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Buck Hill Diary IV


bobble

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>12/25/2009 Christmas Day</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>33F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>craptacular</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>wet snow over groom</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td>0</td></tr></table>

Noon

anyone who thought about going and didn't, good call. i didn't last long, less than an hour. here's what you didn't miss.

started out on hardboots. it was slow getting to the chairlift. i didn't quite make it so i had to hike it. did two runs. visibility really was bad. big snow flakes were landing on my goggles and obscuring my vision. i had to wipe them as i slowly got down the hill. snow was super soft and wet. when i turned it sprayed snowballs.

i switched to softboots. i think i made 5 more runs. i haven't waxed my freecarve board in awhile. it was super slow! the new snow felt cool while making the edge transitions -- it was like i was on a balance board. when i got to the knee at the bottom of the run i stopped turning and tried to make it into the lift. i could barely make it into the corral.

weather conditions quickly changed from big snow to sleet (when i got home it stopped snowing/sleeting). it hurt my face. every run i had to wipe my goggles as i was moving. it was windy way up on top, at the bottom is was calm. my goggles were wet like a sponge and dripping inside. jacket/pants were soaked. the snow under the lift towers had oil spots.

on my last run i was going between the towers. i suddenly decelerated and lurched forward. it felt like snow was clinging underneath the board and slowing me down. i decided i had enough. i tried making it to the office but i didn't have enough speed to even make get past the electronic scoreboard. saw some guys coming down the backside trying to make it to the lift. they stopped right where i was and had to hike it.

hoping for better conditions tomorrow.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>12/26/2009 </td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>22F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>partly cloudy, some sun. at around 11:30am it turned flat</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>fast cord</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td>1</td></tr></table>

Morning

snow was very fast and firm. good stuff. it felt great to be out! started out with my short board. after 3 runs my i was already getting tired and the front leg was starting to hurt. didn't want to burn out so quickly so i switched to my donek. more gooder. front leg stopped bothering me. i think it had something to do with my binding setup.

milkrun - had buddy warners race. cord looked thin near the lift towers.

crossroads - great in the early morning. one of my early runs at the very top i pushed out alot of snow on a toe-side carve. the trench looked rather intimidating. you could fit your arm in it. i didn't see any ski tracks over it. on one run i accidently jammed my arm in one of my trenches. arm and shoulder throbbed for a long while. around 10am the middle of the run was chopped up and all aggregate. 11am it was rough holding an edge. lost it a couple times. got a little crowded with people cutting over from olympic dreams and milkrun. around 11:30am, sun disappeared.

warners way - there was cord but it was thin. did a couple runs. felt good. there were some slow skiers in the way.

rail yard - i was looking at the structure near the fence. kids were going up it then dropping down. not sure what you call it -- a quarter pipe? a wall? hip? i thought i would venture in and try to toe-side carve off of it. what i didn't realize was that there was no way of getting in that area without going over two banks of jumps. at the top, the snow was sketchy at best. in between jumps it was really crappy and chunky. maybe if i was on softboots. when i got to the first jumps, i stopped and release my binding and walked off. fortunately there were no kids around to witness my walk of shame.

Scary Sh!t

met this snowboarder. he rides weekend mornings. he carves, then switches, carves, etc. said he sees us and started asking questions. we were talking on the chair. i told him that i'm paranoid of people sneaking up from behind and that i've had my fair share of collisions. he told me that his brother stopped snowboarding after a nasty collision a couple years ago. he was with his brother heading fast down the run (i think milkrun?). the guy slowed down but his brother kept going. another snowboarder was going down the backside. both collided at the bottom. his brothers knee went into the kids chest. at first they thought the kid got the wind knocked out of him but it turned out that he had a torn aorta! i'm surprised the kid lived. he said his brother was sued for $1 Million. the kid was at such a young age that he needs (or needed) future grafts to his aorta.

