Allee

My Madd BX, and to a lesser extent the Coiler AM-T, are the boards I take if I don't know what I'm going to hit, but want to have a good time in whatever it is. Unless I'm certain of the conditions (as in I'm staying at the hill and can look out the window) one of those two is always in the car just in case. But whatever I start the day on is usually what I'll finish on, unless the pow starts to pile up while I'm riding. It depends on where I'm riding too, as others have said. If it's somewhere where getting back to the lodge and out again is easy, like Nakiska, I'm more likely to swap for the hell of it. If it's Sunshine, where swapping involves going all the way to the bottom and hiking across the carpark for half a mile to the car, I'll usually just suck it up. And I'll never turn down a test ride on someone else's toy, which is the other reason I'll be swapping bindings at lunch.

To all the carvers I've met tripping around the countryside. My first escapade was to Stratton in 2004, to ride with a group of girls there. My SO at the time told me that I'd end up axe murdered, running around the continent to meet people who I only knew from a few online messages. But from then to now, all I've met are awesome peeps who've been happy to share their knowledge to stop me landing on my head. Special shout out to the Whitefish crew and the WTF boys, creating mayhem and shooting tequila since 2008. Darcy and Riceball for their endless patience on days at Nakiska. Meeting these dudes changed my life. "Pin it ya fairy", indeed. TwoRavens for being a super cool chick and a good friend, as well as teaching me the ways of the heelside, and unlocking the keys to the universe. And all the people on Bomber who share what they know for the good of humankind.

^^^ Never gets old.

What was today like? Your snow report was calling for the best pow day of the season, did anyone go up?

Riceball actually heard this one on Saturday, but got a good laugh out of repeating it to Dave and I. Kid behind us in the line looks at the carving boards and says "What's that?" and his dad replies "It's a barely acceptable form of snowboarding".

Lots of people like the Oakley Fire Iridium lenses for bright days, and those Fire Chrome ones look similar. I'd think those, or the Gold Chrome ones, would work pretty well.

That makes two of us, because that Amplid is so pretty.

Staying home this weekend for the very same reasons. Temps at Nakiska were +6C/mid 40's F this week, so it will be a vertical skating rink until it snows again. And I can't be bothered driving to Banff, because the crowds will be nuts.

I'd love to go back to Targhee sometime. Blackfoot Chair is the best. There's never anyone on it, and the runs off there are amazing. Have you attempted Shadow Woman yet?

Every now and then I ride one of my ancient boards, and while they're fun, they have nothing on a modern shape metal board. Those are definitely gamechangers. But the snow makes a difference too. I rode with friends on the weekend on "superglue' - the kind of snow where no matter what you throw at it, you just can't go wrong. I think that when you have the confidence of hero snow, you're much more likely to try things that progress your riding. Boards are a personal thing, I find. Some people like wider, some skinnier, some like lively and some like damp. You might have found that if you'd been out on another Coiler or a Donek you might have had just as much success. Personally, I've only ridden two Viruses and hated both of them ... but mileage will vary.

We got first tracks down Legacy after the racers finished with it on Saturday. Three of us left nasty trenches all over it. It was some of our better work :-)

Have fun. It was absolutely epic up there today.

They got another 12cm last night. There goes my perfect, third day groom. "#firstworldproblems"

Blair, I'll take the Incline if you can bring it back to Calgary. My Axxess is one base grind away from being done, and I'll need a new rock board ... that would be perfect.

Yep, the osmosis thing was big for me too. I was flailing around on my board for about three seasons before I met the crew at our local hill here, and watching them ride, and picking up pointers, was the single biggest factor in my riding getting better. But I've met people at other sessions - Aspen, Whitefish, Targhee, Snowperformance - who have all had great input into my riding. I've also found that even though someone might be a great carver and a patient coach, sometimes they just don't explain things in a way that makes sense to you - but someone else might. So riding with as many different people as you can helps as well, because even if it's the same point, having it explained differently can sometimes turn the lightbulb on. If you want to be a Corey, you'd better move to the cold capital of Canada and do a lot of freezing laps on a 300ft hill.

My Hot Blast came from a rubbish pile in Aspen. Where old carvers go to die ...

Saturday works for me.

Well, that's crappy. I love my Smartwools, which must be ten years old, but I've finally had to retire two pairs this season. I have one pair of PhD's that are still going strong, but I'll look at some of the options at MEC if that's the case. Edit : Just did some research - looks like 40% merino is about par for the course for merino socks, although the Wigwams look good because they're merino and silk. Icebreakers are still around 70% merino though, and they're running all their ski socks out on their Canadian site right now too ..."goes shopping"

Got some great pow laps at Nakiska today. I'm thinking that if the weather forecast is right for this week, there's going to be some great groom to be had by next weekend. Anyone interested in heading out?

You're getting the same system BC is getting right now. We're getting some here, but nowhere near as much as you guys, just the tail of it. That should make for a fun week if you can stay warm.

Nope, but there's some in the forecast for this weekend. It's very cold there right now - minus 24C in Banff this morning - but warming up a few degrees and the wind dropping by Sunday. Looks like your timing is good.

I love that hill. Damn shame that the exchange rate makes it too expensive for a return visit. Rip some turns off the T-Bar for me, and have a great session!

Ha. Last time I was at Louise I made the mistake of trying to take the Summit lift when my legs were already toast. I didn't even make it half way up :-) Glad you had a good trip! We need some more snow now. It's been ridiculously warm and snow free for a couple of weeks now.

I just clean it off with a gummy stone. Pat, that liquid Teflon stuff in the wipes is the bomb. Wipe on and go, it's awesome.

I ran X-Bones on my Madd BX for a while, they were fine. At your weight, you might find you like F2's rather than Bombers. I tried all three iterations of Bombers, but found them very stiff, and at 150lb I like the F2 Titaniums much better. I run UPZ RC10's, stiff boots, on generally stiff boards, and my bindings are the little bit of give in my system. If you like razor sharp response and/or have softer boots, the Bombers will probably work as well or better. There's plenty of lighter females run Bombers with no trouble at all. I also prefer the F2's for shifting between boards, which I do a lot. Bombers are a lot of screws and plates - I remember going riding with TwoRavens and swapping boards. I had my bindings on and off in about five minutes. Hers took half an hour. If you only have one board though, that won't be an issue.