Jack M

Like on their website?

The Bomber Power Plates floated on the urethane ring, I doubt your printed risers did that. Alas, the PP’s are most likely history.

Guys... this is a good thing. Play the long game here. Encourage. Beckon.

That's fine, we will move out west with them!! I think if I had brought alpine gear, I would have wanted me-time. But I only brought softies, so the trip was all about family time.

Of course it doesn't have to be done there, but that is where the challenge lies. Lots of people enjoy a good challenge. You use snowboarding as meditation, and that's great. But people who challenge themselves with an activity have a broader and deeper understanding of that activity than people who don't, and are in a better position to help others who wish to overcome obstacles and challenge themselves.

A ton of carving happening in that video. In the Venn diagram of alpine snowboarding technique, the circle of race technique completely envelopes the freecarving circle. "Simply leaning left or right" is The Norm, an introductory practice drill for day 1 beginner carving on green circles. If one wants to take their game up onto the black diamonds, there's a lot more to it, and studying race technique is the best way.

careful of that hook nose!

I think part of TT's issue is that people have different levels of interest in carving here, yet when someone asks a specific hardboot technique question, people from any level of interest will chime in. Some will say, don't forget you can do this in softboots too! And well no, that's not always true, and saying so isn't helpful.

So ummm, where's your vid Sol?

Did they reset the course after qualifying? The qualifying times don't seem to favor one course over the other, while in the final everyone knows red was faster. Props to AJ Muss for the 4th fastest single qualifying run of the day.

One of the points that was implied in my earlier post is that Kessler is not giving away the secret formuler. I had no idea that a sidecut shape described as "8-12m" would contain sections significantly longer than 12m, until I measured it. I'd suggest not worrying so much about the limited numbers he's willing to share, and... (cannot believe I am about to type this)... just go ride, man.

It's important to know this when reading advice.

On low-angle stuff like Buttermilk, they are just as good. But like TT said, as slope, speed, and surface firmness increase, they can't compete. Literally, which is why nobody races SL or GS in softboots at higher levels. Youth racing, sure.

Just for grins I measured my stock 168, which is listed as 8-12m. While my method wasn't perfect, I can say that the radius gets significantly longer than 12m in the middle of the board. In fact, for a span of at least 15cm around the waist, the width of the board is a constant 202mm. (!!) The board does appear to be 8m at the tip and 12m at the tail. While this is not a de facto SL board, I did take it to the top of a USASA SL podium this year amid some good competition. I love this board, it's very versatile. No seat is off limits, and it will launch you if you want.

