AlexJ

I would skip Stratton, the carving season is done here. 5o plus the last two days, pouring rain now. Looking out the window its looking thin. Cold tomorrow then in the high 40's low 50's all next week. Cant say for sure but I am guessing Sugarbush is in the same state. Pretty sure the warm rainy weather will go all the way to Sugarloaf. Thinking you are two weeks to late for this trip. Bring softboots and enjoy the slush.

I have broken a couple of pairs like that. Safe to ride in my opinion absolutely not. The crack will keep moving. You could rivet it together with metal it might hold. you could drill a hole at the end of the crack. Order a new pair.

Stratton is not good, unless you like dirt and sink holes. The next two days of rain will not help. I live there and watch it from my desk every day. Friends at Killington claim it is in good shape.

The new "Carving Machine" has arrived. Bruce did an amazing job with this design. A true pleasure to ride hard.

I had the treatment done on all my boards last year. It was OK, but I had to still wax. For my powder/non carving board it was fine or worked well. Anything I carved on burned away and still needed to be regularly waxed. I would not recommend for a carving application. So for a splitboard application it will work fine. The treatment seemed to work fine in all conditions. Hot/Cold, wet snow or dry snow.

I heard there is a large carving gathering going on there this weekend, does anyone know anything about it?

Magic is only open thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. They are not open on Mondays. Also not really a carving mountain.

I have to eat crow because today was fantastic. Grooming was really good (not amazing) but good. Snow textures was perfect. Tamarak, middlebrook, standard, spruce, supertrail were all great carving. Plus the old "A team" was out in force, broken boots and work had us stop at 11:30AM. Snow was still great. Carving will be perfect through the weekend.

yeh stay away from Stratton. I live here and am out 4 days a week and have probably only ridden hard boots 5 days this season. Grooming is absolutely atrocious, or non existent. I have complained to the president and he said they are trying, but I have not seen any consistent improvement. To make it worse they are not grooming out to the edges of many trails making narrow trails even narrower. Go to any other area in the east and you will have a better carving day.

I am in thank you for pointing it out.

Snowburn, How is the heating in the thumbs? most heated gloves I have tried heat only the fingers but forget the thumbs. I need a solution since my thumbs are frozen 2 runs into the day.

Sounds like we are all of the same opinion. Freeride and attempt a few banked SL.

Reviving an old thread. Are any adults competitors going to actually follow through on the safesport training and background checks? This is a requirement for competitors over the age of 18 this year. I had planned to go back to USASA racing this year, but I really dont think I want to go through this process for a few fun run through the gates. any new opinions on this? Alex

I am teaching her to ride hard boots. This was day 2 in hard boots. She is already killing it, carving right behind me. She is riding a fresh Coiler 161. Alex

David, Sunday should be good. We got 3" of heavy snow last night so riding today was ok but not great. It is freezing rain right now and will rain into the night turning to snow. So tomorrow will be a bad day the snow will be very heavy. But another 5 inch after that and cold temps, so snow will be good. Watch out for grooming though it has been the worst I have seen in the 13 years I have lived here. Grooming ridges are treacherous. I will be there Sunday racing Boardercross. See you around.

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I swapped my out day one with Dalbello Gold ID liners, fit is perfect and added some stiffness to the boot. Love the setup, I know two other people who did the same thing on my recommendation and all are very happy with it.

CourtneyM to try and answer your questions. Everything at the base of Copper is basically Condo's (studio, 1 bedroom, etc.) and pretty expensive. It also fills up very quickly. Also all lodging at the base of Copper is reserved through copper lodging. USASA does have discount codes, but they only reserve a set amount of rooms and it may not be exactly what you want. Last year I did not use the USASA code and ended up with a better room, exactly where I wanted it for the same price. Like Inkaholic said for True motel lodging you need to look in Frisco or Silverthorne. You can get some really good priced rooms there when compared to Copper base. Its about a 20 minute drive to the mountain, then you need to find a place to park, some free areas( furthest away) I think, but most you have to pay for. As for events, I seriously doubt there will be a banked slalom but I could be wrong, I have not paid close attention to it this year. Regarding the pay as you go and is it like home series races, Once Invites are sent to Qualifiers (like 3 weeks before the event) you will be able to register and you have like 2 or 3 days to do it. IT is not cheap, its like $300 something dollars for one event and maybe $50 more for each additional event. Format is similar to home series, slip and inspect, riders meeting, take you run on red course based on the start order of your group. After everyone goes through they slip and now take your run on the blue course. your are done. Awards at the base that afternoon. Hope that helps.

