Cypress about to open

[BlueB]

Another great day at Cypress. Decent pack and smooth grooming in the morning and complete spring slush by lunchtime. Mostly sunny.

Practice runs for oncoming Noram BX race attracted lots of young racers, otherwise not too many people on the hill. And of course, Dave and I met/saw all lot of people on hard boots, probably Cypress record for a day.

We bumped into Fast Freddy from Alberta, who used to frequent here, on BOL, in the past. Freddy was on his new Kessler and explained some of the finer points of the board’s design to us. Most interesting parts were almost none existent, almost square nose and very progressive SCR – starting at about 21m and ending with 14m. Fredy claims it’s not longitudinally soft at all, contrary to the other things I’ve heard. My general impression was that the board is pretty unusable for a recreational rider, or it has very limited spectrum of use, at the best. I didn’t get to ride it, though.

My weapon for the day was a newly acquired Speed 68W. Very sweet board. Ripped nicely on groom in the morning, and floated very well in the slush at noon. Wide waist (22.5) makes it stable, while not slow edge-to-edge. Flex is on easy side, I would say a touch softer than my 4WD 174 – nothing wrong with that, just had to ride centered. Nose is big and it doesn’t get buried in slush. I think it would make great AM / teaching / EC board. It’s a keeper.

Dave and Freddy will continue with ripping tomorrow, and I’ll rejoin them on Sunday (I’m launching my sail boat from winter storage tomorrow).

[BlueB]

Snowing!

Not much but still... One good dump and we might be back to great conditions again.

Frozen corn in the morning, but of the kind where you still can dig the edge in and rail. Softening just a little through the day.

Ruwi joined Dave and myself for the morning - good riding with you bud! We traded the horses - I gave him one of my 4807s for his Apo 2000. Coudn't resist the urge to ride the beast a bit, even on hard pack. What can I say - the board kicked my a$$ big time. It must be one of the stiffest sticks I ever tried. Huge nose ends just in front of the aftmost front inserts, so the front foot does not affect bending of the board much. The scr is super long, maybe 2om or so (I'll calculate later). Given that and the stiffness it just wants to ride big. Couple of times I initiated on heel side, I could feel the initial edge bite and arcing, I leaned in more and just fell on bu beck/bum - the board just woodent bend more on that hard pack. It felt better at the speed, but I guess it would come to its own in pow, the real intended use... Well, next year.

On the way home, I had to wipe Dave's droll from it first, befor putting it into the car ;)

[Dave*]

April 02 2007

Just home from whistler daytrip, some of the tastiest groomies I have had this season , cold crisp n smooth, some pretty good powder found off piste also. If temps stay cold tomorrow should be even better for carving,

Riding with one of the soft booters from work, another probable hardboot convert on the way, Chinch did a pretty good job of keeping up today but I got a good chuckle when his leg cramped up at 1430, us fat old guys can still lay the smacketh down on the skinny young pups either on or off piste.

Dave*

ps: renew edge card for next year and get unlimited rest of season for 99 bucks,

[Dave*]

Just home from a two dayer up at whistler

Yesterday was again top three days of the season for carving , stayed cold minus 10 minus 5 C all day overcast but good vis, Erin was complaining it was "icy" but compared to what I have gotten used to at Cypress it was buttersmooth with a ton of grip, my poor gloves and the butt of my pants are thrashed.

Today a much different day, around zero celcius at roundhouse at 0835, getting warmer as the day progressed, sunny a good part of day, snow stayed remarkably carveable up to around 1500 hrs when my legs gave out , was riding solo today so a full on hair straight back kind of day( I put in more vertical in two days whistler than I would have at cypress in two weeks, and I didnt get bored)

Crowds were quite light all in all

Will be heading up mid week next week again.

Dave*

[BlueB]

Nice soft groom in the morning, slush later on. Not to crowded either. I left some nice trenches on Midway and tried a bit of softened up BX course on Fork, then bumps under Skychair (Ripcoard). Devine view from the top of Skychair - mostly sunny day.

I've got some silly back injury between left shoulder blade and spine - it really hurts when I put my hands down in the soft snow. So, I had to work on "propper" technique, quiet upright upper body, angulation, etc. It worked mirracles in that slush...

Speed 68W rulled the conditions again. Becoming one of the favorites.

I'll probably teach on Sunday...

[Dave*]

Just home from whistler, opening day of SnSfest, lots of people in village, hill deserted.

About 10cms new on top of firm pack at 0840 hrs, temp stayed minus a couple in the alpine, snowing consistently T/O the day at about 1cm per hour,

Visibility good mid mountain, challenging up top. Harmony open, peak did not. Expecting 20-30cms O/N.

Visibility at bottom divine, made me want to buy new cell phone, see pic, "sorry" about the snow coming down, on way home big wet flakes to just past Daisy Lake.

Good canadian kids Jets Above and Sam Roberts were the opening day acts.

[BlueB]

Ola Dave! Nice report, even better photo :D

I'm going to Cypresss, with Roy, in the morning. 5cm of fresh so far....

[BlueB]

7cm of fresh, nicely groomed and frozen overnight... Carvefest on sunny empty hill in the morning, slushy later on. A bit of fresh on steeper ungroomed runs was kinda nice too.

Roy rode his Oxygen F67 for the first time and loved it. I'm impressed with his improvement every time we go together.

I tested the Speed 68W on hard pack and it has resonable edge hold. Not quite like WCR 181, my other ride for the morning, but acceptable. However, it rulled later when everything softened up.

Possibly more snow tonight.

Tomorrow is the last Cypress day for the season.

