teach

I'll give a contrasting review. I've ridden a few Kessler 185s and found them really friendly. Very nice and easy to handle in a variety of conditions, though on uber-firm you definitely go fast. Great grip if you're willing to hold on with fingers crossed, but yes, it's just too fast for me sometimes and I switch to a shorter board with equally tenacious grip. What surpised me was how well it rides in softer, cut-up snow. It's almost as good as my 178 Nirvana (the best I've ridden in such conditions). Very different from some of the older race boards I've ridden, where as soon as it gets a little soft or bumpy, you're a goner: either you wear yourself out in one run just keeping it out of trouble, or you're catapulting through the air or off the trail heading for the trees. (These are the big bad boards Corey is referring to, I guess. Very different from the Kessler.) I'm nowhere near as skilled as the other posters, and don't ride anything very steep. I'm around 225 lbs. At least one of the boards was a custom built a little stiffer than stock. So a stock 185 would probably work nicely for you. At least, I doubt you'd find it overly stiff. I rode it using the 4x4 inserts (only one set). I've also ridden a slightly softer 185 with a Jasey-Jay plate. The plate made it feel a little scarier (tippy) but that's to be expected until you adjust to the new height, I think. The scary part was how instant the response was (leverage + softer flex). I wonder if the Kesslers the other posters are discussing are stock, or custom? There are a lot of customs out there. Mario rides boards a lot scarier than my Kessler (and rides them hard, all day long), so I suspect the one he rode was a very stiff custom. ??

I have RTRs in that size... a little stiffer than RC10s maybe (depends on year I think). PM me if interested.

I'm not sure of the year exactly, but I have a later model 167 black topsheet 19 cm waist if you're interested. In pretty good shape.

If it feels that way, then either the board is too stiff for your weight/speed, or you're doing something you're not really aware of to counteract the natural bending of the board. There are lots of ways you can unintentionally interefere with the board, and lots of causes. Poor setup is one. With inappropriate cant/lift settings, you'll be twisting the board without realizing it. This can also happen with _good_ setup, when you feel vulnerable -- too many people on the slope, narrow trail, firmer/faster conditions than you're comfortable with, etc. This happens to me all the time. When I become aware of it, a cue I keep in mind is to bend my back knee down to the snow for a toeside turn. That just takes away the unconscious twist I'm imposing with a locked straight back leg (a defensive reflex, I guess). The article on "the Norm" might help here, by getting you to strip away any unnecessary movements.

Closing day was great for the first few hours. But since it never seems to get below freezing at night now, the morning frozen granular loosened up quickly, helped by pretty intense sun. Some runs were still nice around noon, but most were piles of soft, wet, heavy granular. Pretty amazing coverage, especially when you consider the round-the-clock warm temperatures and rain. No rocks, only a few brown streaks, generally full width coverage. Nice grooming job this season (a huge effort, I'm sure).

Really good coverage on all but Raceway and Rhodo, by the way

Yes, hopefully first thing. It's not supposed to rain until 1:00. PM me if you're interested and we can arrange.

Nice conditions this weekend, and not crazy crowded. They were setting up a "carving challenge" on Rhododendron Glen. Looks like it's going to be gates you pass through and you get timed... free... could be fun. It was getting soft as they were setting it up, so I didn't stay to see how it took shape. Not sure if it's a permanent thing or what...

Closing day was today, still excellent coverage.

Camelback got tons of snow, maybe 18"+. It should be great tomorrow!

It was nice to see the snow guns going at my local spot on Sunday! Looks like March will be the best conditions by far this season. Guido591: I was at Stratton Dec 19th or so, and also March 7, and conditions were far better March 7. Much better coverage, better grooming. Wolf: I think we've had it even worse temperature-wise. But I think the local spot is used to adverse conditions and jumps on any opportunity to make snow, even if it's two hours in the early AM when it dips below 28 F. And for the past few seasons. even if it's after Presidents' Week. Places that are usually colder aren't used to this and don't seem to have figured this out (or don't have the resources to pull it off, or whatever).

