# AlpineZone Summit 3.0 at Sugarloaf Mountain, 3/30 - 4/1



## Nick (Mar 30, 2012)

Well here is the full trip report!

Was beat up on Friday. I woke up at 3:30AM and headed out of the house. Started my journey by driving to Logan Airport to pick up my sister (Ski Stef) and her boyfriend Jimmy (vdk03) at the airport hotel they were staying at (they had arrived the night before from Colorado). I was feeling like crap out of the gate after downing way to much chinese food the night before and was uncomfortably full still. 

Rolled into Logan around 5:30 and we threw the snowboard and skis on the roof and off we went. Arrived at Sugarloaf at around 10AM, and it looked amazing






It's a little deceiving though. From a distance it looked like wall to wall cover on every open trail, but the few inches they had received the day before made many of the trails that were closed look open. They had 19 trails for us to play on the whole weekend, which was amazing, considering the weather, and very much assisted by the snowmaking that Sugarloaf had done. 

We went right to the room to change up and drop off our stuff. We got to the mountain around 11AM to get our first tracks in on the day, and met up with Backloafriver, who we skied with until around 4PM. 

For the most part, we lapped Hayburner / Kings Landing / Sleuce, as conditions were the best on those trails. Skidder got a little scraped off later, although the sides of the trail were significantly better. Conditions varied a lot - some PP, some crud, some loose granular. Most of the trails weren't edge to edge, and Sugarloaf had the warning signs up - you had to be careful coming over drops because it was possible on the other side was an unskiable area or extremely thin cover. 

Hayburner was probably the most fun as they had some rollers that were fun to go up and down on. I spent most of my time working on my carving turns, which need some improvement. There were zero lift lines, so we put in a lot of laps - the first day, probably 15 or so laps. Weather was OK, not as frigid as the year before, but it was cold and pretty blustery. I was definitely rocking the neckwarmer. 






After we called it quits at 3, I was feeling like crap, so I went back to the room and basically passed out for four hours until the Welcome Party at the Shipyard Brew Haus. As usual, Sugarloaf threw an awesome party, great apps, some free booze, Ethan and Brad were very gracious hosts. Unfortunately for me, I still felt like A$$ and was yawning and exhausted the entire day. Got to meet many AZ'ers, some of whom I had met the year before but didn't really remember (a year of posting on the boards has done a lot for name recognition!). Called it quits at about 12:15AM, and went back to the room, had 2 nyquil and passed out, hoping I would feel better in the morning. 

Saturday morning, definitely felt much better. DHS, SkiStef, VDK03 and myself all got to the mountain around 10AM. Again, no lift lines. This was a big contrast to the summit last year when Spillway was on wind hold and we spend 20 minutes in the line at each run. We were up and down, mainly lapping the same runs - Totes Road, Kings Run, Hayburner, Skidder a few times, Sleuce. Weather was amazing. Started off with similar conditions but really warmed up in the afternoon - bluebird skies, mid-40's. Snow at the base was starting to brown up a little bit in the afternoon. Got to run laps with many other AZ'ers, which was really a blast. 

Around 1, went to Bullwinkles for a couple cold adult beverages. Real nice spring conditions outside, sat on the deck, some music, all in all a great day. On the way out, I lost a ski (single eject?) of one of the rollers on hayburner when I sat in the backseat and just made a nice tumble. I guess I was cut off at that point! 






We called it around 2:30, headed back to the room, changed and retunred to the Widowmaker for the Apres Party. Had 47 AZ'ers show up, which was great! Got to meet a lot of new people and mingle and say "Hi". We did some giveaways (Ski Stef and VDK03 had printed up some AZ hats), and Sugarloaf graciously contributed a couple sweatshirts, T-shirts, and Spillway signs for the giveaway.





View from the Widowmaker loft. Really bluebird day, almost zero wind or clouds





VDK03 hitting the food





Some of the giveaways

After finishing up probably a half dozen beers, then another one with Wjenness at the bar, WaLoaf, Darent, Cheese, Marge, VDK03 and myself all headed over to The Rack to get some dinner. Plowed back a burger and went back to the room, feeling pretty buzzed up, determined to hit the hay early so I could make it for first tracks on Sunday. 

