For those of you who read the previous post and, just like me, were confused about the GNAR rating, here is a bit of an explanation.
After staying on campus Wednesday and missing an epic ski to finish an essay, I was out of the loop concerning GNAR. Luckily, I got a thorough explanation during our team dinner last night (Thank you Diane for the awesome food and having us all over!!!). The main goal for GMVS athletes in the spring is to enjoy the last bit of skiing and go on tours that we cannot go on during the racing season. This year, the GNAR rating is an extra motivation to do ridiculous things on our skinny skis. GNAR stands for Gmvs Assessment of Numerical Radness, The basic concept is that, the more ridiculous of a line you choose while skiing or the more air you catch of a jump, the more GNAR points you get. Falling, snow plowing and breaking equipment earn you negative points. So, having gotten the clarification on GNAR, I understood what I had to do during today’s ski.
Justin dropped us off at Texas Falls and let Hans, Kaitlin, Devlin, Tim, David and myself wander out towards Granville. About half a mile before the top of the hill we saw an opening on the side of the hill that had GNAR potential. We hiked up the clearing and into the woods to enjoy a nice downhill. Unfortunately, David got a little too rad and he broke his ski. It was an unfortunate situation, amongst others because it lost him GNAR points, but especially since the big downhill had yet to come. David, as always, made the best of it and mono skied for the rest of the day. Jumping off the side of the trail and choosing tight lines, the group reached the bottom of the valley where we met up with Justin and Rafter. Justin being, and I think I speak for everyone here, the craziest and GNARliest member of our team added to the GNAR experience. Jumps and tight lines were no longer sufficient, you had to jump off small huts and almost ski into the river to ski GNARly. The balance at the end of the day was: one broken ski, 7 happy skiers and one tape of our rad adventures (video will be posted soon). And for those of you who were worried about David’s GNAR points, he earned many more points than he lost by mono skiing most of the day!
The Halvorsen Family left today for a European adventure that will most certainly gain them many GNAR points and hopefully many great moments. Meanwhile, the rest of the team will be alpine skiing tomorrow and going on many more GNARly skis.
Stay tuned for videos and more stories of our spring adventures.
Enjoy the snow!
//Elena
