Buck Hill 2013/14

[Scuff]

Re: new carver.

If they are already a skilled snowboarder, I

might know someone who would be willing to get them carving.

My wife has F2 board and bindings and boots in size 8.

Contact me at alpinekarl and then at the Gmail dot com.

[bobble]

Morning

warm and sunny. crowded. lift line for teachers pet was almost to the magic carpet. gotta be a money making day.

snow was good but moguls are on crossroads up at the top. there was race training going on crossroads which narrowed the top of the run. milkrun had gates set up but when they were removed they ran the groomer.

erik and i left after an hour. just leaving the parking lot was difficult. cars are parked in the drop off lanes.

.

... and when i pulled out onto buckhill road there were long lines of cars waiting to find parking. i had to lay on the horn to get this woman who was trying to cut into the line of waiting cars. she was parked there waving at people to let her in. kept honking till she moved.

[bobble]

Morning

early this morning it was about 10F. by the time i got out there it was 1F.

yesterdays warm temps and today's cold snap created hard fast snow. i rode skis today because i pulled a muscle in my back. it might've been okay to carve on a snowboard but conditions looked like a day for board chatter. skiers weres lines weren't very clean.

most of the people were there for training. there was probably less than a dozen of the hard core season pass holders in attendance.

warners had crunchy ice rocks at the very top and some near skiers left where the chute merges with the run. overall it was okay.

backside run was fun. i was booking down the run. probably the fastest this season on skis for me. grooming was better than warners.

tried going down crossroads. there was training on skiers right. the moguls were on skiers left. not comfortable with the turning radius of the skis. i was fine once i was past the moguls.

lift line was a sheet of ice. a woman got messed up and ended up with legs spread wide apart and couldn't stand up. looked like her knees were going to buckle. the lifty ran over to her to undo the binding so she could stand. i had problems myself but managed.

hands, feet, and nose were cold. went inside to warm up.

went back out for a few more then left.

if you stayed home, you didn't miss much.

[DonPablo]

Can confirm, hard packed and fast, now just need to find a way to make the hill steeper :) Made it out about noon. In warming up now. The sun was nice, I haven't seen him much this year. The plate made it a smooth ride.

[bobble]

Morning

couldn't get my act together. left the house, got to buck and something didn't seem right. the light looked really bad. got on the chair and realized that i forgot to wear a contact lens - everything was blurry. tried one run and couldn't see. went back home to out on a lens.

[

first run after i return my lift ticket started to peel off. tried going to the ticket office to get a replacement but then the ticket flew off. had to take a run to go find the damn thing.

anyhow, the snow was great. visibility was not so much. the sun barely poked through. very cold. i don't remember the actual temp but it was below 0F. toes became painful after an hour.

Evening

went back out around 6:30pm. temps was -6F. hardly anyone on the runs. snow was still in good shape. there was a hat out on the run. i was able to snatch it during a heel-side turn. i did it without thinking about it. i was amazed. threw it back onto the run from the chair to try again. no such luck. gave up after several runs.

stayed till 8pm. toes were hurting. place was starting to get a little busier as i left.

[bobble]

Morning

got to buck early morning. picked up my ticket. at 8:45 AM, walked up the hill with skis. when i reached the top the chairlift started. as i was skiing down crossroads the lifty was on her way to the shack. rode the chair back up. just as i was getting off the chair the lifty stopped me to check my lift ticket.

it was below 0F again... temp was -8F. flat light but there was better contrast compared to yesterday. snow conditions were awesome. snow was perfectly groomed. didn't see much firework debris.

got three runs in on skis before ANYONE showed up on the run. place was abso-effing-lutely dead. there was a ski patrol with three of her kids and another skier. that was it. at around 9:30 am, no one was on the run but me.

more people started to show up at 10:00 am. not many but a few. my feet were painfully cold. went to the car to grab hardboots and warmed up in the chalet.

went back out onto the run with hardboots. muscles were tight from the cold. didn't think i would make it past a couple runs. a snowboarder at the top of crossroads said to me "i like what you're doing with that board!". got me more motivated.

stayed for about 45 minutes. too cold.

New Years Resolution

carry bomber cards. hand them out. get people interested.

