bigwavedave

Saturday A nice surprise of 4-6" light fluffy snow overnight. I knew it would be busy today so drove to the top early enough to make 1st tracks and hike up for a 2nd run before the lifts started. Started out on the 181PC swallowtail. Snow was deeper on Gandy having been groomed earlier. The underlying groom is still pretty hard and a bit uneven. After several runs, I switched to the Superconductor, hit a soft spot and crashed hard head over heels spraining my thumb. Called it quits for the day. It was getting busy anyway. Should be nice tomorrow, a little more sun and colder. A fe3w hours later.... Okay, thinkin' I may have fractured it. It started getting purplish and puffy within an hour and hurts like hell when it comes into direct contact with anything. Who needs a left thumb? right? Ouch! space bar. damn! I can still ride

I'd love to hear from the guys that have had Mark build a metal Thirst and how it compares.

Friday 1 ½ inches of fresh dry snow this morning. Unfortunately, the underlying groom was hard frozen with lots of imperfections. It was well above freezing when the slushy snow was groomed last night. On the bright side, we are done with above freezing temps for the foreseeable future, we now have a good base from the storm and there's more snow in the forecast. A short day for me today. I expect it will be nice tomorrow morning. It's supposed to keep snowing through tonight. I plan to be there until it gets too busy.

Thursday Roads were clear enough to drive to the top before opening. Before the lift started spinning, I managed 1½ runs on ScissorBill in 4-6" of untracked snow on top of a groomed surface from last night. Tracks of the 181 PC swallow-tail powdercarver The fat-tire bike of boards. Puts a big grin on my face. 4pipe was mostly groomed and was fun once the ungroomed stuff got tracked out. Rode the Big Kahuna, TSm² (202cm) over there. Biggest board I've ridden! It did what I had hoped, carving through chop like it wasn't there, while not sinking too deep in the soft snow. It started getting busy after about 1½ hours with the schools closed again today. We got over 2 ft of wet snow in 48 hours. Russ was there. Back tomorrow.

I used F2 race titanium's and F2 carve rs with these boots. All good. I had an inquiry about what other bindings work with these boots. ie, old Burtons, TD3's? Are there some bindings that don't work well with these boots?

Delayed opening again today: 12:00 noon. It's been a sloppy wet storm. This low is like a lumbering drunk who staggers into you while vomiting all over. and then says "sore-y" before stumbling into Canada and passing out Regardless, it should be interesting on the hill today. I plan to hike up before the proposed noon opening.

Bought these 2 years ago. Only used a few times. They are in very nice condition. I added a new DGSS spring system for $120. My feet measure 27.5 and these fit me fine even with my custom footbeds in there. (footbeds not included) I'd like to get $500 shipped Here's a link to the previous listing with more photos and a list of everything included. These boots are still like new. I used them a handful of times for hiking up the hill.

Wed Got up to the hill before noon planning to hike for my first turns. As I half expected, the lifts were not running due to the heavy snow and wind. There were a few of the regular hiker/skinner-uppers there. I found untracked, boot deep snow on ScissorBill. The top of the hill was wind scoured revealing a rock hard frozen groom (it was well above freezing when groomed). Made 2 runs (had to hike back up to get a photo of that 1st track) riding the PCjv swallowtail. Temps are hovering near freezing now and our wobbly low has decided to hang around for a couple of days, so more snow! Planning to go up tomorrow and will hike up if the lifts don't run.

Wed Well, the lumbering low rolled in last night, drawing big NE gusts in from the lake and depositing rain and sleet and turned to all snow overnight. Only an inch of wet snow so far, but they're still predicting 1-2 feet through tomorrow! Spirit has a wind delay til noon today. Schools are closed, so it will be a pow-day zoo if they do open the hill today. Can heavy, wet snow be called powder? I think it's a stretch.

Friday Lutsen open daily starting today. 7" of new snow a couple of days ago made for nice carving conditions. practically had the place to myself for the first couple of hours. 1 run open on Moose, 2 on Eagle and all of Ullr.

