Sinecure

You live in MI. I'd wait until December 18 when schools are out for vacation. That way you'll have more friends on your mountains to ride with. Plus you can use them to practice slalom. Also, right after a thaw/refreeze or rain event is a good time. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I solved this problem by getting these: http://www.fkna.com If you want to keep up with them, get the right equipment. From your list, I'd get the Jones. Either that one or the hovercraft version.

We're getting those magnet things on two chairs at Alpine Meadows this season. It will definitely be entertaining to watch the kids get stuck to the chair. It is only on the two beginner chairs for now. There's also an intermediate chair that could really use it, maybe next year? So this season we'll have GPS tags on the little kids legs, plus magnetic back protectors on them. Parents will be happy their little ones are being kept safe. First day of ski school is December 11. If I remember, I'll try to report back on how well the magnets work.

Oui, mais pas tres bien. Et Quebecois m'amuse.

Wow, that's a pretty nice Xmas present. Sean's skis aren't cheap. He's custom building them for you? How many of the details can you control? Here's what I'd suggest: 170ish cm 118/85/112 Tip rocker/early rise to about 25-30cm Bullet nose like on a PM Gear Lhasa Pow www.fkna.com No tail rocker 5mm Camber underfoot Flat tail (no twin tip - maybe 15-20mm tail rise max) That's narrow enough to carve well, but wide enough to float in the soft sierra snow. The early rise tip will let it initiate turns like a shorter ski, but then hook up and hold well in the turns. It doesn't need to be too stiff, but not a noodle either.

I thought the word was gants. Not gans.

The movie was FKNAmazing! I loved every minute of it. Best snowboarding movie I've ever seen. As good as TGR and Matchstick's ski movies. It has pucker factor even though it is only a movie. Go! See them climb and ride some amazing lines.

Showing Monday. Details here: http://www.theindependentsf.com/calendar/event-detail/?tfly_event_id=15123 I'll be there. Anyone want to meet up? I'll be meeting some friends at Fly Bar on Divisadero around 7:00 for drinks and a snack. Look for a group of skier looking folks and ask for change for a nickel. They're all TGR folks, not so much BOL people.

Sweet. I saw some Bomber splits on a board being used by a ranger at Shasta last week.

Thanks Buell. I've been reading up on stuff. Brewer Creek TH is definitely the plan. The road to get there opened in the past few days. Hopefully the sun cups won't be too bad. I live at 500', but spend a lot of time at altitude. Last weekend I slept 3 nights at 8500' and Monday hiked from 9600' to 11000' before skiing back down over brutal suncups for all but the first 6-700' vertical. Still, if I can't make the summit, it just means I've gotten my feet wet and have a reason to go back another time. So, none of you Oregon or NorCal fools want to join me?

Thinking about a trip to Shasta next weekend (16-18 July). I know a little about the mountain, but haven't climbed/skied it. Would love to hear advice from those who have. I'm thinking about hiking/climbing and skiing some part of it that's got relatively good snow. Probably drive as far up as we can, then hike and camp. With luck, we'll get to summit and ski back down most of the way. I have most of the necessary gear, but will borrow/rent what I don't have. PM me if interested in joining. If you have great advice to share, please post in this thread. Thanks.

Who is going? I'm going to head down to burn the one ticket I have left. Probably camp somewhere on the Loop Rd. and do some bc skiing somewhere one or two days. May bring mountain bike too, depending on how many people I have in my car.

Alaskan Rover - unltd data just went away for iPhone. Although I don't usually use more than 300-400MB/mo and that includes some utube vids, maddow show app, lots of email. When I upgrade to the new iPhone I might have to start using the wifi option. Here's my opinion in a very abbreviated fashion: Android - the phone you want if you are a UNIX geek, programmer, or other tinkerer/power user. Mike T comes to mind. This was especially true a year ago. Since then, IMO, Android is quickly approaching iPhone in terms of ease of use and availability of apps. iPhone - the phone you want if you like things to work right out of the box, and to have a huge network of support, accessories, etc. iPhone is by far the easiest to set up and configure of any smartphone. Blackberry is pretty easy too, but Android is still a PITA for lots of quirky things. Symbian isn't hard, but there's nearly no support for the OS here in the US. Nokia pissed off ATT a few years ago, ATT dropped them and Nokia has been struggling to get back some footing ever since. In Europe, there are Symbian phones everywhere. iPhone has the most apps. Well, if the ones you need are available for Android then who cares? And pure numbers don't mean squat. But there are a ton of apps for iPhone and you know they'll work right away. Lots are free too. If your iPhone breaks or acts up, you can take it to the Apple store and actually talk with someone who knows how to help. With Android do you take it to your carrier, the manufacturer or Google to ask questions? Sort of like the old difference between a Windows PC and a Mac. In Windows, everyone points fingers at others for problems. With Mac, you go see a "genius" and they help - no problem. Do you want accessories? Like an alternate case, a docking station, toilet paper holder that you can plug your phone into? All available for iPhone - much less so for all the Android options out there. It is awesome that Android is getting so much closer to iPhone and has done it so quickly. Microsoft can't get their heads out of their rectum and decide what they want with a mobile OS - they'll tell you it is Enterprise, but I see tons of iPhones in enterprise situations and relatively few WM phones. They serve so many masters that every effort they make gets diluted in some fashion. Plus they make so little on the OS and can't figure out a decent revenue stream for the product - despite years of trying. Google seems to be banking on mobile advertising to support Android - and given the critical mass that Android phones seem to be attaining, I think the advertising side may really pay off within a year or two. I think Apple is going to start minting money with in-app advertising on the new iOS - assuming they can maintain their lead in the market. In my opinion, Microsoft should either buy RIM (Blackberry), or sell its Mobile division to Blackberry (or Nokia). Three mobile smartphone OS's is probably a number that the market can support. Four may be a stretch, but as the ratio of smartphones to dumb/featurephones increases, maybe four is sustainable. Poor Palm - they were one of the first (and at the time, best) and now they're nearly dead. I've owned a smartphone since 2001 (Kyocera Palm brick with a flip-number pad). Mostly I've used Palm OS devices and iPhones. But I've also had 3-4 Windows Mobile devices, two Blackberries and one Symbian device for various periods of time or to demo/try. The iPhone is far and away the best smartphone I've ever used. And lately I've been looking around the garage to see what stuff I can sell to fund a replacement for the iPhone 3G that I've been using for the past two years. Yes, I'm a victim of the hype.