a run or two later i almost had a collision with a buddy warner racer. i was trying to avoid skiers coming in from olympic. turned away from them and saw this little kid coming from the opposite direction. at the last second i managed to get away from him.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>12/27/2009</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>14F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>fast and firm</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 5 (me, erik, tom, ben, bill)</td></tr></table>

Morning

snow was fast and fun. would've been a good day for metal.

milkrun: there were two courses set up that were eventually taken down. the run had ruts but cord in between. i didn't do much there (leg pain) but everyone else did.

crossroads: the snow didn't get as trashed like yesterday. ski racers had already laid tracks early in the morning but the snow held... at least for a while. there was one run where me, erik, tom, and ben were carving it up. we're all tightly spaced. must've looked impressive from the chair. if not impressive, then it was definitely loud. if not impressive or loud, then must've looked stupid.

had an itch on my stomach so i blew out a toe-side edge and slid for about 20 ft to scratch it.

on the lift i was telling tom about yesterday's trench and how people were avoiding one in particular. it was big and ugly scar around the first mounds. that very run at the bottom some skier told him he was scared of our trenches.

got a crowded around 11 am and we waited for white space. last two runs i was robbed.

didn't go anywhere else.

Calf Pain

after my second run, my calf was bothering me. the pain runs along the outside of my leg and feels like the muscle is tender. on heelside turns it felt like the cuff of the boot was pressing the sore lump against the bone. it hurt so i'd ease off the turn. went in to relax the muscles. went back out. it was marginally better. i sketched alot and occasionally would carve. went in for a second break. started dicking around with the BTS. it looked like i had tightened the BTS to the point where the boot was locked in position. whoops! i loosened up the BTS. it felt significantly better and heel-side edges felt smoother too... at the end i was able to carve the crap out of the hill. :eplus2:

i'll have to experiment some more.

Professional Snowboarders

ben and i were at the top waiting for a window. a snowboarder was standing next to us and started asking questions. he asked if we were professional snowboarders because of our boards and how fast we were going. :biggthump

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>12/28/2009</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>22F with a nasty windchill</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>fast and firm</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 2 (me, erik)</td></tr></table>

Morning

today was one of those days you wish you could repeat over and over. we had a blast! felt euphoric when i left.

conditions were optimal; excellent grooming, cold temps, and blue bird skies. the wind was harsh. i went to the ticket office and bought a gator.

the only real negative was it got a little crowded with inexperienced skiers and snowboarders. occasionally groupies would stop at the top and watch erik and i (yes, indeed! rockstar status!). probably stopped at the top when i gave them my evil-goggle look.

milkrun: like yesterday, there were two courses set up that were eventually taken down. the ruts were intimidating at the top but the middle and bottom were mild. we did a couple runs. i tried going toe-side carve on the knoll. first time i blew a toe-side and spun down the hill on my stomach. i was laughing -- had to look ridiculous from the chair. later attempts i realized the cord was too thin.

saw some guy doing ski ballet. i haven't seen that in years!

crossroads: spent most of the day on crossroads. on skiers right, race teams had set up a course. i was half tempted into a limbo under the orange ribbon - would've been cool to pull off. i refrained. erik started on a nitro hardboot set up and ditched it after the first run. 9 am, top to bottom the run was excellent. every turn was solid and grippy. our trenches had great symmetry - couldn't tell who made the trench. 10 am, started to get choppy but edges held. all you could see were our trenches. started to realize that we need a steeper faster hill - it was getting way too easy. 10:30 am, got crowded with people. had to wait for white space. 11:30 am, crowds were cutting across the run to do lunch. snow in the middle was chopped like fine sugar. my rope tow guard functioned as a snow scoop and it slowed me down considerably when i touched the fine snow. started to blow out edges. rode high and tried to stop "petting the dog".

warners: serviceable. we did a couple runs there.