Well, now I have to admit that I've been favoring the 166 ice Contra (10.5scr) with the Geckos so far this this season. It's early season, hard-packed, lumpy man-made snow with ice chunks and limited, crowded terrain. It makes tighter turns and with the Geckos, it's smoother than the unplated Kessler.

For what it's worth... We get enough hardcore ice in my neck of the woods that it’s nice to have a board (or 2) geared for ice in the quiver. Over the years, I have found that I prefer a softer flexing, small radius board on ice (to keep my speed down), but with a longer effective edge than a typical SL board for a smoother ride. I have 3 boards in my quiver that fit the bill. Last spring, as the snow melted, we got down to a solid ice base for several days on our local hills. A good opportunity to compare my ice boards back-to-back. I compared the ride of a newly acquired K168 (EE 157.5cm) with my 166 extra rubber “ice” Contra (EE 151) and my 171 Thirst XC (156 EE, no rubber, no metal). All were mounted with TD3 sidewinders. The Kessler and Coiler had a 3° side bevel, the Thirst 2°. As expected, they all had great edge hold on ice. The Kessler had the smoothest, mellowest ride. The 166 Contra felt comparably mellow, but was bounced around a bit more, I suspect due to its 6.5cm shorter effective edge. What surprised me was that the Thirst XC had noticeably more secure edge on the ice compared to the other boards and allowed me to push a bit harder into turns. Since the Contra sidecut was designed to emulate a Thirst sidecut, I had hoped it would have the same solid edge, but with the mellowness of rubber & metal. In my opinion, it felt more like a single sidecut Coiler than a Thirst. Out of these 3 boards, the K168 gave the most comfortable ride overall and would likely be my first choice on ice. I suspect a Contra with the same EE as the K168 (a 173?) would compare well with the 168K. I do prefer how a near radial sidecut rides compared to a variable scr. I also tried the Kesler with a Donek F-plate, AF plate and Geckos. The F-plate worked great on ice, but I hated how it felt when I got into softer snow. It stiffened the mid flex of the board so much that the tip and tail were over flexing in comparison and it ruined the harmony between flex and sidecut. For some reason I wasn’t comfortable on the AF plate and I ran out of time to further tweak that set-up. Everyone says it works great, so maybe I’ll try it again. The K168 worked well with the Geckos, but so far, I kinda prefer how it rides without a plate. The 166 ice Contra handles ice pretty nicely, with or without Geckos. Geckos dampened uncomfortable feedback from rough ice and modified the flex/stiffness allowing me to push harder in turns, more like the Thirst. It pairs nicely with the Geckos and I might leave them on for when it’s rough, though it is a bit more turny, flexy fun without them. While the Thirst had the best edge hold on ice, it was the least mellow, in that I could feel more feedback into my legs on rough ice. For young legs it might simply be more fatiguing, but my old knees complain. While the harshness disappears with Geckos mounted, so does the dynamic ride a Thirst normally delivers. It doesn’t benefit from a flex modifier and Geckos didn’t improve the edge hold either. Thirsts remain my favorite board when there’s more snow than ice on the hill. The bottom line is I really don’t think I like riding on ice. But, sometimes that’s what you get when you show up, and it’s nice to be able to carve some turns rather than skid or go home.

3° gives better grip on ice, but wears faster, so needs more frequent touch-ups. I only use it on my ice-dedicated boards. Oops, sorry, Jack and Barry, I'm not Jack, but I was just posting on some ice board testing I did in my own quiver and couldn't help jumping in.

Alberta Clippers have brought us 3-4" new snow the past few days. ^^^Snowmaking update^^^ posted with pic above. Should be some more runs open this weekend. Rumor is Spirit will open with new winter hours (W-Th-F-S-S) beginning next Wed Dec 14th. Might coincide with a potentially significant lake enhanced dump next week.