Sunday, got up and made it up about 2 minutes late to the first lift. 

Some pics from Skyline: 




VDK03





Marge, DHS, VDK03, and Ski Stef rocking the awesome 80's sweater





I Think this was down Tote Road





Panorama shot

First tracks was great, less frozen than last year. We did some laps with Brad and Ethan, Brad was rocking some Tele's. Started down skidder which was just a speed fest. 

Great day again, we just lapped the same runs. Cheese was impressive; pulled a 360 coming down Hayburner (I think?) off a tiny little 1' lip. It just got better as the day went along with the snow softening up and warming up to the point where jackets were unzipped and every vent you had was open. We called it around noon, but even with the early departure we had still put in I think over a dozen runs in the morning. No lines to be seen. 

All in all, a great weekend. Had we had last year's snow with this year's weather, it would have been unreal! 

Oh yeah, and if you didn't read about it yet, I had a little incident loading the conveyer on Skyline.


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## powhunter (Mar 30, 2012)

Nice!!   Tear it up boys and girls!!   Post up some pics of Az drunks tonight too!

Steveo


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## bvibert (Mar 30, 2012)

powhunter said:


> Nice!!   Tear it up boys and girls!!   Post up some pics of Az drunks tonight too!
> 
> Steveo



This! :beer:

Really wish I could have made it!


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## snowmonster (Mar 30, 2012)

Rip up the Loaf for me! Enjoy!


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## bvibert (Apr 1, 2012)

WTF where are the Saturday updates?

You guys can't leave us poor suckers hanging like that!!


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## bigbog (Apr 1, 2012)

Was a nice day up here Brian....my guess is the adult liquid refreshments were flowing throughout the day and evening..;-);-)


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## vdk03 (Apr 1, 2012)

Killer weekend, trip reports and pics coming soon.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk


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## Madroch (Apr 1, 2012)

Unacceptable response time on the TR's- some kind of warning has to be issued...


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## deadheadskier (Apr 1, 2012)

Perfect weather all weekend and what was opened skied really well.  Sugarloaf really did a fantastic job putting out a great surface given the recent Atomic meltdown.  Had they not made snow, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good.

Fastest recorded speed of the weekend I heard was 53mph


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## o3jeff (Apr 1, 2012)

Where there any ski offs?


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## Cheese (Apr 1, 2012)

o3jeff said:


> Were there any ski offs?



Nick was definitely the fastest through the gates on Skyline ...


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## Nick (Apr 1, 2012)

I friggen hate magic carpet lifts haha


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## Nick (Apr 1, 2012)

Some more pics ... video and full tr to come laterView attachment 5068


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## Cornhead (Apr 1, 2012)

Nick, thanks so much for hooking me up with the first tracks today. I've never done it before. I did feel a tad elitist, but got over that quickly. So awesome to have the place to yourself for an hour, I got five runs in before 8:30. Cheese, I felt bad I didn't ski Skidder with you first thing in the morning, I wanted to take a warm-up lap. 

I'm spending the night in Rutland. I'm considering skiing Kmart tomorrow.  Highwaystar, you gonna be there? It may snow a little overnight.


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## Cornhead (Apr 2, 2012)

Kinda weird, all my pics are the same as my solo trips, all scenery.  There is one shot with some AZers in it, but they're too far away to recognize. Eat your hearts out, those who wish they were still skiing.


























































































MOOSE!


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

Bump, updated the OP with some pics and my full TR!


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## Cheese (Apr 2, 2012)

Cornhead said:


> Cheese, I felt bad I didn't ski Skidder with you first thing in the morning, I wanted to take a warm-up lap.



"No friends on a powder day" and as many found out yesterday, "No friends during first tracks."  We had 4-5 runs to carve up the fresh corduroy before they unleashed the buffing general public so that's what we all did.  You did the right thing choosing the trails you wanted to track out first.

:beer:

Nick,

Great job setting up this trip!  This was my first trip with the AZ skiers and riders and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Thanks to the AZ members and the Sugarloaf staff for an awesome spread of free SWAG, free food, free drinks, free skiing, free first tracks and of course free laughs.  The memories of this trip will hopefully get me through the warmer months and I very much look forward to the 2013 AZ Summit.


