bigwavedave

GR open 9-4 Th and Fri. Sunny Fri after some snow. Can we get any discounted tickets? Online discount is $35.

One pole or two?

Whimps!!! Well, crap. Guess it's over to Blackjack/Indianhead . Looks like they've had a couple of inches today and it's supposed to keep snowing with several more inches through Friday! I'd prefer to ride on empty groomed slopes with sunshine, even with subzero temps, but it could be worse--Indianhead could close too Interested in making a trip over to da UP? I bet it was nice at Spirit today. Did you get out?

Can't help you there. I've only ridden a K168 once on frozen groom, and don't know for sure if it was custom or stock (it was used). It seemed too similar to my customized Rev175. Of course, it was only a couple of runs on less than ideal conditions, so... Also, have not ridden SG Full carve. I suspect they're great, although the few times I've demoed a full-on race model back-to-back with the "free carve" or "more user friendly" offerings from a manufacturer, I've found the "race" models more to my liking. Thirst really doesn't have "stock" boards, as each board is custom made for your weight, waist width (with limitations), and of course the little things that make them special like the asym (WARP) core and asym sidecut for either left or right foot forward. As with BV/Coiler, each board is made by the man himself, one at a time and the workmanship is impeccable. Aren't you coming to Turner?...and didn't you guys just get dumped on? Shouldn't you be out ridding?

The 163 SG fullraceTitan is a great board. Unless you're 250lbs or more, I doubt you could overpower it. If you're shopping on the used market they are likely all the same, as opposed to Kesslers of which there are a lot of custom builds out there, so it's harder to know what you're getting. If you like a board that likes to complete turns and you can ride all day, you should consider the 162 Thirst SF. I had one built with a 20.5 waist and I love it. It has the silky smooth turns of a Kessler, the aggressive rebound of the SG FullRace and edge hold on ice 2nd to none. It has stability at speed, weather you're doing tight turns on a steep hill or opening up and shooting across the hill. I no longer miss my 163 SG FRT! Plus you can get a custom build for less than the price of a new factory built SG and far less than a custom K. You should talk to Mark. Maybe he'd have a demo available. I bet there's a lot of folks in NE that would like to see what all the hype is about.

I'm coming up tonight. Hoping to rip up some subzero 2nd day groom tomorrow! What do you think the chances are that Spirit will decide to close for the next 2 days due to the weather? The lake effect is on inda UP and should continue snowing for the next couple of days with NW winds. If Spirit calls it I will likely head over to BigSnow and ride the baby pow. Anyone get out in the fresh snow yesterday?

Back to work for couple of days and back up Wed night after the snow storm. Looking forward to some soft 2nd day groom turns on Thursday morning!

2" of cold lake effect snow last night on top of a much softer base than Spirit Mt. made for excellent carving conditions today at Indianhead. Lots of sun, temps crept above zero and not too crowded to ride the big board all day! First tracks of the day...I did not wax for cold and the first few runs were like trying to glide on sandpaper!

Another cold day, much like yesterday, but with more people and RedBull infused events on the hill. Incredibly clear blue sky made up for the cold (below zero F), and likely kept the crowds down. Nicest snow was over in the BigAir Park again, yet the slopes were carvable everywhere else. Ken tried out my old 159 Generic. I think he liked it! Tried tucking some hand warmer packets over the toes of my boot liners (and under the shell) and it seemed to work pretty well. Thinking about Indianhead tomorrow. Looks like it's snowing there. I'm longing for some softer turns.

Has Buck replenished the hill with new snow? Spirit has been okay, carvable with a fast ice base layer under the 2-3" surface groom. Best snow is in the park, as usual, in these sparse snow times.

Overheard in the base chalet at Spirit this morning there was a major fire in the new base lodge at White Cap!

Breath in coming out of a turn, and exhale through the next turn. Weight and unweight--drop your weight going into the turn (like a vertical spring bending at ankles, knees and waist) decambering the board, straighten (unweight) towards the end of the turn as the board pushes back (decambering) and drop your weight into the next. Don't forget to breathe. Try to find a rhythm that matches your board, the conditions and the hill. Keep shoulders and hips facing same direction as feet and imagine maintaining even pressure on both heels (or toes), depending.

I know better and rode in front, your reputation precedes you Only reason I decided to come to Turner (after hearing that you were going to be there) was the unlimited grooming:)

That's gonna make one hell of a trench! Fire up the groomers.

