Allee

Wolf, do you have a link to those 323's? I know someone looking for some.

Pat, what year are those ATB's? I've got a set of blue 27.0 RC10's, but I wouldn't mind something a little less race.

Some of the guys are amazing riders. But sharing a slope with them makes you better by osmosis. True story.

I stopped going to the Warren Miller tour years ago, but it sounds like I might have to make the effort this year. Seeing you guys represent would be sick.

Not in the lift line per se, but I was sitting having coffee in the restaurant at Kimberly one day when a snowboarder somehow lost his board at the top of the last approach to the lift. It's a short but relatively steep pitch, so the board picked up a reasonable amount of speed, and took out three people in the line like literal tenpins. Flat on their backs, because of course they never saw it coming. The liftie ran out, grabbed the board, and waited for buddy to run down to the bottom before losing his s*** on the guy. I was far enough away that I couldn't hear what he said, but the Chaplin-esque foot stamping and arm waving was enough for anyone to get the gist of the conversation. Luckily nobody was hurt, but the whole thing was like a segment from an early Warren Miller film. Boris, glad you're OK! That sounds like it could have ended badly, ouch.

Still one of my favorite hills, and still completely under the radar. I've never had a bad day on a carving board at Kimberley.

^^^ Yep, this. Lots of people talk to me about my gear, but once they find out you can't buy it in the local shop they lose interest pretty quick.

Most of the hills here seem to be perfectly fine with a neck gaiter, pulled up all the way. Since I wear one anyway, that totally works for me.

I'm with you 100%. I don't do well in the cold, so I have a -20C rule in place these days. If it's a perfect bluebird day with a foot of fresh then I'll rug up and go, but otherwise I'll stay home. I've given up on the early season white ribbons of death, and this year with Covid I didn't rush to make reservations at the local hills over Xmas. I have a bunch of vacation I have to use, so I'll pick and choose days midweek when there will be few people on the hill and I know conditions are decent. I'm totally good with being called a fair weather rider. I don't see the point of spending a lot of money (between a day pass, a tank of gas and lunch, it can run $150 depending on where I go) on mediocre conditions. I'd rather have a short, epic day, than six hours of meh.

I've never been a fan of Fernie for carving. The best riding there is up in the bowls and that's not carving terrain. The runs off the Elk Chair are decently groomed but they're crawling with beginners and kids and the chair is painfully slow. Falling Star off Timber Chair would be my fave run, if it didn't come out into basically half a km of flat at the end ... Others might disagree though. For me personally if I was headed to Fernie, I'd pack soft gear or at least an all mountain board. Now, if you have a car and can drive for 90 minutes, KImberley is an AMAZING carving board hill.

The Christmas crowds are arriving now all the kids are off school. And the downside to that is that a lot of the kids here (I don't know about there) are on extended break this year - some of our schools don't go back until the middle of Jan. At least the Canadians are stuck at home, which should help a bit. If conditions aren't great, at least you don't feel bad about skipping the busy days.

We just had our first case in the gym last week, right before everything closed down again. I'm really surprised it took that long for a positive to show up, but I guess the cleaning and distancing did what it was supposed to. Nobody else who was there that day has tested positive, so that's a good thing. I know (of) a few people who've had it. All of them reported it being relatively mild apart from one, who got KO'ed for about three weeks, back in the first wave. She's fine now though. Sorry you've got the full experience - it sounds miserable. Rest and recover fast.

Glad to see that you're riding this season. it wouldn't be the same without you. Stay safe out there. Looks like snow for you this weekend ...

