Haven't been to Colorado (to board) in a long time...

[lonbordin]

Last time I was boarding in Colorado Berthoud Pass was in full swing... (loved that place).

My spouse was invited to a Keystone conference so we're going, w00t! I'll be in the area from the 10th through the 18th.

I've got accommodations and I'll have my 12 year old skier in tow.

Hoping to hit A-Basin, Loveland, Keystone and others... hopefully see some fellow carvers.

Definitely doing the NASTAR at Keystone and Winter Park... any other races going on during that time-frame?

What are the lift-ticket deals? Wasn't there some supermarket deal? Gas Station?

Any general advice you feel like kicking out... go for it!

I probably owe Ink and Big Mario a beer for the advice about the purchase of the Liberation... love that board!

Edited March 2, 2012 by lonbordin
spelling

[John E]

If you get up to Loveland on a weekend day, it is likely one of the regulars will be able to get you some sort of deal on a lift ticket. We usually meet up in the lodge between 7:30 and 8:30 when the lifts open. Usually in line for Lift #1 at 8:30.

Both Loveland and A-Basin sold 4-Pack tickets last fall and there are almost always people selling some on the Denver Craigslist. Should be about $25/day.

I'm going to try to get up one weekend day each weekend for the rest of the season. Hope to see you at Loveland.

[DenverSteve]

If Craigslist doesn't pan out, discount tickets are available at King Soopers grocery stores on the front range. Also season ticket holders can get a discount ticket with their season pass. Make some friends before getting in the ticket window line...

[inkaholic]

Seraph posted a 4-pak and no one has replied so far. http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?36933-For-Sale-4-Pack-Loveland-Tickets. That is two days each for you and the 2 planker for $100.

Purchase gas, $10 or more, from Shell stations and ask for a ski free voucher. They are 2 fer 1 at several resorts. I think Pat Donnely has a thread about it somewhere.

Glad you like the Liberation. BJ is actually building boards again. I tested one for much of the early season. Good stuff with a smoother flex than the older stuff. You can see it on All Boards Sports site. Speaking of which, you should try to swing by the shop in boulder while you are out, total candy store for the carving and powder enthusiast.

See you when you get out.

Ink

[lonbordin]

Responded to Seraph's post... missed that one! Thanks!

Found the Shell ticket deal! http://www.skifreedeals.com/

Sweet!

I dunno if I can afford to visit All Boards Sports... drool...

[inkaholic]

Cool. Yes, going to ABS should be done with plenty in the pockets. Truly a unique candy store.

Ink

[lonbordin]

Someone got to Seraph before me... sigh. Anyone else selling tickets? :D

I see many tickets in the Denver Craigslist... is it sketchy to purchase?!

I primarily plan to be at Keystone, A-Basin, Loveland... any carving run recommendations?

Thanks!

[mo_writer]

I miss Berthoud.:(

I tried to get a ticket from someone on Denver Craigslist, but he suddenly decided he wasn't available to meet me. My stepfather and I ended up buying tickets from someone in the parking lot at Loveland for $20! He had a four-pack he couldn't use. My stepfather was sure they were bogus, but we took the risk, and they worked fine. Loveland also has a flex-four hour ticket - you can ride 10-2, for example, and get a partial refund on a full-price lift ticket.

At Loveland, I did several runs off lift 4 with several inches of powder. The day was nearly a religious experience! But that was only after I got used to the ramp off lift 4 - it was the highest exit ramp I've ever seen. It was the only lift I used on the north side. Any of the lifts on the south side take you to good runs, but do NOT go on Keno or Forest Meadow because they lead to a long flat stretch. The blue runs off lift 1 are steep, but I enjoyed them. At A Basin, I like to go up the Lewanee Lift to the top and head to the left and then back under the lift on Dercum's Gulch. Go to the right before the Black Mountain Lodge to get back to the Lewanee lift. I haven't gotten to ride Montezuma Bowl since the last two years I went in June, and it was closed by then. I didn't particularly like riding at Winter Park since I ended up on some flat spots, and many of the runs were narrow. I'd rather go to Copper, which has some long wide blue runs. But if you go there, don't go to the green runs to the right - they are also flat. In the past, they have sold 4-packs but put them on a photo ID, so you can't buy those.