[bobble]

this is really cool. guy launches a plane and flies it over crystal lake and circles buck hill. it was a warm day. if you watch closely at 3:31 you can see the line of cars trying to pull into the lot.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/33oi7a8Hdus" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

i'm thinking that although this video is super cool the pilot's actions might not have been legal.

imagine if it crashed on 35W?

[Scuff]

Visited Buck for the Nor-Am Race.

Paralell Slalom was happening on Milk Run, and it was cold.

Carver Count was over 50, and most appeared to be a little cold.

Shoot - I was cold, and I mostly stayed inside.. Will be out tomorrow again, to spectate..

Met New Guy Leif - told him to ditch work and go to the MES. :)

~Karl

[Unicorn Poop]

ti'm thinking that although this video is super cool the pilot's actions might not have been legal.

imagine if it crashed on 35W?

I fly RC and nothing illegal occurred in this video. The only crime is that tiny hill. :-D But seriously, he was well within the confines of the law and these things are so reliable, the likelihood of mechanical failure is next to zero. If it crashed on I35, the plane would have disappeared in a puff of foam with no damage to any vehicle. Also, FPV means first person view. He has telemetry between the plane and him that allows him to watch that video in real time and so, would be able to safely put it down in the event of a failure.

[bobble]

I fly RC and nothing illegal occurred in this video. The only crime is that tiny hill. :-D But seriously, he was well within the confines of the law and these things are so reliable, the likelihood of mechanical failure is next to zero. If it crashed on I35, the plane would have disappeared in a puff of foam with no damage to any vehicle. Also, FPV means first person view. He has telemetry between the plane and him that allows him to watch that video in real time and so, would be able to safely put it down in the event of a failure.

i guess i was scared out of a new hobby...

i used to work with a guy that is big into R/C planes. he built his gas powered planes from kits. he would tell me stories of his planes crashing and that he would have to rebuild them. he eventually bought a cheap electric plane because rebuilding planes was expensive. i thought about buying a cheap one myself and mounting a GoPro but then he told me the only approved place to fly planes was at an R/C club field. the nearest one is a half hour south from me. that didn't sound like fun.

i asked if i could watch him fly planes and maybe demo one. he told me that they had rules for spectators at the club field. i ended up not going as it seemed like too many rules. he also told me that he carried liability insurance too. what???

dunno. i guess

. if a plane goes out of control and hits a vehicle, how would you expect a driver to react?

anyways, it amazes me the guy flew his plane almost 1-1/2 miles. i could fly a plane from my house to buck hill across the lake.

i wouldn't be able to see the from my house. maybe from the beach but then i'd have to be wearing binoculars to see it. but FPV changes things, right?

very tempting to get one. do you have videos of your r/c plane? i'm particularly interested in crash porn.

[bobble]

Morning

temp was in the 20's but the windchill was something fierce at the top. came ill equipped. found me a gator in the car.

. i dunno the ratio... 30:1? lots of kesslers, SG's, donek rev's, a kent smith, etc. forgot to bring bomber cards today.

one of the riders was digging randy's white shamrocks.

good times! awesome snow!!!! wish we had more time on olympic. crossroads had to do.

went from 9am till 2pm with a break.

big toe nails were blue when i pulled off my socks. freaky.

murica!

[bigwavedave]

It was fun riding with the Coiler club at Buck today; DonPablo, Bobble and thebionicman.

There was great racing today as well. Some very talented young riders are coming up through the pipeline. I think everyone enjoyed the racing here. Visiting were the Steamboat team and the the Canadian team and hosted by the G team. I think we can expect to see the NorAm Race-to-the-Cup stop at Buck again next year.

See you guys at Spirit when it warms up.

[DonPablo]

I think this was the video Dave was talking about on the lift.

[bigwavedave]

Yes, in the first 30 seconds he demonstrates so well how your body should feel when your stance is right, relaxed and flexible. Then I want to see him demonstrate even deeper flex like you might use to engage into a turn (weighting/unweighting), more exaggerated than his push-pull, but then that's not the EC technique he's teaching.

