BC Powder 2015-2016

[philw]

Here's my 2016 "Wot I did on my holidays". So far.

 

The start of the season in the interior BC saw more snow than the last two seasons, with a significant base and fresh snow falling. The snow had fallen and consolidated well, so conditions were at a 10-year best in terms of fresh snow combined with available steep terrain. Summary: there was a lot of snow, and it was safe to ride most of it. There was slide activity on some sun-affected slopes but not much. I rode 14 days straight in a mix of stormy and sunny days, both of which are represented here:

 

 

 

I'd intended to shoot loose (carry a long pole..) and then crop into it for stabilization and other reasons. The source is 4k but this output is 720p. so there's plenty of space for that. I have not so far done much of that however.

 

This is hard boot riding, albeit on a powder board. There were other boarders about, although almost all of them were soft booters who held up the groups of skiers they were with. My own policy is to start last and be first into the uplift at the bottom every time. The skiers, most of whom are North American, often comment on two things:

1. they're not used to snowboarders who are competent in powder;
2. they've never seen hard boots.

I can't help thinking that those two things may be connected in some way.

 

There are fewer snowboarders riding helicopters these days. Perhaps that's caused by a combination of better ski equipment and more park-oriented snowboard equipment.

 

[bigwavedave]

Awesome!...and beautiful! Love your videos. The over-the-shoulder shot is a nice variation in perspective.

[lordmetroland]

Gad, that's friggin' glorious. I hated/loved watching it.

 

1. they're not used to snowboarders who are competent in powder;
2. they've never seen hard boots.

I can't help thinking that those two things may be connected in some way.

 

As a softbooter, I have my own ideas about the possible connection between 1 & 2, but I'd be interested in what other people think...

[icebiker]

Very nice Phil...very nice.....SO jealous!

[gdboytyler]

Gad, that's friggin' glorious. I hated/loved watching it.

As a softbooter, I have my own ideas about the possible connection between 1 & 2, but I'd be interested in what other people think...

I'm guessing the riders that PhilW saw did not have much experience in deep pow and that is why they didn't look competent. I'm assuming the riders had proper equipment since a lot of heli/cat operations will provide good powder skis/boards.

My powder performance is the same whether I ride soft boots or flexy hardboots. I prefer my hardboots just from a comfort standpoint.

I don't know of any big name free riders that use hard boots and their powder riding is obviously not hampered by soft boots.

I would have expected David Capozzi, sponsored Furberg rider, to be in hard boots due to him splitboarding and I never seen pics of him doing any tricks/grabs. But David also uses soft boots for powder.

Edited January 18, 2016 by gdboytyler

[2Curious]

what's the board you're using these days phil?

[philw]

I suppose I'm trying to point out that the received wisdom is incorrect regarding footwear to a fairly extreme extent. I have ridden with a few "big names", and they were all on soft boots, as is the fashion. Where they commented on my own stuff, the basic idea is that they had believed that hard boot riders were "stiff" and inflexible. That's not true in my experience, although many hard booters use unsuitable boards in powder.

 

--

Boards? That's a Landlord, which I've used for the last couple of seasons. They change the graphics each year, but they're all the same as far as I can tell. It seems a lot like a Malolo, so more slashy than a Fish. The nose is supposed to be decambered, but it's basically a post-rocker-fad board so we're back with what works. Wiegele (where that stuff was shot) didn't have a huge choice so I didn't actually try anything else this season. So far ;-)

 

[jng]

I'm guessing the riders that PhilW saw did not have much experience in deep pow and that is why they didn't look competent. I'm assuming the riders had proper equipment since a lot of heli/cat operations will provide good powder skis/boards.

 

+1.  No need to draw conclusions about soft vs hard boots when Occam's Razor leads to a simpler analysis.  On my heli trip, I was first down on soft boots ahead of skiers, which in the big picture means absolutely nothing.