csquared

Okay, looks like we have a session! Let's call it Sunday February 6 ladies and gentlemen (regrets to those that are otherwise occupied that day). Pray that the weather improves (he said looking out at the rain). I need to check the Osler race schedule and see if there are any big events going on that day but otherwise consider it a date. We need a name for this session. Yes, you guessed it, we need a catchy acronym. I want all of the creative juices on this one. How about: Canadian Alpine Restricted Vertical Expression Session (800 vertical feet can hardly be called a mountain - did I hear chuckling in CO?) or Great Lakes Alpine Community Expression Session (we're close enough to the 'ice' coast; oops, the Americans in the audience won't get this one - its the french word for ice). More please. I am going to work on Bruce Varsava and see if we can have him on hand. This may be difficult as I already have him going to SES the following weekend and that means his production schedule is going to go into the toilet (sorry D-Sub, the guy needs to have some fun once in a while). Alternatively, I may see if I can borrow a few boards as demos. Perhaps YYZ would like to do some marketing (that means you could write-off the cost of the ticket Dave). Also, we need more of the female carving community on hand. Rob, can you bring Monique?

Okay, here is what the current list looks like: Friday Sunday Skategoat X X Greg Marsden X x John McCutcheon x X Gord Tanner X Rob Cox X x Derek & Beth X X Todd Stewart X Bruce Varasava ? ? csquared x X lower case x - less preferred upper case X - preferred I am hoping to hear from: Rob Sydia Arthur Tateishi YYZ & Andrea Chris Houghton Linus Can I get a reaction to Sunday Feb 6 as the date?

Let's take a census on this thing: who is for a Friday (lots of vacant hill but you have to call in sick)? Who is for a Sunday (legal day off but a little more traffic)? For those of you who have not been to Osler, you have to understand that a weekend day at Osler is a little like a week day at MSLM or Blue in terms of crowds. This is especially true on Sundays when the tow lines at lunch hour can fall into the single digits. There is a ton of terrain that can be great and there aren't many beginner skiers on the hill. The problem is more that the skiers are going so fast that you're likely to be mowed down from behind during a transition (yes, I was even hit by a ski patroller overtaking me near the edge of a run!). I have to admit, I am working 6 days a week right now and a Friday could be difficult. But that's just my fundamentally selfish nature talking.

When I next see PMWizard I will talk to him about organizing some kind of session at Osler. Between us we would be able to sign in 12. I may be able to get another member to help with sign-ins as well so we could likely get a session with about 15 going. One needs to choose weekend days carefully. Ski race days can be somewhat crowded with a certain amount of terrain out of use and tons of families with their racers on the properties. If we were to do it on a weekend day, it would be best on a Sunday because many members only ski/ride until about noon after which the crowds are light. Lunch hour from 11:30 - 1-00 is quite light for traffic as well. So, basically, Sunday after 11:30 is a great time. Tickets are $52. Because of club rules, a member has to be on hand when the guest ticket is sold or alternatively, the member can purchase the ticket and leave it for pick-up. Either way, this becomes a bit of a logistical issue so we will need to figure a way to make this happen. Snow conditions at Osler yesterday were quite good considering the recent weather. There is a very tough and resilient base at the moment but there is only mild weather in the forecast at the moment so the prognosis is not good. I would look to early February to do something. Hopefully, the weather will lay down more real snow before then. Can't be mid-Feb as I am in CO for SES ;-). John, where are you? Haven't seen you at the club or seen you post in the past couple of weeks. You away somewhere? We need to get together on this.

I've been to the Eastern Townships three times at spring break and know all of these fairly well (except Bromont which is closest to Montreal and therefore heavily trafficked). The good thing is that if you stay in Magog or somewhere nearby, you can get to any and all of these in less than 30 minutes. Orford: likely the best for carving. There are some very wide runs on the front of the mountain but these tend to have moguls on some falls. I think my favourite was Slalom. There are some trails that have good slope rates but are too narrow to be safe for carving. Owl's Head: One of the few independently owned resorts that remain. They do not have deep pockets and the facilities are a little old and crusty. However, there are some quite good carving trails including Standard. Beware of grooming which leaves much to be desired. I left my mark on the resort (or more correctly it left its mark on me) when I hit a strip of ice buried under thinly groomed material at the base of Standard and ended up off piste, connected to a tree. Notwithstanding this, I think it still worth a day. Sutton: I've been twice and had to ask myself why I returned the second time. The kind of place where you feel fortunate to have found a 200 yard green run where you can get a couple of decent carves in. Conditions were bad both times though so this may have coloured my response. Would have to say though that there is not much good terrain here. If you stay in Magog or points south, consider crossing the border into Vermont and visit Burke Mountain (about 1 hour drive). There is some very carvable terrain there and the lift tickets are a bargain. Crowds are non-existant except on the race training run where the future Bode Miller's can be found ripping it up. Enjoy.

I'm on the list. I'm one of the other Osler carvers. Regrettably there are only a few of us. Most of the club members that own alpine set-ups are not full time dedicated alpine riders (most are predominantly skiers or free-riders). John and I are it basically.

The pitch on an M6 screw is 1 mm. Therefore, 5 turns equals 5 mm projection below the lowest point on the binding. This is hard to estimate with bindings that have elastomeric contact media but it will let you estimate the screw length needed without screwing the binding to the board. I like 5 turns and have spent time cutting down screws to obtain it (but this was while Bruce was playing around with deeper inserts a few years ago on his Bomber boards). I have ordered M6 screws from Spae-Naur. I can corroborate Fin: a good clean mount with TD's generally never seems to see any screw withdrawal. I get tired of checking for loose screws because they never seem to have budged.

Hey guys, Sporting Life has a stupidly cheap Boxing Week deal on a bag that is marketed as a ski bag but makes a perfect day-to-day board bag. Look for the red Atomic ski bag that is designed like a zipperless "sleeve" case for $9.99. It would fit a race board up to 200 cm but suits any size of board because of its fold over closure. The construction is good and the graphics are sharp too. Okay, okay, I know its a ski bag and none of you want anything to do with that. But it is getting harder all the time to find any kind of case for those big sticks and I needed a place for my new Coiler 184 PR. Can't go wrong for C$9.99 (using my YYZ calculator that's US$2.25 or something like that).