JohnE

I think it is more about the width of the board and the boot angles that requires. Has anyone tried a board with a waist of 26 - 30 cm with hardboots at low angles? What would be the advantages / disadvantages of that?

Loveland was quite good yesterday though Spring Break is in full force. Crowd avoidance was key and we were pretty successful. Fourteen runs between 9AM & 12:30. Snow was quite carvable.

I think that I shipped a board from Denver to Portland for about $40 via UPS. If you pack it & take it to a UPS outlet it should be about that much.

Do you think the sport of carving is evolving toward hardboots or soft? I tried for many years to carve well in hardboots but just never got comfortable with the high angles. I would head to the mountains with 2 sets of gear (soft & hard depending on conditions). A real pain to haul the gear and question what was the right tool for the job that day. I then gave softboot carving a try and found it much more natural for me. Now I head to the mountains with only one setup. However, in my opinion, the best carvers I see are hardbooters. But, as the years pass, do you think there will be more softboot carvers or hardboot? Have you personally evolved toward one or the other?

I'm jealous. Haven't had a true powder day for several years. Usually on powder days the roads are a mess, traffic is horrible (even during the week), lift lines are long and you often only get 3 or 4 runs in before everything is tracked out. We know where to look at Loveland on a powder day but those "secrets" are getting out. Sounds like fun! Lucky you!

Yuck - Covid. Hope yours is a mild case. Some are - some aren't. Anyone else go up Sunday? Looks like they got some new snow.

What lift, what run?

Wow - looks quite soft for early March!

Another great day at Loveland yesterday. First ones on the lift. Firebowl was groomed 12 cats wide! We hit that early and often and carved nearly edge of groom to edge of groom. Fairly empty to start but then got a bit busy with mostly older skiers. We made a pact to head up Lift #9 at least once a season until we are just too old. Went up yesterday for the 1st time this season and did the big traverse over to Rookie Road. On the traverse we came upon a skier who looked lost. He said he was from Clearwater, Florida and wondered how to get down. We told him to follow us. We paused halfway down and he said "wow - you guys really rock on on those boards!". Rookie Road was not worth the traverse. We did one on Apollo (not so good), 3 on Keno (great) and 2 on Roulette (also great). 17 runs total and then back to the lodge at 1PM for a Telluride Brewery Stout (yummy). Snow is still good but they could use some freshening.

It looks like Powder Addiction has renamed itself to Jones Pass Guides.

I worked and worked for years trying to make hardboot angles work for me and never got comfortable at those angles. I switched to softboots and much lower angles (about 25F, 10R) and feel much more natural and stable. I doubt that I will ever be able to carve as well as the best hardbooters but this works for me.

Very lucky! It can happen to any of us at any time.

I agree. Shipping should be no more than $40 in CONUS. Get some pieces of flat cardboard and wrap the board with tape. As long as nothing hard hits the board itself, it should be OK. Think about how much abuse a board takes when you ride it.

Know anybody who has ridden with Jones Pass Guides?: https://www.jonespassguides.com/ Any feedback - positive / negative?

Yesterday was pretty good. Good groom with a bit of new snow. Seemed like mostly gung-ho hardcore skiers. Got passed a few times at high speed. I think there's a lot of "I'll show those boarders!" mentality. Seems like more and more weekend escapees are bleeding into mid-week.

Do you hardboot, softboot or both?

Modern carving boards help but a descent board that is wide enough to avoid boot drag and has enough sidecut might be good enough. I love my Donek Flux. It carves very well but is great in almost any condition. My view is that the biggest variables are: 1) Conditions, 2) Ability, 3) Equipment. In Hero conditions, almost anyone can carve well. If one has great ability, they can carve well in most any condition and with most any board.

Gregory is on the right. He has risers on his board. I have them on my other Flux. These are to help avoid boot drag. We got them from Donek. They raise your boot by 1/2". I think they are called "BX Risers". Last time I looked at the Donek site I didn't see them. If you are interested, you might contact Donek (Sean) directly.

The advantage of water over rice is that the water gets all the way down into the toe.

Went up yesterday. Left Dino lot @ 7AM. Lots of truck traffic. Evidently I-70 was closed (or virtually closed) Wednesday. So a lot of trucks trying again yesterday. Sections of I-70 still had 2 - 3" of snow in the lanes - especially the right lane. Trucks were getting stuck. Other trucks going around the stuck ones and pinching off traffic. A bit of a mess. Chain law was in effect but most of the trucks had no chains. Took us about 70 minutes to get to the parking lot instead of the usual 40. On the lift at 9AM. Rode Ptarmigan, #6 & #4. Seemed like nobody was on the slopes. I've never seen it so empty. Had the whole place to ourselves. Mix of nice groom and 3 - 4" of new. It's amazing how much more I can concentrate on carving when I know nobody is coming down from above. By about 10:30 or so we started to encounter groups of skiers. They would come onto a lift and we would move to another. We were very successful doing crowd avoidance. Keno, Roulette, Duces, Firebowl and Apollo were fabulous. We knocked off about 1PM and ran into a skier in the lodge who had just arrived. He said it took 2 hours to drive up from Denver. We headed home and saw that the WB traffic jam was still in place. Lots and lots of trucks.

You might try Georgetown or Golden for lodging.

A photo of our current Greyhound - Piper

True

I really can't say. I avoid those conditions like the plague.