so  here it is, march 28, and in southern ontario it's still snowing. apparently this is unusual?!

 

for my first season here, it went pretty well, all things considered. of course i miss being out west on the real hills, but at least i'm not somewhere where i can't ride at all. we had some pretty wild storms this year, which helped appease me. the season managed to start at the end of november, which i have no real complaints with. and it's still going now, so hopefully i can get another day or two in before heading to whistler! it's also snowing today so i guess that's alright.

 

 

i've sampled a bit of what ontario has to offer by way of ski bumps, and managed to find something to keep me occupied at all of them, with the exception of chicopee. sorry to any who call that home, but ouch. i didn't make it to glen eden, mslm, or tremblant. leaves me something to do next year! this year i did get a hot new onesie, which is fanfreakintastic.

 

 

so here's where i went this year.... complete with pictures now since apparently i should always include pictures! in no particular order..

 

 

 

made full use of my 5x7 pass. it was nice to stand at the top and see water, reminded me of riding mt washington at home in that sense. i pretty much lucked out on the days i went, had one icy day the entire year, and that's not so bad. taught a couple friends to ride here, and it was still fun. broke my helmet overshooting a landing. glades weren't too bad, they had snow again the other day so i was happy. figured since i'm in ontario i should check out the park, but definitely wasn't ready for the big air/big rails of the real park, so it was nice to have a couple beginner options. not that i used them much, i was too busy hip checking trees!

 

 

 

 

for the first day of the season it wasn't all bad. pretty tiny, they only had one lift open and a couple runs, but it was enough to say "winter's finally here!". it was great to get a feel for my new setup, it felt fantastic from the moment i strapped in.

 

 

 

 

having a free place to stay in huntsville made this more exciting. easy to get bored here though, not a lot of challenge on the main runs. had a decent park for beginners though, so i got to pretend like i was a real ontario rider and hop on and off rails.

 

 

 

 

we went for $10 tuesday, thinking damn, can't beat that deal! and so it was insanely crowded (it was also march break). their idea of a black diamond is about half a second of steep incline followed by flat. the park was poorly designed and there was no park etiquette to speak of. in fact, no mountain etiquette at all.

 

 

 

if only it were a more impressive list... but i guess we make do with what we have! and being in dundas is actually pretty good, since we're right on the escarpment. when there was snow in town, it made it easy to find at least little hills to ride on.

 

the dundas valley conservation area was my favourite though.

after the disappointment of chicopee mike and i went to the conservation area, built our own mini booter not 5 minutes from our door, and spent the rest of the day practising hitting that. i finally figured out how to pop and grab, and it turned into one of the best days all season for me.

 

sure ontario doesn't hold a candle to out west, but i figure, for ontario, this season wasn't half bad. i can't wait to ride some real glades in whistler, hike a couple bowls, and ride some runs that last for more than thirty seconds. 

 

hoo-ray for telus!