Jumping Journal: February 07, 2009

Unplanned but not unexpected.

 

After thinking it through I kinda thought I might get a day in of jumping this weekend.  I didn't know for sure but I thought I might try.  I knew my original plans for this weekend, starting yesterday was to go out and do some overnight hiking on the Appalchian Trail once again.  I knew my plan was to head up the Hanover, just across the interstate from Lebanon.  I pretty much also knew thanks to the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow I was only thinking of making just an overnighter and not spending two nights out.  That's when I started to think I might be able to pluck off another jump session this afternoon.  I didn't know for sure who all was going to head down to Salisbury for the jump meet this weekend but I figured Dan wasn't going to go.  I thought after I got off the trail I would call him from the hill and see if he wanted to jump or not.

 

Then came yesterday morning.  I hadn't left yet for Hanover, wasn't much out of bed yet when the email from Dan arrived asking if anyone wasn't planning on going to Salisbury and wanted to jump today.  I sent back the email saying sure I would and I would give him a call once I got to the hill.

 

Later in the morning/early afternoon, seeing I wasn't getting out of the house as soon as I had hoped I sent him another email telling him I would definitely be there by noon time.  I figured I was going to have a little more time this morning hiking out than I did.  I figured I was going to get on the trail around 11AM to noon time yesterday...in reality I hit the trail about 2:15PM.  I didn't hike as far in as I had planned as a result so I knew it was going to make for a quick hike out this morning.

 

I woke up this morning to a nice clear sky morning around 6 degrees or so.  After packing up I started the hike out and got to the road even quicker than I thought I would.  I was already thinking up ways of how I could kill time.

 

I made my way back to the car and then headed on down to Storrs Hill.  I ended up getting into a nice chat with the club president who also helps run the kitchen at the hill.  She managed to kill most of the time I needed to kill until Dan finally arrived.

 

Dan and I walked to the jump inn and after doing a little work on the inrun we suited up and headed up the hill.  The nice clear skies from all day yesterday straight into this morning had turned quite cloudy and looked like the forecast for snow/rain tonight and tomorrow could very well be correct.  I was first to jump and once I got up top I come to realize why I had the trouble putting the skis on the first time I jumped the hill two and half weeks ago.  The pile of snow up in the house is the biggest I've ever seen it.  It's a good 10-12 inches deep.  Normally it's only about 4 inches deep if that much.

 

I put on my skis and I looked down the inrun...wondering if I would notice that same crazy feeling I had the last time I jumped the K50 two weeks ago.  I saw the mind seemed to want to run away with me again like it was before.  I decided to watch and play it safe on the first jump and see just how much I was going to notice the weird feeling.  I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem in the first place.

 

I got the signal from Dan and started down the inrun.  Strangely enough, I wasn't noticing anything.  I had only noticed it up top but I wasn't noticing it going down the inrun.  That was a very positive sign.  As I got to the end I got caught slightly off guard by a bit of a curve in the track and I managed to jump late.  The jump wasn't anything to write home about.  I probably made it down to only 26-27 meters at the most.  The real problem came as I started to go through the transition.  I had barely started to go through it when I found myself uncontrollably going into the snowplow.  I managed to pull myself through it but it was still quite a surprise.  I hadn't ever experience anything like that before.

 

I walked up and flagged Dan for his first jump and then made my way on up top for the the second jump.  The second jump was better than the first jump but not by a wide margin, probably in the 28-29 meter range.  Once again I noticed the same problem, more aggressively, going through the transition.  I had to fight a lot more to keep from going down.

 

The third jump was the same way, all the way around.

 

The fourth jump is when things started to get better.  I was getting more comfortable and found myself going down more toward 32-33 meters.  I also didn't have the same trouble going through the transition.  I did find myself, though, with the skis much wider apart then normal going through the transition.

 

The fifth and sixth jumps were the best of the day.  The fifth jump is when I started to get more round the knee and the sixth jump I jumped much closer to on time and with more power as well.  The fifth jump was down around 35 meters and the sixth jump was probably around 37-38 meters.  It was nice to be back down that low on the hill again.  Also, I didn't notice the snowplow effect on either jump but I did notice my skis further apart than normal.

 

I went up for the seventh jump and I figured I would end up flagging Dan from down by the bridge.  I thought he would come up for one final jump.  Turns out I was wrong.  I ended up jumping late and found myself landing back down around 30-32 meters.  Incredibly, I also found myself being forced into a snowplow going through the transition.

 

As Dan and I walked back up the jump inn side of the landing hill I was noticing how deep the snow was down in the transition.  I think the much deeper than normal snow depth through the transition is causing the problem I was noticing.  I know on jump two or three it seemed like I was finding a sharper curve to the transition than I have noticed in a long time.

 

I left my skis at the hill knowing that unless Mother Nature plays a dirty trick on me I should be back up there jumping again Monday evening.  Hopefully with some more nice jumps and without the problems in the transition I was having today.

 

Crash