JohnE

Hoping to have another month here in the Front Range. My riding buddy & I believe that we have made significant improvements in our abilities since switching to soft boots. Feels pretty good to be getting better at something when you're over 60. Each day that you ride do you think "Is this my last run?". As the season winds down do you wonder "Is this my last day this season?". "Is this the last run on my last day this season?". Eventually we will all face the question "Is this my last run?". Will we know it or just realize it after the fact?

Last year the slopes held up pretty well all through April. Didn't get into the melt/freeze cycle until very late in April. Don't know if we will be so lucky this season.

Wednesday was great. Cloudless sky all day. Most of the others on the slopes were spring break skiers from Kansas, Nebraska, etc. (easy to predict and get around). Warm but not too warm. Great groom conditions: Fire Bowl, Turtle Creek, Drifter, Deuces Wild, Roulette, Mercury, Rookie Road, Telstar, and Chet's Run. I think we got in about 16 runs between 9am & 1pm. Barely enough legs to get down Face at the end of our day.

Can you share a photo of your setup?

My buddy & I demo'd a couple of boards from Donek: a Flux and a Saber. We both loved the Flux. I ordered one the same length that I demo'd (159), a bit wider (28) and built for my weight (160 lbs). Love it. Can't think of what I would do differently.

Love my Donek Flux as well. I tried & tried for many years to make hardboots work for me but I could pull it together only under hero conditions. It wasn't the boots or bindings themselves. It was the high angles that the narrow board forced me into. The wider flux in softboots is a much more natural, stable and comfortable stance for me. I'm running Flow Talon boots (which I love) and Flow NX GT2 bindings (which I have learned to accept the compromises they bring). Overall, I'm consistently having more fun softboot carving than I did trying to make hardboots work for me. A bonus is that I can carve a groomer and head right off into the adjacent powder in the same setup. The Flux works great in almost every condition (maybe except moguls).

In the Denver Post Sunday morning. The title is "Spring Skiing" but has a photo of a hardbooter. The caption identifies Steven McCutcheon at Beaver Creek in 2016. I don't know who he is but he's clearly got it. The article is mostly about spring events. Little or nothing about snowboarding (let alone hardbooting). Why do the uninformed constantly refer to slopesliding as "skiing"? Glad you all had a good day. Heading up this Wednesday.

Ok. I'll stop complaining. I just won't do I-70 on weekends any more. I-25 is closed and drinking beer? Is that why it is closed?

Major "upslope" storm yesterday. Lots of wind but not a lot of snow in Denver. Not very cold. Don't know how Loveland fared as far as new snow. If they got a lot I imagine I-70 is a parking lot and the new snow on the slopes will likely be gone by noon.

So many avalanches recently in Colorado that various ski areas have been closed or inaccessible. I don't ever recall so many avalanches. Even if the snow is great at the areas, you may not be able to get there or get home.

Wow - sounds great except that mid-week powder draws a whole lot of people. They showed 16" new from Wednesday at 4PM until 8AM Thursday. I-70 has been a real disaster this season.

I figured Corey (& James) probably got there early enough to beat the avalanche. However, they were reporting the highway was still closed at 5PM. If I had to wait that long after riding to get back on the road , I'd probably be pretty drunk. I'll be the groom was great. It was very good on Monday (but a bit soft). Glad you had a great time.

Sounds like the driving was really bad this weekend. A neighbor left very early Sunday for Eldora. Took him 1/2 hour to get through Nederland. When he got to Eldora, they turned him away because the lot was full. A co-worker has a place in Frisco. He left Frisco at 8PM on Sunday night. Took him 4 hours to get to the tunnel and another 2 hours to get home in Denver (2AM)! I-70 between Frisco & Copper got closed Sunday AM by an avalanche and closed again Sunday PM by another avalanche. Too many people!

Great day yesterday. Gregory & I got up there and met Johan and my co-worker Justin. Had some good soft groom & some great powder. Beautiful bluebird day and no crowds. Only took 45 minutes each way from the Dino lots to Loveland. Great powder on In The Mood & up on Lift #9. Johan headed back to Dallas around 10AM. Corey - should be even better groom today. Have fun!

Corey - My buddy & I plan to be there. We usually get there pretty early (7:30 - 8). Look for us in the lodge at the top of the stairs. We can probably get you a bit of a discount on a ticket. The forecast doesn't look like carving conditions.

If you think that you'll be at the Valley - park there. If you think you'll be at the main area (The Basin) - park there. You can take a bus between the two but it seems like an unnecessary complication. At the Basin, Lift #2 & Ptarmigan serve greens & blues. I seldom go to the Valley but there's nothing wrong with it - just no steep terrain and mostly beginners.

A mid-week powder day isn't much different from a weekend powder day - crowds wise. A mid-week day when there hasn't been any snow for several days is very relaxing. Most of the other slope-sliders are older skiers. Very few straight-liners. Little worry about collisions. The exception is Fridays. Fridays are becoming the new Saturdays.

Come up mid-week. No I-70 traffic and very few on the slopes. No fear of crashing either on the road or on the slopes.

Is anyone aware of cants that could be used with soft boot bindings (between the top of the board & base of the binding)? I find that my bindings without cants force me into a bit of a bow-legged stance. I think I would prefer to have a slight inward cant - maybe especially on my rear leg. Maybe 1 - 3 degrees or so.

Was there any carving to be had or did you have to put up with that nasty, white fluffy stuff all week? We've had a good season here in the Colorado Rockies but I am officially jealous.

Was your run between Powder Mills and Upper Mambo? Looks like great glades.

Wow - the tree spacing looks perfect - especially up high. The run looks pretty long. What is the vertical of one run?

Looks like you guys timed it right for powder. I think there is another storm heading in from the PNW. Looks like a big crowd. How many attendees do you think you have?

Had a chance to get my Flux into powder last week. Thursday at Vail we had about 14" of powder. I was on my powder specific board (a 158 Burton Fish). On Friday I got on my Flux. Still plenty of powder stashes. Lots of variable conditions (all soft). I would be hard-pressed to say that the Fish was better in powder conditions than the Flux. Back-to-back days in similar conditions the Flux shined. Easy. Fun! Buy one. You will love it.

Wow - Am I glad that we went up on Friday. I talked to 3 guys here at work that went up Saturday. One gave up in Golden, one took 2 hours to get from the Dino lots to Idaho Springs (and then bailed) and the third went to Loveland but it took him 3 hours. TOO MANY PEOPLE!