Cthulhufish

Still haven't seen anyone on a carving board I'm stopping for lunch at the crepe shack below the gondola. If anyone is around let me know or stop by. I've got my alpine board with me.

Just arrived at Two Creeks. Where are people riding at Snowmass / stopping for lunch?

Snowmass I guess.

I keep my filaments in a dry box. Nothing fancy, just an air tight plastic bin with a kilogram of silica gel packets in the bottom. Eventually the silica gel packets need to be cooked to get the water out.

Where are people planning to meet up tomorrow?

I think VC-3 uses MEK, but it's air cured, so the solvent never needs to touch anything but the screw. It's also reusable. That said, for any threadlocker, the manufacturer should publish a list of compatible plastics. They don't all eat all plastics.

Of course, tightening the bolts down shreds the bumps in the heel/toe blocks that are meant to prevent the bolt from backing out. Sigh. I suppose Vibratite VC-3 is the answer to that.

I just had one of my RC12s open for some surgery on the spring mechanism, and it turns out the 4 position lock is really more of a 3 position lock in practice. Maybe this is just the 279mm shell, but the metal plate with the locking holes is curved near the bottom. The plastic box that holds the locking mechanism and which slides over the locking plate has a straight groove in it. The curved bottom portion of the plate jams in the spring box as the boot straightens, starting around the 2nd hole from the bottom. I knew I wasn't finding a 4th locking position, but I always figured it was because I was skipping over it, or that I wasn't getting enough leverage to flex the liner or something. As for flex adjustment, the nuts on the back can be used to increase preload. The top (heel side) adjustment nut can be turned with a dime. Or at least a dime fits in most of the slots on mine. Otherwise, a big enough flat head screwdriver works. It should spin relatively freely, but be careful about rounding over the edges. The bottom (toe side) adjustment nut is a normal 10mm nylock nut. It can be adjusted with a box wrench (12 point style).

Stock spring system in my RC12s. I haven't touched any of the adjustments yet, just tried locking them at different positions. When I say heel side initiation seems harder, specifically I feel like I have to get my center of mass out past the edge before the board responds, whereas on the toe side it feels like the board starts moving as soon as I do. I certainly can't rule out technique, but come to think of it, I think I was riding with my shins pressing against my boots when "neutral". That seems like it could bias me towards toe side. My MP size puts me at the center of the range for the shell on UPZ's size chart. I'll consult a boot fitter on that one I guess.

I finally got the chance to get back on my alpine board today. I went 55/50 angles, heel and toe lifts, and spread my stance a bit wider than usual. I also cranked my boots down pretty hard. Big, obvious improvements. Thank you all for the suggestions! I did feel like my turn initiations were biased towards toe-side. Kind of like having too little highback lean with strap bindings. Is that likely a matter of the centering of my boots in my bindings? The other thing I noticed was that my rear shin was pressing into the tongue a lot even with as much lean as I could get out of it (3rd hole I think). Is even more heel lift the answer to that? Or could I be forward biasing to compensate for too much setback? Or do I just need to figure out a way to get more lean? Or something. And yes, I do think I need more liner volume. Cranking down on the buckles resulted in better board control at the expense of unhappy feet. Or smaller shells, which I think would mean I'd need to get Deeluxes?

Thank you for the advice everyone! I think I'll start with the stance angles and fine tuning my boots (buckling and lean angles). I'll give 55/50 a shot and go from there. I don't think I've gone past 50 up front before. Speaking of angles, anyone have advice for standing up from heel side with high stance angles? I find I keep putting uncomfortable pressure on my back knee when I do it.

I'm a softbooter still learning alpine riding. I pulled my alpine gear out of storage and did my first lap of the season on it today and things went a lot worse than I expected. My board felt sluggish and sloppy, requiring much larger motions to move than I expected. I tried adjusting my binding angles on the slope since they felt off to me, but with little success. It was bad enough that I called it quits after a single run rather than trying to fight my board (things were getting a bit crowded). And I lack the experience with alpine gear to diagnose what was going wrong. I could really use some help trying to get things setup a little better before trying to take ride it again. Setup: Donek Voyager, 160cm long, 19cm waist, 9m sidecut, custom ordered to weight; UPZ RC12s with stock springs and tongue, custom insoles; F2 Race Titanium bindings. I forgot to write down my stance setup etc last spring and kind of guessed at angles. I think they were around 47/40. They're currently at about 51/40 after playing with them on the slope. Which sounds too wide to me, but I was adjusting more off of feel than looking at the numbers and didn't notice how much splay I added. Stance is on reference. I wasn't making turns well enough to feel out issues with setback or width. My front binding has one inward cant wedge. Back is flat. I remember experimenting with different wedge combinations last season but forget how and why I arrived at that. I suspect my UPZs (or the stock liners) might be the culprit. They should be the right size (24.5MP feet, 279mm shells with 24.5 liners). I buckled the shell down to what I thought was reasonable snugness just shy of causing issues, but my feet didn't feel very secure when trying to lean into turns. I'm new enough to hardboots that I could very well be buckling them wrong. I think I have excess space above my ankle and forefoot. I do have new custom insoles, but they take up more volume than my old insoles and feel fine so far. I have narrow shins and loose uppers are a constant issue for me with snowboard boots, so that could be part of it. I'll definitely try cinching things down tighter next time, though I'm not sure my feet can take it. My boots were locked in ride mode, but the angle I locked them to could have been off. That's something I still don't have a good feel for with alpine boots. Obviously technique is part of it. I am very much still a beginner at alpine. But given my weight and the hardware connecting me to the board, I'd expect it to feel too twitchy if anything, not sluggish and unresponsive. On a positive note, I might have finally broken my habit of trying to whip my alpine board into skids like it's a freestyle board.

