Jarcode
-
Posts
261 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Events
Profiles
Forums
Posts posted by Jarcode
-
-
Day 74, Manning
Excellent grooming & hardpack again. The sun came out for most of the day.
Morning half-day private, and then a staff carving lesson in the afternoon. Squeezed in a lot of laps of my own... my riding wasn't too good today though. Made good progress for both lessons.
The mountain was dead today. There were some school kids around as part of a "work experience program", which essentially amounted to free labour for a bunch of departments. -
Day 73, Manning
Excellent grooming, excellent hardpack for carving. Morning laps were pure bliss.
For some bizzare reason, we had double the amount of snowboard lessons compared to the ski side. 10 in total, and I was given four one hour lessons, booking me out for the full day.
First lesson was an adult beginner, very strong and very fast learner. Linked turns at the end of the lesson.
Second lesson was the level 5 highschool group. These three kids were extraordinary, they could all carve and wanted to bomb runs really quickly. After the first lap, I switched to my WCRM (convieniently sitting on the rack next to the lift), and lead the group with some trenching. One of the kids was an exchange student from Austria, and was already familiar with alpine boards. The other two weren't very interested in learning anything, so I showed them side hits and drops instead.
The last two lessons were individual privates for two brothers. First one went really well, second one was a struggle since the parents provided a very oversized board. Did my best, kid still had fun.
Had to voice my frustration with the one hour time slots because I have too much respect for snowboarding to cut my lessons short when I know I could be teaching a lot more. My first lesson felt like a speedrun of the CASI material, getting someone to linked turns that fast feels like overloading them with information.
Much needed day off tomorrow. -
Oh yeah, @BlueB I handed someone else your card. They were interested in trying alpine equipment, having seen it before in Japan.
-
1
-
-
Today I got "did you make that board yourself?" and "that's the guy I was talking about! He turns uphill!" from a very large group of telemark skiers.
-
2
-
-
Day 72, Manning
No snow! Finally, some acceptable conditions for carving. Hardpack was still very soft, but good grooming in the morning made up for it.
I had three different lessons today, so most of my time was teaching. Started with a super skilled level 5 kid from the school group, excellent form and went almost straight into carving progression... we were linking perfect carves on greens in an hour.
Next kid was bunny hill, skier learning how to snowboard. Fast progression, but nothing too crazy.
Final group was a 2 hour private, teaching another two "heel side hero" kids how to toeside and link turns.
Ended the day with a single victory lap on horseshoe, and ran into a telemark skier convention organizing at the top of Bear (12 people)! They were all asking questions about my equipment. I guess it's just one group of weirdos recognizing another. -
Day 71, Manning
Significant pow (~45cm) on Blue Chair this morning. It was lighter than our usual coastal pow, so I had to switch to my K2 just to keep afloat on it. It worked well enough.
I rode for a bit over an hour and went to my first and only lesson of the day: a single student from our school group decided to pick up a snowboard, while everyone else skied. She made it look easy! Had to help a lot of skiers on the bunny hill as well, though.
I went for a bunch of carving laps in the afternoon, and called it an hour early. The snow was too soft to carve, and I had my fill of the pow. I'm hoping we'll be able to groom orange streak or featherstone... but they've been having troubles managing it safely since they don't have a winch. Our club was warned about excessively soft snow pack for courses too.
More tomorrow. -
Day 70, Manning
About a foot of snow fell today. Cleared up at the end to reveal a bunch of pow everywhere.
Had an intermediate school group lesson, and one staff lesson. Played around in the pow on my K2, didn't really like it much. It floats very easily, and I can carve quite well on it, but my sliding turns are awful with this thing for some reason, which is what I was hoping to use it for in the bumps. I think it's too soft between the inserts and too stiff on the nose/tail.
Spent the rest of the day on the Bastard and WCRM. I was actually ignoring the pow most of the day, trenching through into the hardpack to actually carve.
There is about 45cm of powder accumulated on Blue Chair now. -
12 hours ago, BlueB said:
"Told you so" cliché is necessary here
It's still comparatively stiff compared to what you use, but yes, you were right.
Since swapping springs on the .951s shells is pretty effortless, I might look at ordering blue (softest) springs for off-piste. I can't imagine I would want anything softer than reds for carving though.
Maybe I can sell my yellow springs to Ray since he wanted stiffer ones
-
Day 69, Manning
Started the day by digging out my red (medium) .951 springs to swap out from my yellow (stiff) ones. It made a huge difference in my riding... threw me off in steeps, but helped in almost every other aspect. Loading the nose is actually recoverable now, and hurts my feet less since the spring doesn't rebound as hard. I find I can hook up tighter toe side turns now, I feel like I can work my weight along the board a bit better.
Had a single student from a very small school group this morning. Was a pretty fun lesson!
The rest of the day was freeriding. Grooming was done to olympic perfection this morning, hardpack was grippy but still quite soft from all the snowfall lately. Off piste was still quite soft.
@Cousin of Beagle we lose money during the weekdays and make it back during the weekends and holidays. Passholders and other amenities are what helps Manning pull through during the winter.
Friday is looking to be a pow day off Blue Chair when it opens again. -
If I knew I was going to be riding in that, I would have brought my K2… thankfully your nidecker was a major improvement over the bastard in terms of floatation and handling in the soft bumps. A softboot board with plates would have been best, but I only brought two alpine boards up today.
Manning seemed to be spared of any more of that annoying powder today. I’m looking forward to the corduroy tomorrow morning! I miss that sweet, sweet hard pack.
PS: I returned your board to the instructor hut, but I sort of guessed the stance you originally had it set to after putting the burton race plates back on.
