bigwavedave

My new stick! customized 175 REV 11-12 scr 20.5 waist captive on the carpet and in it's natural habitat...

Saturday 12/27 Got up this morning with 4-5" fresh, powdery snow in my driveway, but still, I drove north beyond the new snow to Spirit Mt, only a dusting there, but glorious sunshine!!! I had to go though, to test my new stick... customized 175 REV with 11-12 scr 20.5 waist Good day to test this board, with a coarse frozen groom topped by fine, loose granular. Race course firm and very fast, you didn't have to carve to hard to get down to the hard stuff. Big smiles! Phenomenally smooth edge hold! Rode first chair til about 12:30 when it started to get difficult to get a clean run amongst the crowds. Ran into old man bumpy-ride, here for Christmas, riding the carving cow board.

Nice to get out with the Buck crew today. Yummy homemade cookies awaited us at the top of the hill (compliments of Bob). Very challenging conditions with frozen crunchy granular and the now customary flat light. More "scarving" (skidded carves) for most of us, except Trent on his magic Bomber plate, although everyone ended up on skis after a couple of hours. Weather updraft says this is the gloomiest December in over 50 years. The Christmas miracle will be seeing the sun (maybe) this weekend!

sale pending...

Started in hardboots at age 40...21 years ago.

Ha, so, the light was flat? Have a nice Christmas. Hope to get up there after that. Keeping fingers crossed for some snow!

Just made a reservation at the St Moritz in Aspen. I'm driving out (packing my quiver) and plan to be there Mon through the Fri night banquet. 3rd year in a row for me. Aspen is getting dumped on right now! Not a fan of our wimpy winter so far, bring back the polar vortex. I was thinking about a trip east through the U.P. resorts and maybe up to Searchmont, but I don't trust this weather.

I'm planning to come too, unless conditions really deteriorate. Looks like it could be "spring-like" conditions. Karl reported "soft snow" yesterday. That can be fun with the right board.

Sent you my email via a PM. You can PM a member by clicking on their profile picture and then click "send me a message".

Sun did not appear today as advertised, so flat light and 95% firm groom and 5% un-see-able icy patches, or kryptonite, as Ken likes to call it. Still making snow. We need some new snow and it looks like we may get it early next week.

I used linseed (flaxseed) oil (the "boiled" variety). Just rub on with cloth and let dry and wipe off any excess. Looks good and seems to last. Previously I just used lemon Pledge (furniture polish/wax), smelled good, didn't last long. When I demoed a black-top Nirvana at SES, I was riding a black-top Kessler, and Bruce was wondering what Kessler did to the ptex to keep it from oxidizing and getting that white fuzzy appearance. Maybe not a big deal, but it looks a lot nicer oiled than oxidized. Though I kinda miss that lemon fresh smell...

A few clips from last December in the vortex.

Looking good for tomorrow, Thursday. I'll be on the first chair at noon. Hope that bit of new snow helped freshen things up after the meltdown.

I was out last Thursday, Spirit's first weekday, before the warm-up/melt-down. 3-4" of new snow had been groomed in the morning, before the noon opening, making a plush corduroy carpet. Flat light kept me on the shorter radiused boards, with better visibility when the lights came on late afternoon. I'm going to remember the night option for riding those flat light days. Interestingly, they have filled in and groomed the area between upper scissorbill and 4pipe, and removed the fencing, making for a bit of new carving terrain. Fingers crossed for new snow tonight! Might be up on Thursday to celebrate the return of the sun and winter!

SG full Race Titan $600 shipped (lower 48); add $20 shipped to Canada (for extra post&paypal fees); $550 local pick-up or delivered to SES in Feb. SOLD! 2011-12 (black) model, very lightly used, no nicks, dings or vist plate marks. Board is like new, 8.5 out of 10. Previous owner rode one season with SSWSC, ridden occasionally over past year by me. Edges are in perfect shape. Has a very shallow scratch on base near tail that will easily come out with a base resurface. Comes with board bag. Waist 20.3cm Having trouble posting the photos... Link to photos here: https://plus.google.com/photos/100342843937005978183/albums/6092857388655424465 One of the most popular and successful SL race boards, but also insanely fun and versatile ride... ...not my video

1/2 price Tuesdays and $20 Thursdays, coupons here: http://www.wildmountain.com/skisb-specials-and-coupons Rode Tuesday and Thursday Dec 2 & 4 1st chair at 10am til about 2:30. 100% open now and still some crunchy areas in the groom on some runs. Lots of room to carve and no lift lines. Had fun carving up Bear...

carving outside the lines

Bob, Eric, Karl

Well, you didn't miss much if you didn't get out today. Problems with the express chair forced everyone to C chair for the 1st hour or so. 4 runs open; 4pipe, scissorbill, bindlestiff and skyhooker. I was able to have a few nice runs on 4pipe, which was virtually empty before they got the express chair going, just had to cross the rough to scissorbill and to C chair. Otherwise, everywhere else and the rest of the day, the density of traffic made carving a challenge, even with the slalom board. Once the terrain park is built it will be a lot safer for carving! All the effort they put into building it is well worth it. The snow was good, firm and consistent with good coverage. Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow! Glad I got lucky at Wild on Thursday with no crowds or lift lines.

Might come up for a Saturday session before the rain/sleet forecast Sunday. Hoping there's more terrain open. Got my first turns in today at Wild.

11/20/14 Rode for about 4 hours today at Wild Mt. They're about 90% open. Expressway and Sunshine had the best snow, warm sun helped soften them up a bit as some of the other newly opened runs still had some hard, crunchy areas not so friendly to carving.

No one ventured out on the "white ribbon of death" over the weekend? The snowmaking should be coming along nicely with this cold weather. Huttner is predicting a gradual warm-up in the next 2 weeks with El niño possibly setting up for a milder winter. http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/

Fascinating (for weather geeks) time lapse of lake effect snow fall over past 2 weeks (doesn't get interesting til the past week). You can see the typical pattern that sets up for lots of snow on the south and east shores from NW winds: http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/js_animate.html?year=2014&month=11&day=14&type=ruc_snow_precip&region=Northern_Great_Lakes

Thanks for the input Eric, I've only ridden at Indianhead because the guys that turned me on to carving always rode there. A few years ago I went up to Bohemia, stopping at Indianhead and the Porkies on the way, a trip I hope to do again this year before Superior freezes over and shuts down the lake effect snow. I love how much snow they get up there and I think I've finally got a set-up that I like for the deep stuff.

U.P. getting hammered with lake effect snow, Indianhead reports over 42" in the past 3 days and another 18" in the forecast, but they aren't opening until Nov 28th. I bought a 5 pack ticket last spring and definitely plan a trip or two to the U.P. this year. So Al, I know you like Blackjack for pow days and Indianhead for carving days, what's your opinion of Big Powderhorn?