Allee

Seems to be the way. There's a few motorcycle and MTB magazines I've followed over the years, have gone belly up in the last little while. Nobody wants paper any more.

Thank Dog the warmup is coming. It's been SO cold. I read an article yesterday that's forecasting another two weeks of this cold, snowy garbage, and then an abrupt transition to spring. Given that you get much the same weather we do, that has to be good news for you guys. I'm still crossing my fingers that I can drag a couple of friends over to Beerfest before everything closes down for the year.

Billy and Lonbordin are right on the money. I think this is where it's going. In the last couple of seasons I've seen a LOT of kids on soft boots carving, or attempting to carve, and the shape of the boards has changed radically over the same time period. I've had people on soft boots chase me down specifically to talk to me about carving, but they don't want a skinny board and hardboots, they want to do better with the gear they have, or the gear they can buy from the shop. Most kids can't afford more than one board, so they need to make a smart decision as to which board they want to buy and the riding they want to do. It shouldn't be about hardboots v softboots ... it should be about putting trenches in groom in whatever way works for you. That's how we're going to grow "carving" as a sport.

This Feb has been brutal. We're about to break a weather record here, not a single day above freezing for the whole of Feb. Let's hope spring arrives soon.

Heading up tomorrow. Feels like forever since I've been on snow! If anyone else is out say hi.

Great snowboarding in the winter, and wonderful motorcycle riding in the summer? Works for me.

Boo, the Instagram pics look really good! I guess you;re stuck with the crowds for a few days, hopefully that soft stuff grooms down. I miss the Fish! I really want to come down for Beerfest again this year, but I have a ton of travel planned/committed to and might not have the budget. I've only done two days on the board this season - I've been staying off snow to avoid injuring myself for weightlifting comps. Now those are over I have a bunch of days to catch up.

Did you figure out what's going on with your foot?

If you only want $50 for the Blast I'll take it. Can you get a shipping quote to Canada T2J6K9, and PM me? Slow boat is fine, it's going to be a wall hanger, so no hurry. Cheers!

Morrisey is my fave. See if they still have that T-bar with the 90deg right turn - that's fun for sure! And take a spin down Sticks for me - that run is a hoot.

Have fun. There are miles and miles and miles of wonderful blue groomers there, go rip it up.

I hate all of you. Sigh.

I know it's getting ridiculously expensive to ski and board at resorts. The lift tickets here are routinely over $100 for a day pass now. I bought my season pass at a local hill this year which has been starving for snow, while the resorts closer to Banff have been getting hammered - but a day trip to Banff, with park entrance, gas, and lift ticket, would run me $150-$170 for the day. I have no clue how people with kids afford to go.

Not as the GOAT, but always a badass. I whine about my knees, I can't imagine what she's been through. https://globalnews.ca/news/4916148/lindsey-vonn-retires-skiing/

Lots of you guys already know each other, and that's cool. But remember to include the people that might be hanging uncertainly around the edges. The two years I was at Aspen I deliberately struck up conversations with people who were looking a little lost, and had three of those people tell me later how much they appreciated it, after everyone else had high fived their buddies and gone off together. Sunday night party is fine, but if other people are like me, I'm not going to remember anyone else's name after five minutes. I'm sure as hell not going to recognize anyone the next day with all their gear on. What about a meeting place first thing in the morning, where people who didn't have a riding posse, or wanted to meet new friends of the same ability, could gather for a few chair rides together with a mentor? Kind of how the ski hills do intros at 10 am. You'd probably only have to do it the first two days.

This is certainly one weird winter. It's going to be 11C (54F) here this weekend. It's January, FFS. And yet, the ski hills out in Banff have had record breaking snow - go figure.

Louise is the pick of the hills right now. They got feet of snow last week, and they have easily the most terrain. Have fun out there guys! Should be wonderful this week ... good temps, and that snow will groom down really nice.

Absolutely this. This is how I set my first ever stance, and it's never needed to change. If she wants to learn to carve specifically, she'll have to learn to ride forward angles anyway, so might as well start there. Female rider here, who had a s*** of a time learning to ride. If I can do it, trust me, she can do it. This is what worked for me : Get her a medium size, full camber board (no rocker). The board doesn't have to be anything great, as long as it will hold an edge, and the longer it is the more edge it will have to hold the carve. Mid 150-ish should do it. When I learned we were on a very flat hill, hiking up and down, it was so flat (they have magic carpets now, yay)! I learned first to slide down the hill on heel edge, getting some confidence I could at least stop. Then we practiced flat basing, just pointing straight from maybe 30-40 feet up the hill and running out to the bottom, getting used to a little bit of speed and staying relaxed. Once she has that, toeside was taught as a run out, and then bend knees, go up on to tiptoes and press the edge into the snow - wait for the edge to hook, and ride it around till you stop. Practice that until it's good. Heelside was much harder for me - same idea, bend knees and press heels down to hook that edge, but just way more difficult to do. There's much more body language on heel, cos now you have to turn your shoulders to face the front of the board when you're forward angled. Again, practice until that's good. Then start linking turns by turning the board down the hill before you roll to a stop on either edge. Also, let her know that all beginners, unless they're gifted, fall on their ass and knees all day every day for what seems like forever, when they're learning to ride. It's generally a painful experience. It's not just her that sucks. Stick with it. Good luck!

Heading out for a few hours on New Years day. ETA whenever I happen to roll out of bed The trail report said that Maverick and North Axe are open now, so I guess I'll go check out the crunchy fake snow.

Keep me updated ... I'll come out and do a lap with you for sure.

I was out with Steve last weekend and he said he wasn't planning a session this year with the Clear Cut happening. The snow at Nakiska is almost entirely man made at the moment too ... conditions aren't great, terrain still shut, and it's not forecast to get better over the next week or so.

I'm battling through lifting induced knee pain right now, and had the start of plantar fasciitis. I've put a set of plantar specific insoles in my lifting shoes - I got them from the pharmacy, they seem to help, although they feel really weird - like they're canting my foot outwards. The stretching routine I got for it was : kneeling foot stretch (sit on your knees with your toes tucked up underneath). hamstring stretch (any sort will do). This actually made the biggest difference for me, of all the stretches. achilles stretch on the stairs. rolling the bottom of my feet on a lacrosse ball, although I prefer doing it on a thick piece of dowel or a broomstick. Make sure you roll the edges of your foot as well as the middle. Working this two or three times a day made a big difference in a couple of weeks for me. Staying off it for a few days and letting that tendon settle down will probably help a lot too. Good luck. Plantar sucks.

From what I know of working with a US office, they'll totally send you to collections. It costs them nothing to do so, the collection company gets paid if and when they recover. Sounds like the best choice you might have is to pay up, and then see if you can flog it to someone. Is it a direct to lift kind of deal? Because even with a photo on it, when I use my season pass here, the lifties never check it - as long as it scans they don't care. You could probably find a dirtbag willing to take the chance and pay you half price for it. It's better than nothing.

Damn, I want those pants.

Yikes. I thought $65 here was expensive for the whole thing, I might have to eat my words. They did a nice structure grind for that too.