I also thought the SGs were the same as F2s. Sounds like important the differences just might be the hardware (spherical washers and two heel bail options), but they're important differences. Who are SG's retailers in the US?

As the title says, how do you mount AT boots to solid boards? I'm looking to ride solid boards with my Atomic Backlands. I have Phantom M6 bindings and solid board cleats for them, but transferring the bindings between my split and solid boards is a pain, requiring finicky tension adjustment of the bindings each time. Can AT boots be used with regular plate bindings? I have a pair of F2 Titaniums for my alpine board, but the heel bail seems like it's a bit too tall for the welt on my backlands. Also, I imagine a more flexible plate binding would probably be better suited to AT boots.

In case anyone is in the area and hasn't heard yet, Aspen and Snowmass are opening early: Saturday the 19th. No word yet on what runs will be open, but I suspect it will be a typical opening day, i.e. mostly the main runs with snow making capability. Highlands and Buttermilk openings still scheduled for December.

Up till now I've been using the Swix CH line. It looks like Swix rebranded it as PS (and "Pro Polar" for CH4). The local shops mostly use CH7, which is my most commonly used wax, but adjusting as the temperature changes makes a noticeable difference. As much as it's a pain to apply, CH4 has become my go-to for powder days. What are your favorite waxes and why?

From left to right: Donek Voyager 160: My first and so far only alpine board. Unsurprisingly, it's by far the best board for carving that I own. Still learning how to ride it. Lib Tech Orca 147: My powder board and former all mountain board. With the bindings set back, it gives effortless float in powder. Probably also my rock board this season. Jones W Solution 152: My splitboard. It's a splitboard. Love the way the Phantom hardware rides. Arbor Element Camber 153, 25th anniversary edition: My all mountain board and preferred ride for moguls and steeps. I love wood veneer top sheets. Not shown here because I haven't ordered it yet: Probably a 152ish Donek Flux for softboot carving.

What do you use for hand armor?

It's snowing!

Last time was a lot of fun, looking forward to meeting up with everyone again!

I'm looking for a new carving board. My current pick would maybe be a Donek Saber SBX, but I am just starting to research options and would love to hear people's thoughts/recommendations. Overall, I'd say I want a board that can cruise steep blue groomers, while carving. I have an Arbor Element Camber, which I like as an all mountain board, but as a carving board I find it doesn't have enough stiffness or edge hold. My Jones W Solution is a surprisingly good carver (w/ AT boots and plate bindings), which makes me kind of want a W Flagship as an all mountain board, but I'm still leaning towards a dedicated carving board for, well, carving. Also, I am leaning towards getting a rather damp board for all-day carving, even over choppy snow. The Saber SBX seems to check all those boxes, but I do wonder if it might be venturing a bit further into marginal carving gains territory than necessary. On a side note, are there any good AT boot compatible solid board plate bindings out there? I love how my Phantom M6s ride, and I do have a set of solid board cleats for them, but I am concerned about wear and tear from resort riding, and they are a bit of a pain to swap between boards. Yeah, I know, softboot forum, but I tend to think of AT boots as closer to soft boots than alpine.

As an experienced softbooter and newbie hardbooter, I second that. I’ve acquired more bruises from low speed maneuvering than carving. Maybe that’s less about difficulty than consequences though. There’s definitely still a learning curve to alpine carving. And I do try to avoid speeds I’m not confident about bailing myself out of. My ability to carve on my alpine board is outpacing my ability to emergency skid/brake, and if I didn’t hold back… yeah, I’d probably get myself into a lot more trouble carving. Something something risk tolerance.

I have a matching set of Volcom jacket and pants. The zipper works as advertised. It has mostly the same pros and cons as a regular powder skirt, except it’s better at blocking snow. I’m not sure it’s worth tying yourself to one brand over though.

As someone who started hard booting last season for the same reasons as you, I think the best advice I can give is to armor up: Wrist guards, crash pants, knee pads, and of course a helmet. There’s definitely skill transfer, but my impression is that freestyle boards and soft boots are a lot more forgiving. It might be best to think of it as learning to snowboard all over again. I certainly feel like a beginner again when I ride my alpine board, crashes and all. Hence my suggestion to wear armor. There’s also a noticeable learning curve with the gear. There are more things that need adjusting, and alpine setups seem a lot more sensitive to small changes.

I’ve had a lot of fun with my Phantom M6s on solid and split boards (paired with Atomic Backland Pros with Phantom Link Levers). I would describe the setup as more like soft boot riding than hard boot. As mentioned, the mounting plates have a maximum of 30 degrees. The bindings also allow for a surprising amount of flex and play in the nose-tail axis, which further lends to a soft boot feel. I’ve even tried duck stance and it worked well. What sets it apart from a true soft boot setup is the edge response. Comparing to soft boot bindings, I’d describe the responsiveness as 11/10, if not more. There are some caveats though. Getting ski touring boots to fit without overhang can be a problem, and the mounting system is a bit of a pain. In theory, you could buy multiple sets of mounting plates to easily transfer the bindings between boards (split or solid). In practice, the bindings need to be adjusted for proper tension whenever switching them between boards, and that requires tools. Also, as a splitboard system first and foremost, I’m worried about how long it will hold up to lift served laps.