olympic: closed off. two courses were set up and the ruts were deep.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>1/1/2010 New Years Day</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>5F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>firm cord</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 5 me, trent, ben, kent, scuff, bill (softies), bobd (skis)</td></tr></table>

Morning

2010 had a rough start. headed down to the chair. found out that the lift was broken and that it would take about a half hour. something about fixing wheels at the top. they said they were trying to open the CTEC but didn't see any movement of the chair. felt sorry for people who paid for their lift ticket and traveled 42.08 miles to be here. trent and i headed over to teachers pet chair. took one run. i decided i would walk up the backside of milkrun. trent wasn't into the project. by the time i reached the top, chris had fixed the chair and was heading down.

<a href=" Chris fixes the lift" title="Chris fixes the lift by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2742/4234575790_bb9313e69a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Chris fixes the lift" /></a>

a view from the top of crossroads just before i headed down. the snow was firm.

<a href=" View from top of Crossroads" title="View from top of Crossroads by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4233802913_5641c13480_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="View from top of Crossroads" /></a>

got to the bottom and they were removing the service platform. the chair opened around 9:30am

<a href=" Removing the service chair" title="Removing the service chair by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4233800119_5c2fb68b66_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Removing the service chair" /></a>

morning was pretty much dead. not many people. there were a few skiers out but the run was pretty much ours.

<a href=" ben h." title="ben h. by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2769/4234577916_b8f2b0bb92_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="ben h. " /></a>

i was really cold. had to go in and warm up my toes. i was tired from last night and lack of sleep. others went in as well.

New Years Resolution

must focus on initiating heel-sides earlier. wish i could figure out why sometimes i get wave lines. i was making a simple long heel-side at the bottom and i could feel the board stutter. looked behind and the lines were slightly wavy.

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>1/2/2010 - International Moira Day :1luvu:</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>-16F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>firm snow, maybe slow.</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 3 (me, bobd, brent)</td></tr></table>

Morning

the temp this morning was -16F per the buck web site. not sure if i believe it... maybe -10F. not much wind. precip was really low. snow was sticky but firm. excellent carving conditions. almost didn't go out.

<a href=" Crossroads" title="Crossroads by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4238421086_f4e3ea0810_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Crossroads" /></a>

place was practically dead yet they had all lifts going. left at 10am for reasons i'll explain later.

Noon

came back and the place was definitely dead. got a little warmer, about -5F. saw another hardbooter. first thought it was JJ Fluff. guy had great style. thought for sure it was him but he was riding a donek. bobd showed up. later met the other hardbooter... brent. he was wondering when the next MES was going to be held. (trent, that's a hint)

rode for about 1-1/2 hours on crossroads and milkrun. snow was great as always. toes were frozen. had to leave.

saw a extremely low flying Delta passenger jet come over the top of the run. hard to gauge the altitude but it was definitely low. if i was a passenger i'd think we were landing in crystal lake.

Calf Pain

this morning after about 3 runs i started to have calf problems. heel-sides were hard on my front leg. whenever i'd go into a heel-side my muscle along the outside of the calf felt sore and knotted. it felt like it was close to the bone. the pressure of the boot cuff during the turn made the pain intolerable. i went in a couple runs later to relax my leg. went back out. tried to analyze my weighting of edges. realized i had some problems with a straight heel-side edge going slow at the bottom. i could feel the board make wavy lines (sounded like "chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff"). the pain wasn't diminishing. went home in frustration.

tried to locate the pain and determine where in the boot it was occuring. only way i could repeat the pain was to cross my calf across the other knee. frickin hurt! marked the spot with a bandage (highlighted in red). correlated it to the boot. seemed to be high, near the top buckles. it didn't make sense.

