johnasmo

Kinda sad to be leaving a 70 inch settled base at Whitefish for half that in Aspen. And temps in the 40s? Just had some of that at the WTF; fun while it lasts, not so much when its over. Oh well, half way there already. If the hills turn to ice, there's always the hot tub. Still looking forward to it. :)

I guess you didn't notice that most of the deck was gone. Bad footings. The whole place is going to be tore down soon to make room for a shiny new hotel. Rest assured, there will be a Bierstube version 2.0, but it won't have 40 years of character to go with that stale beer scent.

Warm weather coming. Classic case of, "you should have been here last week." Carving snow has been stellar all week, but summit temps are predicted to be 40 by Sunday. And chance of rain... so sorry.

The week of frigid sunny weather has given way to a mostly cloudy day and temps reaching back to the 20's again. Still milking the one snowfall from a week ago, but warmer temps will kill lower Toni Matt pretty quickly without more snow. I did shoot some video the last couple days so I can share with Steve the conditions that some of us are willing to ride. What's surprising to me is that I'm not the only one doing it, even with such sketchy coverage. Day 7 for me and I still see a handful of others doing it every day. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/K9RC6h76lew" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've had some pretty good carving days at Big Sky. There don't seem to be many local hardbooters, though. So watch your back. The groomed runs off the Ramcharger chair offer the most carving. A lot of the other stuff over toward Moonlight basin and including Moonlight basin itself doesn't offer enough consistent pitch, but the stuff on the front of Ramcharger and the other lifts behind it have pretty good wide open groomers. I think it's too far from Bozeman for a daily commute, and unfortunately the chances of finding a reasonably priced rental nearby are probably low. I bet there's too much demand for short-term condo rentals to expect a long-term rental to be cheap. I have a Sky Card and was hoping to hit it some for the first and last week of the season. Thanksgiving plans have nixed the first weekend now, but closing weekend is still likely and maybe a couple others during the season. Look for dredman and I to be carving in colorful onsies.

Day 2 of the Whitefish ski season. Day 1 was a bust for me since the temps were frigid, cloudy, wind was howling, and I started too late. I let it get too dark then lost my goggles in a tumble (had them up on my helmet so I could see), then couldn't find them and ended up walking down in the dark. Today was better but not great. Still frigid, but less wind and the sun was out. Found my goggles on the way up, and had first top to bottom run of the season. Hard, wind-packed snow -- summit depth would be about 2 feet, except for all the wind scoured rocky spots. Took a few dings and scrapes on the way down. The extruded base PBR board is good for rocks, but it sucks at pow; very hard to keep the nose up on a stiff little 156 twin. Maybe I should check out the pawn shops for something rockered....

It turns out I did post video of the day to youtube. There's actually some POV carving shots in there because I rode alpine all day.

We had a great time. I rode my Coiler VSR the whole day. The less salted public lanes were soft and loose right away. Then after the campers left for lunch the rest of the super slab was open. It actually carved pretty well for July snow. Woo Hoo! I did shoot video, but mostly of the nine year old daughter of our friends. We vacation with them all the time and I've burned her a DVD of our travel exploits each year since 2008. Not likely to get posted, but who knows... maybe. The weather was spectacular. After 2:00, we hit the lodge pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Thanks Bryan, I got my dates right, but days wrong. We're there Monday (30th) and Tuesday (1st), so looks like Tuesday is the potential riding day. According to the NOAA, the forecast is for SUNNY with a high of 63! Woo Hoo! We're heading south to Bend after that. John

Hi All, Some friends and I will be staying at Timberline lodge Sunday June 30th and Monday July 1st on our way to the Oregon coast. We're hoping to get some snow turns in on Monday. Should I be bringing carving gear or softies, or both? Space is limited; the others will just rent gear if they can, but if it's carveable, I know I'll have to bring my own stuff. It looks pretty soggy on today's (June 26th) webcams. Opinions/suggestions for this time of year? John

Eric the SkwalGuy bootpacks for some spring turns. I shot one of these 3 years ago ( ), but my cameras keep getting better so I keep reliving the past. Hey, it's hardbooting, so at least this video belongs here.

We get some funky, fickle weather days in mid May. I feel for the guys that hike up in shorts only to find mid-winter conditions at the summit. This day was a roller-coaster of weather.

Wow, is that really all the carving video I have from Big Mountain for 2014? Guess I spent my time riding instead of filming. As an excuse, I did shoot a lot at the SES in Colorado, which can be seen on this . Oh well, on to the obligatory post-season skinning videos. Starting with a barbecue day at the summit.

Has it been over a year since I posted to this thread? Lazy me. Time to catch it up. Let's start with video of the 2014 Whitefish Trench Festival from back in January.