Edited March 4, 2012 by mo_writer

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

A-Basin is great when there has been no overnight new snow. My impression is that they groom after close and whatever happens, happens. If it snows overnight you get new over groom. They might groom in new snow in the morning on weekends, but I'm not sure. I like to warm up on Sundance which has easy cruise sections and steeper blue-like sections, then ride High Noon which is a great long constant pitch. Ramrod is similar but narrower. If it isn't too windy and cold, ride the Lenawee lift to the top and come down Lenawee face and Dercum's Gulch, continuing to the bottom on one of the aforementioned runs. Rinse and repeat. Montezuma Bowl on the back side has opened recently, but I haven't been back there to see if it is carveworthy. On many weekdays I hit A-Basin because I can park a stone's throw from the lift and ride the morning without hassle. Lifts open at 9.

Keystone has lots of terrain and they will groom in the morning right up to open, even on weekdays. If carving is a priority and there is new overnight snow, I go there to find the late groom which will most likely be on the front side of the resort. I like parking in the free Pika lot near the Mountain House base area because I don't have to suffer walking through the main village. My favorite easy cruise is Schoolmarm to Silver Spoon to the Montezuma lift. Good carving blues are all over. Spring Dipper to the gondola mid-station has some nice easy sections. Don't go down Santa Fe, however. Only the top half is open and it sucks actual rocks. Frenchman, Wild Irishman, Flying Dutchman and Jackwhacker are all pretty good. Paymaster is interesting but undulates quite a bit. Lower River Run can be good as long as it has been cold. Too much sun and it gets icy the next day. On the back, go down Mozart to the Santiago lift, then down Last Alamo or Prospector. On the Outback, Elk Run is currently the only groomed open trail and can be a good carve. Lifts open at 8:30.

I'm no expert on Loveland, but don't ignore Switchback in the Valley especially if the Basin is crowded on a weekend. That run is a nice refuge.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

A-Basin just announced a Spring 3-day deal. This is still more than having a passholder get you a ticket at Loveland, but what the hey.

[lonbordin]

[h=2]Arrived in Denver airport almost an hour early... great start![/h]

Hit Boulder for some on-foot sightseeing and some grub. Cafe Aion was yummy.

Then went and visited Donek. Sean's got a sweet facility! So cool to shake hands, briefly hang out.

Thanks Sean.

Picked up the freshly prepped ECES demo boards to drop of at Bomber. 15 lovely specimens.

(Try to remember I'm coming from a place where I'm the only carver and there is no ES within a days drive and now I've got 15 boards in my car.)

Ate at DAM brewery... that IPA could be hoppier but a solid dinner none the less.

Made in to the Keystone rental... unpacked, oriented then slept (well attempted to as there was a concert nearby, boom chicka boom into the wee hours)

First day Sunday took my everyday driver (Liberation 178) to the slope. Wow... I'd forgotten how long the runs can be... and the width... and the snow. We actually heard two different groups talk about it being icy. My son actually LOL the second time. Spoiled rotten.

Did the NASTAR at Keystone... Super flat easy course... a joke. Disheartening... not racing more like tucked gliding.

I took the 172 Metal Axxess out in the afternoon. Metal is nice. Couldn't get my stance/setup dialed in... The nose felt really grabby. Probably me... couldn't figure it out before my legs were toast.

Second day (Monday) took the 185 FC Metal out for the morning groom. We weren't first chair but we were close. That board really comes alive at speed. I wish I knew the runs better so that I would have been comfortable keeping the hammer down. My quads were burning!

After a rest took out the daily driver and found a rock. Sigh but the damage is minimal. I'll fix it tomorrow.

Got lunch at the Arapahoe cafe & pub... Great BBQ !! Spicy! Yum!

Opted for the 173 FC metal for the afternoon... my son wanted to go exploring and I ended up in some fairly carving unfriendly terrain. Whoo! my legs were tired. The board did great. I couldn't have done all that I did with the daily driver. I can see the draw to metal.

Got the call from Fin and dropped 14 of the boards at Bomber. Got to shake Fin's hand, checkout Bomber and get some demo TD3s put on the 180 Proteus (the one I kept... abet briefly) that I'll be taking out tomorrow morning.

Thanks Fin.

Great to talk with you.

Life is good. Can't wait until tomorrow.

Looks like (not carved in stone!) I'll be at:

Keystone tomorrow.

Loveland Wednesday.

A-basin Thursday.

Winter Park Friday.

Keystone Saturday.

See you out there!

[John E]

Temps at Loveland look like high 30s every day this week. No snow in the forecast. There wasn't much snow to start with and it is disappearing rapidly. You should have great weather and marginal snow. Hope you have a great vacation!

