Presidents Day…in their infinite wisdom, our forefathers set aside this holiday so I could go snowboarding at Mount High today. Full trip report fourthcoming, stay tuned.

Update: Mount High is painfully close to LA. I say painfully because its proximity exposes it to the full force of the greater LA area’s teeming masses. I knew there was trouble when we hit traffic. Not on the freeways, but on ye little winding road a few miles from our destination. We inched along at a snail’s pace, hoping that the lift tickets weren’t ’sold out’.

“Sold out?” I asked incredulously. I was assured that this can and does happen, and this was confirmed when I called the ticket office at the mountain. The mountain had sold out at 9 AM the previous day. This information came to me as we were inching along in bumper to bumper traffic.

The possibility that we’d soon be going home defeated was on our minds. A policewoman in her car was driving slowly in the opposite direction and warning that the parking lots were full. She politely (as much as possible over a bullhorn) informed us that we were welcome to park on the side of the road and hike in. We grudgingly did this. ‘Hike’ was the operative term, since we ended up parking about a mile from the lodge.

We arrived at the place and I paid a large sum for my day’s pass. Reg, the birthday girl, rode free. The snow was very rocky, or perhaps I should say the rocks were somewhat snowy. My board bears the scars of today’s adventure, and will for the rest of its existence.

After dominating poor Mountain High East, we proceeded to board a bus and head to the Westside. The west side was…well, I’ll let the picture tell the story.

It was paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacked. I waited in line. Then I did it some more. Repeat this over and over, and you’re starting to get an idea of what I did.

Today’s forgotten item(s): Gloves. I was initially concerned, but the fact that I wasn’t cold without them put my mind at ease. There were moments when my hands got a bit chilly, but I solved this by stuffing them in my pockets. I was quite pleased with my skillz, since I was able to completely rise above the rookie need to flail my arms about to keep my balance. It really is all in the hips.

On the bright side, Mount High has a fine terrain park. In fact, the Westside is almost nothing *but* terrain park. This was great, but after my last misadventure with the table tops I’m taking it easy. Ok, so I’m a coward and I didn’t hit them at all. I did manage to give some love to a little kicker here and there, and the rails were crazy. Not that I hit them, but I gave them careful consideration..

After having my wicked way with the Westside, I headed home. On the way back to the car, we saw a chopper circling about. Finally it landed, about 100 yards from the car. Apparently some poor individual ran afoul of gravity. It’s generally a good sign that you’ve ruined your day in the snow when you see a helicopter descending from the sky to carry you to prompt medical intervention.

There are more shots of my journey to/from Mount High Ski Resort and Rock Quarry in this Flickr photo set. Also shots of the pretty smog sunsets we have down here (no sarcasm, they’re really pretty!)