I guess this one really started when I finally bought my friend Eric’s car. Whit-Whal (Wall-e as I now call him) came into my life on a cold Monday night when I picked him up in Brooklyn and subsequently spent 3 hours driving around Manhattan trying to find a parking spot. He is a 1999 Jeep with no working heat, an incredibly inefficient engine, and almost 150k miles on the odo. And he is the perfect adventuremobile.
Pretty much the minute I sat behind the wheel I started planning a ski trip for the weekend. I was planning to go up to Hunter in upstate NY. By the time Saturday morning rolls around, and I roll out of bed at 5am, I realize that Hunter was forecasted to have freezing rain all day. Huge bummer, but it’ll take more than bad weather to stop me and Wall-e! It takes me approximately 3 milliseconds to decide that instead of Hunter I would drive up to Mount Snow in Vermont, which was forecasted to get a bunch of snow this weekend! And was only 2 hours further up north hehe. What’s the harm in a 4 hour drive instead of 2 hour one…
So I throw my snowboard and a sleeping bag into the trunk and start driving; the main highlight of the trip up was getting lost in bumfuck nowhere vermont because I lost cell service and the last google maps instruction I got was “continue straight for 30 minutes.” And an hour later I realized it had been more than 30 minutes. But I navigated back to where I was supposed to be (without a map somehow!) and made it to mount snow eventually. Only added another 2 hours to the drive, but what’s a 6 hour drive instead of a 4 hour one instead of a 2 hour one… ANYWAY I get to the snow around noon and I rode my board and it was cold and icy and fantastic and here’s a bathroom selfie with my cold red rudolph nose.
And I was solo so here are some poorly shot selfie vids on a black diamond and a blue run
Ok so I got a good 4ish hours of riding in, and then it was time to decide if I was committing to car camping for the night. And I decided fuck it yea I wanna ride more sunday! So I go to find a nice cute campground, but out of nowhere as soon as the sun sets the sleet starts. My windows are all iced over on the outside and foggy on the inside, my mirrors are totally useless, and everyone had their brights on so I couldn’t see shit. So after 3 minutes of driving like that I pull over at the first place I saw – a 24/7 gas station / 7-11. Cute campground check.
I get a slice of za and some handwarmers, put my back seats down, and get into my sleeping bag. I was getting ready for bed when the sleet turned to snow. Which turned into a LOT of snow. Which over night turned into a SHIT TON of snow.
It was too cold to spend much time outside, but I snuck out around 3am (natures call not mine believe me) and looked up at the stars 🙂 and I couldn’t see anything because it was cloudy af and still DUMPING snow, but it was gorg gorg gorg (did not take pics, would not have dont it justice). The whole gas station was covered in a giant sheet of undisturbed snow that spread out through trees and backyards, connecting the entirety of Vermont for all I knew.
Anyway after I went #1 was mad cold from like the inside out (if you’ve ever camped in the cold u know the exact feel) so I jump back in the car and go back to bed. I had a dream / hallucination that aliens invaded but I saved earth by showing them how fun skiing is, ur welcome. Slept like a baby until 8am. I woke up to snow piled so damn high I had to ram my shoulder into my car door to get it to open. They had plowed the snow by then and the nice snow plower person left me a nice dip to drive out of my parking spot instead of trapping me in a snow fence.
I got a quick 7-11 coffee, drove back to the mountain, snowboarded from 9am to 1pm ish, and decided it would be nice to get home before dark so I started the journey back. It was honestly a BEAUTIFUL drive back, the roads were clear the sky was blue and the trees lining the road were stunning. I drove for hours, with music to keep me vibing and my breath condensing into clouds in front of me to keep the sense of winter adventure (no heat in the car I told ya hehe).
I made it home just after dark, legs dead hands cold and heart so so full.
Into The Gnar 