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Mt Hood Carve-Fest in May?


Mike T

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I'd like to gauge interest in a Carve-Fest at Timberline Lodge in May. I was thinking something like 3 or 4 days, maybe Thursday thru Sunday?. The place is usually pretty empty at that time of year (camps don't start till June), and the weather can be anything from 25 dgerees with a foot of fresh to 75 degrees and riding in T-shirts and lots of sunscreen. More often it's typical spring conditions, very firm in the am softening through the day, but they usually salt a few pistes to keep it firm longer. The lifts run from 8 - 2:30 in case anyone's wondering. If you come, bring those All-Mountain boards and Tankers for the afternoon! You can even get a free forest service permit and ride the out-of-bounds glaciers.

Several of us had a bunch of great days last May, and I was thinking, why not try to get a few more folks interested?

So, PDX/Hood locals and not-so-locals, please post to this thread if you are interested. I could probably do a BBQ at my place in Sandy one afternoon or something.

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Mike , I think this is a great idea , we had some nice days last year . We should have plenty of snow yet! Just pick some days soon , so I can ask off from work . I will foward you some of last years videos so that people can get an idea on what it is like. Perhaps you can host a link. Did you & Byran get any of the ones I sent last night from meadows. Comcast is such a pain for uploading, 256k upload, 1.8 mb down ....

Jim

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Jim, I can definitley host some videos on my website so everyone can see what the fuss is all about! Jason, if you still have any up on your web site, can you post some links here?

As far as dates I was thinking middle to end of month - maybe 20-23? It aways seems to be great weather that time of year. I'd like to hear from a few others before setting dates, just in case there's something that works better for certain people.

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Lift tickets are $32 a day, and I'll find what if any group discounts are available. I have a 10-pass to Timberline that's reloadable and also transferrable after May 1. I need to reread the fine print but if I can still reload it that late in the season I might be able to get everyone tix for under $20 a day.

As far as salt goes - I've found that if you have have a deep strucure in your base, it does seem to get worn down a little fastre than usual at Timberline during the summer. I don't think they salt as much in May as they do suring the summer though. Keep in mind, we could wind up with winter conditions too!

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None of my videos from those spring carving days turned out. I think I still have a few someone else took of you guys on the magic mile. I'll upload and link to those tonight.

My friend took some pics durring a powder day we got last May: http://gallery.ad3pt.net/album15

That day was crazy, just dumping all morning. If I remember right, it was toward the end of May too, like the 21st.

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Originally posted by Mike T

As far as salt goes - I've found that if you have have a deep strucure in your base, it does seem to get worn down a little fastre than usual at Timberline during the summer.

May I ask where you got this source from? Im curious about this.

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Originally posted by LeeW

May I ask where you got this source from? Im curious about this.

Personal experience.

Same board, same shop doing the grind. On winter snow it seemed to take ~30 half-days of riding before I noticed that the structure was not quite as "crisp". On summer snow it was about a dozen half-days.

Mind you, this was visual inspection, not noticing a difference in terms of how far across a flat I could make it.

Also, it's hard to tell just how much of this was the salt versus the corn snow. But, keep in mind it's not uncommon to see corn on a sunny February day at Hood.

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Originally posted by Mike T

Personal experience.

Same board, same shop doing the grind. On winter snow it seemed to take ~30 half-days of riding before I noticed that the structure was not quite as "crisp". On summer snow it was about a dozen half-days.

Mind you, this was visual inspection, not noticing a difference in terms of how far across a flat I could make it.

Also, it's hard to tell just how much of this was the salt versus the corn snow. But, keep in mind it's not uncommon to see corn on a sunny February day at Hood.

Yea. I know. I used to work at T-Line for 2 years as a salt monitor. As for the snowboard, I couldn't tell. This was when I was doing softboots all the way. Didn't start hard booting til last year which was after I moved on from T-Line.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Moving this conversation back to it's original thread....

I'd like to suggest Thursday May 13 thru Sunday May 16 . That gives us two weekdays and two weekend days. The weekends are not that crowded at Timberline in May, but if we get some weekdays in, then we will *really* have the mountain to ourselves. I am suggesting mid-May because my that time, it's more likely to be sunny, but there's still a week or two to go before any of the camps are in session.

I can do a barbeque at my house in Sandy on a Saturday or Sunday.

Lift tickets will be $32 unless we can get a discount, and my wife and I will probably be able to use our 10-passes to get a limited number of $17 tickets. If there's more demand than supply we'll draw names from hat or average it out or something.

If you would be interested in all or part of that long weekend, please post here or email me (mt@tovino.com). If another weekend in May would be better for you, please do the same. I'm hoping to see some folks from outside the Portland / Mt Hood area. It would be a great time for new carvers to get started... the snow is generally quite forgiving after the early morning and the Magic Mile run is the perfect pitch to learn on.

If there is enough interest I can look into the possibility of some demos... in fact I'd love some assistance in that area if anyone can offer some!

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Guest thomas_m

Hi Mike.

I'm almost positive I can make the weekend event and probably Friday too. I may still be in softboots and my Donek Wide but this sounds like a good chance to see firsthand what carving is all about. Demos would be super for someone in my newby position.

Thanks!

Thomas

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Guest Jagger
Originally posted by LeeW

Yea. I know. I used to work at T-Line for 2 years as a salt monitor. As for the snowboard, I couldn't tell. This was when I was doing softboots all the way. Didn't start hard booting til last year which was after I moved on from T-Line.

What are you guys talking about ? How is there salt on the slopes? Is it some western thing?:confused: :confused: :confused:

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Originally posted by Jagger

What are you guys talking about ? How is there salt on the slopes? Is it some western thing?:confused: :confused: :confused:

It's so warm in the summer that the snow turns into really wet mashed potatos. So they throw salt all over it to help firm it up. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I assume the salt melts the top layer of slush completely so the water goes down further, refreezing and/or revealing harder snow underneath...

I know when I went to the snowperformance carve camp last August, the public lane was salted only a few times over the day whereas our organizer salted our race lane over and over and over again, and our lane was noticably firmer than the public lane in the middle of the afternoon.

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Hey I think I can make those days too.

By the way D-Sub, my wife is a real estate broker in Portland, and can give you some advice and help with home buying in Bend and surrounding area, if interested.

Drop me an email if you want help and contact info.

Jim:cool:

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