down the landing hill.  I got out of the transition and was seeing the "soft" snow coming at me as I approached the bridge.  I decided to play it safe/stupid and got down like I was on plastic about to ride through the sawdust.  I ended up loosing it going through the slightly slower snow.  I pretty much got pulled onto butt but I managed to hold on and stayed off the snow until I came to a stop at the end of the outrun and then I fell over.  I knew I should have just stayed upright like normal but I let my mind make me chicken out.

 

I walked back up and had already decided to not let that stuid mistake happen again.  The next several jumps were all much better and more in control going through the "slow stuff".  Dan and I both was going down to 32-34 meter range all afternoon.  After seven jumps on the K50 Dan and I both decided to go over and jump with the kids on the K25.  It was going to be Dan's first session on the K25 since we finished out the summer season November 1st last year.

 

Between five/six kids and four adults it made for one of the biggest jump session I can remember on the K25 in quite a long time.  The recruiting job Cannonball did this winter has brought in quite a few new faces including one of the adults that I've been jumping with on the K25 the past couple of weeks.  Mike turned in one nice jump tonight for it being his first year of jumping.  The kids even managed to talk my fellow Team Sticky Sticky Quack Quack teammate into putting on the skis and taking her first jump off the K25 since Mud Meet last year.  She had some nice long rides going down to 21-22 meters.  Her first jump was quite impressive considering she normally is jumping on the K50 or even on the K90 in Lake Placid.  She never jumps the small hills.  Her first jump she went down toward the bottom of the hill and didn't show any signs out wanting to pull out of the jump.  She held it all the way into the hill.  I was surprised by the jump.

 

By the time I had put another seven jumps in on the K25 their was some mud starting to show up on the end of the outrun.  Yes, transition is upon us, well maybe.  The last several jumps I managed to get down to 18-20 meters even putting in a V on the last couple of jumps.  It was a nice way to finish off the winter season.

 

Cannonball did decide that this would be the last jump session for the beginners until May.  Us crazy old timers still have to make sure to keep the 127 month streak alive as April is about to arrive.  We are talking about jumping mid week next week depending on conditions.  Potentially even jumping the K50.  Right now the inrun on the K50 may hold up...

 

The current weather forecast is for 3-6 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow.  This should help the conditions out on the inrun.  Everything else should be pretty decent through the weekend.  The high for tomorrow is suppose to 35 and only 32 on Saturday.  Normal high for this time of the year is 44 with the normal low of 26.  Sunday it is suppose to get into the low 40s with sunny skies all weekend long.  Monday is suppose to bring in snow/rain with 40s through mid week.  It is questionable whether the K50 will hold up, a lot will depend on how much snow we get tonight.  Hopefully the weather will treat us to our second April on the K50 in as many years.  I thought last year was wild...this winter is even sweeter.

 

It turns out the kids in Lake Placid are still jumping this winter as well and they are having the same incredible conditions that we are having here in New Hampshire...fast inruns even though the temperature say it shouldn't be so.

 

Heck Esky was talking tonight about how good the conditions were after we jumped.  Everyone is talking about how good the conditions are.  It's going to be hard to see spring finally arrive.

 

This may have been the last day for jumping on all snow and it may not have been.  I did, once again, have the last jump on the K50 so it may end up being my third year in a row to have the last jump off the K50.

 

So far I have managed to hit all but one of the goals I was hoping for this winter, plus a couple of others that I came up with mid winter.  Tonight I got my 650th jump off the K50 since the start of last winter, in fact the seventh jump was my 654th jump in the past two winters.  I already had reached my target 50th day and now the 51st day on snow this winter.  Tuesday I hit my 1300th jump on snow in the past three winters.  Tonight I hit number 1314 or an average of 438 jumps on snow each of the past three winters.  Heck and I just jump for the fun of it.  Now to see if I can't make it 1000 jumps on the K50 between the winters of 2007-2009.  That will be a nice lofty goal to finish off before next winter is over.  Granted I need one less jump next year than I have taken so far this year.

 

Time shall tell what will happen.

 

Crash