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

wanted to add, really nice meeting so many of you guys. As VDK03 said, "So nice to see so many smiling faces" .... (yeah we gave him a hard time for that). 

BTW, here he is driving in goggles. The epitome of cool. :lol:


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## xwhaler (Apr 2, 2012)

We had a great time this wknd. Thanks to everyone that helped put this on especially Nick and Ethan and everyone at the Loaf. Really awesome value and my group of 14 all really had a blast and can't wait to come back next year. We prob did more drinking and chilling at the health club all wknd than actual skiing but that's ok too. My legs are pretty beat after 24 days this yr.

Love the King of Spring sweatshirt I got...I was proudly wearing it Sat night and yesterday on the way home. Conditions were fast and firm and coverage better than expected given 2weeks ago. Certainly they have enough if it stays cold at night to go another couple weeks.

If this is it, it was a great season and certainly the AZ Summitt was a great way to cap it. We'll be back next year for sure!


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## Glenn (Apr 2, 2012)

Good deal! Sounds like a great turnout too.


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## Warp Daddy (Apr 2, 2012)

Well done---  glad u  guys had a great weekend !!!!!!!!!


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

Cheese said:


> "No friends on a powder day" and as many found out yesterday, "No friends during first tracks."  We had 4-5 runs to carve up the fresh corduroy before they unleashed the buffing general public so that's what we all did.  You did the right thing choosing the trails you wanted to track out first.
> 
> :beer:
> 
> ...



Thanks! btw - you have some seriously quick feet. We have to get a couple earlier season Wachusett days in next year. Wa-loaf, you too!


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## elks (Apr 2, 2012)

Nick, thanks again for the great weekend!  First tracks on Sunday were a blast.


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## hammer (Apr 2, 2012)

Nice report...I really should drag by butt up to one of these events.


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

hammer said:


> Nice report...I really should drag by butt up to one of these events.



Yeah you should. I think we pulled your name for a giveaway too but you were a no-show :flame:


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

BTW, I have a bunch of video I still need to cut up. I'll try to post that later, probably won't be done until midweek. We had one great run on Sunday morning where there was about 15 of us all together cruising down Hayburner. It was awesome.


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## hammer (Apr 2, 2012)

Nick said:


> Yeah you should. I think we pulled your name for a giveaway too but you were a no-show :flame:


I never signed up but if you want to send me a prize anyway I'll take it...;-)


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## BackLoafRiver (Apr 2, 2012)

A little late to the reply party but, thanks so much to Nick for setting this up. It was great meeting all of you and putting faces with the screen-names. (I do think it's funny that, even after meeting people, we still refer to them in person by their handle rather than their name)

Nick, SkiStef, and VDK, skiing Friday with the three of you was great.  The conditions, while not pristine, were enjoyable none-the-less.  Sad I missed first tracks on Friday. 

Thanks to all for a great weekend! As some have said, if this is it for the season, it couldn't have ended a better way. Looking forward to 2013!


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

hammer said:


> I never signed up but if you want to send me a prize anyway I'll take it...;-)



Well the roster came from those that posted in the official thread wheather or not they showed up. Maybe I have you mixed up though ...   :dunce:


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

BackLoafRiver said:


> A little late to the reply party but, thanks so much to Nick for setting this up. It was great meeting all of you and putting faces with the screen-names. (I do think it's funny that, *even after meeting people, we still refer to them in person by their handle rather than their name*)



Yeah, definitely, it is funny. I'm pretty sure I yelled "REEFER" and "DOUBLE EJECT" from the chairlift at one point.


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

o3jeff said:


> Where there any ski offs?



the bracket basin tour would have been on foot. :lol:


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## bigbog (Apr 2, 2012)

Nick said:


> the bracket basin tour would have been on foot. :lol:



Hey Nick...that was too bad...but at least they kept Bullwinkles open!


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## jrmagic (Apr 2, 2012)

Nick said:


> Yeah, definitely, it is funny. I'm pretty sure I yelled "REEFER" and "DOUBLE EJECT" from the chairlift at one point.