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

I could hit Loveland on Wednesday. Please post up if you think you will go there tomorrow. How has Keystone been? Any icy spots from the sunshine?

[lonbordin]

I think we'll be at Loveland tomorrow... (The kid had a serious bloody nose tonight... we'll have to see how things are in the morning). Don't expect us a first light. :)

We are the wrong people to ask about ice as we're coming from southern Indiana and the East Coast. Looked like hero snow wherever I turned. w00t!

Edited March 14, 2012 by lonbordin
Forgot to answer a question!

[lonbordin]

Got off to a late start this am at Keystone. Took the 180 Proteus for a spin with TD3s. It felt like a longer, newer version of my Liberation and the TD3's made it nice and damp. The only problem is I kept encroaching on Mach I with far too many people on the slopes. I ended up putting it away after only a couple of top to bottom runs as I was just too freaked by all the people. I know, I know... carving requires dawn patrol.

I took the 02behle175 (23cm wide Donek FC 13scr) out for the rest of the day with my F2 Intec bindings running 51/46. That was a lot of fun... was able to go wherever my son wanted to...

Which got me thinking about what I was demoing... yeah, really cool to put some larger metal boards (and non-metal) under my feet but when in the world would I ever be able to use them?! My home hill is sub-400 feet of vertical and almost never groomed.

So I took that sweet Proteus back to Bomber and checked out the 172 Metal Axxess.

Being slightly scientific I put the TD3's on the ole' Donek and went out for a late run. Wow, those bindings add an almost metal dampness to the old board.

For tomorrow I have the TD3's on the Axxess... looking forward to revisiting that one. Metal and TD3's... maybe so damp it will rain! Better not!

Oh, and could someone turn the cold machine back on?! Everyday I wear less and I'm still burning up.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

After 30 years of occasional nosebleeds in the same place I finally got the thing cauterized with silver nitrate last year. Best money I ever spent at a doctor. I'll be doing a few laps on the top of chair 2 from open, then go explore #4 and #8 a bit, returning to #2 and #6 until I go eat something around 11-11:30. After that I may get on the shuttle to the Loveland Valley and ride Switchback under #3. I'm in a mostly black outfit with white boots and school bus yellow stripes on my helmet. If you happen to get there before open, I may be hanging out near the bar upstairs in the base lodge.

[lonbordin]

Rode the 172 Metal Axxess with TD3s to start the day... you know maybe VSR is not for me?! I got into the the back seat and it worked better for me. Maybe I just like scr's above 13??

Board handled the bumps well (my son lead me down the wrong run!) and the TD3s are great.

Rode my Daily driver for a short while before lunch... 19cm isn't wide enough for me.

After lunch rode the Donek (02Behle175) with the TD3's... that was a lot of fun and allowed for a level of comfort no matter where we went. I guess I like that wide 23cm width.

The original owner called it a Free Carve but it says RC/Donek on the base... have to ask about that.

Another great day... even though I was slathered in sunscreen my face is kinda burned tonight... wind burn?!

Looks like A-Basin tomorrow.

[Donek]

See you at the basin in the morning. Sounds like you need to take out the 170 proteus. I'll see if I can get Fin to bring it along.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

If you aren't there by open at 9, it is generally easy to find people at A-Basin cuz carving terrain is limited this season. For the most part you do laps on the Black Mountain Express lift from the base on High Noon, Sundance, or Ramrod. Then you extend it by taking the Lenawee lift to the top and come down Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch, and flow onto one of the above three runs to the bottom. If you go up the BME lift and stand in front of the lodge up there, you are bound to see somebody go by. There's no carving terrain on the Pali lift, and the Montezuma Bowl on the back is, by all accounts, not currently a place for any carver to go.

[lonbordin]

See you at the basin in the morning. Sounds like you need to take out the 170 proteus. I'll see if I can get Fin to bring it along.

I took the 180 Proteus out... I liked it a lot. I had to put it away as the operating speed was out of my comfort zone at Keystone as the crowds grew. Zooom!

See you in the morning.

[lonbordin]

If you aren't there by open at 9, it is generally easy to find people at A-Basin cuz carving terrain is limited this season. For the most part you do laps on the Black Mountain Express lift from the base on High Noon, Sundance, or Ramrod. Then you extend it by taking the Lenawee lift to the top and come down Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch, and flow onto one of the above three runs to the bottom. If you go up the BME lift and stand in front of the lodge up there, you are bound to see somebody go by. There's no carving terrain on the Pali lift, and the Montezuma Bowl on the back is, by all accounts, not currently a place for any carver to go.

