Pete Bauer

Well sadly enough, my winter season has officially come to an end.  This past weekend, Justin Lupone, Matt Blunt and myself embarked on a three day road trip to attend closing weekend at Sunday River and Sugar Loaf.  We arrived at Sunday River on Friday morning only to find perfect spring skiing conditions accompanied by blue bird sky.  Once 4pm rolled around we drove down the street to session the skate park in Bethel, Maine.  

After a decent skateboard session we hit the road again, descending north up to Sugar Loaf in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.  Luckily for us, we did not have to sleep in the car because Justin’s girlfriend happens to live near Carrabassett Valley.  Her and her family were gracious enough to let us spend both Friday and Saturday night at their house.  They could not have made better hosts, serving us filling meals for both breakfast and dinner.. thank you again!  

It just so happened to be the 24th annual Reggae Fest at Sugar Loaf, meaning loads of people and loud music.  When we pulled into Sugar Loaf’s parking lot Saturday morning, the place was filled with cars.  I was nervous, thinking the lifts and trials would be crowded due to the Reggae Fest crowd.  However, the majority of people there were not skiing, rather drinking and enjoying the reggae music in the hot sun.  This meant my friends and I pretty much had the mountain to ourselves!  

Once the ski day came to an end, we drove down the street and went to the Anti-Gravity Center.  The facility is a 20,000 square foot recreation complex, made up of the following amenities: a rock climbing wall, basketball court, weight room, skate-park, and two Olympic trampolines.  Of course you may have guessed, the main reason we went to the center was to utilize the trampolines.  

After spending another night, and eating another great meal at Justin’s girlfriend’s house, we headed back up to Sugar Loaf for the last ski day of the 2011/2012 ski season.  Once again the weather was amazing, providing blue sky and temperatures in the 70’s.. prime goggle tan weather if you ask me! Although Sugar Loaf only had 5 features to hit, I had a blast sessioning the flat-down box as well as their down-rail.

Now that the season is over, I will be focusing my time on working out, trampoline training, summer rail sessions, and the rest of the school semester.

Above: Working on my good old goggle tan            

Above: Justin stoked on the rail session    

Above: Matt perfecting his smile for the ladies 

Above: Working my rodeos

Above: Corky nose grabs

For the past two months, ski resorts in New England have been closing left and right. Luckily Boyne Resorts’s Loon Mountain and Sunday River took full advantage of the cold temperatures by making snow two weeks ago. Ever since Cranmore Mountain closed for the season on March 25, I have had a blast skiing Loon.  Unfortunately, Loon closed their park this past weekend, leaving Sunday River as the closest open resort to me now. I will be making the trip up there this weekend to close out the season. Hopefully they will have a jump and or some rails setup, I would like to gather some more clips for my season edit!  

Above: Closing weekend at Loon Mountain Resort. 

Three weeks ago the majority of New England was blessed with a snow storm. Durham accumulated a solid six to seven inches.  The storm started on a Wednesday night, snowing through Thursday which naturally resulted in classes being canceled.  Sadly just about all my friends at UNH were not interested in hitting rails, leaving Matt Blunt and I on a duo mission.  

We were able to hit two different rails through out the course of the day, one being on campus and the other in Dover.  Both rail sessions were not as successful as I had imagined.  However, this did/does not surprise me because throughout the past four years of my skiing, there is/has always been something going wrong.  This time it happened to be a collection of poor lighting, lack of speed, camera batteries dying, and being polity kicked out.  

As you may have imagined, the warm weather melted the snow within several days.  Just a few days after the snow storm, trying to make the most of the snow Matt Blunt and I went to a rail in Newington.  We arrived at the rail around 9am and the temperature had already reached 48 degrees.  With the sun beating down, the snow was soft and sticky making speed for the rail a challenge.  In addition to the sticky snow, the bungee was a nightmare for just the two of us to pull back.  Once we would get it fully pulled back, I had to hold it while Matt ran and got the camera setup.  This process continued for about an hour until the snow was literally too slushy and slow.  I cannot wait to go back and session this rail next snow fall..

The combination of snow melting, classes and school work, left me with a very small window of opportunity to hit rails.  

Above: UNH C-Rail              Credit: Matt Blunt  

Above: Nothing like a slushy session!

Above: Holding back the bungee bastard 

It sure has been a while since my last post, let me tell you I have been super busy.  Although this has been one of the worst winters (weather wise) in years, I am still loving it!  I would share the number of days I have skied so far, but I would hate to jinx it now.  The majority of my winter break was spent skiing, driving, hot tub poaching and sleeping.  If I wasn’t spending my nights in Plymouth, NH to reduce gas costs, I was home spending time with my family and girlfriend.  Whenever I spent the night at home, I was on the road by 7am to ensure a full day on the slopes.  

Unfortunately, the majority of my ski days over break were spent alone with the exception of the weekends.  My friends either had work, family matters, injuries, lack of motivation or money.  I had high hopes of filming a bunch and making several different edits throughout the season, but the lack of motivation between my friends resulted in minimal footage.  With rainy weather, school starting up and the passing of my Grandpa, my winter break came to an miserable end.  My grandpa was someone who like me, shared an undying passion for skiing.  He had battled Parkinson’s disease for about 15 years.  I sadly cannot recall any memories of skiing with him as I was only five years old.  

Shortly after this spring semester started, I got a job coaching for Cranmore Mountain’s freestyle team.  Due to the Loon Freestyle Team being over staffed, I was not working as much as I wanted.  Luckily for me Cranmore happened to be searching for a new head coach, since the current coach is headed out West next season.  Not only was I hired to be the head coach next season, but also to coach the remainder of this season in order to get to know the kids/mountain.  I could not pass up the offer, as I will be working/skiing every weekend.  Since UNH is an hour and a half away from Cranmore, I have been staying in Madison, NH (30min away).  Although the nights spent in Madison are lonely, they provide an amazing escape from UNH.  Furthermore, I am stoked on Cranmore’s park, the jumps are true tables (easier on the knees) unlike Loon’s murderous step-downs.  Speaking of knees, my left knee has been constantly sore resulting in many bags of ice and ibuprofen.  To help strengthen/prevent injury, I have been working out at the gym throughout my weeks at UNH.  Although I am coaching at Cranmore Saturdays and Sundays, I still ski Loon every Friday.  I am thankful to have the opportunity to ski Loon on Fridays because the rail setups incredibly smooth and all my friends have season passes to Loon.  

The planning process for the annual Sunday River spring break trip is under way! Last year we had a blast.. perfect weather, good people, drinks, and amazing park conditions.  

I will try to keep the posts more frequent. For now here is a tease for the new edit dropping soon…