Only in Russia!
2008.03.10
So Krasnaya Polyana is feeling a lot like a Tiajuana in the mountains. There are vendors at the “base lodge” selling all sorts of random trinkets, men hanging around to make money off of their monkeys that are wearing different outfits everyday, THE sketchiest two-person chair lifts EVER; I’m sure that the original resort who owned them sold them 20 or so years ago because they were outdated at that time. However one is far superior to the rest it hangs roughly 300 feet off the ground….everyday panic fills my entire body as we slowly creek over the highest point of the chair, it’s like standing on the plank as you are about to bungy jump….but scarier! And a couple of days ago the lift stopped and then proceeded to roll backwards for a solid 20 seconds, definitley enough time to start thinking that jumping may be needed.
The people of Russia are also different; they all seem to be somewhat “distant.” But we are slowly chipping away at these people’s stone facades, in fact we even made our lift ticket checker securtity guards smile one day……well sort of smile!!!!
But this mountain is insane there is no denying it. At the top of the peak there are endless possibilites and insane wide open lines to be had. Unfortunately the snow conditions are so sketchy that riding all of the “sick” terrain is just too dangerous. Just before we arrived this place got a big storm that left about 6 feet of snow, but then the weather warmed up and the powder became wet, thick, slow hot pow. Today the top three lifts were closed because of an avalanche!
But we have been making the most of it jibbing old war trucks and building kickers to air over tree stumps and we even bribed one of the heli guides here to take us up to the top two days ago and got some
fun turns in and a good huck off a pretty large cornice. And then yesterday we got to check out Sochi the home of the 2014 Winter Olympics!!!!!! Ummmmm, they have a lot of work to do!!!!!!
Sounds like you’re having a great time? More like a weird movie or something, come back in one peice, stay away from the lift !!!
DUDE YOUR AWESOME. I LIVE IN TEXAS AND IM ORGINALLY FROM IOWA SO I MISS THE HECK OUTTA SOME SNOW. BUT WE DONT GET THAT MUCH SNOW. I JUST BASICALLY WANTED TO TELL YOU, YOU ROCK AND I READ YOUR ARTICLE IN NEWSWEEK. I WISH I COULD DO WHAT YOU DO. THATS LIKE A PERMANANT VACATION. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.