Really nice conditions Monday! And empty. Ridiculously fast snow. Nice job grooming out the manmade snow, excellent coverage for all trails. Still 100% open, but Raceway is left ungroomed and Rhodo has thin cover on the right. Today's snow might be enough to make Rhodo worth riding, but I think Raceway is done for the season. I have to say Camelback did a great job with really tough conditions. Most of February never got cold enough, even at night, to make snow. But we're still at 100% open and many really good trails with full coverage.

^^ Eric, on TD3s the pivot doesn't screw into the block. There's an axle that runs through the block. Bicycle spokes have threads "rolled" into the wire rather than cut, to reduce the stress concentrations at the start of the threaded section and maintain strength through it. I've always wondered if that could be done on 6 mm wire, and if it would make much difference. OP, what e-pads are you using, and what is your weight? It's possible to hammer pretty hard on the threaded juncture via the sidewinding action if the e-pad bottoms out. I've wondered if a dual-density e-pad might help, to prevent bottoming out and create a progressive stop rather than a hard stop.

How was it today? Would have been great to see all the carvers out. Hoping for next weekend. Good to hear snowmaking is continuing, and finally some cooperating weather.

I think winter finally got around to starting. Maybe 6" - 8" of snow Friday, consistently cold temperatures for the week ahead according to forecast, snow possible Tuesday. Camelback was decent today, way better than you might expect. They were even making snow in the morning. Someone said they expect to be open into April. So maybe we get a month of winter? Raceway was open but with a big fence at the entry saying "ungroomed". I think maybe they don't want to provide cover for it. Rhodo had race training on one side, no grooming and scant cover on the other, but the middle was OK. There's what looks like a water park piece with a fence around it right in the middle of the runout... I really wish they'd leave that run alone. With smaller crowds lately, I'm OK riding the narrower runs, if they're covered.

The question is how thick is the liner in that area? If it's already squeezed to the max, you'll need to thin the heel area to bring your foot back in the boot. Unless your big toe is being squeezed from above, in which case a thinner footbed might help. Or compress the sole of the liner more, or get liners with thin soles (not foam). If none of that works, you've got a very close fit of your bare foot in the shell, and maybe punching is in order. Are there spots where your bare foot cannot avoid touching the shell?

Stratton was really, really nice yesterday! Very consistent coverage, firm, super grippy snow. The upper trails stayed nice all day. Lower got a little sticky in the afternoon.

I use some outward cant on my bindings, and found that I needed to cant the cuffs to suit. So I'm at the middle position on the inner adjuster, and one away from middle on the outer, so that the cuffs lean inwards. I just noticed the rear boot lower cuff buckle is a little worn. Nothing serious, though, and I think I'm on season 3 with these. 312 m shell ("size 28.5").

Interested in the OS1s, the liner tongues, and the FLO liners. Are the liner tongues the thin ones?

See if Bomber has something. They're aluminum and fatigue, so new are best... maybe that's obvious to you....

Got a lot covered overnight. No more rocks or dirt patches. Just some uneven spots, "whales" (snowmaking piles waiting to be spread out) and frozen ungroomed day-old manmade. It got a lot better as the day went on. Much better. Looks good for next weekend.

Forecast is for rain and warm midweek, so next Saturday may not be better than tomorrow. Not much chance for further snowmaking other than tomorrow night/Monday morning. My fingers are crossed. If there's a reasonable chance of rideable conditions, I'll be back next weekend.

Condition report: well, they're making snow nonstop. It's needed to cover some thin patches. The grooming brought up some golf-ball- to fist-size rocks and exposed some rocky dirt patches. Those should be gone tomorrow, I'd guess. The 40+ mph gusts of wind plus the snowmaking and patchiness made it really rough today. Drifts of manmade snow (feels like fine sand) some places, ice or dirt others, hard to see which is which... Without the gusts and with more snow and a grooming, could be really nice tomorrow!

No sidekick this time, unfortunately! But we'll be back...

The Beast affirmed their committment to not letting "Mother Nature" (is she the culprit here?) win, so I'm in for this weekend!