Now that's some detail I can appreciate! Thanks!!!

[lonbordin]

A-Basin this am with my son. Who knew it'd be the Bomber test plate video day? ;)

Art, Mark, Sean, Fin all tearing it up. Thanks for all the hospitality!

Great conditions for us Mid-west boys! :D

I had lowered the angles on the wide Donek... while it made it easy for me to go anywhere... my carving was sucking.

After lunch I upped to 53 front 50 rear... MUCH better. My son said, "Dad... NOW you look like your carving." Kids!

Sean suggested that I try the 170 Proteus so I picked that board up tonight... I took it out for one top to bottom Keystone run. The 11scr is tight but it rides much longer than 170 my legs were toast before I started the run... they were noodles by the end.

I'll give it a better test tomorrow... but after seeing that plate video... maybe I should demo a plate too!!!

[lonbordin]

Thinking we were going to Copper this morning but my spouse woke up under the weather and we received a first hand report of serious slushiness and the weather forecast was for a 57 high at Copper... so we didn't go to Copper.

We went to Bomber.

Had a Bomber Boiler plate (4mm-4x4 mount) with the TD3 BPP low-rise bases and red pads placed on the 170 Proteus (scr 11) and left for Loveland. (Thanks Bomber!)

My son really wanted to go back to Loveland... he really likes that place!

So here I am on a board I had ridden for one top to bottom front-side run at Keystone now with a plate... I'll admit to being a little nervous... was it as hard to control at low speeds? would it be too heavy? would it reveal my suckitude in depth? was the whole plate thing a big hype?

I'm hear to tell you that it was AWESOME!

I'd curse but apparently there are people checking on these things so:

@#$&! it was great!

So we arrived at Loveland at 11:30 parking lot pretty full... The runs had already seen their share of action... no groom to be seen anywhere.

Did that matter? Not a bit. For me this was critical. I almost never see any groom on my home hill with the exception of the race course. But even the race course can get pretty hairy pretty quickly (ruts, dug out, etc.). So the ability to deal with a not perfect surface is very important to me.

The Boiler plate controlled the undulations of the uneven surface incredibly. Carving at speed and even at "Mach Schnell" speeds was pretty effortless.

Stops weren't a problem (hockey or slow speed style). Getting off the lift was no more difficult than usual.

My son rides Atomic Beta Ride 170s and he likes to go fast. Usually I don't keep up especially carving... many times today I left him in the dust. The Proteus is a fast ride and the plate just makes it faster.

I feel that my race times would plummet with this setup. I completely understand why the top racers use some type of plate system.

After it was done I was thinking that I could ride that 180 Proteus with confidence with the Boiler plate but maybe that's too big for my home hill.

Did I mention for the first time in my life I did a pencil thin run top to bottom? (Did it on Fire Cut)

I was also able to really control how big or small my turns were...

My son couldn't stop telling me how I looked like a rocket coming out of the turns and how thin my lines were... (So apparently this is not normally the case. :()

Yes towards the end of the session I started to feel the extra weight on the lifts... I wonder if I'd get use to that? Did I mention we went for four hours straight with two under 5 minute breaks and I'm definitely not acclimated to the elevation?! The setup really did ease fatigue.

Low speed carve unders/across/whatevers (or as my son calls them... the wiggles) are much more of an effort.

Not to ignore the Donek 170 Proteus. That board is fantastic. You can ride it way bigger than the 11scr would lead one to believe and then really compress it for some tight turns. Also it was very willing to allow for high speed safety scrubs. I even did a few jump turns on the setup and those went well. (Sean- market it to NASTAR racers as a cheater GS snowboard... it will go like hotcakes! Hey all the skiers are on cheater GS skis why can't we reap the benefits?) I forgot to mention the graphic gets many unsolicited positive comments... I think the eye catches peoples attention.

If my season wasn't over Sunday I would have had a discussion with my spouse and broken out the credit card.

Sean and Fin Kudos and thanks. I've learned so much from my demos. :D

Edited March 17, 2012 by lonbordin
forgot something...

[lonbordin]

Proteus & plate pic-

Edited March 17, 2012 by lonbordin
?Why did you turn my image upside down Imgur?

[mo_writer]

Okay - all together now, do the snow dance! I want to ride at A Basin in May (I finally have all the gear I need for carving), and it doesn't sound like that's going to happen without some major snow between now and then.