[bobble]

Morning

erik,

, and myself.

flat light. temp in the 20's. snow was slightly off-white that helped to increase the contrast. it was great carving albeit very crowded.

race training on olympic and warners. race on milkrun. stupid moguls are still there.

blue jacketed horde showed up. nothing good ever happens. "first lesson on skiing, form an impenetrable wall and snake across crossroads and milkrun without looking uphill."

we decided to explore other options.

Crap

main chair was down for about 25 minutes. a little kid didn't get on the chair right and so the lifty hit the e-stop. when he tried to restart the lift, nothing happened. the line kept growing. an operations guy showed up and started to trouble-shoot the electrical panel. they had to override the brake and off-load people. the father and son decided to get off the chair just as they were about to re-start the lift. it took those two awhile to figure out how to take off their skis.

another kid who was racing was further up on the chairlift just past the snow fence and tower #1. he threw one of his skis to his buddy on the ground and was going to jump off the chair. it was around 10+ feet above the ground. the lifty and a ski patrol yelled at him. just then the chair started so this kid went up with only one ski. a minute later a race coach carrying the kid's ski asked if they could get on. lifty said nope, they were trying to clear the lift. she asked if they could slow the lift in order to put the ski on a chair and to let it ride up by itself. uhhh... no?

[bobble]

Morning

as i was on my way to buck i saw a line of cars on the road near gravity lab. further up ahead i caught a glimpse of the parking lot. it was almost 3/4 full.

crossroad chair wasn't running right away but the warners lift was going so we went there. erik and i rode mostly on Olympic. not many people were venturing onto Olympic during first hour or so. snow was super hero! lots of pretty lines on Olympic.

we tried carving the rail wall near the bottom of the terrain part but there was too much pedestrian traffic walking up the run for rail yard jam event.

snow build-up on bindings was a hassle.

after erik left i started riding on crossroads. still crowded. after erik left the snow got softer to the point that stepping into the binding no longer a problem -- it just melted away. place cleared out at 12 noon after the early birds left. rode till 12:30pm.

bill is the lifty.

"I Can Carve Lower Than You"

riding up the warners chair with a father and son with skis. the guy complemented us on riding. erik explained about boots and how snow can wear holes in gloves and pants. at some point the father said "i think can carve lower than you guys". i couldn't tell if he was serious. he and his son followed us toward Olympic to watch us from up top. erik and i make it down the run and get on the chair. as we're going up we see that guy coming down Olympic, blow out a turn, and land on his ass.

good laugh.

Quadcopter

riding up the main chair erik spotted something. couldn't tell what it was at first. turned out to be one of those quadcopters. got to the top of the hill. everyone was looking up at it. quite the attention getter.

the operator didn't have skis. we started talking to him. i was curious to know if that thing could keep up with a skier. he said that he could and that he was video recording some skier(s). the range is 1500 ft. i think he was flying it FPV mode with a cell phone as the display. the remote looked more like a toy. he said he was going to post video to buck hill. curious to see how that turns out.

[bobble]

Morning

had lot of fresh snow. started in skis. changed to board after three runs. i couldn't handle the skis in fresh snow. boarding looking more fun. just look at it! asked erik if he could lay one out.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MvwdZF7DNzk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

yeah, it was rilly slow. i couldn't keep up with the Doughboy.

Lifty Recognition

after erik left i started to make runs in the terrain park. warners had ski jammers which left me with just the terrain park. met a softbooter who sometimes lurks on bomber. to protect the innocent i'll refer to him as Mr. B.

in the park Mr. B. hit a jump while i just looked for untracked snow. when i pulled into the lift line a ski jammer instructor was in Mr. B's face. all i heard when i pulled up was "YOU CAN"T DO THAT!!!!" the ski jammer was yelling at Mr. B. lots of finger pointing.

Mr. B. said "hey i'm sorry ... its a trail merge at the bottom... i didn't hit her... lets just have a good time!!". the skier kept leaning into him and getting louder. Mr. B. again apologized. ski jammer was threatening to clip Mr. B's ticket. at some point the ski jammer said "YOU CANT DO WHAT YOU DID ON A FREEWAY!!!!" Mr. B. wasn't doing anything but apologizing , "What more do you want me to say? I'm sorry! can we please just enjoy the day". the skier was getting seriously wound up.

