Potential new carver for Mt Hood

[jayj]

Hey All,

After 10 years (+/-) of freeriding with softies, I've finally come to the conclusion that this carving thing is where I'm trying to go. I've been attempting to pull off a carving turn on my setup, but can't quite get it to lock in the edge and not skid out. Unfortunately, however, the weather in the PacNW is absolutely horrible this year (Bachelor is ok, though), I'm short on funds, and I'm finishing up college this year, so I will probably not be able to get hard gear till next season or later.

Does anybody know 'bout the MHES? As far as demo gear goes, will there be any boots to try out, or no?

[Jack M]

Hi jayj,

I don't have specific answers to your question, but I hope you get a chance to check out our Welcome Center.

Good luck!

[jayj]

Actually, I just stumbled across this site as well as some other carving sites couple weeks back, and tried to incorporate the techniques in the welcome center last weekend at Mt Bachelor. I really liked the "norm" as a starting point of what it is I'm trying to accomplish. I think my trouble is part getting past the style i've fallen into in ten years of bad technique and part building my confidence level.

[Guest Randy S.]

Where's Dave S (D-Sub)? This post is an hour old and you haven't replied?

JayJ, track down Mike T and Dave S. Mike lives in Sandy, near Hood and Dave just moved to Bachelor. Also at Bachelor, Doug Dryer has a 50+ board quiver and dozens of Raichle/Deeluxe boots. Track him down and see if he has something you could try out. He's an awesome guy and can teach most people on BOL a lot about carving. He's a great instructor.

Welcome and come back often, you'll get tons of great advice here. Also look at some of the recent threads about noob converts. There's some good stuff in those.

[Mike T]

MHES is still on, just as long as we get something, anything to ride on. I've done some research on past years' snowpacks, and it looks like this is indeed the worst season since 1981, when the base depth was *zero* at the base of MH Meadows on February 1. (There's still 4 days for it to melt away completely, mind you...)

Even then, the May 1 base depth was 70 inches, which is enough to do the session. El Nino years are not generally kind to the PacNW but very good March and Aprils are common in El Nino years, so don't count the season out yet.

As far as boots... the next website upgrade should be online within a couple of weeks, you'll be able to rsvp and indicate that you need loaner boots, and we'll try to hook you up. No promises, but we'll try.

When Hood gets some snow, come out and ride with us on your softies! I've only been carving for a few years but we have some 20 year veterans at Hood who ride beautifully. Some of the other folks would be better guys to give you riding advice than me... even so, I have had enough coaching to help you with the basics. THINK SNOW!

[jayj]

Its a shame whats going on on Hood right now. I drove by on the way to/from Bachelor and it is just rocks all the way up to about 8000 ft. Meadows has been pushing back their re-opening on a daily basis, with nothing in the forecast. I'm praying for the late winter, early spring storms (snow storms, please no rain).

-Jay