So in other words you went to Aspen, had a single bad run, and quit. if you ever want to make sure that you don't learn a GD thing, that's absolutely the right way to go about it. I went to Aspen the same year. I rode by myself some and enjoyed being outside on the snow, before I smiled at some other people, made friends, rode with them for the rest of the trip and learned a sh!t ton. I also went to MCC last year, and the first day was a disaster. it was flat light (my least favorite conditions), the groom was sketchy, it was icy, and Turner is a steep hill, much steeper than I'm used to. I rode like a beginner (not that I'm an expert rider, but bad even for me) and ended the day thinking that the trip was going to be an expensive mistake. But the next day the sun was out, the groom was better, and I ended the week taking a demo board down one of the steepest runs I have ever been on, linking turns the whole way. Success. Because I didn't quit on Tuesday. I can pass on some lessons I've learned from Olympic weightlifting. I started this sport old, and I was BAD at it. It's a sport that demands mobility, athleticism, dedication and a fair amount of sacking up and shoving weights over your head, while thinking all the time that you're going to die. I look at elite lifters on TV and can only frigging wish I moved like that, but I don't and I never will. But after three years of turning the hell up every day, and doing what my coach told me even when it sucked, I'd developed my own style. It's not pretty, but it was effective enough to win me a medal at World Masters last year. And along the way, I'd stopped focusing on the results I got (which when I started, I was ALL ABOUT) and fallen in love with the process. I have to fight to add every kilo to my total when the 20 somethings in the gym PR every time they turn up, but that doesn't matter. My mobility and strength are as good as they've ever been, and from that viewpoint alone that's a win, ever damn day. It's my sport and I love it. This is where you're at. Admire the guys in the videos, but acknowledge that's never going to be you. Sometimes good "for you" has to be enough. If you do nothing but focus on the negatives, you can't complain that everything IS negative. At your age, the fact that you're riding at all is an achievement. Take that as a starting point. Listen to what you're being told (which you don't seem to be good at). Get out there, accept that some days are going to be better than others, have fun, enjoy yourself, and take every small win you can. And over time, those might even add up to a big win, who knows.

Dang. What a drag.

Take the camper and the ADV bike to Oregon for a couple of weeks. Hoping Rally in the Gorge is back on next year. Find a cheap flight to San Diego, go see my friends, and spend some time in Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego in the fall. Get back to Portland, and MotoGP in Austin. Go see my friends in Whitefish (miss you guys!) but I think that will be a next season thing When that vaccine's available, I'm going to be first in line if it means I can travel again.

Canadians can't even get to the next province at the moment, much less anywhere else. Super hopeful that I'm going to get to Revy and Kimberley this year, but it certainly won't be in Dec.

Look on the bright side. The news here this morning said that by the end of November last year we had over 100 cases of (real) influenza in Alberta. This year we have - one. So your chances of catching that have gone down at least!

Ummm,deadlifts? Deadlifts are a posterior chain exercise. They don't do anything for your quads. For that you need to be squatting (ideally) or at least wall sitting. And quite honestly, 3 sets every other day isn't going to do anything. That's not even close to enough volume to encourage any sort of strength gains.

Fingers crossed for you, Corey! Hopefully it's just a cold. I had a scare six weeks or so back, but turned out everything was fine. And yeah, it's lots of fun having a mini toilet brush stuck up your nose ...

Jeez, buddy, when were you there? Sunshine gets busy, but I've never seen it that busy. I guess the answer is that anywhere there's other people, there's risk. You're the only one who can decide how much risk you want to take on. But if you're still going into supermarkets and gas stations, then I'd say your risk there is higher than a non powder, midweek ski day at Whitefish. It might just mean that you have to choose your days this season.

That doesn't look like it would be any fun at all, James. Remind me not to fall into your trenches if I bring the Exigy to Revy this season.

Alberta's not looking great. We were rolling around 100 new cases a day a month ago, but now that's up to 500 a day and has the people in charge rumbling about "extra measures". RCR has put their hills on reservation, and have yet to release their discount cards, so presumably they're going to limit on hill numbers. Sunshine/Lake Louise look like they're trying for business as usual. I'm thinking about putting this season in the "too hard" basket. The one saving grace is that I work on the weekends at accounting month end and can pull lieu days midweek. I also have a ton of vacation days to use. Maybe riding mdweek powder won't be so bad.

Not looking good for "not busy" here either. COP is the local bump, 300 ft vertical, but it "is" right in town. Usually the place has more skate skiers on the lighted loop than it does people on the lifts, but apparently not this year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/winsport-covid-19-dale-oviatt-canada-olympic-park-1.5771823?fbclid=IwAR2KGF-td1TyI7NoCRoHvJWh5C1CPUraTS0SY8dW8l7Q7Z_f9uiXkJmG4zE I have a bad feeling about this season. People who can't fly to sun destinations for vacations or head to the US to ski, are all going to be looking for something to do, just like they were in the summer - and summer around here was a s**t show. Most of the resorts are moving to an online ticket sales model, with no tickets for sale on the hill, and only a limited number available per day - but season pass holders are exempt. I suspect that's going to drive a lot of season pass sales, but I' can't say I'd risk that much money on a hill that could literally be shut down again at any time. I think there's going to be a lot of snowshoeing this winter.

I heard they were still deciding which airport to trial in. Did they actually decide on YYC? I spent the night at the Nordic Spa in Kananaskis last night, and they were furiously blowing snow at Nakiska when I left there at 7am this morning. This snow's going to put down a nice base if it doesn't get too hot again next week.