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Dear Buck Hill Diary III


bobble

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Temp: Cold 15-20°

Visibility: Cloudy, overcast, snowing - big snowflakes.

Hardbooters: 7 (Joe, Doug, Karl, Erick, Bruce, Rick, Meghan)

Lots of ski racing kept us on Warners Run.

Rode the Magic carpet today for the first time..

Turns out there is an emergency stop located at end of the belt.. if you step on it just right, the whole carpet shuts down.. heh heh.. oops! :o

(Kinda like the conveyor belt sensor for groceries at the supermarket.)

My toes got really cold, so left somewhat earlier than I wanted.

Going back out again this evening to fill my Sunday Carve Quota.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td>Date</td><td>12/07/08</td></tr><tr><td>Temp</td><td>5F, very cold</td></tr><tr><td>Visibility</td><td>crap... started to snow around 10:30AM</td></tr><tr><td>Conditions</td><td>hard fast snow</td></tr><tr><td>Hardbooters</td><td>2 (me, trent)</td></tr></table>

Sunday Morning at Welch

went to welch both saturday and sunday. races at buck scare me. got my season pass. rode with trent.

runs ventured were harley's hallow, dud's dream, puke out, nicolas nook, triple r, fowl play, dans dive. overall the snow was hard and firm. not sure what buck was but i had to step it up at welch in order to get out of the buck comfort zone. steeper pitches, fast runs, and low visibility. i had to hit the brakes alot when i couldn't see. trent, not so much but he didn't care much for the ice.

bakke has thin snow on skiers right -- dirt is showing from almost top to bottom. dan's dive is icy and had some mounds. i don't know what it is about that run but the transition on the bottom is hard for me to see.

dud's dream is sans moguls. completely wide open.

the chairlift on the south side is running but the blue runs dike and belle creek are not open. the only run is that green run that turns into a cat-track. hardly worth the effort.

lookout is free of terrain park crap. extremely fast run! not many people on the run.

we left around 11:15am. it was snowing alot and visibility was terrible.

Saturday

saturday was almost a repeat of today. same crap, different yesterday. the main difference was better visibility. it had started out cloudy but then then came the light and behold, it was very good! it was however extremely windy. must've been gusting to 30 ~ 40 MPH on top of lookout. left around 1:30pm.

OU812

on saturday we rode the chair with a liftie who was very friendly and inquisitive about our hardware. he proclaimed that he too was a fellow snowboarder and that he hadn't seen boards like ours before. he was asking all sorts of technical questions about the boards.

about midway up he ased "can you do tricks on the board?"

simultaneously trent and i responded.

trent said "no...".

... and i said "yes...". i continued by saying we could do tricks, "yeah, we can do doughnuts in the snow".

"what's a doughnut?" he asked.

"you know... thats when you do a complete 360 in the snow, laid out in a turn, armpit and [face] cheek dragging in the snow..." i replied and lifted my arm to my face to demonstrate the 'doughnut'.

i heard trent make a muffled sound.

"uhhh, guess i haven't seen that before." said the liftie. uncomfortable silence ensued. we approached the top of the lift.

"have a good one!" he says as he jumps off. "you too" we replied.

trent and i disembark the chair. i get to the bottom and turn to face trent. his eyes are wide, he says, "I WAS SUFFOCATING UP THERE!!! I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD WHEN YOU SAID 'CHEEKS DRAGGING IN THE SNOW'. I WAS TRYING TO KEEP FROM LAUGHING OUT LOUD. I COULDN"T BREATHE!"

New Back Bowl

we ventured over to the back bowl to check on progress. couldn't see a whole lot but from where we stood it looks like it will a fun run. there's construction going on to erect the lift towers. welch will be limiting access to the run to season passholders this year AND no beginners. brilliant move! i'm just not sure how they'll enforce it. after all, they'll let anyone on the terrain park.

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Drove to Buck

Saw more action on the hill than I cared for....

Drove home

Sorry guys. I've turned into a fair conditions carver.

K

Not a bad choice. I only lasted about an hour messing around on skis with my daughter. The light was as bad as it gets. Hope it's not another season like the last one. Hardly ever saw the sun.

BobD

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Bobble, can you tell if WV has more than one run in the new "back bowl"?

The pictures that I have seen show one narrow run.

Is the rope on the new lift yet?

it looked like a wide funnel from where we stood. lots of fall lines. didn't appear to be challenging on top but it did look like it got narrow

didn't see any structures like lift towers or a shack for lift operators.

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12-7-08

Was out last night 6:30-9:30pm. Midwest Masters was racing on Milk Run, but there were very light crowds everywhere else.

It appeared that Olympic Dreams and Milkrun were either groomed, or courses were really well slipped after the morning USSA race events.

Olympic dreams was vacant, so I spent most of the evening there.

Great snow, clear skies. Think I'll be doing some more evening riding.

Lost and Found:

At the top of the quad, I talked briefly with a Father and his two little ones - and commented how well his (5 year old?) kids were riding.