So I voted in the 11- 15 range. That's out of an average 60 days on snow. I am taking Jacks title in context "How many days do you typically carve in hardboots per year?" anyone that says everyday, that cant be right. You CARVE on 12" powder days, or Boiler plate concrete days, or sloppy bumpy spring corn? I say impossible. Also there is Johns point above just because you ride in hard boots that does not mean you are "Carving in hard boots" I only ride hard boots and carve when conditions are worth my effort so probably 15 days a year at best. The rest of the days are for softboots or skis.

Why go, no one will ride with you. With the exception of "Pow 4 Ever".

So I rarely post on Bomber but Queequeg’s post inspired me. I would not call myself car nuts, as I pretty much gave up everything car related other than for utilitarian purposes and moved onto motorcycles for my fun. But I have a long car and motorsports history and used to really be into it. Here is the short version of the history part. Grew up in a racing family spending my childhood summer weekends either racing go carts or at the tracks around the east coast for ISMA and SCCA racing during the hay day of sports car racing in the US late 60’s early 70’s. My dad build Alfa Romeo Engines and raced Alfa’s and Sunbeams. During high school I crewed for some Trans Am teams, and built my own cars, Audi Fox, Fiat Strada, BMW 2002 Tii, Datsun 240Z, Volvo 142 and I am sure others I can’t remember. After college I did some autocross in the 240Z, then moved to SCCA club racing. Started my racing career in an EX IMSA firehawk Camaro, then bought a formula Vee that I raced for several year, Designed and built my own formula Vee racing SCCA Nationals. Then moved onto sedans and built an E36 BMW 325, having scored a good sponsorship deal I raced Speedvision (then just Speed) world Challenge had a ball at that and blew enough money to buy a really nice house. After that I jumped around a bit, raced pro formula Mazda, Grand Am cup in a mazda RX7, various endurance races in Miata’s. I then scored a deal with Mazda and picked up the Mazda RX8 when it first came out to campaign in SCCA T-2. I raced it for a couple years but could never make it competitive. I have instructed for BMWCCA and SCDA track days. This all ended in 2006 and have not been in a car on the track since. This past summer I wanted to see if it still interested me and if I could still do it, so I barrowed a spec Miata and did a SCDA day at Palmer and Limerock. Limerock came back to me in 2 or 3 laps, so the test was a success. I have driven most of the great tracks in North America- Portland, Sears Point, Laguna Seca, Road America, Hartland Park, Mid Ohio, Nelson Ledges, Pocono, Beaver run, Flemington, LimeRock, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Daytona, Sebring, Mosport, NHMS, VIR, Summit Point, Road Atlanta. And two highlight’s Washington DC Street course with World Challenge and the Canadian Grand Prix on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with Grand AM cup. Today my daily driver is a BMW X6M 550HP all-wheel drive beast. Can do 0 to 60 MPH in under 4 seconds with my dog hanging out the back window and all my snowboard gear in the car. And I can tow my trailer with my motorcycles in it at 170 MPH. In the pictures mine is the #71 blue and white BMW at Road Atlanta and Mid Ohio. The Silver #07 RX8 is mine on the LimeRock Grid, the purple Formula Vee is the one I designed and built from the ground up. The Volvo was an amazing sleeper, race suspension and a fully worked engine.

"Finally mount Snow and Stratton are reasonably accessible for me but I was wondering if there are any other carving mountains nearby." I wouldn't actually call Stratton a "Carving mountain". From Boston you will probably find better and closer carving at Wachusett and specifically Berkshire East. Look at the Regional threads for Beast 2018, that is where all the carvers go regularly and you can ride with other people..

Ask for Sean at the Okemo shop he is the head of retail and will assist you. (Dirk I think is his screen name here)

That would be me. Epic carving day today.

Best restaurant in town hands down is the "Downtown Grocery" Best Pizza place is "American Pie" Amazing Tacos and burritos "Tacos Tacos" I cannot recommend any trails or endorse carving at Okemo :)