Well, I had a fun time on our trip to Mt. Bachelor. My dad and I went with one of his work friends and his son, who is a year older than I am. We've known each other since I was really little so it wasn't like a complete stranger.

Anywho, my dad's friend doesn't know how to drive. For example, a turn around a steep mountain corner is not one smooth motion with the steering wheel, but rather 10 small turns, the car jerking along. Some with accelerating... he couldn't keep a constant speed, instead choosing to step on the gas every 5 seconds to make up for lost speed. Anyways, the ride was bad but we got to Bend safely none the less.

We stayed at a pretty crappy hotel and it was the brunt of many-o-jokes along the trip. Us boys actually got a pretty nice room though, it was big and had a full kitchen. Not that we used it or anything, but we did go to the store and keep good in the fridge to eat.

We woke up at 7:30 on Saturday and headed to the mountain. It just so happens that President's Day weekend is the busiest two days of the whole year, and although it was crowded, it was still nothing like Meadows on a weekend. We rented skis, which were the latest and greatest, and headed up the mountain.

I was surprised how I was able just to step back into skis 12 months later, different style that last time, and start right off. Normally it takes me a run or two to get back my "skills" but I was cutting turns and flying down right off the bat. Anywho, the weather was okay, it was overcast and a little windy at the top, but once you got down into the trees the wind stopped and you could see really well, so it wasn't like a whiteout or anything.

I spend the majority of my day on Northwest Express, which houses all black diamond (advanced runs). It is a really awesome lift, rising 2450' veritcal feet and having a wide range of runs. One of the best, and I skiied it many times, was Atkeson's Zoom. It seriously may be the best run in the history of the world. Once you drop down into it, it's a narrow "chute" that winds through the forest, has some really steep and exhiliarating drops and a long run-out at the end. Basically, you can fly down the thing at 60mph and hardly have to worry about crashing because it is so well groomed. Here it is on the map:



Anyways, we planned on skiing Sunday too, but the weather wasn't the greatest and my dad's knee hurt, so we bagged it.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when my dad's friend started to rip on snowmobiles. The guy is just about as far from an environmentalist as you can get, but he thought snowmobiling was about the stupid thing.

"Why don't those lazy idiots strap a couple of skis to the bottom of their feet instead of polluting the air and disturbing wildlife?"

But then they started talking about how two cycle engines were crappy and weren't effecient or something, and that's when I left. Because really, I'd rather stab myself slowly with a sharp blade than listen to engine chat.

Anywho, that was my weekend.