Crystal Mountain Stop 2 of the North Face Masters
My trip to Crystal Mountain for stop 2 of the North Face Masters was an adventure thats for sure!
The drive to Crystal from Jackson is about 13 hours, we thought we would break it up stopping in Boise Idaho overnight. On the 2cnd day of driving we were feeling pretty confident with our plan, with our fancy new GPS showing only 7 hours travelling time...sweet we should arrive in to Crystal about 4pm it'll still be light, have a beer, some dinner.... NEVER trust a GPS on mountain roads in Winter. We were directed right to a closed gate that separated us from Crystal Mountain. We find out later that it is apparently ALWAYS closed in winter, neither our GPS, Google Maps or our good old fashioned road map informed us of this. We were so close, all that stood between us and our destination was 14 miles and a huge wooden gate with a chain...I did daydream about busting Charlene (the Dodge Caravan) Smokey and the Bandit style through that fence! Our cruisy 7 hour trip turned in to a 12 hour trip, not relaxing, no beer, no bueno...
The venue for day 1 was great, it was steep, it had lots of options. The inspection day my line seemed fun and a good choice, on competition day it was a different story. The snow was like frozen coral, and the light was flat. The wall of the spine I had chosen was bulletproof. I got down in survival mode and qualified 9th...
We had a weather day in between qualifier and the final day, and the word was that we would get to ride the mega venue Silver King the next day. Awesome.
We woke up Friday to heavy snowfalls and poor visibility. We got to ride around for a few hours getting some awesome powder turns in while waiting for the word that it would go ahead. I recieved a text update that it was on....this is where it went a little pear shaped for me! I raced up but didnt see any other of the women, but I spoke to the patroller at the gate and started on the hike up to the King. I did not see anyone else on the hike, which made me a little nervous as the visibility was limited and I had only been on the hike once. I was following footprints and what I thought was the track....should've looked up more, as I passed the track that would have lead me up to the start of the venue. I kept plodding along getting the feeling something wasn't right. next thing I hear avvy control going on close to me, it starts to really sink in that this definately isn't right. Luckily I see a partoller who kindly informs me that I am WAY past where I need to be. He turns around, the clouds lifted on cue as he points way back up to the top of a peak behind me...you can see the North Face flags in the distance. My heart sunk, what an idiot..I had only 15 minutes to get to the start and I was 2cnd to go. I bolted back through deep snow wanting to laugh, cry, you name it. I finally found a small bootpack straight up the side of the peak. I staggered up to the start tent, right as they sent the first competitor. I couldnt believe it, the top of the venue was completely in the cloud. I had picked out a line from photos that i was really excited to ride but as the cloud hampered our "visual inspection" I wasn't sure where I needed to drop. All I could see was a cornice drop in to the abyss...then it came... "Rachel Sheidow put your board on"...AAAUUUGGGHHH. I wanted to go laugh at the guy and say "are you kidding me". I took a big breath and went.
Further down my run visibility improved and I made it across to where I wanted to be. The snow was perfect, I had so much fun on the way down although I was dilousional from my last hour. Wouldnt you know it, 5 minutes later the cloud lifted and you could see the top...bitch.
I was stoked to place 4th.
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