Chapter 118...

Here's the thing, I'm really good at procrastinating. So good that I still haven't done an update from February...or March, April, May, June, July. I guess the short, short version would go something like this:

Went to AK for about a month. Waited out a 13 day storm on Thompson Pass. Broke my sled. Fixed my sled (with help from my friends). Came home, got super burned out. Rode Shasta. Got even more burned out. Pond skimmed and disappeared for the summer.

Home, sweet home. Thompson Pass, AK

 

Let's be honest though, summer is the only interesting time for turns all year anyway so that other stuff isn't worth talking about. So I take the approach of making summer as uninteresting as possible. It's taken almost 10 years but I think I have it dialed.

Shasta w/ Jordan Chamberlain

July

It's pretty much a guarantee that Gunsight will still go in July. Even in a bad year it will at least hold some snow on the 4th of July. So that's the tradition. Gunsight on the 4th. And also paying the troll toll to drive the summer road and significantly shorten the hike. 

Gunsight w/ Rose Struble

 

Work smarter, not harder.

August

Which brings us to now. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I haven't had to hike Timpanogos for 35 months now. There has been a snow patch at the top of Farmington Canyon for the last couple of summers thanks to a string of good snow years. This season, despite how it started and how it felt for most of the year, was actually slightly above average once again. So the Farmington Canyon patch is in once again. Literally drove all the way to it. One of the perks of driving a Bronco. 

Patchwork w/ Tony Aadland

The Future

The streak now sits at 118 months in a row. Nine years, 10 months of snowboarding at least once a month. Snow patch-wise there won't be a problem getting turns in September. At the very least, Timp will hold snow till at least September of next year. Even in the bad years there has always been something up there. That being said, I'm gonna try to keep avoiding it so I'm definitely going back north the first week of September to have a look. If that fails, there is always the low chance of a September dump at Alta. The streak wouldn't even exist if it didn't dump September of 2016. It would have ended at 10 months and I never would have done this shit. Then it dumped again in September of 2017, pretty much guaranteeing that I'd be doing this shit for the rest of my life. It hasn't dumped in September since. 

The road to a decade

 

September definitely became the month to avoid Timp. Even if the adventure was dumber and harder (Tetons August and September 2018). So the game for September is take a drive and hope theres enough snow up Farmington Canyon. If not, keep an eye on the weather and see if there's any chances for a freak storm. If not, succumb to the slog up to the Timp Snowfield and ride ultra shitty, sun-cratered, frozen, dirty snow because there's always something up there to check off another month. 

Then it's hopefully back to riding pow in October. And champagne will be popped for a decade of sufferfests and stupid adventures all in the name of not letting winter end.