First Day of Work

First Day of Work
I have not been riding much since our trip to Ellicottville. The weather in southern and central Ontario has been very warm and rainy. Not ideal conditions for snowboarding. This past weekend was my first time out since our trip to Ellicottville, and of course it had to be a work weekend. Last year I found out through my parents friends that I could get a free pass to a private ski resort in Collingwood if I volunteered four weekends out of the winter to be a gate judge during competitive ski races. So I decided to give it a shot. A year later I'm at it again; however, only for one day this weekend. When I got up on Saturday there was only one snowboard race with 42 racers so my boss let me ride for the day instead. This would have been great except conditions were very icy and hardly worth riding in, so I headed back home. On the Sunday conditions were great, but of course races ran until 3:30 pm with very little break in between. I guess serious riding will have to wait.

Ellicottville

Ellicottville, New York
When winter got off to a great start in Ontario during early December 2005 we thought it would be a great overall season like last year. So when a client of my girlfriends offered to let us stay at her Ellicottville chalet over the New Year we jumped at the opportunity. We left Toronto for Ellicottville late morning on December 30th, 2005. The drive from Toronto was very smooth. Even the boarder was easy, despite the 24 and twenty sixer in the back (acquired just minutes before at the Duty Free). We arrived in Ellicottville in about two and a half hours. Our friends Katie and Tyler met us down there later that evening. In the meantime Christine and I got a few hours of night riding at Holiday Valley Resort. This was the first time I had been to Holiday Valley. Other than the lift ticket prices I thought it was a great resort. It is way better than anything we have in Ontario. They have so many different runs, and many stay open at night. They have tree runs, a couple terrain parks (alright, but nothing special), tones of mellow runs, and many steeper runs for the skier in you. Overall I was very impressed with Ellicottville.
The next couple of days we rode with our friends Katie and Tyler at Holiday Valley. Both days were great. The first day the snow was a little sticky, due to the warmer conditions. Despite the conditions we had a great time exploring the resort and all it's different terrain. The second day we got out a bit later due to our New Year's celebrations on the Ellicottville strip (a great place with more bars per capita than any Canadian city that I know of). With better conditions and a fresh waxing the second day proved to be the best. We kept hitting the terrain park, and this one run with huge banks on the left side and a great drop off towards the end of the run. As our day was ending Tyler and I kept pushing the limits on the banked run, boardsliding, tail slashing, and charging the drop off. At one point I decided I was going to charge the drop off at full speed, despite the crowd gathered at its crest. I popped my tail and pulled a huge crooked cob, landing at least 20 feet from my take off. When I landed I just missed some lady wearing a red jacked who decided it was a good idea to ski across from one side of the run right to the other side of the run. After narrowly dodging her I was flying when I saw another skier below. I slowed down on my toe edge, but it was not enough. At a medium speed I clipped the skier and we both took a slide down the hill together. As we were sliding I kept saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry", to which she replied, "it's ok, it's ok". After I helped her up we had a laugh and I went on my way. Needless to say I did not charge that drop-off at full speed again that day.
With conditions at their peak Christine and I were looking forward to riding another couple of days together, as our friends Katie and Tyler were leaving before us. This never ended up happening. The rain that was plaguing Ontario had now made it's way down to New York just in time for Canadian tourist week at Holiday Valley, in which all lift tickets can be purchased with Canadian dollars at par. Instead we went shopping at the outlet mall around Buffalo (what a shit hole!). On January 3rd we arrived back in Toronto with mixed emotions. We really loved Ellicottville, but were really disappointed that it rained the last two days there. I think we'll try our luck over the March Break.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!