lonbordin Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 Back at the Peaks tonight, w00t! It had been above freezing during the day and it was below freezing when we left. The shaded runs like Jurassic were as hard as a rock and the exposed runs were choppy with small ice boulders everywhere. Typical southern Indiana conditions. They did groom Walnut Alley which was really nice and we spent the bulk of our runs there. Oh and there wasn't 100 people on the hill. I love mid-week Paoli Peaks. Due to the icy conditions I was very unhappy with the control I had on the 180 Grocer with 50F 3 Toe rise, 45R 3 Heel rise and 1 degree outward cant. So I went to completely flat and 33F, 30R no cant. Oh, so much better... I was actually able to do a few carves and we had a lot of fun. The Grocer isn't a good ice board... missing my Tanker already. Low point of the night was while I was adjusting my bindings my son took a run and came upon a bad wipeout. While he did not see the crash he did get to witness the grown man screaming in pain until he passed out. He seemed to take it in stride but this is about the fifth time we've witnessed something like this in the last two seasons. I always worry it will scar his sunny disposition. But again typical southern Indiana conditions. Looking forward to many more late afternoon\evening runs to the Peaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Donnelly Posted December 18, 2009 Report Share Posted December 18, 2009 Here's a link to photos from the article http://www.skinet.com/skiing/resorts/2009/12/paoli-peaks-indiana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Here's a link to photos from the article http://www.skinet.com/skiing/resorts/2009/12/paoli-peaks-indiana While I agree with some of the sentiment of the article I find it off base. For the record I do not like living in Southern Indiana and I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid. That said some of the things said in the article need addressing. First the proverb that addresses books and covers is quite applicable at Paoli Peaks. One of the better skiers I've ever met regularly wears Carharts or Camo on the slopes and he regularly beats the NASTAR pacesetters. The weekday and night sessions can be nearly empty and provide that open run one is always looking for... The pictures come from the spring "carnival" and are really completely out of context for most of the year. An interesting year round sight is the Amish kids skiing... quite something. BTW- Thanks for the link OP! I think I'll go tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Temps ~40 F (~4.5 C) with a light mist that turned to snow in the later afternoon. Snow was soft but not too soft. Very light crowd for a weekend (official opening day), w00t! All trails open... that was a first for us and opening day. I turned up the stance angles for today... 48 Front 1 toe lift | 45 Rear 1 heel lift 1 cant. These are the minimum angles I can run on the 180 Lib Tech Grocer without overhang. Yes I have big feet (30). I was happy with this setup... played around with boot tightness today as well. The harder I carved the more the snow gave way but we had a lot of fun. Looks to be the last day until after the holidays for us... Going to NC but can't convince the spouse to bring the snow equipment... ah, well. Happy carving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 I've setup the Wild Duck 161 Limited! :lol: Hoping for SL carving capability! This will my first solo trip to the hill in sometime and I'm really looking forward to working on technique! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Thin cover over yellow ice + new board + inexperienced hardbooter = so so night. I enjoyed the Wild Duck 161... the shortest board I've had ever. I even did a couple of jump turns. Had to run greater than 60 on it's 19 cm waist and that was REALLY different. I need more runs. Went from 5 to 10PM tonight... must go back soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Paoli has the best snow conditions I have ever ridden, right now. It's nearly as good as any other western resort. No really. In a word fantastic. And there are no days above freezing in the forecast!!! And the crowds were very light! So tonight I took the 178 BS Liberation out for its maiden voyage. Wow, it is a great board. It does demand your full attention and I did not let it run at full speed but I locked into some really great carves. I did also tighten my boots differently tonight and that worked out a lot better! 63 +3 F 60 +3 R 52.2 cm (20.55") stance width My son was on his "new" skis tonight (Rossignol Radical Racing X 145). He loved them and the conditions... he wore himself out. Going back tomorrow afternoon. They were blowing tons o' snow all day and into tonight... could be even better tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 The whole family went tonight... -7C upon arrival down to -9C upon departure. My spouse had a great first day on her X-Mas gift (Atomic Cloud 7 163), yea! I went out on the 178 Liberation to start with but it was apparent that making 1 to 1.5 meter bumps (jumps) everywhere was the goal of the Paoli "Snow Pros". I understand they never get this streak of snowmaking weather and their just blowing it all the time. Good for them... bad for me. So I put the HB setup back in the car and broke out the SB and the Grocer. First time in SB this season... how did I ride this setup?! I cant believe I ran this setup through the gates as fast as possible last year... I must've been nuts. Lesson learned I'll just run the Liberation until it or myself breaks. :D Snow was pretty great for Southern Indiana. Looking forward to the first NASTAR of the season Wednesday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2010 Soooooo back to the Peaks tonight! Wednesday night NASTAR... my son was quite amped to try his new skis on the racecourse. He did great for his first day racing. Upon arrival we ran in to Carve234 in the parking lot. After I got my son going in NASTAR I went looking for Jim but was unable to hook up. Sorry Jim! You don't know how much I wanted to ride behind you... crap. Note: Paoli is suffering an absurd amount of days below 0C. They just keep blowing snow and now it's getting a little silly (-9c tonight). They've built huge hills everywhere... you really have to plan your carving course or bad things might happen! Went back to the course and ran gates the rest of the night on the 178 BS Liberation. Whoa the board can fly! Unfortunately the course was not snowboarder friendly but I laid down some of my best carves ever trying to get around those gates and stay away from the 6" drop from the different levels of groom. I really love "racing" as it forces me out of my comfort zone and I end up progressing. I've been on a overhang tear on the BOL boards and so tonight was overhang or bust night. I ran 57 F 54 R and never booted out once but I didn't even go for an EC. :D I really liked lowering the angles for racing! W00t! Thanks BOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carve234 Posted January 7, 2010 Report Share Posted January 7, 2010 Yeah, I only made it until about 7:15 