Jack M

Don't mind if I do! As some of you may recall, I had the good fortune to be needed as a chaperone for a ski camp there last summer. The closest thing we have to this in the east is Tuckerman Ravine. Imagine Tuck's bowl with two poma lifts. While Beartooth Basin is certainly not a destination resort, if you have any excuse to travel nearby (Red Lodge MT, Yellowstone) it would be well worth taking a detour to experience the Basin. Here's some pics from our trip: 1. View from Beartooth Pass 2. Beartooth Basin - it was a low snow year. Pic taken June 19, 2020. 3. wider view 4. the top 5. the bottom - there are no lift attendants at the bottoms of the lifts. GYO Poma. 6. some guy in a onesie 7. and other characters... 8. my daughter 9. 10. The Bear's Tooth - pointy spire in the middle: 11. We did some car skiing further up the pass and the kids built a jump. My daughter wanted to get a closer look at the bear's tooth: 12. I got in on the action... #raddad 13. Mountain goats. This place is pretty remote. You are like an hour from any kind of civilization in any direction. Which is why the ice cream truck where they sell the lift tickets has a sticker with a picture of a gun pointed at you and the words "we don't call 911". I felt like a UFO could land on one of these pastures, abduct a goat, take off, and nobody would believe me. 14. so I don't leave this at 13, a pic of the parking lot at the top. The basin is to the right.

I think we had (have?) the same crush. I seem to remember seeing that pic and remarking upon the badass commitment to no gloves.

Careful here folks. This is a really awful flaw of human nature, not specific to this community. This is why political discussions are not allowed anywhere on this site.

Unacceptable.

I bought the movie soundtrack when it came out, with my own money!

Listing for Chrissy Hamel, who runs the USASA Maine Mountain Series. I know this board has seen light use and is in great shape. $200 plus shipping

That's messed up. Enjoyed the Ghostbusters reference though.

So... I recently learned that Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album "Fleetwood Mac" was their 10th studio album. I had no idea. All this time I thought it was their first. It was just the first with Buckingham and Nicks.

My wife was sick for 2 days after 2nd Pfizer dose. My 2nd Pfizer dose is on the 19th, we'll see. A friend got Moderna and said she felt 10 years younger after the 2nd dose.

I meant my custom Kesslers are built differently than stock. Topsheets are ptex and they're stiffer and maybe more damp. Also I haven't verified it but I suspect the titanal is 0.4 in the customs and 0.3 in the stock boards, just by looking at the visible side edge of the top layer. I wouldn't be surprised if a world cup racer orders a board and says I'll be using it with this Allflex plate, the board gets made differently than a stock board with Allflex inserts, in order to work best with the plate. Just a guess.

I don't know. My stock K185 and K168 with Allflex inserts work great with or without a plate. I'm sure custom race boards for World Cup racers are built differently. Heck, the 3 custom Kesslers I've had were built differently.

I would also guess there is some kind of damping or rubber or elastomer in those pods. I think if it was just more free travel, then the Allflex ceases to be an Allflex. Part of the magic of Allflex is that the plate only allows a limited amount of travel between the board and plate before the plate "locks up" and becomes a huge flex modifier. The hinges at the ends of the plate crash into the pockets in the mounts, and the plate must flex with the board beyond that point. I wouldn't have designed a plate like this, because it just seems wrong to me, but clearly I would be a bankrupt plate maker. It works.

If they’re aluminum, seems like they would just permanently bend and be rendered ineffective in short order. I think the German team is on the right track with their modified front and rear mechanisms.

What is this? Colorado is as West as a onesie! And Canadians are too nice!

Bring it, fartbagger!!

I actually asked Mike Mallon, in all honesty, why USSA nationals and junior nationals were able to be held while USASA was not. I probably would have known if I had ever been to USASA nationals myself, but the answer is that USASA nationals is an event of over 1000 competitors and their parents descending upon one resort for 2 weeks. So the risks and considerations are much different and more significant.

Pat! You are an inspiration!!

Looking forward to it! @GeoffV and I will be there!

We’re on to 2022!

I like F2 graphics. With bindings on you don’t really read the letters, they kind of just become shapes. The Eliminator is a venerable board with plenty of cred among riders who know.

Between those two boards I would go with the F2 Eliminator. I have several friends who swear by them and they are some of the best softboot carvers I know. I would disregard that Nidecker, that sidecut is very short, which typically means not stable at speed. Ride is another good idea, I have a friend who carves the heck out of his Ride Commissioner. Other ideas are Kessler Cross or SG Soul Titan. Get the latter two at i-carve.com.

@NateW I have an Apex X-plate and UPM hardware I'm willing to part with. PM?

I told him about my weight and dadbod if that's what you're getting at.

@crackaddict isn't wrong. An example was the pair of c.2000 Donek Freecarves, 171cm long and 179cm long. Both had a sidecut radius of 11.2m (they were actually parabolic, but that doesn't matter). The 171 was very popular. I had one, it was one of those boards you demo and then you have to open your wallet and buy one without even asking your wife. I heard a number of complaints about the 179. I'll bet that the 179 carved a shorter turn due to the deeper sidecut depth, and was probably more finicky. On another note, a board with less sidecut depth is easier to skid and feather. The calculation of turning radius = sidecut radius * cosine(edge angle) is an approximation. It kind of gives you the projection (shadow) of the sidecut onto the snow when the board is up on edge. In real life the ends of the board will pinch in further, because the length of the board is fixed while the length of the projection is not. I think deeper sidecut = more pinch. Personally I just don't think of sidecut in this way, and I don't know of any board makers who will discuss turning radius with you in this way. I guess unless you want to. You certainly can't talk about a multi-radius sidecut this way. I ordered my Kessler 180 with an avg 15m sidecut because I wanted it slightly longer than my Coiler Stubby 170 at 14m, and similar to my old Donek 186 at 15m. It rides as predicted. Hansjuerg did discourage me from making the board 185cm long due to the "short" sidecut. He didn't say it but I guess he was concerned about sidecut depth.

Having ridden a bunch of Allflex designs this season, I can see why Allflex completely replaced the Apex style isolation plates in racing. A few weeks ago I got back on my K168 with my Apex X-plate and suddenly didn't like it. It felt very vague and disconnected. The Allflex plates by contrast feel very direct and powerful. This was a surprise as previously I really liked my Apex/K168 combo. The traditional Allflex aluminum plate is a match made in heaven for my stock K185. The Allflex aluminum spring plate was awesome on my SL board, but it is heavy. Non-athletes like me need not apply. That said I used it and my F2 Proto 163 to carve down a steep icy double black in December and it performed with zero mistakes. So I'm a convert, but I still can't quite get my head around why it works. An Allflex plate basically creates three separate zones of flex in your board: nose, mid, tail. I disagree with that design in theory, but I like it in practice.