JohnE

I tried the Powerride medium/medium tongues for the first time yesterday. This is with my Flow Talon boots. I can't say it made a huge difference but I do think it improved my toeside.

Any reports on conditions: crowds, snow quality, runs available?

I always thought that my snowboarding career would end due to age. I'm 67 and still pretty hard-charging but time will not be denied. Now I'm wondering if my career will be ended early by Global Warming. Seems like seasons are getting shorter. Here in Denver today on November 14th, it's 75 degrees and sunny. We've only had one 5" snowfall about 2 weeks ago. Went out for a bike ride today in shorts & t-shirt. It's been "beautiful" weather all fall. Think that most of our snowboarding careers will come to an early end due to the climate?

For a recreational rider (non-racer) who rides mostly on non-hardpack, non-ice conditions: How much difference does a recent base and edge grind really make? Has anyone started a season with edges from the last day of the previous season and then had a tune up and gone back to nearly the same conditions? Can you really tell the difference? My edges are pretty sharp but have at least 300 runs on them on fairly soft Colorado snow.

Report from closing Sunday? Conditions, crowds?

Bob - I live on a golf course but know virtually nothing about golf. I assume this means you shot a 77 on your 77th birthday? That sounds pretty good. Congratulations! I've never seen a golf cart quite like that one. It looks like you could get around many places a traditional cart couldn't go.

Any report from the Sunday crew?

Anybody go this weekend? How is the snow holding up? Did the recent snow help out?

Bob - you must be in a very exclusive club! How many 100+ day seasons do you have?

Wow - that's some great corduroy! Vail would be jealous!

Agree 100%. Carving is so addictive. Same runs over and over and over. Impossible to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it. Most skiers and snowboarders skid - not carve. The sensation of skidding cannot compare to the sensation of carving. It's a binary thing - not progressive. On the edge or not. I talk to co-workers the day I get back to work. They ask if there was any new snow and about the weather. I usually reply that the snow and weather were "good enough". It doesn't have to be powder and blue skies. And it is quite dependable because of the groomers.

Up again yesterday. Warm day. Corduroy started off very firm up high. By 10 AM it was softening up. By 10:30 it was really nice. By 11:30 it was a slushfest. We packed it in by about 12:15. Surprisingly crowded for a early April Tuesday. Parking lot was about 3/4 full. Deep blue sky with not a cloud all day. Rode up the lift with a old skier and we discussed the grooming. He said he heard that the groom crew at Loveland are farmers from Nebraska & Kansas that run farm equipment all summer but have no work in the winter so they go to Loveland to run the Pisten Bullys. Maybe that's why the grooming is so good. They're doing 3 dimensional farming! Brown spots on the snow under Lift #4. Don't think the snow will hold up much longer with a string of warm days ahead. Maybe yesterday was my last day of the season. 15 days x 15 runs/day = 225 runs. About 850 vertical feet/run = about 190,000 vertical feet this season. Conditions wise - this was probably the worst day of the season: too icy to start, too slushy at the end but pretty fun in the middle. This was the worst day in a season of great days. So - still fun!

Corduroy "grain" goes up and down the slope (generally). Assume you are carving on a wide, relatively flat (not level) slope that has been groomed. When you are traversing the slope, your edge is crossing the corduroy at right angles. Edge penetration of the snow is at a maximum. As you approach the edge of the run and the apex of your turn, your board is heading down the slope an parallel to the cord. At this point, your turn radius is at a minimum and edge pressure is near maximum. I'm guessing that at this point, edge penetration is minimal and if you slide your turn at all, your edge hops from groove to groove. It would be a different experience (not necessarily better) if the cord grain went side-to-side so that your edge was perpendicular to the cord at the apex of your turn and your traverses were parallel to the grain.

