ak_rider

i have to second lee's approach of pipe glove+mitt=toastie hands. must be a CO thing :D but anyway, use some sort of warm liner glove and then add a nice mitt over it. i have no real preference on mittens-other than to stay away from burton-all their stuff seems to fall apart on me in about 2 months or so, if i'm lucky. just ensure waterproofness. and if it gets super cold you can always throw handwarmers in. with the liner glove idea it'll keep you from getting burned by the handwarmer. it can happen if you put them directly onto your skin, especially when you cant feel the part you're putting the handwarmer on.

IMO., vew-doo boards are good if you also skate, but indo boards are better for snowboard training. i just took the cheap way out and filled a 2 liter soda bottle with water and put it under my skateboard(after taking off the trucks and wheels).

in any case loveland opens tomorrow, 10/14. woo-hoo. a close second to the basin

looks spotty and not sure how their planning on being open but that's what i hear

what's wax ;) waxing did become my best friend in summit county. I ride so wide on softies because it feels a bit more comfortable to go wider when i ride so duck. I've settled on a narrower stance for hb's because wider hurts by back knee. when i rode forward angles on softies i only had an 18.5"-19" stance.

I've heard from a reliable source-ie-management at Loveland-that they are trying to open by the end of this week :D let's hope the weather continues to cooperate

if your board ist stiff you're looking at a stiff binding you can get away with a softer boot-so maybe wont kill you on the hill. dont know much about burton-other than they're over priced, but if you're not totally hung up on burton look at ride bindings, all metal, nice stiffness and quick response. IMO Ride makes better carving softboot equip, especially their bindings.

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I'll start off by saying that I'm not trying to compare the 2, because I think it's pretty obvious what the answer would be on this site(i personally like hb's better than soft). What I'm wondering is, among those of us who do both hard and soft boots, when do you use one over the other? Also, are your stances different? I ride hb's when there's nice groomers or i feel like going fast and laying down some nice carves. also bumps, i just feel more comfortable in hb's in the moguls. I bust out the softies when i'm working(kinda have to). I also ride them when i'm in the park, or when i'm riding super steeps-just because i'm not confident enough on hb's to do 55+ degree stuff. but i enjoy a bit of freestyle with the hardboots and can carve(albeit not as trenchy) in softies. In hb's i ride 18.5" stance and angles 57 front and 54 rear. In softies I ride 21" stance and 21 front and -18 rear.(i'm also wondering if there are other hbers like me who ride super duck in softies. i just started rding duck 2 seasons ago)

sad but true, rosie has hung up her boots. she knew this going into last season. she's gettin hitched and moving on, but will forever be an example that "alaska girls kick ass"(it's a popular bumper sticker phrase back home).

i was more offended by the assumtion that i just drove people up the pass and didnt actually hike. i'm often mistaken for a teenage boy when in full snowboard garb,(maybe it's the baggy pants and 21" wide duck stance)but it's ok, because no one ever thinks i'ma guy when i'm out at the bars afterwards ;) thanks for the props on the mittens mario. i saw em and just had to get em. and 32 is the boot company, i'm a mere mondo24 in boot size

we did get the dreaded indian summer after the storm, but it's still cold enough at night to blow snow. Rusty's right about oct 20 as a projected date for a-basin. i heard loveland is trying for oct 15, but i'd say oct 20 is prob more realistic. early season is great because it's usually locals and not crowded. for some reason a lot of people dont like early season. but the snow stays relatively nice. a good mix of man-made and natural. completely opposite from east coast early season man-made.

have you considered western canada? sunshine has extremely varied terrain and lake louise is just plain sick. is you stay in canmore instead of banff it's cheaper and you can grab abus to the resort. plus beer is pretty cheap. plus with the conversion it'll be slightly cheaper, but who knows what our money will be worth when you go. if you want to stay in the US, iw ould say Utah. if you come back to summit co you can take a med called diamox(sp?) it's supposed to help with those altitude symptoms you mentioned. just talk to your doc about a week or so before you come out and they should be able to hook you up.

i did this day in softies, i dont have a HB rock board, but it's actually not too bad to hike in HB, especially when it's steep and hard packed or for mountaineering. when you kick steps in HB's you actually have a solid platform to stand on. but i'd say this advantage only applies if you're into hiking in the first place, if it's not your thing it'll be miserable no matter what's on your feet.

well you guessed wrong on soooo many levels. first i'm not a dude(that's right, girls do snowboard, and we're good at it too). second no i didnt drive shuttles to the top(it's called hitch hiking) and i also didnt drop from the road like you front rangers like to do. I hiked, actually exerting energy on the way up, and rode some early season snow and thought some others here would enjoy seeing it. so if it wouldnt be too much trouble(i do realize you're a self proclaimed lazy person) i'd appreciate it if you'd keep your ignorant comments to yourself.

just thought i'd make some people angry and show you how I enjoyed this past weekend at Loveland Pass. It was good until the gapers started showing up. I mean, what would possess a person who can barely stand up to go out in the backcountry, even if it is right next to the road. I can sum up the conditions in one word, ROCKS, but it was still sick!!!! http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m1/ak_snowkat/?action=view&current=Picture030.flv

if you're staying in summit co vail and beaver creek are actually farther than copper. you have to drive by copper to get to them. a-basin definately offers something different from the east coast, and is right next to keystone. other than that i'd have to say copper.

if you're really up for silverton let me know. i'm moving to telluride in NOV, so i'll be in the area. if you're planning on making the drive all the way out there i'd suggest riding some resorts in that area instead of going all the way back to loveland or summit county.

i didnt know it had official rules, we've played it during training sessions, although not so fun with instructors who cant carve to save their lives. But we just have one person start and then everyone follows in the trenches. more fun because it changes with the person leading. if it was a contest there would be obvious advantages to going first and doesnt seem quite fair. but still sounds fun.

a-basin started monday. felt the need to take the work truck up and check it out. The peaks up here in summit have been getting snow everynight now. the basin is calling for OCT 20 opening day

mri's are relaxing? on your knee maybe, just hope you never need to go head first, very loud and the thing that holds your head-not too comfy. hope your knee feels better before the snow flies. Skatha-here's to a speedy recovery

a friend and i were toying with a similar idea, we just made it to riding down with 1 foot each strapped in. I think I'd give this a go on snow, sand invades everything, and it doesn't melt.

that almost makes me wish i had a cubicle. almost. I guess my co truck can be like a mobile cubicle-but not too roomy for stripping.

I would suggest picking your resort first, to save some money. the problem i've run into with my EMT cert is everytime I move I have to get that state's cert, even though I have a national cert as well as AK, CT and now CO. It just saves time and money if you dont have to go and take a test to get a new state's cert. You'll also run into this problem with foreign countries, if you go the EMT route, which I suggest-it's more useful outside of the ski industry than OEC.

it's 2 seperate hardrives, my old job required a lot of hard drive space, so paid quite a bit of money to have 2 seperate drives.. I had a feeling I needed to do something more than just switch itunes to the d drive. thanks for the help!