Some nice improvements since the pair of UPS ones I had a number of years ago. Basic design is the same though. I wore through the third buckle on my rear foot (more inclined ankle so the 3rd and 4th buckles rubbed on each other). Liners look much better than the crap that came with mine. Is the power strap an actual booster strap (stretchy)? If not, I suspect you'll really like replacing it with a Booster brand one. I looked at that first picture and went: . Scary that there are no t-nuts in there at all. Thank goodness the replacement heels came with. It would be suicide to mount Intec/Fintec/FAST heels in those without t-nuts. The walk/ride lever is improved a bit too. It is still retarded that down is walk and up is ride, but I guess not too many people use them for bc riding. I found it super annoying when they auto-revert to ride mode the first time you step into the snow and the snow forces the lever back up. I actually taped them into walk mode once on a long uphill hike. Almost all AT boots I've used recently have standardized on having the lever up for going uphill and down for downhill. Enjoy the new boots.

I just picked up a pair of the Asterisk knee braces recently. Have had many brands before. Most favorite was CTI2, but can't afford a new pair of those right now. I've ridden with knee braces for years now. Have had CTI, CTI2, Breg and Donjoy. The Asterisk is great. Plus the wraparound things for the calf and thigh are adjustable (small hex wrench allows you to adjust how tight they wrap). This is the first knee brace I've ever seen that allows that. The patella cup protector is great. It overlaps like an armadillo and really is nice. The strap system is super comfortable. I'm actually considering wearing them without anything underneath, which would be a first. The adjustment / "strap" system is surprisingly good. At first it looks silly because there are long strings in the back to tighten it. But once you get it roughly adjusted for yourself, you can trim the strings so they aren't as sloppy. I still need to do that. There are adjustments to set the stops for hyperextension. Also, the Asterisk comes with a strap and rivet that you can attach to your boot so that the boot is forced to rotate inward with your leg when you bend your knee in. Probably more important for skiing than snowboarding, but cool nonetheless. The only thing the CTI2 has that this doesn't is a special ACL retention strap thing. I own much of the same protective gear as that guy. But mostly only wear it when racing. I must say that the butt pads are nice for keeping you warm, especially when sitting on the snow waiting for slow friends. But I can't believe he leaves his upper arms so perilously unprotected :rolleyes:

Got it. On the way tomorrow.

For Sale: Head Stratos Pro boots. Size 27.5. Stock liners, regular heels (if you want some Intecs, I have a lightly used pair I'll include for an extra $20). These boots have been well used and slightly cannibalized. I removed one instep buckle to use on my newer Stratos Pros - the mounting screw and t-nut are still on this pair of boots. Also, I removed the two screws that hold the tongue down (one on each boot - you can sort of see this in the picture near the toe). The silver tongues are on the boots now, also in the box will be the other tongues - the orange ones. These have booster straps on them and those will be included. Liners are in OK shape. One is cut up on the top of the tongue from my knee brace. Footbeds are the brand new stock footbeds. $25 + shipping.

So who is going to be there next weekend? Should I bother with bringing snowboarding gear, of will I be the only carver - in which case I'll probably only schlep my skis and leave boards at home. I've rented a condo for the weekend that has a few spare beds in it. Would love to have a couple more people kick in a few $$ toward the cost. Let me know. It is in Mountain Shadows, right near Robertos and Looney Bean - my favorite coffee in Mammy.

This should be fun to watch. I know a bunch of drunks who will be there that weekend. Woohoo!

Ooops, that was a funny typo. Sorry. So who is coming? I may have a spare bed at the condo we're renting or if I take the tent, there's plenty of spare room in there.

Just a couple weeks away. Contrary to slopetool's other thread, the So-Cal season is far from over. It looks like I'll be down there on Thursday night (5/20) and leaving either Sunday afternoon or Monday afternoon. Probably driving with some friends from the Bay Area and renting a condo for the weekend. Most likely will have room in the condo if anyone wants to join / pitch in. Still considering camping too, but not sure. Much easier to pack if I stay in a condo. I'm thinking of going to Tioga Pass or Virginia Lakes on Friday for some backcountry goodness. Tioga is a boot pack in, Ginny lakes is a skin or a snowshoe in. I have spare snowshoes if anyone wants. The corn should be delicious by then.

I'm rooting for a Sharks-Bruins final. But hopefully all the other series get pushed to 7 games so the opponents are tired coming into the conference finals. I had wings for dinner last night and it didn't help the Sharks. Maybe I should have sushi instead?

Not good at DH and have only slid a couple times. Hence the full leathers. Pads and protects when I high-side myself trying to learn to slide.

I pretty much suck at longboarding, but I do have a Loaded Vanguard and a full set of leathers to protect my hide. Are there any cool places to ride in/around Mammoth? I'll be down there May 20-23 and could bring the gear.