bigwavedave

The Gopro wide angle makes everything outside of a 10 foot radius look pretty distant, the camera man always ends up being the star. March snomadness continues here, tonight's forecast is for minus 1 and a high of 17 tomorrow with more snow later in the week. Heading back up to Spirit for a Tuesday session tomorrow. Spirit closes next Monday, Giants Ridge open for another week after that and Lutsen til the 3rd week of April. If we get fresh snow we'll hike and ride at Spirit in April.

ZOOOM... http://youtu.be/mC-y8SFoLQo

Yep, in that situation you'd "better call Saul". Bob, you got the best of it, although there were still good tracks to be had later. We didn't quit until about 4PM. Our friend Gary showed up about 1pm. I wish we took a photo from the chair after the first several runs down 4pipe this morning, we really did a good job on it. The view of our work under the Gandy chair was pretty good too. All in all, a great day of carving. Rode the 180 Revalator all day. Tuesday looks like it might be good...and I've got the day off!! Oh, the first run's on groom this morning looked just like in my avatar--perfect.

Well, Dave , you certainly got lucky with the snow for your trip. Two years ago at this time the hills were shutting down due to warm temps and rain. Last year was much like this, we could go for another month. Felt like we were back in January today with a near zero start combined with wicked wind chills (15-20 gusting 30). Inconsistent groom (soft/hard) plus piles of blown snow kept us on our toes today. Top of Cinder Snapper was wind scoured, but lower down was soft and surfy. Rode with Bob (bobble) and Ken most of the day, 9 to about 3:30. I think tomorrow will be better for carving--2nd day groom, sun and less wind.

bigwavedave and lonbordin, 2 Daves, 2 green jackets, 2 Doneks, riding up the express lift this morning.

Snow was great at Spirit today, went from plush groom in the AM to surfy slush in the PM. A fine day! Had fun riding with Dave (lonbordin) all morning. He's off to Lutsen for a couple of days. Bob, it looks like there's some snow (3-5") in the forecast for Friday and low temps, so the snow should be good by this weekend. I suspect tomorrow will be an icy groom as it got pretty warm and slushy this afternoon. Surprisingly, the snow stayed pretty fast. Morning groom Afternoon slush in hover-board mode

Great! I plan to be there for first chair Thursday. Usually take my first run down to the bottom of the express lift before 9. Have fun tomorrow!

Ski boot skates with 18" blades and 4" elevation to avoid boot-out while skate sailing. Sorry, this is going way off topic...

Thanks Brian, I saw those. I'm M28. Definitely will keep a look out for something softer, in the meantime I'm gonna give these freecarves another try. They seem to feel ok on the softer, wider board that allows more relaxed angles. I'll have to see how they are on more challenging terrain. ...oh, not much else of interest snowboarding-wise in the closet, but you might find these interesting...

Tomorrow should be great (fresh on top of groom), have fun Lonbordin. I won't get up there til Thursday, which looks to be a great carving day with sun and that nice layer of new snow groomed over the icy stuff.

These have much more flex all around, including laterally, than the softest BTS springs allow with the T700 boots. I never rode them because the cuff seemed too low, but I never had a soft pow board before. When I took them out on the Nomad on a gentle nearby hill, I liked the flexibility. In comparison, the T700's are so stiff that in super soft conditions, like deep powder, that I can't flex my legs and shift my weight to absorb terrain changes without also applying too much pressure to the board. I was wondering if the Raichle 123's, or some of the other softer hard boots recommended, have a higher cuff than the Burton freecarves?

So, I went into the closet the other day and found this gift from my past self to my future self. Forgot I had these, a brand new pair of Burton freecarve hard boots. I tried them in the backyard and I think they might work better on the powder board than my Track 700's, they feel a lot flexier. Anyone know how these compare to any of the other above recommended boots?

Hey, the forum is back! I was out on Sunday from 9 to about 2. Nice sunny day but challenging carving with a rough, icy crust under a 1" surface granular groom. Didn't see Lonbordin out there. Looks like Duluth is the bulls-eye for yet another winter storm with forecasts for a foot or more of snow Tuesday and Wednesday! I'll likely get back up on Thursday.

Seems the drift from this thread is folks have 2 pairs of hardshell boots, ie; a softer "hard"boot for powder.

Started early yesterday (Saturday) and stayed late. Took first run down 4pipe about 8:45 in time to help Johnathon set up the lift-line corral for what turned out to be one of the busier days of the season. Met up with Jim and Russ for the first chair. About 11am we had to trade GS boards for SL due to increasing traffic. All but the D chair running kept lift lines reasonable, but man it was busy on the slopes, often having to check speed or stop for traffic, though no close calls. After Russ and Jim left at mid-day there was the short lunch-time-lull so I enjoyed several runs over on Cinder Snapper and swore I heard hoots and hollers from the A chair as I passed beneath, but it was as likely for the tricksters over in the park. When I was ready to leave I spotted DonPablo (Randy) laying down some nice trenches under the chair on Gandy to the ooohs and aahhs of the folks riding the chair with me. I caught up with him and his film crew (girl friend) and took a couple of runs with them. Maybe we'll see some video later. Finally got out of there about 3. Went over to Superior to visit the boat and knock the snow off the tarps. Thought about staying on the boat so I could ride today but couldn't access electricity for the space heater. RE: Indianhead Thursday is looking like a better day. Overcast (flat light) and chance of snow forecast for Tuesday and likely frozen groom in the morning.

What's old is new... I know this has been posted here before, but the above video reminds me of this one. I drive by the exit to Cloquet, where this was filmed years ago, on my way to Spirit Mt. Link to rest of the story: http://snowboarding.transworld.net/photos/the-very-first-snowboard/#.UxoiZfldXu0

Gary was telling me about back before he got into snowboarding (alpine only), he was a ski jumper on both the normal and large hills! There is a ski flying hill (the biggest) in the U.P. that's visible from the top of Indianhead. I'm thinking of coming up Saturday. Looks like spring weather is heading this way.

Bright sun, blue skies, 1-2" of fresh sparkling powder snow on top of perfect groom, a magical blank canvass for the first few runs! Wished I brought my camera or had one of those phone/camera thing-a-ma-jigs to film those first runs and view the virgin tracks from the chair. Above zero temps for a change. Met up with Ken, and later Gary, and rode til the after-schoolers started to show up. Rode the Rev180 til the snow started softening up after noon and switched to my new favorite board (for soft snow and crud), the 180 Delrossi Incline. Great day, thankful for knees that still work and boards that make riding easier.

Coming up tomorrow, looks like a nice day, sun is forecast with above zero temps!...and a little fresh snow tonight?

In the backyard yesterday...

Was thinking the same thing while conditions are still great, so count me in too! I'll come up Monday evening, maybe get a few runs in at Spirit as well, so book my room please.

Woke up early this morning, looked at the temp and crawled back into bed. Played in the back yard this afternoon...

Had the pleasure of riding all morning with the boarder patrol, Russ. We had the express chair to ourselves for the fist half hour or so until a skier showed up, we didn't let that cramp our style. A beautiful morning. The groom has firmed up, Minnesota style. Bright sun and blue skies with a light breeze and temps near zero again kept the crowds down. Several layers and face mask are the standard uniform this year, but worth the price for having the runs pretty much to ourselves. Ken and Jane showed up right after Russ left. Took several runs with Ken and then quit for lunch around 2. Still thinking about coming out tomorrow. We'll see if it gets as cold as they forecast.

Well, at least the sun should be warm, right?

So who's coming out tomorrow to celebrate surviving the coldest winter? Anyone? It's supposed to get all the way up to -2.