jason_watkins

Q5: Boots. Cottage industry seems to be really advancing the state of the art in boards and bindings... but snowboard hardboots aren't doing so hot. Compared to current technology in alpine or AT boots, hardboots are heavy, awkward, and in some componants, fragile.

god damn that is depression I guess I'm just gonna have to win the lottery and move to tahoe or something if I wanna snowboard more than a handful of days this season D-Sub: sounds good If anyone else is wandering that way, I should be riding the 28th, 29th and 30th. The canned food day is a bit of a tradition with some buds. Hopefully this year buddy #1 won't spin the van into the snowbank again :D

Q1: because it's fun. duh. Q2: no. you might be limited jibbin or in the pipe', but besides that, you can definately put together a hardboot setup that will do well off piste, or put together a softboot setup that will carve. Q3: have good terrain and grooming. groom a lane or 5 on a steeper slope too, for the advanced folks. skiiers should like that too. Q4: not really... it might be in or out of fashion, but I doubt it's going away. .. particularly as the snowboard generations get older and look for something fun to do that doesn't involve getting 60 feet of air.

Just to add another data point for your confidence: my 169 AM with 20 waist is ~10lbs according to the bathroom scale with TD2's mounted on it.

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/search/vendor_results.asp?gender=1%2C9&gender=2%2C9&gender=3%2C4&gender=0&ShowImages=yes&brand=15265&submit5=Search+Brand+Names%21 OR's gear is super durible. My gf recently bought me the goretex modular mitt shells off that site, aparently for about $30. At that price they're an absoulte steal. Overall impression is that they'd probibly stop a bullet. If you're more of a glove person the dry ice glove for $55 there seems a pretty great deal.

Actually, I'm headed to bachelor next weekend with some buds... thanks to that $60 for 2 zupans deal I won't be particularly upset if conditions arn't so hot though.

Hey, thanks for the offer. MikeT pop'd up with something that that looks like it's gonna work great for her.

Thanks for the pic, my gf was interested, but seeing that snowpro rates them at 24mp I think we'll pass. Thanks for the quick info tho.

Interested. Could you email a pic to jason_watkins@pobox.com? Do you happen to know how small of a boot they will fit (mp23 ok?)

conditions? I'm probibly going up saterday.

Dan: one of the hood locals rides one of those on powder days with soft hardboots. Not sure what length. He likes it, says the dual camber lets him change turn radius in mid turn via pressure between feet. Aparently the camber kindof "drags" on the flats though, so they're slightly slower than the average board. They're based outta Lake Oswego from what I understand, so you can always just give them a ring. I remember hearing some sort of radio promotion they were doing with some car dealership last season, so I think they're still around.

Dan: learn from my experience: buy from REI. FRS radios seem to be pretty crapily made, doesn't take much moisture to zap them. I've gone through 3 different sets of FRS radios so far... the newest set of motorollas I've gotten seem to be surviving... but we'll see if they manage another season :D

Anyone know what conditions are like at tline? Welcome back from japan Dan. Let's hope we get a nice long quality spring to offset this sucky early season.

Just saying as someone else who was in the catagory of freeriding with angles in the 30's and enjoyed doing some carving, I suggest you think about trying hardboots. I finally gave them a solid run last seaon, and I'm hooked, I expect to use them exclusively this season. I'm still not as good on hardboots as I was on softboots, but I think the threshold of everything clicking into place is near. As far as foot comfort goes, I've found them to be much more comfortible than my salomon softboots. I'm using the 413's available here for fairly cheap. I replaced the lean lock mechanism with the 5 position. Heel lift is really no longer an issue.

I, as well, have been frustrated by the incorrect program guide.

thomas_m: crap, the way things are going down here, I think the gf and I need to make a mt baker trip. Any tips on loding in glacier?

Interesting... well, in any case, it may be quite a bit of fun for us to try eachothers boards at some point. I'm fairly lightweight at 150lbs, so I think our stiffness to weight ratio is likely about the same.

NateW: what's your stiffness index? I just got a AM169 20cm wide, 7.2 index, so if we end up at the same mountain sometime this season and the stiffnesses are close, we could make a reasonible comparison. Actually, I thought about getting your template, but after chatting with a couple people it seemed that the normal 169 would work fine for me.

What's the waterproofing like on those Reusch gloves? I love leather gloves,, but so far the sog through is just to horrible, I end up applying nikwax leather waterproofing every weekend.

Boots definately. I haven't the experience to comment on lots of equipment, but it just seems obvious that it's much easier for cottage industry and part time businesses to innovate in boards and bindings than it is in boots. It's embarrasing how much lighter, stronger and better fitting ski boots are compared to raichle. Lack of competition in boots is really letting that stagnate.

Heh, you always looked confident hitting those to me. :D I don't know why, but for some reason tables started to scare me last season. I've only hit the wee little ones, and have yet to case it on one... but for whatever reason I was really reluctant to hit them last year. I don't expect to be riding the park a lot, but I would like to get that air confidence. Tips from someone who knows would be cool.

Jim: I'll be very interested to know how well that works for you. I met a guy at Sun Peaks last spring, who rode mostly Seattle area. He had some sort of marmot softshell that he spoke very highly of. Said it completely repelled the soggy rain/snow mush of the PNW, which surprised me, and that he never really wore anything under it, always just about the right warmth. I tried to figure out which it was on the marmot website later, but the color patterns must be different. I think it was the Super Hero Jacket, but on his the black and colored parts were reversed. I spoke a bit with a guy in a mountain hardware softshell, the one with a grey napoleon pocket, on a particularly 35 degree BLEH day on mt hood last season. He claimed it was keeping him dry, and was actually to warm for most days. I'd like a new jacket anyhow, so I'm thinking I'll just pay the slight premium on REI's price so that I can try out anything they got until I find one I like.

ooOOOoo... bachelor is lookin' good. A thanksgiving trip may be in order.

They got groomers, a few big wide open runs. Actually, this last year the new ownership seemed to be concentrating on grooming more, they put up grooming scheduals and notices and such on the lifts.

Waitin' on a coiler amx 169, my first hardboot board. I'm pretty stoked this year to get to the same comfort level on hardboots I had on softboots. I think once I do that, overall my ability level is going to be quite a bit higher. You're gonna like bachelor. I mean, it has it's ups and downs... but on a powder day, the nw express lift absolutely rocks. You should get a board you'll like to ride in the trees, hard, soft, whatever, because that's one of the best things about bachelor.