Russ, sorry we didn't hook up. Aaron wasn't up on Sunday, but Redman, Skwal Guy, (angry) Rick and myself were out on hardboots. We only spotted you in the lift line that one time, but didn't get hooked up at the top. Didn't think you were many chairs behind, so after waiting a bit figured you must have headed toward back side or pow of west bowl. Figured we'd see you again, but no luck. I checked the 'Stube at the end of the day, but no luck there either. Hope you had a good day; the 2 inches of fresh made for some lumps in the afternoon, but I still carved until 4:00 for a 40,000+ vertical carving day.

I took some hand held and follow-cam clips during the first 4 days of the session and whipped them into shape in time to play during dinner at the banquet. Day 1 was a pow day; Dave and I blew off the session and soft booted at Snowmass. No carving in this video; didn't show it at the banquet. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YIQ-7U5TEKg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Day 2 was bluebird and the session was at Snowmass. Conditions were soft. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/f5orF9QLyzQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Day 3 was first tracks at Ajax, then a bunch of us continued to play on Ruthies and the stuff below it. This is a long edit; there were so many people and so many runs. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jJA3UXVXVW4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Day 4 was the day off, but Dave and I ran into Bruce and Mike at Ajax in the morning and were joined by a few others later. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TCNuGg05Dhw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Well, my back isn't getting better, so no more WTF for me. I'll be leaving for SES tomorrow and just hope I can tie my shoes by Saturday. Anyway, since there will be no more johnasmo video footage forthcoming, I updated the above footage from Sunday with a new edit for more slow motion and a soundtrack.

Stopped at the brewery downtown before going to dinner at Tupelos: And here's the video I shot Sunday morning: <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kkTDcKo7wuA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Looks like I won't get out today, but this is from Steve's phone this morning:

Couple of pics from today: Monday night, meet at the Brewery 5:30-ish, then Tupelos at 6:45.

Silver lining -- the fog and rime left Toni Matt pretty empty most of the day. The snow was actually awesome. Jedi Carving. Had dinner at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake. Heads up, dinner Monday at Tupelo Grille downtown.

Hmm. Late to this thread, but I seem to remember posting something last Februrary... Yes, here it is, one of my unlisted uploads... Must have been posted to one of the SES threads last Feb.

P.S. If I was ordering one this year, I would start with my first 175, slim it to a 18 waist, keep the exact same core profile, then add a little more camber and carbon to compensate for the stiffness lost to the narrower waist. Got that, Bruce? Maybe see one at the demo tent next year? Slim is in.

The design goal was to make a carving board that would perform well in the softer and lumpier conditions of spring riding, but it ended up being my favorite in all conditions. I did two iterations, a 175 one year and then 182 to go a little bigger and faster. After riding the 182 I wrote Bruce and declared it "Freeriding Nirvana". The magic comes from matching the right flex pattern, where it's stiff versus soft, with the right sidecut variability, where it's tight versus long. I don't think of it as an all-mountain board; it's a dedicated carver, but one that carves well in all kinds of good or bad carving conditions. I never tried an AMT, but I do have a early custom VSR and Monster and had ridden a Classic. I think of it as a tweeked VSR, mixing in some Monster to broaden its sweet spot while still being an aggressive turner. Still VSR, but with a more consistent or slightly reversed flex pattern. Stiffer nose and softer tail than my VSR, and sidecuts being more progressive from nose to tail than the VSR's tight-long-tight combo. My 182 goes from about 13.5 to 15ish in the tail with a 19 waist. There was a clone of that one in Bruce's demo fleet having an old RaceCarve graphic. The 175 is maybe a meter less at 12.5 to 14, but what's hard to quantify in specs is the flex pattern to match with that. I love how both mine turned out, but I know Bruce makes each board a little different. I demoed a 175 at SES last February that didn't ride nearly as smoothly as my original, and we think it was from changes to the core profile that messed with the magic flex pattern. So be sure to ask for the "johnasmo" profile. :)

Extended dance-play cut of riding footage from last season's SES event in Aspen. One hundred percent in slow-motion for increased pleasure. Get out some wax, sit back, ... If you're on the fence about going to the 2014 SES, this is a reminder to get off the fence and just do it. "But it wasn't a dream -- it was a place. And you -- and you -- and you -- and you were there." - Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz Riders include: Big Dog Dave, Kevin, Neal, Corey, Jim, Alexis, Al, Norm, Ron, Diana, Trent, Chris, Bruce, Steve, Ralph, Mike, Gloria, Gary, Jasen, Scott, Cody, Billy, Dave W., Kelly, and Angie. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/C2rWkH1niVI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>