Sinecure

We're getting old.

It won't overheat your liners. It will, however, overheat those new Fischer Vacuum heat-moldable ski boot shells so don't use those in this thing (if you ski and just spent $800 on boots). For those of you who have had your plastic shells punched out by a bootfitter, you may find that repeated warming of the shells will cause your punch to start moving back to it's original mold, but even that's unlikely on most of our hard snowboard boots.

Boots in walk mode goes a long way toward softening things up, IMO. I tend to avoid bumps because of bad knees and bad form, but steeps are great in that setup. In my last UPS boots (long time ago now - they were still UPS then), the walk mode switch had a bad habit of slipping into ride mode. I'd tape it up if I were going to do a whole run / whole day in walk mode. Did they actually weigh your ski tube? My experience the last few years (since they started weighing bags) is that they rarely weigh a ski bag. I once wore my hard boots onto a plane because they told me they didn't fit in the carry on space with my other carryon stuff (necessities like knee braces, gloves, etc.). I thought it was funny, they weren't as amused, but I was technically within the rules. I took them off and put my shoes back on once on the plane.

I'd get in touch with Gavin at Snowperformance and ask what he has planned for the summer. And if you can, I'd choose South America over Hood in a heartbeat. Ski a real resort in their winter, rather than a short pitch of salted corn snow with a bunch of spoiled brats all over the place. I've had a blast at camps at Hood, but Chile was so much better it doesn't even come close to comparing.

If you go to Bend and don't avail yourself of advice from Mike T, you're missing an amazing opportunity to meet one of the best BOLers of all time. I haven't been there in a couple years, but his garage is a freaking candy store for any hardbooter.

Good advice in both cases. My 4WD is the 179 and it's pretty good in ankle to knee deep. And it is great on piste. If I were in a situation where I could only take one board with me on a trip, that would be the board. But if I knew it was going to be boot top or deeper, I'd take the dedicated pow stick. I wouldn't buy a 4WD to ride in pow, I'd buy a pow board (again, assuming you have other boards). And I still like hard boots better, even in pow. I know this is heresy to many, but I own Malamutes and Head SP's and go the hard route unless I need to ride switch to demo something or teach.

Well, since you asked for advice from strangers without bothering to read any of the great articles published on this site (HERE), I'd suggest the following. Remove liners from boots. Set oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and olive oil into the liners. Wrap the liners in Tin Foil. Bake for 2-20 minutes (varies based on oven and aversion to melting plastic smell). Remove liners from oven and try to put them in the shells. Use the foil to wrap your feet and insert into boots. If possible, buckle at tightest possible setting. Walk out in the snow. That should do it. YMMV. Angles: I'd suggest 65 rear and 50 front. It doesn't really matter how wide your board is, or how big your boots are. If you go with those angles, board width and boot size won't make any difference. Or go read some of the dozens of threads on this subject, along with the above referenced articles.

Another tip I've found helps on big pow boards (and skis too) is to make sure it is properly waxed. If there's drag on the base, it will pitch you forward. Well waxed will be faster and let the board plane better. I had a 178 4807 until I broke it (twice). Now I have a Nitro Pow Gun 196 that is so much better. Oh, and your stance is too narrow, but you know that already. If you order a board from Prior or Coiler or Donek, you can always ask them to add some additional inserts for you. I did that on a 4WD a few years ago so I could use it for powder on occasion. It works great.

Last time I shipped a board USPS Priority, my mailman took it - didn't have to go to the PO to drop it off. I left the flag up on my mailbox and a note inside saying "please take the large package by the front door." I suspect it barely fit inside his mail truck, but there were no problems and none of the "you measured wrong" BS they like to try on you at the PO.

What's the guest fee going to be for couch surfing?

Somewhat related story. A few years ago I was riding with another BOL member at Mt. Bachelor. He had a brand new Coiler that I wanted to try out. I had a big board that he wanted to try out. We swapped and rode together. Early run, very foggy/cloudy (surprise) and we both rode straight off the edge of a cat track and dropped 8-10 feet into a big pile of snow. Bad news for him was that since my board was long, it hit bottom and pushed his knee up into his chin. This did some cosmetic damage to his face (blood, nothing lasting) and messed up his ankle a bit. I was physically fine. We dug ourselves out and rode down to first aid. On the runout I noticed that the nose of his board (the one I was riding) was a little flappy, but I was more concerned with his health and didn't think much of it. We got him patched up and headed home (his ankle really hurt). Turns out I had created the first ever rockered Coiler. His board was broken. Was this my fault? Hard to say. But that doesn't really matter. I was riding it and it broke. I called Bruce at Coiler and thankfully he did two things for me. First, he agreed to replace the board for basically the cost of materials and shipping (a lot less than regular price). Second, he put my friend near the top of the list for crafting his replacement board. I could have / would have paid the full price to replace his board, but it would have hurt. I like to think that Bruce gave me a good deal for doing the right thing. I now have a really pretty Coiler wall-hanging and I still have the board that my friend was riding.

Bump for some sweet old boards.

Why all those socks? Why not get boots fitted properly? I suppose you'd have to buy two pair to really get it right, but it seems to me that you'd want any/all performance you can get out of the weak leg. There was a bootfitter where I worked in France who'd had polio as a child. He was awesome at building up the sole of boots to add like 3-4cm of height. There are definitely ski bootfitters out there who could do that for your Garmont boots. And I bet you could find a slightly used AT boot in a size 5 pretty cheap on TGR or another forum. Throw in an Intuition liner and the fit should be miles better than the multi-sock routine.

I think I'd go the plate route before adding inserts. Get Donek to make you a plate that has multiple hole options. Although I did mount my AT skis with inserts under my bindings. I'd be happy to show you that set-up next weekend when I'm up at Alpine. The inserts I used are sold by a company called www.bindingfreedom.com - they're designed for ski mounting so you'll have to check with Jon whether they're the same thread pattern/pitch as snowboard inserts. He sells all the stuff you need to do the mounting yourself. It isn't hard if you're careful. But that said, I wouldn't do it to a Virus board I don't think. Or at least I'd try it on a trash board first. When I had my 4x4 made, I had Prior put an extra set of inserts in the board. I wanted the option to mount the board more rear-ward on powder days. I only use those holes for pow days and it is a sweet option to have. You could ask Virus to make your next board with an extra set of inserts. That would be the best route, IMO.

Can't help myself... <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1EPP3gkh_00" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>