-
Day 67, Manning
We stayed an extra day since there was a lot of talk about awful road conditions. Very good grooming in the morning on Hoseshoe and Shadow, everything else was a bit too soft though. Extremely dead (36 tickets sold). Lots of pow stashes left off-piste, which I ignored in favor of more carving.
We left at lunch to pack and drive home. -
Me today, tired from giving the full explanation:
"How does that thing work?"
"Gravity."-
3
-
2
-
-
If they're running off generators, I guess that means they lost power? What an embarrassment for the mountain. Anyways...
Day 66, Manning
We started the day with a light dusting of snow. We thought the storm system missed us until the snow started to set in through the day... turned into a blizzard with awful visibility, and I headed in for an hour to wait until my single lesson slot for the day. Once I got back out, it was clearing a little, and there was powder everywhere!
No crowds (<100 guests), no frozen pipes, and our chairs actually work
I think some of you need to come out here to Manning. -
11 hours ago, big mario said:
And a big A$$ protein drink at the end of the day really helps with next day soreness
Way ahead of you there… if I didn’t eat well, I wouldn’t be able to handle 6 days a week on snow.
-
1
-
-
@BlueB Nice! Maybe Luka can join the carving training in the distant future.
Day 65, Manning
Excellent grooming, excellent hardpack. I was taking it a bit easy today since my front calf was sore from one of my falls the previous day, opting not to carve featherstone (although it looked really good). I made many trenches anways.
Had a surprise two hour group lesson in the afternoon, seven absolute beginners. Everyone learned at their own pace, and helped accelerate the progression for those with an athletic background. Some were very happy afterwards and pledged to return...
It started to get cold and windy very quickly as we closed. That storm might bring us some snowfall, too -
Day 64, Manning
Pow in the morning off Blue Chair, one school group lesson, a bunch of excellent carving on the still perfect hardpack from Bear. One staff carving lesson in the afternoon... more extension drills, really focused on keeping the weight back today.
Much warmer today. Got lots of footage from the morning since it was bluebird pow... -
Day 61: Cypress, training w/ Boris. Pretty fun, and productive. Worked on it in the days that followed. The ALTS session was really nice since a bunch of surprise snow hit us beforehand, vastly improving the carving on panorama. Last shift of the season!
Day 62: Manning, soft hardpack, lots of leftover powder off-piste. Cold. I taught a school group lesson on the chairlift. My carving felt a bit off, and I was really tired from the long drive.
Day 63: Manning, perfect hardpack, perfect grooming. One of the best carving days of the season. Some of Ray's friends returned today to enjoy the snow, and were really enjoying themselves on the steeps. Taught one bunny hill lesson. My plate came loose AGAIN, I'm going to have to get some locktight and get into a habit of tightening up the bolts every three days or so. Very cold, started and ended at -25C, and had to help with sweep again.
Tomorrow is a pow day off Blue Chair... we can see all the snow accumulated there and it's opening tomorrow.
-
Day 60, Manning
Steady snowfall the entire day, still really soft hardpack. Had one two hour lesson, pulled Ethan in to aid since we had a pretty big gap between students. Everyone did pretty well, I entertained a very talkative seven year old.
I'm really tired. It was pretty windy at the top and my carving wasn't as good as it should have been today. -
I don't think they're here. I'm pretty sure I saw the same person last season... late afternoon, always goes for a couple laps.
-
Day 58/59, Manning
We're getting a steady stream of snowfall now, kind of ruining the carving for me, since I'm stubborn and don't want to go off-piste at the moment. About 25cm fell over the day, and 10cm yesterday morning. We're dealing with "medium" pack again.
No lessons yesterday, needed to help with sweep though. One really good lesson today, had the parent extend the slot by an hour.
Ethan was pretty busy today. Daniel "enjoyed" the monoski yesterday.
@BlueB don't push yourself to ride on an injury... that's how my disc gave out. -
Day 55-57
Cypress first, pretty standard lesson exploring blue terrain. Really icy conditions at night.
Then Manning, pretty fun so far with Shawnigan students. Lessons with teachers and students, generally good grooming, both bluebird days. Ethan seems to enjoy the teaching & riding here.
Really let my WCRM with the VIST plate rip today. Featherstone was trenched up, and my trenches from yesterday on orange streak were still visible this morning, since they skipped grooming that. My carving was getting quite aggressive at the end of the day, much higher speeds than I usually do... the plate gives me a lot of confidence and stability.
The free food here has been great too!
@BlueB Hope you're doing alright. I spotted some mystery hardbooters the last time I was at Sun Peaks too... I don't think they're on here. -
@BlueB hope you're okay... don't push yourself too hard
-
@BlueB Yes. I have not yet tried it, and refuse to ride it as a mono-ski.
One of the ski instructors is going to try it... -
Day 53 & 54, Manning
Forgot to make an entry yesterday. Groomers have been much better after a little bit of freeze-thaw to counteract the excessively soft snow. We got a bit of wet snow today, but it should cool down tonight and leave us with even more snowfall for tomorrow.
Yesterday I had a pretty standard bunny hill lesson, and then a staff carving lesson teaching snowboard patrol the same drill @BlueB taught me. It actually worked quite well!
Today I taught some eleven year old prodigy all the way to linked turns and a carved traverse, coming uphill pretty far. It took me about 75 minutes to get there from his first day on a board.
I then conducted a short staff orientation for Ethan. Pretty straightforward.
Lower Mainland Carvers' Diaries, 2022/23
in Canada - British Columbia
Posted
Day 75, Manning
Another excellent day of hardpack and grooming. Sunny all day.
Two school group lessons in the morning, staff carving lesson again in the afternoon. Patrol was very short-handed today, so I helped with sweep as well.
My sister was out here with a friend today as well. She's getting a lot better too! Blew past my lessons today.
Tomorrow we have very little scheduled. Might switch back to the Oxess!