Well hopefully you didn;t ahve a family right behind you when yo did or they'd think you were trying to make a guy fall so you could cop some dope:dunce:

I'm glad you all had a blast:beer:


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## reefer (Apr 2, 2012)

*Great time!*

Great time as usual! Pleasure meeting and skiing with a lot of you AZers. Thanks Nick and Stef, along with Ethan from the Loaf for setting this up again. Skiing was quite good considering. Top to bottom anything is always fun, especially when you don't usually ski a lot of groomers. I scared the crap out of myself a few times, I'm to old for those high speed die-if-you-crash situations...........Hanging on the edges Saturday afternoon made it interesting until the rocks started to get dug up. First Tracks rocked as usual! Food and drink was great at the Widowmaker and especially the Shipyard Brew House. That place is awesome. 
Great seeing Woodcore in the house representing Connecticut, I don't know what's wrong with the rest of you Nutmeg pussies.....................the Gunny bumps couldn't have been that good this weekend.............

Special shout out to the Ski Dr. at Summit Ski & Sport over in my neighborhood. Unbeleivable tune job that handled anything the Loaf could throw at me.................worth every penny, actually priceless on a weekend like that!
I have to start pulling out the camera more for these events. Below are TDog, JRskibum, and DoublEject at the Summit, defacing the tap, cord porn, slackers stopping for breakfast after first tracks - Nick, WA-Loaf, Marge, Cheese, Kelly001, and Deadhead.


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## St. Bear (Apr 2, 2012)

Maybe I'll make it next year.

If so, hopefully I'll get enough ski days in to be able to keep up with you maniacs on the hill.


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## snowmonster (Apr 2, 2012)

Glad that you all had a great time. Any shenanigans to report? 

I've missed the last 2 summits. This is not a trend that I like.=(


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

reefer said:


> Great time as usual! Pleasure meeting and skiing with a lot of you AZers. Thanks Nick and Stef, along with Ethan from the Loaf for setting this up again. Skiing was quite good considering. Top to bottom anything is always fun, especially when you don't usually ski a lot of groomers. I scared the crap out of myself a few times, I'm to old for those high speed die-if-you-crash situations...........Hanging on the edges Saturday afternoon made it interesting until the rocks started to get dug up. First Tracks rocked as usual! Food and drink was great at the Widowmaker and especially the Shipyard Brew House. That place is awesome.
> Great seeing Woodcore in the house representing Connecticut, I don't know what's wrong with the rest of you Nutmeg pussies.....................the Gunny bumps couldn't have been that good this weekend.............
> 
> Special shout out to the Ski Dr. at Summit Ski & Sport over in my neighborhood. Unbeleivable tune job that handled anything the Loaf could throw at me.................worth every penny, actually priceless on a weekend like that!
> I have to start pulling out the camera more for these events. Below are TDog, JRskibum, and DoublEject at the Summit, defacing the tap, cord porn, slackers stopping for breakfast after first tracks - Nick, WA-Loaf, Marge, Cheese, Kelly001, and Deadhead.



Thanks for the pics! Damn, I thought I was out of the picture frame, my head is tilted way the hell in haha


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## Nick (Apr 2, 2012)

snowmonster said:


> Glad that you all had a great time. Any shenanigans to report?
> 
> I've missed the last 2 summits. This is not a trend that I like.=(



Ski Stef was hungover from the flight over :lol: we had to make several stops on the way up. 

uke:
uke:
uke:
uke:


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## marge.kilgus (Apr 2, 2012)

Thank you for organizing Nick, and it was fabulous meeting such a wide variety of new people...very relaxing and fun weekend ...good finale....always great to meet new people who share the same love of a great winter sport...thanks for the memories and look forward to next year!!


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## darent (Apr 2, 2012)

thanks again nick  and steph for all the hard work in getting the summit organized, shout out to ethan and sugarloaf for hosting us and making sure we had something to ski on. a rousing good time skiing with the AZ group that showed up, made the weekend-till next year!!


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## ski stef (Apr 2, 2012)

Nick said:


> Ski Stef was hungover from the flight over :lol: we had to make several stops on the way up.
> 
> uke:
> uke:
> ...



Ugh. That was rough. Still under the weather but pushed it through for the great 3 days of skiing!  

