Hecantski, nowhecanski - wecanallski!

The Grunstein Lab had their first ski trip this week at Mammoth Mountain. We rented a small SUV and brought some essential supplies. Daniel (Swiss-French) was going to bring fondue so I thought mince pies (unknown in the US) and cured pork loin (obsessed - moi?) and muffins might provide some British flavour.

The mountain was covered in a layer of icing sugar on the first day and the snow on the back side sparkled in the sunlight (lovely). A bear provided some entertainment in the evening as he rummaged through a dumpster outside our window. Then the winter storm started, bringing fresh powder at the expense of visibilty and upper mountain closures. My first experience snowboarding on powder was not ideal as Michael, Daniel and I ended up in a gully waist deep. Climbing out almost finished me off but after that things improved and I began to ride the powder (dude).

Catherine decided skiing might be a better option on the second day but wimped out with Izabela and Mona on the third. High winds closed everything except chair 8 from Canyon Lodge so this was probably wise. The GPS came for the ride and provided some nice pictures of our travels. For the fellow geek some stats: total distance for the trip 85 miles (including lifts), max speed 39 miles per hour (unlikely). Thanks to Amy for organizing the event and lending me her spare googles and mask and to Michael for letting us bunk off. Any pictures I didn’t link to are here… The title by the way is a reference to - The 12th Man’s Socceroo commentary (not for the easily offended - essential for the easily amused).

UPDATE: Click Read More for Daniel’s Video montage of the event.

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