Things are moving right along. Guns have moved from 4Pipe and BlueRuin (leaving snow mounds top to bottom) and are now blowing on the tubing hill, Gandy and BigAir (which already has some big snow piles).

Sunday Got that first run again this morning before the lift started up. Snow is a little better today, about 2 inches of nicely groomed snow over the icy hard pack. Scissorbill still has the best groom with snow blowing over from 4pipe. Got about six runs in an hour again before looking up the hill on every turn became necessary.

Saturday Arctic cold front came through last night with 30 to 40 kt winds and temps going from just above freezing to 1° this morning. Freezing rain preceded the dusting of snow overnight. Same three runs open today. The snow was pretty hard and crusty, but carveable. My 166 ice contra with geckos was the best tool in my quiver for today’s conditions. Made about six runs in an hour and was done. It got busy with only three runs open and race teams practicing on Skyhooker. Express chair was running today good snow making weather!

Biked up to the hill today. It has been good weather for making snow. They're blowing on 4Pipe and BlueRuin making connections to the Gandy Chair. Nice piles of snow on JugglerJoe too... Maybe we'll see 2 or 3 of these runs added to ScissorBill, BindleStiff and SkyHooker this weekend. The express chair was running on & off today, so maybe it will be repaired for this weekend. We had 2.5" of new snow the other day and may get a dusting Friday night.

With soft boots getting stiffer and stiffer for carving on stiffer boards, pretty soon someone will invent softboots with a plastic outer shell that just snaps over your foot, has an adjustable flex and doesn't need an exoskeleton binding and... ...nevermind...

Although I spoke to Chouinard on the phone, I'll post my answer here too. I center the boot on the board with the heel and toe equidistant from the edge, (I disregard the center marking of the boot & binding.). I use a carpenter's square to check that there is no overhang on my rear foot. I then set the front with the amount of splay I desire (~5°). Sometimes it might be necessary to turn the center disc 90° in order move the binding side to side get things where you want them. Also, especially with brand new F2 race titaniums fitted to MS boots, make sure that the boot sole is seated all the way down on the heel block when clipped in. It's a tight fit. I learned this from experience when I mounted new F2's on a new board in a hurry on a powder day. I got half way down the hill when first one and then the other foot came out. Felt like I was pushed out of a plane without a parachute. Think quick!

Saturday Picked up my pass late yesterday afternoon. Only a ½ hour line. Took my 1st run from the top this morning before the lift was going. Sunny and warm, very spring-like conditions—40° at the start, 50° by the time I left. Same 3 runs open. Scissorbill had the nicest snow and the least traffic. There were some hard icy bumps under the slushy stuff, so I rode with Geckos on the 166 ice Contra for cushioned & tight turns on the limited terrain. It was fun to make some deep trenches. Made about 6 runs in a little over an hour until it started getting busy. Looking forward to some cooler weather next week for making snow.

Friday Opening day! Also, the first day that passes were available to pick up. Needless to say the line to get your pass was 2+ hours long. I decided to try to make a few runs and come back when the line was hopefully shorter. Unfortunately, they were checking passes at the bottom, so just one ride back to the top for me. At least I got to make a few turns on okay snow. It was inconsistent with hard & soft spots. Man-made ice pellets with gravely ice chunks mixed in. It was just above freezing and heading toward 40+°. It was more like spring conditions. Apparently the express lift is down while awaiting parts. Hours will be 10-5 for the next 2-3 weekends. Might go back up later to try and get my pass so I can make a few runs tomorrow.

Rain today! Makes me less excited about opening day tomorrow. I'll probably still go up and check it out and pick up my pass. They plan to have 3 runs, BindleStiff, Skyhooker, ScissorBill. Rode my bike up to the hill yesterday to ride the DWP trail. Guns were already relocated from ScissorBill to 4pipe. The groom I saw doesn't look promising. Lots of marble sized ice chunks. Looks like groomed gravel. So, rain today, freeze tonight. At least it will be sunny and warm tomorrow.