Whitetail weekend

This was our weekend, pixels provided by our neighbor and Whitetail buddy Tim, and our old Virginia friend and 24-Hour teammate, Bill. Bill happily made use of that Dynastar snowboard I won at the Wild 100 a few years ago (and never mounted up). The board is now his, lucky I never got around to making a bench out of it. I guess the other part of that bench is now spoken for too, as Tim wants to try a free-carve board, and that's what I happen to have stored in the garage.

Amazed at Oliver's skiing. This was our 6th day this season, and there's a huge difference in today compared to Seven Springs the day after Thanksgiving. He really digs the new Sidewinder Trail at Whitetail. It has a high, long bank along the left side. The bank is pretty cool to get a little surfy on, and has formed lots of rollers and ramps with a sometimes difficult transition dip to get back onto the flat trail . Oliver goes up & down & up & down the first sections of bank, then just straight-lines the rollers of the bank the rest of the way down, and tries to hold his speed to hit a big whale at the bottom. I like how he's already discovered the fun little hits and sections off the edges of the trails. I like how he seems to be able to check his speed when necessary. I know when he's straight-lining it could go ugly in a nano, but so far....

That trail will only get better with more snow(making). Today, there were some rocks and dirt showing through on the high side. Was almost a like singletrack luge run to stay in the rollers that Oliver was skiing.
Oliver did ask to ride the high-speed to the top of the mountain. I was nervous about that, not wanting any straight-lining down that. He skied cautiously, making turns through the thick and surprisingly fun mashed potatoes. Got down with no problems and he skied right back over to the other lift, saying he didn't want to do the big one again. Was pretty happy about that too.