Just got back from school vacation week at Park City. We also did a day trip to Snowbird. This is a low snow year for them, but as far as this year goes we hit the jackpot. PC got 18" Sunday night through Monday, Snowbird got 21", so that improved things tremendously for the week. Our first ski day was Sunday before the storm, and it was like skiing in the east on a good day. Nice soft groomers and bumps, but trees were generally off limits and there were many closed trails and areas that would normally be powder/mogul fields. Our hotel was in the Canyons village, at the bottom of the Red Pine gondola, here: Note the angle station on that gondola. The cars come off the cable and slow down on a track through the angle station. I believe the cable gets angled by a series of bull-wheels. There is another gondola, "Quicksilver", with an angle station that goes between Canyons and PC. You can ski from Canyons to PC but not back, you either take Quicksilver or a shuttle. Trail map: https://assets.vailresorts.com/-/media/park-city/products/brochure/the-mountain/about-the-mountain/trail-map/trail-map.ashx The Sunday night/Monday storm was just what the doctor ordered: my son was thrilled to get proof of this face-shot daughter was loving it too With PC and Canyons linked, it is now the largest ski resort in the nation. However getting from base to base takes several lift rides or a shuttle bus, so doing that chews up a significant part of your day. It's best to pick a sub-area and stick to it for the morning or afternoon, or even the whole day. The resort has kind of a Sunday-River-on-steroids feel to it. There's a lot of easy trails and run-out, and you do a lot of "transit skiing" just to move around the area. A lot of the clientele seems to be people from places without Winter or mountains who ski once or twice a year. The best terrain is up at the very top-most lifts, like McConkey's Express, Pioneer, and Jupiter on the PC side (never managed to find Jupiter open), and on the Canyons side, Ninety-Nine-Ninety and to a lesser extent, Super Condor. Up there is where I felt like I was actually up on a western mountain, not just a big soft version of an eastern resort. Here is the top of Charlie Brown, on 9990: A great run, but unfortunately you cannot return to the bottom of the 9990 lift from there. They should fix that with another lift. Although PC/Canyons has 41 lifts, they need more. The majority of high alpine terrain is either hike-to only or out of bounds, e.g. most of what you see in this pic: Taken from the top of Dreamcatcher. There is a huge gap in high lift service between 9990 and Jupiter, and another one between 9990 and Saddleback. Many tasty looking snowfields beckon you, but it's all out of bounds. The good hike-only terrain that is in bounds would take a number of hours out of your day and out of your legs, for one run. I would have been up for one hike, but the wife and kids were not, and I don't blame them. Right now all the hardcores are going "good! earn your turns! save the pow for the locals!" Meh. Snowbird is where it's at for high alpine skiing. Many lifts get you right up to the good stuff, and, it's all good stuff. To go any higher you would need to be an accomplished extreme skier with avalanche training and gear. We went there for a day trip (45 minute drive) on Wednesday. We hit the lottery with the weather. Bluebird day. The most beautiful place I have ever snowboarded, just edging out Jackson Hole. We took the Tram first thing and got right up to the top. From there, Gad Valley is to your right: and Mineral Basin is to your left: taken from Mineral Basin chair: We spent the morning in Mineral Basin, which faces southeast, so it gets sun all morning. We spent the afternoon in Gad Valley, which faces northwest, lapping the Gad 2 and Little Cloud lifts. Trail maps: https://www.snowbird.com/uploaded/maps/winter1718_trailmap&guide_web.pdf Little Cloud lift seen in the background here: No, my son is not taller than me yet, he is standing uphill! I did more ptex damage to my board on this day than I have done in my whole life combined. The 21" of new snow hid a lot of rocks, some of which you can see above. Our neighbors spent the week at Alta/Snowbird, we met up with them. Their daughter asked me for this shot, haha. Here is a shot from near the bottom of Gad 2, looking across Little Cottonwood Canyon: A tram returns at the bottom: Note the steepness of the terrain coming right to the bottom of the resort. No run-out here!! On the last day of the trip we were spent, so the kids just lapped the park off the Sun Peak chair at Canyons. Next time we will schedule an "off" day in the middle. We need to go back to Snowbird. Need another sunny day in Mineral Basin, and we didn't even get to the Peruvian Gulch area. As for PC, I wouldn't take another family vacation there, but it would be a great place for a dedicated carving trip, or for an Expression Session. There are lots of groomers that looked great for carving. I was with my family and we did a lot of mixed terrain each day, so it didn't make sense to even bring hardboots and an alpine board. As such, I didn't bother poaching C.B.'s Run, where the 2002 Olympic races were held. Anyway, great trip. I would recommend PC to anyone wanting a huge variety of intermediate/advanced terrain, and a big ski town experience with lots of night life. I'm sure it's a lot better during a normal snow year. Many expert trails were simply closed due to low coverage. If you want a high alpine experience among soaring mountain peaks with tons of expert terrain and open bowls, go to Snowbird. There is a groomed swath under the Little Cloud lift that would be epic for EC on a 185. Very little nightlife there though. Wish we had spent the whole week in Snowbird, but I had been warned against it as there is a lot of one-foot-out traversing for snowboarders. Would have been worth it, in hind sight, but PC was fun too.

Met him at SES 2005, very nice guy. He also gave me a great interview here after the 2002 Olympics. Hopefully it's still in the archives, it's not up on the site anymore. This reminds me of the time he won a televised race back then. IIRC it was part of the Jeep King of the Mountain series. I forget what the race format was actually called, but I thought of it as "Super-Y" - the top half was a PGS and then both courses funneled into a BX. Pretty sure Klug beat JJA in the final, and then Picabo Street interviewed Klug after the win. She was super impressed with him. I thought she was going to lick his face or wrap a leg around him right on TV. LOL

The very worst comments still have to be "Is that fun?" or "Do you like doing that?" What stupid questions. No, I don't like it, that's why I'm out here spending a pantload of money doing it. What is wrong with these people?

I had to look up yenta. I don't think it applies, but I learned something new for the day.

Simply amazing! Proud to be a snowboarder right now! http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/ester-ledecka-first-woman-win-gold-two-sports-winter-olympics

No, it was single elimination. For the most part, if you got the blue course, you lost. Choice of course was based on qualifying time, so at least it wasn’t just the luck of the draw.

Pretty sure it was double gold for Deeluxe this time.

Blue course seems doomed!

I have no desire to rupture testicles, but rails are very popular for some reason.

Huh?

Ledecka just became one of the most badass snowboarders in history!!