<a href=" leg pain" title="leg pain by snurfer64, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2727/4238419452_fa0f5f8b0c_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="leg pain" /></a>

out of deperation i decided to remove the front BTS and see if that helped. took some ibuprofen as well. went back at noon. heels-sides felt tighter. definitely less pain but that could be the ibuprofen. the cuff of the boot seemed to cradle my leg better. maybe the bts was too loose or too much lateral movement? dunno.

least i could get out and carve. tomorrow, try again... at welch. ;)

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Found out what was wrong today Bob. The cuff adjustment on my boot had broken, so the cuff was tilting side to side.

BTW I hit Bob L when he was down. Couldn't change edges (see above), and slid right into him. First time I have run into anyone. Not something I plan to make a habit of - it was scary. Luckily no one was hurt.

BobD

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>1/3/2010 </td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>-12F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun with a touch of smog to the North</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>groomed snow.</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 5 (me, bobd, Jesse R., Joe, Bill)</td></tr></table>

Great day of riding!

First time for wearing a face mask, and it really paid-off..

Sun was out, but so was the cold - good thing there was no wind-chill.

Snow conditions were groomed and held really well. As the snow warmed up, my "Bullet" wax became more and more sticky.

Ski Challenge and a handful of beginners were about the only ones out, so

the run was decorated with oodles of carve-marks. by 1pm..

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>1/9/2010</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>-6F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>???</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 2 (me, erik)</td></tr></table>

Morning

late start for my morning. after seeing bobd's post i was reluctant to head out. kept checking the tower cam. despite the race course set up on milkrun it looked vacant. pulled into the parking lot and it was about 3/4 full. out on the run, the crowd wasn't bad but you had to be careful near the bottom with pedestrians. maybe the cold temps kept everyone away.

the snow was already chewed up by the time i got there. my carve lines in the snow were inconsistent. some chattering. some ice here and there ... especially near towers 5 and 6.

i didn't like the traffic spilling onto crossroads from olympic. i know erik wasn't a big fan. saw him fall on his sword in order to avoid a kid that was not in control. nice heel-side.

it was cold enough that after about a half hour my toes were getting cold. i stuck it out but didn't stay long.

Binding Set Up

tried something... narrowed my stance a notch and tried adjusting toe/heel block positions. i've got bad eyes but it looked like my rear boot heel was farther from the edge than the toe. could be the heel lift and the sidecut. tried to compensate by moving the toe/heel position. did some carpet boarding at home (conditions sucked). out on the run i had to make more adjustments.

not sure what to make of the narrow stance. need fresh cord to be sure. i almost felt like i was too forward on the board. the effect was most pronounced when i almost went over the nose on heel-side. frickn hurt!

i noticed when i got home was i had a lot of snow that somehow got inside the boot. obviously it gets in there when i wipe out on heel-side. maybe the cuff is bending outward near the arch and acting as a scoop? the cant screw looked tight.

Next Time In The Lift Line

do the long lift lines got you down? then try this:

<param name="movie" value="http://www.soundboard.com/sb/playerskins/singleTrackPlayer3.swf?trackURL=http://www.soundboard.com/mediafiles/MzMwNjEzODcxMzMwNjg1_bFPEN0wxp50.mp3&vol=70&txtColor=0xffffff&action=start&title=Ash - Boomstick&photo=http://www.soundboard.com/memberphoto/932119762932280.jpg" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed wmode="transparent" src="http://www.soundboard.com/sb/playerskins/singleTrackPlayer3.swf?&txtColor=0xffffff&trackURL=http://www.soundboard.com/mediafiles/MzMwNjEzODcxMzMwNjg1_bFPEN0wxp50.mp3&vol=70&action=start&title=Ash - Boomstick&photo=http://www.soundboard.com/memberphoto/932119762932280.jpg" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="296" height="50"></embed></object><a href="http://www.soundboard.com/" ><img src="http://www.soundboard.com/1x1.gif" border="0" alt="soundboard.com" /></a>

:eplus2:

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<table><th width="125"></th><tr><td><b>Date</b></td><td>1/10/2010</td></tr><tr><td><b>Temp</b></td><td>6F but warmed up to about 20F</td></tr><tr><td><b>Visibility</b></td><td>sun</td></tr><tr><td><b>Conditions</b></td><td>well... okay early</td></tr><tr><td><b>Hardbooters</b></td><td> 7 (me, erik, ben, joe, bobd, bill, bruce)</td></tr></table>

Morning

parking lot was 3/4 full pulling in. went directly to the ski school to get my lift ticket. the line at the main ticket office extended outside and was long.