Loading the lift a run later, I see the same father walking around looking lost and forlorn.. with only one kid in tote. While on the lift I saw a child hiking up the middle of Olympic - met up with the little tyke, and she followed me down to the lodge and the pacing parent. Kid was unfazed about being 'lost.'

It's a different crowd at night..with loads of alpine inquires.

Got a warm fuzzy when the lift op actually corrected another rider -

Dude "Hey.. check out that ski-board!"

Lifty "That's an alpine board."

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I tried a Sunday night last year and was met by a line of cars a block long trying to get into the lot. Maybe it was winter vacation or something, I can't remember. When I was younger night riding was the best. I would be into it again if the crowds were in control.

I rode this morning. Conditions were not the best. Low visabilty was an issue. The snow was firm, but gave way really easily. It was strange. Maybe the real snow needs a few groomings to pack in. I only lasted about an hour.

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I was out there tonight, but only from about 8 to close. It got to be too soft by the end but was still a great way to spend a snowy night. Traffic was minimal, as it looks like people elected to stay inside tonight.

I thought I just about got hit by a skier from behind, and I asked him to be more careful but I don't think he was aware. Perhaps I'm just paranoid (and if that was any of you in ski mode, sorry about that).

Hope to meet some of you soon.

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I thought today was FUN!

Morning started out with snow mounds from the guns and bad visibility. The snow would go from firm groom and the soft snow under the guns. It was a good day for a BX board on plates. Ballroom was REALLY good, then they figured out that we figured that out, so up went the gates....... After they moved the gates from Nastar practice it was fun to go down through where the course had been. The visibility got better until I went through a gun and got plastered, then I could not see very well. I had a good time, left about 12:30.

Not a good "carving" day

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Snow guns all over. Very mixed conditions. Only milkrun was ok, but now has deep ruts from ski racing.

BobD

I agree. The two options were bare ice or about 2cm diameter balls of ice, and that changed from turn to turn.

Saw somebody racing on a snowboard... was that anybody here?

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I thought today was FUN!

Morning started out with snow mounds from the guns and bad visibility. The snow would go from firm groom and the soft snow under the guns. It was a good day for a BX board on plates. Ballroom was REALLY good, then they figured out that we figured that out, so up went the gates....... After they moved the gates from Nastar practice it was fun to go down through where the course had been. The visibility got better until I went through a gun and got plastered, then I could not see very well. I had a good time, left about 12:30.

Not a good "carving" day

Agreed, yesterday was a blast even on an alpine board. I wish I could have stayed longer.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td>Date</td><td>12/11/08</td></tr><tr><td>Temp</td><td>14F</td></tr><tr><td>Visibility</td><td>evening</td></tr><tr><td>Conditions</td><td>soft and cruddy</td></tr><tr><td>Hardbooters</td><td>2 me, ben (aka bhh1128)</td></tr></table>

Evening

this evening snow was soft and cruddy on crossroads. up on top there was a snowgun blowing on crossroads so the snow was not carveable. midway down it was like sliding across marbles or rocks. a race was going on milkrun and it looked rutted. overall it was turbulent -- bounced alot. i was riding defensively and not really pushing the edges.

lasted about 1-1/2 hours. met ben. good to ride with you. on a typical crappy condition day i would've left after a couple runs. come ride sundays and meet everyone.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!

yikes!!! WTF is with the snow mounds?!? i tried cresting one on toeside and freaked when i discovered how steep the other side was. it didn't look it from the chair. they're more like jumps. i hope they even them out.

anudder thing, anyone notice that there's a train crossing signal on top of the terrain park?

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went at 10 am, took one run and left. back at 10:20.

the light is absolu-effing-lutely flat. i could not see cord or the mounds of snow at all. even from the chair. no shadows. they did groom but it was right at opening.

i'm hoping to go out later if the light improves a little.

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thanks Bob I was just about to head down there. Flat light woulf be ok if ther were a few flat areas without rollers.

BobD

yeah, no sh!t.

light was so bad that i couldn't see the mounds until i was there. who wants to be on the disabled list?!?

anyways, they had just groomed so the snow was soft.

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I was out at Buck yesterday morning, and the sky was clear and the light was fabulous, you could see everything. After about 2.5 housr I took a break for about 30 minutes and went back out. It was cloudy and I could not see a thing. Biffed once on 2 runs and switched to skis. Even that was a hazard as I was constantly being buffetted around by unseen stuff. So I went to the rail yard and the knob - it was just great. weaving around the snow machines, swooshing around in the powder, I didn't need any visuability as it was almost all powder and hardly any people. In fact,the parking lot was mostly empty. I tried Olympic Dreams but it was a chopped up mess, and the mounds on Crossroads were freaky if you had any speed on at all. Fun on skis, but on a board I was launching, and I am not into jumping in hard boots. I didn't even try today as it is all overcast. If it clears up later, I am heading out to Buck.

I wish we would get a real proper snowstorm; I just luv being out in a heavy snowfall. It is a completely different world - so quiet.

Rick

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