before calling it a night. I'd been there since about 2:30, so my legs were pretty well smoked by that point. The mounds from the snowmachines really made life interesting... I had found an amusing line through the top half of mind bender - had a pretty good time carving up and down the sides of a couple of the big mounds. It was much more difficult to lay out some big carves, but I still had a pretty decent time. I may try to make it back up on Fri or Sat. Will have to see how things go. I finally start training on Monday, so the whole productivity thing is really going to cut into my ability to spend random afternoons snowboarding. Not too pleased about that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2010 So I see from the Paoli Peaks website they are "Building 5 Star Terrain Park today! Opening Soon! Mindbender & Powerline will be closed today as we work on the park." Last year they did this for the first time and I thought the amount of injuries would cease this practice but I guess not. On the positive note if they follow last years example they will flatten and smooth out all the areas around the kickers so a carving course can be had... watch for flying jibbers lying on the ground writhing in pain (no joke, sad.). I too am hoping to get up Friday or Saturday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2010 Of course the "bumps" are more than twice as big as of last night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMU Alpine Boarder Posted January 7, 2010 Report Share Posted January 7, 2010 Just soak up the bumps SBX style :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2010 Just soak up the bumps SBX style :lol: I'm tall but not that tall! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carve234 Posted January 8, 2010 Report Share Posted January 8, 2010 Heading back up to the peaks tonight. Hopefully, they've attacked some of the blower mounds with the groomers and they haven't completely covered mindbender with a park. Not holding my breath for either of those to happen though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2010 I get to Paoli and what do ya' know I run into Carve234. He's very humble but he can lay down some really nice carves! Really nice! He gave me much needed advice... much needed. I need more hours on the hill. more, More, MORE! Did I mention that Carve234 can lay down some nice trenches. It was so great to ride with him tonight. Thanks. Ended up with 63F 60R. Carving is different than racing. Rode Carve234's board on a run... whoa his front angle is like... whoa. How weird is it that two random BOL members meet on a small bump in Southern Indiana and we have the same boot size?! Mondo 30. Oh and the snow was as good as it can get at Paoli. Freaking fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 NASTAR and learning to carve...leaving soon... returning by 1800. Hope it's not to crowded! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 Ran the gates 90% of today at 60 +3 toe lift F 60 +6 heel lift R and a slightly reduced stance width 20.x". Was not going for time just carving around the flags and enjoying being the only one on the run. My son would see my time and go, "Daaad! What are you doing?" Apparently "having fun" is not the right answer. Man that kid has got the racing bug. Snow conditions continue to be at or near epic level for Southern Indiana as we continue to stay below freezing. It's awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 with the family in tow. No NASTAR tonight so I'm really looking to work on my carves! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2010 Wed. night NASTAR. shave a minute or two. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2010 I added ~1 degree of outward cant to the rear binding. I really liked how that feels. I felt more on balance overall. I only did one carving run through the race course tonight but everything felt that much better through the gates. My son listened to some advice from a visiting ski coach and took his game up a whole another level. The coach was feeling real generous as Wyatt found his iPhone in the snow a little after the finish line. I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before I'm not faster down the mountain than he is! Such is life. Snow was really nice for the weather... looks like our area is about to enter the thaw/freeze cycle. :AR15firinIce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2010 Going to the Peaks tomorrow. Snow report: Snow Base Low: 54" Snow Base High: 74" Predicted temps... High 49F|9C Low 34F|1C Spring ski... First attempt at carving in slushy snow... ought to be interesting! NASTAR as well. (at least I know I can make a few runs without worrying about the straight-liners.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carve234 Posted January 16, 2010 Report Share Posted January 16, 2010 Just got back. It was very wet and slushy, but I guess that was to be expected after 50 deg temps during the day... In all honesty, though, the conditions weren't that bad. The snow was pretty soft (since it was melting), so the edge hold was pretty good. My only issue was that it was really slow. Tough to get enough speed to lay down too many linked carves. It did get slightly faster after the sun went down and it started to solidify a bit. May want to throw a bit of wax on before you go tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2010 Should have worn less clothes! Burnin' up out there sometimes today. 47F (8.3C). Snow was soft but you could get an edge to hold, sometimes. Ran the gates for most of the day. Had a couple of technique breakthroughs in regards to running the gates. I really tried to initiate earlier on course and later off course. This really helped. I'm beat... 5 hours non-stop has done me in. Fork me I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 It's been wet in Southern Indiana today. I saw Freezing fog, freezing rain, rain, mist(heavy fog) all in the same day. Once again Paoli Peaks (PP) skirted the major storms so I went to carve the "Machined Groomed Wet" surface that the snow report mentioned. Air temps 33F (1C). It poured on me my last two runs... I was soaked. The snow was much more typical PP with areas of soft to areas of icy... really amazing the variation one can experience within 60 acres of space. I saw a few yellow/brown spots in areas where the snow is getting pretty thin. They'll need to push some of the snowbanks if the weather doesn't get colder. Oh and for most of the night the employees outnumbered the guests 10 to 1. Empty slopes baby! Rode the 161 Wild Duck Limited tonight. Just trying out its smaller SCR ~9.5 vs my Liberators ~13. As weird as that board is with its "channels" it is wicked fast. I might be the fastest board I've ever ridden and I've ridden quite a few. You really have to pay attention or you are off to the races. I think the next time I get to race I'm going to give it a try. I'm maxed out at 19.75" for the stance but I didn't adjust my lift or cant any and it was fine. Always good to be back on the slopes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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