Jay Richards

Wow, that was one heck of a storm. The dust?!? has pretty much settled and I feel like I have been run over by a cement truck. I figured total snowfall during the whole ordeal was around 18". But the wind was crazy as we all know on Saturday making some sweet drifts around the cars and lodge. We had close to 100 women at the resort for a retreat on the weekend. Saturday when I was shoveling etc. I thought there was no way some of these cars would get out on Sunday. But Sunday thing settled down, sun came out and I spent about 6 hours cleaning the snow out between the cars with the skid steerer, making lanes and everyone got out. Whew. I did pack and groom on a 4km loop when I could at various times because the snow was dry and temps were low so I knew I could get 3-4 days of skiing out of this on the groomed. Counting Saturday night, I have already been out 4 times. Planning again tomorrow and hoping to find a patch Thursday just to say I skied May 1st. Crazy.


Thursday late afternoon I did my second road ride of the year, doing the White Earth loop then rode east to Ice Cracking to meet the family. Temp was 34 degrees and rode into wind, cranking out a whopping 6mph up the hills into the wind. Coolest thing about the ride, the last three miles Jonell motorpaced me to Ice Crack and pinning 35-40 was fun after 15mph average.



Friday morning Jon had to be to school at 5:45am so I took him to DL and brought my bike along to do some hill repeats on the hidden climb near "the mountain". When I started the ride it was 31 and wind was really cranking making it feel like the lower 20's. At the start of the 6 min climb, I was stinking cold but thought I would warm up by the top. I did crack a sweat but froze going down. I was about to bail but told my self to tough it out. It was a total mental ride for sure. I managed to do five repeats, with fastest time just over 5 min on the last one so I called it good and got back to head home and was 29 and waited for the first flakes to fall with winter storm warning. Friday night it started dumping and looking at some surface forecasts, I was thinking we are getting more than 8. Saturday morning at 6am, Deb the chef calls and says she can't get out of the driveway. So I was first one out of our driveway and goat ranch road, busting through the pow with snow coming over the hood. It was awesome. Picked up Deb (lives halfway to Richwood, about 7 miles away) at the end of her road and she thought she was going to have a heart attack walking in the deep snow. None of the other staff could make it in so Jonell, Jake, my dad and I picked up the slack, mainly the first three as I was on shovel patrol.

Jake scrubbing spuds. Under the circumstances, we let the dress code slide on the day.


After the day shift was done, I brought home Deb but in attempt to drive over a berm of slush and snow at the end of the goat ranch road left by the plow on paved road, I got hung up for the first time in my life here at Maplelag. Even in 4 low, I didn't move. The snow packed underneath and my wheels weren't touching the ground. Sure, in high school I got stuck with my buddies driving through ditches and on the lake but we did that on purpose and we always got out with 3-5 of us. Anyways, thankfully after 20 minutes of digging out, the grader came up behind me. He said he would try to push me so he pointed that real sharp pointy thing on the front of his plow on my hitch, but I was hung up too much and he was spinning. So we chained up and he pulled me out. I felt much better about that because you can imagine the thoughts going through my head if that slipped and I got a big wedgie, Buddy Tieken style. Got Deb home and picked up a staff member for the evening shift who had to walk almost a mile weaving between 3-4 foot drifts and un plowed road.


Sunday I was clearing out and stopped under the lodge roof, and said "nah, it won't slide" but kaboom, a big slab released, and came through the cab. Told everyone to stay clear after that.


The best thing on Sunday was skiing with Jonell. Sunday morning I ripped out a couple laps but Sunday afternoon it was completely calm, tons of sun and just beautiful in the woods.
On the uphill I was trying to pack the snow down more old school style so Jonell said "do you want me to do that" Sure I said.
Oh yeah, fun times.
Thursday night I told Bruce to think about coming up if we get dumped and he said if the storm does deliver and we get more than 12, he would think about it. Bruce covered KenWoods, Get in Gear, did the Ironman on Sunday morning and drove up. Like me, I don't know anyone that welcomes snow more than Bruce, any time of year, and it was a blast skiing with him this morning. We did 6 laps and it was fast the entire time, ending around 10:30. I groomed the night before, hitting it too early and kind of gunked and chunked up the surface in spots. Still was nice skiing but I know I could of had a better surface, should of waited but I was tired. Slush, crust, ice and dry powder to work with made things interesting for sure. Waiting til tomorrow morning to groom now after everything freezes down again tonight.
Snowkick boxing keeping the kids entertained after school today. Jake did ride gravel roads that have dried up and I rode into DL and met Jonell late afternoon so only two days not able to ride but probably will be a week before back in the woods. Old timers saying they have never seen this much snow so late in April. When you live at and xc resort, snow anytime is exciting, especially a blast like this so it has been great with some sweet memories and and lots of stories.