lafcadio

Anyone been to Wildcat this season? I'm heading there tomorrow, Saturday.

It was nice today. For the first hour it was Colorado hero (soft). By 10:30 it was getting softer and more rutted up with each run. The sun started poking through the clouds around noon and conditions went downhill from there. I stayed until 12:30. I was tempted to keep going, but didn't want to risk injury. Erik and I trashed Pluto's pretty good.

Ha! This was my splitboard two days ago. I got distracted chatting during the transition back to ride mode and didn't notice until after I clipped in that I installed the bindings to the pucks with the board reversed. With this setup, it's probably easier to carve switch!

I've never thought about riding a Skwal before, but I'm interested in showing up to ride and have some fun and giving it a go.

Can anyone comment on DGSS vs the UPZ XC12 SHOXXTER "free flex"? @dhamann? I'm using the stock UPZ XC12 with the "free flex". I'm about 166 cm at 72 kg and typically looking to make my boots more flexible for Pure Boarding style of carving; not stiffer.

Does anyone do night carving sessions? I haven't been to Crotched at night in many years. Until tonight. I was surprised and delighted to find the mountain mostly empty from about 5:00 to 7:30 PM. Carving conditions were not bad. A bit fast and also soft. I left only because I was getting hungry and didn't plan on staying that long. Towards the end Plutos was getting a bit rutted up.. my own fault. I'm really surprised it wasn't busy at all. No lift lines and the runs were not crowded. Is this typical for a Wednesday night?

That's me, the crazy lone dancer/carver.

Yes. I typically post where I’m headed and conditions reports.

Well… Friday was bust. I waited until noon when I thought the rain was letting up. Jokes me on. Not only did it start raining harder after I arrived, the Rocket was down for most of the day. Spent two hours doing laps on the Valley lift before I had enough. When I left it stopped raining and the Rocket started loading again. Today, was much better. I was greated with this after skinning up this morning: More snow on the way!

PayPal on its way.

I’ll be out Friday. I’m away until then.

I’ve had good luck with foam pipe insulation wrapped around the edges. It’s available at most every local hardware store.

Pluto’s Plunge is calling your name. Come out and get some!

I'll definitely be there tomorrow. Skinning up in the morning before the lifts open and then sticking around for as long as my legs will allow.

This is me also. To the point where I can sometimes (often times?) be annoying to anyone I happen to be riding with. I don't care. I detest wasting the hill on skidding around traffic. I'd rather wait so that I can carve turns the way I want to.

I saw you from the lift and again waiting at the top of Plutos on my last two runs. I only stuck around until about 9:45 after skinning up earlier in the morning. Meteor was nice, which is typically too busy for carving. I should be around most of the day Friday and I'll have my carving deck in addition to my split.

Well... the new lift sure is nice. And fast. But there's less incentive for them to run other lifts, which makes for a bit of a line on a crowded holiday weekend. Something that, until recently, Berkshire East, has been mostly immune to. They did a good job at keeping the line moving, but with that many people on the hill and still many trails not yet open, it was CROWDED. For the first 90 minutes, it was good carving. Nothing like Competition top to bottom first thing it the morning to get the blood flowing! By 10:00 it was really too busy for serious carving and by 11:00 it turned into a shooting gallery. Conditions on Competition, upper Chief, and Exhibition were crispy and fast. They were blowing snow on Lower Chief which was full of fresh piles. Same with War Dance and UMass. Regular trails such as Mohawk, Thunder, Roudabout, and Hemlock are not yet open. Probably the most memorable (and sad) thing was to get asked by lift attendants, "whoa, what kind of board is that? Is that splitboard?". And even after trying to explain it to them, they still thought I was using ski boots on a snowboard. @dingbat we miss you more than ever! Maybe it's time for another Rally reunion?

I'll be there tomorrow for MLK day. Looking forward to riding the new high speed quad. Conditions report to follow...

They dropped the rope on Plutos yesterday afternoon. Big Dipper is also open now. Plutos was crispy and fast this morning. Overall, conditions were better than I expected. Very carvable and fun. No crowds!

Conditions were really good this morning! Still a bit soft with the recent snow but fun. Hopefully the rain doesn't destroy the base. Plutos looks like it's getting ready to open soon. Maybe this weekend?

Sadly, I'm not able to make it today, but I'll be there for first chair on Saturday and Sunday.

Today, while experimenting with the buckles, I did noticed more movement with the top buckles undone. At one point, it felt like my heel was starting to lift out of the boot while skinning so I stopped to do up the buckles. I think I want to tighten up the instep buckle a bit to prevent this.

For skinning in hardshell boots like Phantom Slipper, Atomic Backland, or similar, do y’all unbuckle the top buckles while skinning or not? I’ve been experimenting with this on Phantom Slipper HDs while skinning up inbound groomed trails and I’m still undecided. In general, I find it easier to glide forward with top buckle loose. But when terrain is icy or traversing across the fall line I have more control and stability, especially if I need to engaged my edges, with boots buckled up. It may depend on conditions and terrain. This is my first year splitboarding and I have no prior AT/skinning experience. I’m curious to hear what others are doing. cheers!

These are on the way to you, @Desjar!

Today was nice. Not great carving but good cover and recovery from recent rain. Those guns were blasting all day and night! Super props to amazing snow making and mountain ops team! For the first hour it was mostly empty and I was able to find firm groom near the bottom of Galaxy, Magnitude, and Meteor. Upper mountain was mostly piles of machine made fresh which turned into bumpy moguls by 11:00. My last run was about 11:45. Great finally running into the elusive and ever lightning fast, even on softies, @dhamann! Good to finally connect and meet you, @cbrkid1981!