Jeff E

Thank you Bruce for letting us demo those prototypes. I sent my full demo report to JFarr and he'll forward it to ya. On Thursday the snow was almost HERO at Kirkwood and perfect for testing. The Angrry is alot of board for a 160! Held the edge through hard turns on fairly steep 34 to 36 degree slopes(Upper Zachery and Sentinel Bowl). This thing wants to be ridden hard. Fastest edge to edge board I've ridden. Load up the tail and it'll give you a swift kick coming out of a turn--almost bucked me. You like slalom or some crazy mini radius turns, this board will do it. Me, my legs are so fried I couldn't even think of boarding today.

I thought it would be nice to have sort of a reference thread of steep groomed slopes in North America. When we travel, we can look up say Kirkwood, Ca , and say oh yeah! I'll have to try the Wall while I'm there, and see how far I can carve noskid turns at 40+ degrees! It looks like from the posts, resorts are offering alot more winch-cat groomed slopes now.

Last week, I popped both manual TD2's within a second of each other on a hard toeside turn where the tip started to bury itself and then chattered . The bindiings were tight and the release tabs were down almost against the boot. Scared me good. In 1995 I hit something in the snow that ripped my rear binding out and did break my left leg in 'bout 20 places--6 months to recover and $20,000 out of pocket! So I replace my bails every 50 riding days.

A reply from Kirkwood, Hello Jeff,<o></o> <o></o> We groom several runs from the top as you know. Within a couple of degrees, here is the information I have for the steepness of the groomed areas.<o>:p></o>:p> <o></o> The Wall 42 degrees<o></o> Monte Wolfe 38 degrees<o></o> Zachary 36 degrees<o></o> Olympic 38 degrees<o></o> <o></o> Anything else that we groom would be less steep. Hope this is helpful.<o></o> <o></o> <st1>Dave Myers</st1><o></o> VP Mountain Operations<o></o> <o></o><o></o> I <o>have never seen them groom the wall, but I only go there midweek. It sure would be a nice wide, open run. </o>

And you were right Carvedog. http://www.skistats.com/slopes_detail.asp?resort=Mt%20Bachelor They show the length of the lift at 4845', so google earth is pretty close. No wonder my legs were giving out a third of the way down!

Found a link to a site with the degree steepness listed for some runs and lifts in the world. http://www.skistats.com/index.asp For instance for Mammoth Mountain CA, Cornice Bowl is listed on their grooming report and skistats shows it at 40 degrees!

I saw a thread on EC's forum about groomed steeps: http://www.extremecarving.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3730&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0<http: www.extremecarving.com="" forum="" viewtopic.php?t="3730&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30"> and I wondered what and where are our steepest groomers as well as the longest steep groomers? In Lake Tahoe, at Kirkwood, they cat winch groom Upper Zachery, probably the steepest(+40 degrees?,but a little narrow usually), Sentinel Bowl, Olympic, Janek, Shortshot, and Conestoga. Zach is probably 800 ft. long at that degree. When I was at Mt. Bachelor for OES, </http:>on the Northwest chair, Osprey into Devil's Backbone was super steep at the top. Also, <http: www.extremecarving.com="" forum="" viewtopic.php?t="3730&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30">I was amazed at how long and fairly steep Beverly Hills is. It is about 1700ft. long and maybe 35 degrees? </http:>

Many thanks to Mike & Bonnie, Buell & Rebecca and everbody else for making a great event. I wish I could have been there for more than 3 days. Thanks to RJ for letting me demo the 182 Tanker! It was great to meet and see so many carvers. I hope to get there earlier next year! Jeff