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It's here! I woke up to a wonder Twitter update from Mammoth: http://twitter.com/MammothMountain/status/4603065195 Then I checked the web cams: http://www.mammothmountain.com/WebCams/

We're still waiting for the first big storm here in S. California. Mammoth has a slight chance of snow this weekend...

Anyone knowledgeable with winter wilderness skills willing to teach me for beers and/or booze? I figure I can practice the basics by snow camping around the Sierra resorts. Then work my way up the skills ladder with backcountry touring and avalanche clinics. I'd love to try skiing or splitboarding the route from Mammoth to June with someone who knows what they're doing.

I plan on climbing Mt Rainier at the end of this snowboarding season so this is the workout I'm following. I'm also running my first 10K in a few weeks and doing a lot of cardio to prep. I figured all of this will roll right into snowboarding fitness: http://www.rmiguides.com/resources/conditioning.php

Ok so we're not sure when that'll be...but is anyone going up for opening?? I'm getting antsy haha

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'd love the Cateks but it's too much for bindings I won't use much. I plan to ride softies on powder days or when I want to try my friends' fancy new banana magne traction rocker thing-a-ma-jig.

Wow congratulations! It's like we're collectively celebrating a new baby or something haha. Mammoth is still a few weeks away. Hopefully by this time next month SoCal will know if there might be an early opening or not.

Fear not, I'm not going back to the dark side. I'm just looking for some decent freeride bindings to slap on the Prior ATV 171 and ride with my Burton Driver X boots. 2009 models are fine but I get a discount at backcountry.com on 2010 models too. Any suggestions?

I'm hoping to carve before Halloween this year :) Mammoth usually opens 1st or 2nd week of November with a white ribbon of death but hopefully El Nino changes that. 5. Mammoth Mountain, California The snow gods always seem to favor Mammoth Mountain; in fact, in some spots on the mountain the snow never melts. Last season they had awesome early snow, and they were skiing and riding here until well after the Fourth of July.

I think he's refering to the wait list for Coilers. If you order now I'm guessing spring deliver? lol

I upgraded my Macbook Pro and my sister's Macbbook last night. Everything went smoothly and I like how I got hard drive space back. Overall the systems are a bit snappier. I'm sure you guys have read the reviews elsewhere

I only ride in Tahoe once a year and have been to most of the resorts. Alpine Meadows is my favorite by FAR. Grooming is superbbb and it's not crowded. What more can you ask for carving? There's a great variety of terrain too. Squaw is gigantic but there's so many people. Northstar is crowded too (I'll never go to that one again).

Damn, I hope Bruce can get back to the titanal mines soon. Time to make some sacrificial offerings to the snow gods for BV and my future VSR 168 :D

I'd like to buy these. I work in downtown LA and other sites between LA and OC and can pick up.

http://www.physorg.com/news167303297.html Well, not quite. They're skiing robots though! Maybe someone here can build one that carves on a snowboard and we can have even more BOL flamewars about race carving and extreme carving technique

I guess it's good for those in SoCal but crappy for those in the PNW? http://www.nbclosangeles.com/weather/stories/Scientists-El-Nino-Event-is-a-Strong-Possibility-.html I wonder how this will affect the Vancouver games.

I wasn't carving or even riding much the last time El Niño was in town. I'm googling its effects on the Sierra and people said there was a lot of snowfall last time around. Do you think we have an insane season coming up? I just hope the Sierra gets dumped on because I've never ridden in more than 1.5' of powder, ever. Maybe I should put the Coiler on hold and get a powder board :D

My Prior ATV 171 has been true to me all of last season. I added the Madd 170 to my quiver towards the end of the season. It's a great board to carve when conditions are just right but I think I had more fun days on the ATV.

Wow, all this time I thought Canada was the backwards country! I keeeed, I keeeed

I haven't handled the Panasonic GH1 but from this article it appears to be a great camera to take on the mountains for recording video and taking great pics: http://ddisoftware.com/tech/articles/july-2009-dslr-video-revisited/ "The GH1, on the other hand, feels more like a camera that was built from the ground up with video in mind. Offering super fast and continuous autofocus and an articulating LCD that can be used when holding the camera at odd angles, the GH1 is currently the closest match for replacing your camcorder."

I sold my Canon HF100 camcorder to help pay for my new 5Dm2. I'll have to shoot a few weddings and bridezillas to get back in the red. This hobby's a money pit! Anyways, the point of this post was to show how far technology has come. http://vimeo.com/5467256 - not a riding video at all, but it's my first real one recorded with the slr. Thought I'd help my musician friend out. http://vimeo.com/3155182 - skiing/riding video shot by someone else http://vimeo.com/5062435 - truly an incredible wedding video that was edited the same day (sde). It melts my steely heart Manual focusing is not fun!

I suggest you keep your 4/3 lenses or sell them to me for super cheap :) Olympus will be releasing their Digital Pen in micro 4/3 format soon and I'm giving it serious consideration. I'll still have my Canon 5d2 but when I go hiking or backpacking, or even snowboarding, it's just too much weight to mule with me. I think the Pen is perfect for those activities. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0906/09061601olympusep1.asp

Thanks guys. I also found this after digging around: http://home.comcast.net/~jampet99/ldp.html It mentions different types of pumping, I guess I should learn all styles?

Glad everyone had a great season. I hit my goal of 20 days and was happy about finishing with bang at SnowPerformance. I've got a lot to work on for next season and might even have a new board or two to carve on

I know of Silverfish, but are there other good resources for slalom technique? I'm looking for something like the tech files on BOL here so I don't have to dig through forum threads to find good stuff. Still trying to get the pumping thing down :o