The Early Ryback Gets The Snow!

It is certainly a rare occurrence for the conditions to be right in St. Louis for a true, honest-to-Energor snow ride. You generally might be able to squeeze one, maybe 2 of these in a year if you're lucky. Too little snow, and there's no point. Too much snow, and it becomes too deep and difficult to push. Difficult, that is unless you have friends with toys.

For the first Snowmageddon of 2009 this past Tuesday, I decided to wake myself the fuck up before dawn, pack my shit up, and ride go play in some powder, but not in the same way as Tony Montanga:

I set a course for Castlewood and got there so early that they had actually yet to open the gates, even though it was after 7am. First person at the park, and the first set of tracks to be laid!

Well, I guess I wasn't the first to be out on the trails:Normally I hit 20-25 down this stretch of Grotpeter, today it was more like 12:

Surprisingly this uber-steep section was fairly easily-handled, despite the snow:
Looks like this ride was ridden just in time, as later in the day it definitely shat out another 3 inches of snow.

Ready for Tour de Groundhog? Oh yes, we'll be there...

-C.F. Ryback