(mock) How to: on the hill base grind/structuring

*warning: blurry photos ahead, do not adjust your eyes*

Step 1:
Find east facing slope that has been baking in the sun all week.  Climb said slope.

Step 1: Hike up east facing/melted out peak

Step 2: 
Achieve a zen-like state and sit/ponder the conditions you’ll be encountering in the near future to decide how you’d like to structure your base.

Pondering

Step 3: 
Crack beer and drink while continuing to ponder.  Throw in occasional curse about POS tripod that broke and how it’s cramping your photo steez.

Drink and ponder

Step 4: 
Ride down hill ’til the snow runs out and you’re faced with at least a 30 foot (research shows 30 foot is the minimum to get a quality grind) section of sand and other non-snow surfaces.  Tell buddies that you’d just ollie the gap or ( __insert miscellaneous BS here____ ) if it were light out and you could see, but as it’s not you’ll just ride over it.  Bonus points for snagging nose on a tree or rock and throwing in a sommersault halfway thru the base grind.

Midnight Wintersteiger

Step 5: 
Meet back up with snow, turn back and admire your work, then proceed to ride ’til you hit pavement.  Call it a night knowing you’ve just saved yourself $50 on a basegrind/structuring.

Sand meets snow

Step 6: 
Admire handiwork in the daylight the next day, confident that the structure you added will help channel water off your base this spring.

Mission: accomplished