2/8 Pow Mow 14M

[whit]

Pretty good day at Pow Mow. 1st time I've kited there in 3 years. The clearing of the Aspens to shoot the gap makes it much easier, good work Augie, Les, Marty, etc. Unfortunately I launched just when the wind decided to switch from SE to SW with a brief period of south. Check the sensor reading from 1:30 to 2:30. Jason had just come in from a good SE session, he said it was easy to get back to the lot. I got stuck in the low point just before the gap as the wind dropped, but eventually got going again. Then the SW picked up and the riding near the towers and past was excellent. Just a few tracks and nice soft powder.

Around 3:30 it slowly started to sock in. Visibility became worse and worse. Ben and I rode back to the lot after 4:30 with 40 foot visibility. Wild vertigo going on, but the wind had notched back up. Kenny, early it was SE 20 to 25, then south 15 to 20, then puffed back up out of the SW 20 to 25. These are all readings from the sensor, I believe on the hill it is at least 15% less. Nice having a readout of what you experience on the hill. Ben had a number of students. I heard Augie was there, Jason, Mark, Riley and others. Whit

[Augie]

Yes I rode from 10:30 -12:30 I felt kind of beat so I quit early. It was good to see a crowd. The SE wind direction in the morning was unusual and made things interesting. By the way, the pow is frequently like that. I don't know how many times I've carved up the freshies days after a storm. Glad you liked the tree trimming.

[jason morton]

Mike M crashed his car head on into a Pow Mow bus coming down the hill from the lot. He is ok with no injuries. That section of road is sketchy. We picked up all the plastic and glass as we waited for the tow truck to come from Ogden and I promptly escorted him home to the comforts of his wife. He was downshifting as he came around that icy turn and slid uncontrollably into the bus. He is fine. His Subaru is not. Kite safe and drive safe!

[Jacob Buzianis]

Mike M- I'm glad you are okay. Sorry to hear about your new car.

There was a car that almost went over the edge of road coming down from Hidden Lake parking lot last Sat.

[Mark Johnson]

Years ago I almost lost my brakes coming down that road. It took downshifting and both feet on the pedal to slow it down.
Anyway glad no one was hurt. Hopefully an oportunity to get an even better car.

[MikE mAy]

we'll see. i feel pretty stupid about the whole thing. i wasn't going more than 15 mph. i downshifted into 1st (automatic tranny) and at the same time i looked up and saw a shuttle bus coming up. i instincively hit the brakes as i saw the approaching shuttle bus and the skinny road and lost all control. feel pretty dumb about it. we almost got hit twice while we were sitting there waiting for the tow truck. Powder mountain said that was their third crash into that particular bus that week. they were surprisingly cool about it. we'll see about the car...

at least the riding was ok. i was marginally under/overpowered on my 9m 2006 waroo. i was able to ride over to the riding area and came back with ease. like whitt said- wind was great by the radio towers and very weird up on the ridge. snow was very good to excellent with about 5 inches of cream on top of packed powder.