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Vancouver Carvers' Diaries 2012/13


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OMG! Cypress intends to open this Wednesday!

"Mountain Update: With last evening's 30 cm snowfall we are working to open as much terrain as possible for Wednesday. We have some wet weather forecast for the rest of today and tomorrow before clearing for Opening Day."

Yesterday, some people went up to Cypress did some riding on the parking lot:

@.@

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9:15 rock star parking. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot already. Had to park in the 2nd row. Mood was very festive.

9:45 Eagle Chair opened 15 minutes early.

Only 1 run open. The 2010 Olympic BX run from Upper Maelle Ricker to Lower Jasey-Jay. The snow was soft groomer. Coverage was ok with the occasional brown spot showing.

Long sweeping carving turns (like the kind Boris likes to do when he gets t-boned from behind) were out of the question, because 1. the snow was too soft, and 2. it was too crowded.

Weapon of the day: Dynastar 3800 - 163 cm.

Other parts of the hill have only a small dusting of snow.

Edited by Cousin of Beagle
Opening Day!! - Wooooooooo!!!!
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Got my pass that day and manage to test my gears for almost 3 hours. Met Roddy, Pan and Cousin's "wind surfers" gangs (Jerry and Cliff(?))

Toys of the day:

Scooby - "Recycle" WinterStick 173

Roddy - New Asym Deck 158 (made by Nide Decker)

Only Eagle chair is open and one "blue" run that was groomed. Maelle Ricker ("upper" Fork) continue all the way thru the steep hill down the narrow path and swing to South (left) where it connected side by side with lower "upper" JJA then you'll be forced to turn to West (right) right before ("lower" Fork) next to the Island (where the Bell park will be set up) then continue all the way down to "lower" JJA and connected back to "lower" Panorama back to Eagle chair. Mid JJA is fenced off half way on North side, bare "wide" spots with rocks is still seen next to "end" Trumpeter

Traffic is pilling quickly on the "bottle neck" where the steep hill on Maelle Ricker turn to a narrow run. "Meat gates" are also formed on the steep hill - from looking for a lost cell phone, chit chat, sitting, softy that couldn't get up and try to slide on their butt and off course all these activities were formed in the middle of the run :eek:. Not to mention straight liners, jumpers, jibbers all piles up in one run. From "mid" JJA down is great.

Snow is dense granule with hard pack base.

Happy to be back to Cypress and no complain with the early opening condition...

I saw two or three little wood or rock chunks approximately a couple of inches in size. Nothing really significant.

Confirmed and these rocks float and spread...

At noon traffic increase but no line up - Weekend might be worse, so go early.

RT

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Hey! Good to have you in the "hood"!

Hemlock probably has the least traffic, but slowest lifts. Good off-piste riding too. Sometimes really good dumps. Road up is long and a bit sketchy.

Grouse is a gong-show on the weekends. Lifts are fast, runs are short. Access is by a gondy from North Van, can take few cycles before you can load.

Seymore is similar to Hemlock, with shorter runs. Busier too.

Cypress is double the size then any of the other 3. Some very fast lifts and some slow ones. Great variety of expert terrain, on and off piste. Can get busy on the weekends, very pleasant on weekdays. More expensive then others. Majority of the local h/booters ride Cypress.

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Can't improve on what Boris just wrote- that synopsis should be tagged as a sticky for the local BC carving crew.

I am partial to Cypress, because that's where there is the highest density of HB riders, but Ruwi and his crew at Grouse fly the HB flag pretty well too.

I am trying something new this year, and am committing to doing more backcountry snowboarding days and evenings at Cypress and Seymour instead of just getting a pass to any of the local North Shore hills. Partly it's because I want to get into better aerobic shape, and partly because I am getting tired of having to weave my way through the crowds and meat gates on the weekends.

I'll let u guys know how it works out...

Geo

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9:00 to 11:00

Eagle chair was open. Maelle Ricker to Jasey Jay, Panorama, Windjammer.

Lions was also open. Collins only.

Snow was firm corduroy, softening at 11:00. Coverage is good. Didn't hit any rocks or stumps. There were occasional bare spots, which were marked.

Lots of room on the Eagle chair runs, while Collins was crowded.

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the rain this week hasn't been kind to the mountain:

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pretty much only 2 runs open - collins & ricker / jasey. pretty dismal. had a couple fun hours, regardless, but things were getting soggy by 11. colins had a nice groom and minimal bodies, so a fine first day on the board carving warmup. funny thing - got chased down by a patroller on a sled that saw me laying trenches; told me not to carve on the lower runout (a thinly covered, narrow track) because he was worried i'd cut up the minimal remaining snow. he did appreciate i was having fun on the upper stuff though. conditions are sadly marginal however; desperately need some lower temps...

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Just back from instructors' training...

We had all sorts of weather today: Snow overnight, sunny morning, snow before lunch, fog, freezing rain, rain, fog, more fog, wet snow...

Anyways, more runs are open now, even Sky Chair. Glades of Sky were awsome. Run out from Horizon is absolutely shocking.

Toy of the day, ancienr Prior MFR 165, with low angle plates, handled awsome. Colegue instructors are still baffled about switch and park riding on hard boots ;)

I didn't feel too rusty, for the first ride of the season. Hip did hurt a bit in the beginning...

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Kaz and me met for some turns... Tony was spotted too, on soft boots.

Conditions were funny, hard packed in some areas, soft packed in some (snow guns), rocky :( in some... Mid Panorama was a disaser. Steep part of JJA pretty good. Run out from JJA to the lift sketchy. Some open holes on the runs, are the scares from Monday rains...

Weather started as fair, then it started snowing lunchtimish and fogged up. Should stay cold/snowy for quite a few days now, apparently...

Toys of the day: Kaz on his Ogasaka 162, me on Highlander 167 and Proto 167.

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