[BlueB]

Didn't make it to the hill today for the closing day.

It was a great season, in despite of all the rains we had in the last 2 months.

Thanks to the Cypress for running the best North Shore resort. Lots of new chairs and advanced/expert slopes comming up for next season.

Thanks to local hard boys (and a girl!) for shearing my joy.

Thanks to all of you, Bomberites, for reading my Cypress Diry. Look it up again, next year.

Boris

[ruwi]

I did my last ride @Grouse last Saturday. Not many riders so I ended up riding from 0900 to 1530 Hrs, longer than I normally did before in crowded slope like Grouse. By 1300 Hrs, snow fell briefly and everone was happy even the tourists browsing around.

Thanks to Boris, Dave and George (Crucible) for all the tips on my very first year of carving. Can't wait for the next season and improve my technique.

I'll also try to teach Level 1 Boarding in any of the local mountains that will take me during weekends and holidays, paid or volunteer will do.

BR/ruwi

[crucible]

Ruwi,

Thanks for the props.

I've been away from my computer for the past week, I took a vacation to Puerto Vallarta with my wife and missed the last day of lift operations on Grouse.

It was a pleasure to ride with you this season- see on the slopes again in November!

Your compadre,

George

[Dave*]

Per Boris's request the lowdown on whistler.

Went up friday morning to meet my alberta buddies who had been boozing in whistler for the previous 3 days, Conditions at 0835 off the top of village gondy were superb carving condtions, a mix of sun and cloud t/o the day, off piste on the friday was still quite good as not to many melt freeze cycles from the last snowfall of the few days previous, warmed up in the afternoon, the 171 ATV a good choice for the day. Prior's demo tent up so temptation got the best of me, decision between 177 or 183 wcr metal, I opted for the 177 with the 12m scr as a little more traffic friendly and in the scr range I am shopping for.

My brief ride impressions of the WCR metal, I tried one out last year but not set up to my stance preferences so couldnt give a fair shake, this year the burtons went on at 22 inches center to center 60front 55ish rear. Back binding as far back as I could place it. Condtions were firm at about 10 am.

Board is a bit on the "soft" side for my 210lbs felt like I was on the verge of folding it a few times when getting rammy on it on the other hand the ease of flex made it super easy to bend and tighten the turn, It did have incredible edge grip, a very easy board to ride, the "round" tail corners make it easy to butter the turn out when needed, one could easily go off pisting with this thing in under 10 cms of fresh, I ended up doing three green chair laps, three reds , and three peak saddles, as to the chatter/rut handling ability of titanal I would like to try a WCR in same shape/scr/lenght but non titanal in a back to back comparo and give a more educated response, all in all a sweet ride, I think I might have to get one. End of WCR Metal talk.

Was able to ride to village at 1600 hrs via Tokum/Crabapple, had to dodge the odd bare patch and rock down lower.

Hit the GLC, met the alberta crew and got quite drunk, (my original plans of a quick day trip went right out the window), from GLC to Dubhlin Gate for "dinner", to Bills, and then the Longhorn till the ugly lights came on, all this in my original sweaty socks from riding , ended up crashing on hotel room couch.

Saturday AM, woke up 0700, voodoo witch doctor got ahold of my head somehere along the line, (note to self drink water before passing out , remember cant keep up to 25-30 year olds drinking habits anymore), a Mcdonalds drivethru breakfast (my car didnt get towed, whoooo hoooo) another sunny morning on hill , great corduroy, three laps and hangover sort of went away, managed to get two of the crew up on hill, more curiosity RE hardboots, Bumped into Mike from Seattle at 1100 ish at the Prior tent , he was all pimped out in full on TD2s/AFs/4X4 this is the same guy I bumped into three years ago at the prior tent asking questions about the gear, we ended up slapping his soft boot gear on a 4X4 and doing some laps, This year he demoed a little 171 WCR and we did some laps, Mikes riding much improved , his own self taught carving has less bad habits than my own.

Legs ended up running out of gas at 1400 hrs , so back to Vancouver dog tired, Passed out on couch sometime after Mirko CroCop damn near had his melon taken off by the Brazillian in the UFC,

Sunday Morning, woke up at 0700 on the couch to the phone ringing, the work crew are doing a last minute whistler trip do I want to go? So much for sleeping in and watching the Turkish round of MotoGP. Getting five people rounded up and into a vehicle, lift ticketed, etc put us on top of hill about 1045hrs , overcast, abit warmer than days past , thin slush on top of firm pack, still very good carving on the floral 179 4x4 ( ditched the work jibbers), I was one of about 8 carvers I spotted probably a new record other than when race events in town, ran a few laps with Adrian B who was demoing the same 177 metal I did in days past, then bumped into Tom ?C? at the demo tent with a Donek mounted with Cateks and no 3-4mm key to tighten them. It was whistlers last day so every one hanging out before relegated to blackcomb only. Ended up doing a bunch of laps under the green chair looking for the jibbers I came up with who were supposed to be in the park. My repeated laps under the chair got more than a few positive comments from subsequent chair rides and people that saw me go under, ( its funny a kid in the park can huck a huge 1080 and no one looks , lay a few carves down on green/blue run under the chair and look at the buzz you get from the lift). Rode to 1530hrs , a few pints in the longhorn, and back to Vancouver, I didnt drive so got to rubberneck the whole way back, a pleasant change from my ussual whistler trips this year.

End of story, Hoping for a few Blackcomb days next week.

Dave*

[BlueB]

Dave, you monster! You'll make me pull the boards out of storage and scrape the wax :D