On the hill at 11 opening in sub zero temps and filtered sun. Very firm groom (over icy crust, of course) made for great carving. Similar to the day before. Ken was out getting some much needed carve therapy. We had fun ripping it up for a couple of hours. Jane was there too. Rode til about 3. Test ride of the Squash proved it to be a fun carver, even on our very firm snow. Not quite as good a carver as the Incline, but pretty close, and If it's as good in the pow as it is at carving, I'll be very happy. My knees liked riding shallower angles for a change. Rode the Super and the SF too. Ken will be out for first chair tomorrow, so I guess I will too.

Just picked one of these up after seeing some the reviews. Hoping to have a good, yet versatile powder board for my upcoming trip to BC and Turner, that will also be fun carving the groomers, since one is often doing both on a pow day at a resort. I'd kind of given up on finding a board that could do both well--always seemed to be a compromise one way or the other. Since there isn't any powder within 1000 mi of where I am, I thought I'd see if it could at least carve some lines in some Minnesota firm. I was surprised at how well this thing carves! It was actually really fun! There's enough in that swallowtail to finish the carve. The longish decambered shovel isn't flopping around in the turns like some powder/carvers. I'm using "soft" hardboots Raichle 423's (MP28) on Blax type step-in bindings at approx 50°front/30°rear. It's a 163, 26cm waist. Since I am 185lbs and using hardboots, I decided to be safe and get the larger board, particularly since these are designed to be used with softboots. The sidecut is approx 9m in front and 8m in the tail but seems to ride larger and likes some speed. Makes surprisingly smooth carves and has a very nice finish to those turns with a bit of snap off the swallow tail to send you into the next turn! The volume in the nose combined with the setback and swallowtail should make this pretty nice in deep powder as other reviews have reported. Thanks @bumpyride for your review of the Squash. Might never have noticed this board otherwise. Update: Blackjack, U.P., Going from a few inches of pow over the groomed center of the runs to about 1 foot (no groom) on the sides, this board was really fun! ...and yes, it did well in waist deep pow and trees at Turner, especially after I moved my back foot a couple of inches farther back so I could sink the tail to do tighter turns in the trees (Thanks LCI crew for the tip).

out today at 10am opening. Rode with Russ @rwmaron til about 3pm. Intermittent flattish light, but mostly sunny--we like that. Carving was pretty decent. Spirit has become very skilled at producing a decent carvable "surface groom" (read icy base layer 1-3" under the groom). Later in the afternoon when the surface groom wore through we found plush untracked groom snow over in the bigair park! ...and of course the near 0°F temps kept the crowds near zero--no lines and clear runs. BindleStiff had the nicest snow! Spirit has reduced hours due to cold weather for Fri-Sat-Sun 11-5. Watch out for fat tire bike races on the hill on Saturday. Will be out tomorrow at 11am--cold, but sunny! Thinking about Indianhead on Sunday after a little lake-effect snow replenishes the slopes.

...like making snow? Praying?

Anybody been up to Lutsen recently? @BobD ?

Went out for an hour of night riding after looking at the webcam and seeing plenty of empty chairs coming up. After all the overcast and flat light lately, I thought some contrast from the light and shadows might be fun. The riding wasn't too bad, actually pretty good. There was about 2" of sugary snow over hard, ice-encrusted snow with all the late day ruts and piles. I did several "last runs", had a couple of near misses (seems 8 out of 10 night riders go straight down the hill) and people appear from nowhere out of the shadows. Felt like I was in a video game where deadly threats can come from anywhere and you are continually looking for the next one. But, I kept getting sucked into one more run because the carving was good and the crowds were thinning. I finally quit when I had a clean run where I didn't have to make evasive maneuvers. All the snow in the woods had an ice glaze. We really need some snow! I wonder how Lutsen is. I think they've had some snow since the rain and melt. Indianhead was pretty good (about a foot of snow in the past week) and they were still making snow to touch up some areas.

Fake ski tracks!? (last week at Spirit)...purely accidental though...

Back MES 2019... Has or is Afton making snow to cover up the icy crust from the rain and melting? No natural snow in the foreseeable future. It will be cold enough.

Overcast day, flat light. The groomed surface at Indianhead was firm and a bit bumpy, tough with the flat light (gloom and groom). Went over to the west side and found softer groom with fresh on the sides, kind of like yesterday. The west side wasn't open yesterday so not groomed til today. Ran into Al midday and we went over to Blackjack which was much better. Blackjack was open and not groomed yesterday, hence no crowds at Indianhead. Groomed today with fresh left on the sides, kind of like yesterday at Indianhead--and no crowds. A soft groom that you really sank into if you carved hard.

They have developed other areas with no lifts on nearby mts.

Mt Bohemia in the northern tip of the Keweenaw peninsula. Greatest vertical in midwest and over 20 feet average snowfall. The owner is from Canada.