13 carvers - that must have been a sight! We went up yesterday. I bought a 12 pack of mixed beer and made up a note that read "Loveland groomers are the BEST! Better than Aspen. Better than Vail. REALLY!". I put the note on the 12 pack and gave it to someone in the office. She said that the groomers would really appreciate it. April carving can be soooo sweet - especially if the snow holds up. And it is holding up quite well this season. The days are long, the weather is warmer and the Spring Break crowds are gone. Many people have just shut off their "let's go skiing" brain. Traffic heading up was non-existent. People in the lodge were mostly older skiers. We were on one of the first chairs going up Ptarmigan. Our first 3 rides up still had snow on the seat. Grooming on Firebowl was 10 - 12 passes wide. We got in 17 runs between 9am & 1pm. Ten runs on Apollo - Creek Trail. Almost nobody on that run. Ski Tracker showed 20.7 miles. Cold day to start (7 degrees) but sunny. The snow held up well and was still in great shape when we packed it in. A Cabin Creek Argentine Ale at the end and an easy cruise home.

95 Days? Congratulations Bob! Has Aspen (or Buttermilk) closed for the season?

Good day yesterday (but not in the Top 5 this season). Tried to get Arne to join us but he was at Winter Park on Wednesday and his shoulder was hurting. Hopefully next week. Spring Break is nearing an end. Fewer people yesterday and slanted toward the older skier demographic. Grooming was very good but several favorites were not groomed. Got in 15 runs between 9AM & 12:30 or so. Drive up was a breeze. Drive home was great until just west of Idaho Springs. An accident and/or construction backed up traffic at least as far as the base of Floyd Hill. We wound up going down Clear Creek (mistake) and there was about a 2 mile stretch of 1 way road. What should have been a 45 minute drive took nearly 2 hours. Yuk.

It would be nice if you could put a shoe - like a GoPro mount on the back of your helmet and be able to easily install and uninstall it.

I don't like to think about having a "dashcam" watching behind me in case the worst happens but maybe it has come to this. It would only be useful in the event that I was hit from behind and I would likely be injured and lawyers are involved. When I used to ride weekends I wore a spine protector "just in case". It was a pain riding the lift. I no longer wear it and hope that I never need it. How much of a nuisance would it be to set up the Fly6 and remember to turn it on every morning?

I do everything I can to avoid collision. Primarily riding on weekdays only. By the time you're trying to figure out fault, it's too late.

We very often go down to the office at Loveland after a morning of great carving and rave to the people there about the wonderful grooming. The Groomers are the Rockstars of our sport!

Loveland has several new PistenBully cats as well.

That looks TERRIBLE! I was at Vail in late January. They listed all the runs that had been groomed. I rode most of them and couldn't find any corduroy. I thought "well, maybe this was groomed at some time in history but not in the last 24 hours". It sucked. Aspen and Vail can't (or won't) produce good grooming but little old Loveland does a GREAT JOB!. I've been there once a week all season and every day starts with wonderful groom. A couple of weeks back one of our favorite runs was groomed 12 CATS WIDE!. (But don't tell anybody). Maybe Loveland can up their lift prices to $200+ per day and quit grooming.

I may have found the answer to my question of boot type -vs- angles. My riding buddy has 2 Donek Fluxes - the main difference being the waist width. Wide board with softboots & bindings. Narrower board with Deeluxe hybrid (discontinued) boots and F2 Intech bindings. (I forget what these boots were called. )Lower boot section is rigid like a hardboot. Uppers are soft like a soft boot. Angles on the boards are the same. I asked him if he can tell much of a difference between the 2 setups. He says no. Except that the Intechs are easier in & out. When I watch him ride, I can't tell the difference. So this tells me that the main difference is the steep angles required by a narrow board and not the boot type.

Great day yesterday. Lots of runs through consistent windpacked powder along with some very nice groom. Several inches of new on the previous couple of days. Reportedly very windy on Wednesday. Some really awesome runs on Awesome. Big sections of untracked snow about boot top deep. Spring Break crowds were definitely in force but we managed to avoid most of them. Probably about 15 runs total from 9AM to about 12:30 when the light went flat and the snow got pretty bumpy. Still no melt/freeze yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

The 130# person has 130# pulling him toward the center of the earth. The 230# person has 230# pulling him. The aerodynamic drag on the bigger rider is bigger but not 77% bigger. So the heavier rider has the advantage.