Famous last words.. I'm never drinking again. But seriously


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## snowmonster (Apr 2, 2012)

Ski Stef said:


> Ugh. That was rough. Still under the weather but pushed it through for the great 3 days of skiing!
> 
> Famous last words.. I'm never drinking again. But seriously



Ah, but this is the best way to enjoy the slopes. If I make it to next year's summit, remind me to bring my flask of magic potion. Your brother had a swig (or two) at MRG. It cures what ails ya!

Reminds me of a flight I took once. My row turned into an impromptu party. After a while, the flight attendant just kept giving me double shots of scotch. A good time was had by all. That was the shortest 14 hour flight I ever took.


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## Cheese (Apr 2, 2012)

Ski Stef said:


> Famous last words.. I'm never drinking again.



Who said that?  I'm pretty sure your last words Saturday night were, "*We should do shots of Jäger!*"



BackLoafRiver said:


> I do think it's funny that, even after meeting people, we still refer to them in person by their handle rather than their name



Screen names are probably better when someone is counting on their fingers while doing the math to determine if the girl in the, "Class of 2019" shirt is of legal age in Maine.  Just sayin' ...


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## vdk03 (Apr 2, 2012)

It was an all around great weekend, lots of laughs, good company and plenty of runs (for the limited terrain open we certainly did a lot of skiing/riding). Brad, Ethan and the whole Sugarloaf crew really did a great job of setting this up for us. It was nice to put a face to the members, and see that quite a few of them could really rip.


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## Nick (Apr 27, 2012)

Video of the Summit. I had to work with that we had (groomers!). 



Sorry to all who didn't make it into the video; I didn't have the camera on the entire time, that includes xwhaler & crew, rocojerry, cornhead, backloafriver, and if I forgot anyone else, sorry


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## Nick (Apr 27, 2012)

@ 1:37 I lose my ski, kinda bizarre, i was filming vdk03 and the thing just flopped off.


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## marge.kilgus (Apr 28, 2012)

*Video*

Great weekend and great video Nick!! Love how the ski came off....
Makes me miss skiing!!


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## Cheese (May 1, 2012)

@ 2:18 I hook my ski brake in the hole in my pants but manage to free it before disaster strikes.

Great job filming Nick.  I miss all you actors and actresses.  Let it snow!!!


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## Cornhead (May 2, 2012)

Cheese said:


> @ 2:18 I hook my ski brake in the hole in my pants but manage to free it before disaster strikes.
> 
> Great job filming Nick.  I miss all you actors and actresses.  Let it snow!!!



And I thought you were just showing off. Nick, great job on the video, come on, admit it, your camera was rolling during the infamous "chair lift incident", and that footage ended up on the cutting room floor.:wink:

So glad I crashed your party, everyone was great. Too bad there wasn't more terrain available, the back side was open at the end of April last year, it was nuts. Cheese, nice recovery, I can't even imagine you loosing control, that would have been fun to watch, as long as you weren't hurt. Oh, I love the still shot at the end, what an awesome mountain.


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## bvibert (May 2, 2012)

Nice work on the video Nick.  Looks like you guys had a good time, despite limited terrain.  I wish I could have made it!


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## Nick (May 2, 2012)

Cheese said:


> @ 2:18 I hook my ski brake in the hole in my pants but manage to free it before disaster strikes.
> 
> Great job filming Nick.  I miss all you actors and actresses.  Let it snow!!!



haha, the last footage is from stef. She has her gopro set wrong (to 960 res) which is why the letterboxing on the side.

I thought the ski in the air thing was some sort of showmanship :lol:


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## Cheese (May 4, 2012)

Nick said:


> haha, the last footage is from stef.



Well that explains the focus on my (_!_)

Hi Stef!  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			









Nick said:


> I thought the ski in the air thing was some sort of showmanship :lol:



Showmanship?  Me?  You know I'm a conservative skier ...


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## Nick (Nov 12, 2012)

Bump for 2012/13 stoke


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## Cheese (Nov 13, 2012)

Nick said:


> Bump for 2012/13 stoke



Perhaps this is the year you'll master the Magic Carpet?


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## Nick (Jan 2, 2013)

^This is the year


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