9 AM: decent cord at the start. lots of little kids getting ready to race. after 2-3 runs, joe talks me into going to olympic. no one was on it and the rope tow was turned on. i did 1-1/2 turns up the rope tow. the rope kept slipping through my gloves. gave up and took the couch back up. stayed on crossroads. ben shows up with a new toy. metal is the new black.

10 AM: crossroads was a fricking blast, [HIGHLIGHT] [1] [/HIGHLIGHT]. there were some really gifted people standing in the middle of the run doing absolutely nothing. [HIGHLIGHT] [2] [/HIGHLIGHT]

Fox-9 showed up with a camera crew to do a segment on the races. producer came over to us in the lift line and asked started asking questions about "your raceboards". joe and erik gave the guy an explanation about the boards. he asked if they could record a few clips of just us out on olympic for a news segment. "Oh hell yes!". we signed waivers. so four of us were out on Olympic while Fox-9 videotaped us from the bottom. just did two runs. [HIGHLIGHT] [3] [/HIGHLIGHT]

bob d shows up. bruce takes off to work on his bindings.

11 AM: challenging to hold an edge on some parts. joe was riding behind me. he said that whenever he saw me go into ice he'd change his line. [HIGHLIGHT] [4] [/HIGHLIGHT]

crossroads was getting choked with people. couple times i just gave up when i looked uphill. i don't trust people behind me. was watching erik from the chair. he was carving away. saw this little kid on skis coming down fast behind erik. the kid wasn't turning whatsover. little kid overtook him on heel-side. erik skidded out to avoid the kid who just kept on going.

left at 11:45 AM.

Afternoon

back out at 3 pm. ben borrowed me a spare 3 cant disk so that i could experiment. going from 6 to 3 degrees on rear binding made me feel like my stance was too wide but once i started turning it felt okay.

from the chair the conditions looked horrible. on crossroads there were long vertical channels in the snow. when i went through them it wasn't completely bad. the trenches were fairly deep near the chair. on skiers left i found out the hard way that it was very icy i wasn't wearing kneepads. i fell toe-side and wacked the kneecaps everytime the board chattered.

warners sucked. icy and rutted.

milrun... i was intimidated by the lack of light in the afternoon. i did one run near the chair but it was icy.

left after 45 minutes.

Footnotes

1. actually, the run didn't hold up as well. i blame the skiers.

2. not completely true. while it might have appeared that the people accomplished nothing, the reality was they were really pissing us off.

3. yeah... okay, i lied. none of that really happened. no Fox-9. nothing to see here.

4. i thought the whole purpose of metal was better ice handling?

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Fox-9 showed up with a camera crew to do a segment on the races. producer came over to us in the lift line and asked started asking questions about "your raceboards". joe and erik gave the guy an explanation about the boards. he asked if they could record a few clips of just us out on olympic for a news segment. "Oh hell yes!". we signed waivers. so four of us were out on Olympic while Fox-9 videotaped us from the bottom. just did two runs. [HIGHLIGHT] [3] [/HIGHLIGHT]

lol! :lol:

bob d shows up. bruce takes off to work on his bindings.

were these 2 events related? "oh crap, bob d's here. i better check my bindings." ;)

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Jan 12

Conditions were good, but it's still a bit icy underneath.

Rufus was the only other HBer out this morning.

The good news is that the boxes have gone from Pete's peeve :biggthump

Should relieve some of the congestion, especially on days when half the area has race courses set up.

BobD

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