Will The Lifty comes running over. he threw his arms in between the two in order to defuse the situation. he gently push the skier away. he calmly spoke to the skier, "lets everyone calm down... okay? he said he was sorry and no one got hurt, now lets enjoy the fresh snow, right?". the ski jammer begrudgingly left.

Will then talked to the Mr. B. for a couple minutes afterwards. Mr. B. was visibly upset. i would be too if someone started yelling at me in the lift line. Will said "hey don't worry about it. that guy can't clip your ticket, only i and the lifties can clip tickets... if he gives you any more problems you come right to me or go to any lifty. we're here to make sure everyone has a good time."

Mr. B. said he had just hit a jump and was coming between the snow gun and the wall/rail. he was riding goofy so he had a clear view of warners. a ski jammer student was close to the terrain park near the wall/rail. the student was downhill of Mr. B. and swung to the right into Mr. B's line. he said he hit the brakes and came close but did not hit the student. never touched her. when he got to the lift line the ski jammer instructor started yelling at him.

i said to Mr. B. that i didn't see what occurred but downhill has the right of way. he agreed. it was one of those unpredictable things when kids cut across at the bottom. to be fair, i was dodging kids too. they would overtake me right at the nose of the board.

thought that maybe the ski jammer thought Mr. B. was some punk kid on a snowboard by the way he was dressed (he's in his 40's). i wonder if things would've been different if he took off his helmet to show the ski jammer he wasn't just some adolescent.

anyways, i was impressed how Will took control of the situation and got everyone to calm down.

guessing that the ski jammer (in his 60's) was upset about Alta.

[bobble]

Morning

soft snow. very slow. temp in the 30's. crowded. nothing too remarkable.

erik left before noon. i stayed till 2:10pm. randy is still there.

wish the moguls moved somewhere else...

Binding Change

replaced rear cant disk with 0 degrees (have 3 degree in front binding). i thought for sure i would need to widen my stance but it felt okay.

[DonPablo]

When I went in to take a break in the afternoon, I saw a guy hard booting a board with ski poles. He wiped out at the top of the hill pretty hard, saw him on skis later.

The hill really cleared out, not many people out there after 3. Only road the board for a few runs before racing, my front foot calf muscle is pretty sore today.

[bobble]

Evening

About 4F. Windchill was nasty. The top of crossroads till just below the moguls is all ice. The wind blew away most of the snow. Kind of bumpy.

I rode upright until i got below the moguls. From there on the snow was great.

Took a couple runs down the back. The top was ice. Once I got below the chute snow was great.

[bobble]

Evening

temp was 1F. it was snowing. flakes were large considering the temperature. made a huge difference in conditions. all the ice was gone. carving was excellent.

the downside was that that 1/3 of crossroads was roped off for race training.

the 0 degree cant disk in the back is doing something to my front foot. being rocked backwards is causing my front foot slide forward and bang my big toe into the front of the boot. might lose a toe nail. tightening the arch strap doesn't do anything. i had tried shortening the stance but didn't like it.

i do like riding with the flat disk in the rear binding. just somehow easier to get the board higher on edge.

[thebionicman]

I hit up Sunburst last night. -4, a little spot of ice on skiers left of the main chair. This place is shorter than Buck, but a little more pitch. Lots of what kind of board is that, what do you call that, why do you lay down...

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[bobble]

I hit up Sunburst last night. -4, a little spot of ice on skiers left of the main chair. This place is shorter than Buck, but a little more pitch. Lots of what kind of board is that, what do you call that, why do you lay down...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where's Sunburst?

[bobble]

Evening

temperature on my car thermometer read -2F. outside house thermometer read -9F.

got there 6:30pm. hardly anyone there. only one chair was running.

there was cord everywhere!!!! can't remember a time when i rode in the evening and there was firm cord still around. you should've been there!!!! good times!!!! :D

place started to get crowded with skiers at around 7:00pm.

toes got painful after an hour of riding.

Binding Setup

mounted a 6 degree disk in the front binding. just toe lift. back has flat disk. moved bindings forward one position. heel-side was far more easier than toe-side carves. had both hands on snow on heel-side. not sure i like having that much toe lift.

[thebionicman]

Sunburst is north of Milwaukee.

I was thinking about riding tonight. Figured it would be dead.

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