I Love You Mary Jane | The Colorado Snowboarding Blog

Posted by: Dave Berry | Jan 2, 10

The holidays are DEAD and GONE and I'm stoked about that. In case you're wondering mine were actually pretty good but I'm totally over it and I can't wait to start mercilessly tearing down Christmas lights when I go back to work on Monday, that is if I don't call in dead to go be a board bum. OK, so it's been a little while since I've posted one of these so I'll try to bring you up to speed; the Dew Tour came through Breckenridge and I didn't go because I don't care what the pros are doing. Real riders don't take off a day to go watch other riders ride. This is the only major event outside of Winter Park's ski demo day that I am aware of. I'm sure all kinds of fun stuff has been going on for you to watch and not do while I've been on the hill.

Here's why I'm all fired up: Mary Jane actually has real snow now! It's go time, bitch! Today I got my first line through the trees in knee-deep gnar-pow today and it was intense, especially since I wasn't ready for it. We made the traverse across the top of the ridge when you go rider's left off the Panorama Express, or as we call it "the chair that goes all the way up" and quickly down into the trees to escape the wind. We could see that the snow was a lot better in the trees (no shit, moron!) but we had no clue how deep it would get. Once we made our way into the thick of it we discovered one main track with a couple of other tracks that came off and then back on. Not many people had been back in there yet. This was the real deal Mary Jane (or is it Winter Park on that side of the ridge?) powder that you out-of-towner's hear about but rarely ever see. This is the stuff that sick days are made of.

The problem that we kept running into was that nobody in the shred crew today had expected such an epic powder stash to exist so nobody had their bindings set back enough to float across the stuff. We were getting tossed around in there pretty good. I came pretty close to breaking my leg and my two cohorts got buried in tree wells. I didn't eat it in a well but I did get buried a little bit when I threw myself down to avoid breaking my leg across a small tree. We were probably in there for a good 20 minutes just cranking in the fluff and eating it. This reminds me, it's really easy to forget how quick a good tree run in powder will wear you down and make your legs burn which will make lesser men than me cry. If you're not sure how you're going to hang then don't go in and block my line, which sometimes is the only line because those damn trees can get pretty tight.

We only got one shot up there today because a storm rolled in and the lift closed down. I guess it's a good thing because I'm not in powder shape right now and even though we quit riding around three hours ago now I'm still feeling the burn from it and it was totally worth it. The crowds were still pretty bad but if history has taught me anything it is that foriegners and gapers tend to clear out after New Year's Day so I'm thinking next weekend is going to be prime.

Go into the new decade with the wind at your back, a girl on your junk, and the world in your hands. Cheers.

Shred Hard.

Dave Berry.