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Another carving session with instructors... Nothing special to report... Good hardpack, empty hill... 

Ah, almost forgot... We were only 3 and used Collins for some carving exercises. When we stopped to discuss, we got approached by a mid aged lady on skis (one of the only people on the run except us), who wanted to complain of how much we scared her, got hit by a snowboarder before, never seen anyone going that fast on a green... etc... etc... I didn't even notice that we past anywhere near her on our descent, but never the less, we apologized and moved to the Eagle chair ;) 

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We had a surprisingly great day today! 

For some odd reason only 50-60% of normal weekend crows showed up. The light overcast left enough visobility definition and seemed to protect the snow from luke warm temps. It seems that night was just cold enough to hiring the pack to that yummy near-frozen condition, while groomer did great seamless job on the Rainbow and Midway. The cird was so defined that it made that zipper sound rifht trough the carve!

Surprisingly, other side of the mountain wasn't good at all, loose, crunchy and soft combination... 

I did some wild stuff on the Rainbow all mowning and managed to rip one of my Thor glives! Around lunch time we switched to Midway, which was practically still untouched. 

My toy: Looney. Boy, as much as I love that thing on hard snow, I hate it on loose surface. 

Crew: Rod, Patrick, B... We also saw 2 Korean guys on alpine boards! 

A signature on Midway: 20170128_204126.jpg

Edited by BlueB
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From almost sun, to some strange mix of rain and snow, to giant wet snowflakes... About 2cm accumulation in 2 hours. 

Luka went with his club. I brought my skis for the first time this year, to teach my nephew and niece... Boy liked it, but girl didn't... 

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Snow was weird today. Very hard in the am, turned into sugar on ice later in spots, and heaps of man made on JJA. Nice and sunny... 

My nephew is starting to do the parallel turns on skis, already... 

Edited by BlueB
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A bit less freshies today... The super wide AMT was the perfect board choice for the conditions. 

On the first run, I broke a rivet holding the ankle buckle, on my front boot. Impossible to ride steeps. Took me about 1/2 hr to get to the rental shop, find the right screw and t-nut, re-drill the anchor point... Took a while to find the boys, later. 

Crew: Gary, Patrick, Roy, B... Tony? 

Run of the day: Crazy Raven. 

Edited by BlueB
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Ok, so like Dan, I am coming out to Vancouver from Feb 11-19 & will be able to ride on the Saturdays and Sundays. I understand Cypress is the best near-Vancouver mtn for carving runs & possibility of riding with other BOL-ers & has a shuttle. Check. Should I bother bringing a long-ish board on weekends? Also, is it worth the extra distance to go to Whistler on one or two of those days?

Thanks for any insights. 

Dave

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14 minutes ago, MacSkiddin said:

Should I bother bringing a long-ish board on weekends? Also, is it worth the extra distance to go to Whistler on one or two of those days?

You shouldn't have trouble with long-ish on Cypress.

I think it's worth a day trip or two, if only to see the terrain which there's plenty. If the forecast holds, Sunday is your best bet for Whistler http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Whistler-Blackcomb/6day/mid.

I'll buy you a beer for buying my boots if I see you at Cypress.

Edited by charliechocolate
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High overcast in the am, with some low cloud rolling through in the pm... Hard pack on the Rainbow, somewhat softer around Eagle and Raven. 

We saw a nice SG SL on the racks, but couldn't figure out who owned it. Other then that, Pierre, Tony on softies, Roy and B + my nephew on skis, getting pretty fast now! Gary and Patrick slept in and missed on a good day... 

I was on skis in the pm and my broken left leg definitely doesn't track as good as the right one. 

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We started on firm snow, but not quite frozen hardpack that I expected. Patrick showed up for his lesson on a Madd 170, so I took out the Loony, to match. 

Later in the day snow softened a lot, as it was warm and sunny. Crazy crowd in the pm... 

We finally saw the mystery SG guy carving down the Midway, fast large turns. 

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It turned out that the mystery SG guy is on the CASI L1 course! Awesome, the numbers are rising :) Didn't get to talk to him, though... 
I also saw Patrick, George and Maya, 2 other Asian guys on carving boards, plus, on the racks, a narrow Hot Blast with soft boot bindings at extremely high angles! 

As our session's other participants didn't show up, I had a "private" with Bob. It was awesome, video, mentoring, etc. 

Conditions were super hot, I must have lost 5lbs in sweat... 

 

@MacSkiddin, how was your evening session at Cypress and Whistler? 

Edited by BlueB
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I had a lot of fun exploring Cypress. I found it quite crowded to carve and pretty fogged in starting about halfway up  Rainbow.  I managed to link some carved turns on Rainbow, but was a bit intimidated by the mild bumpiness on the sides, having seen one of my clinic-mates sail into the bumps and break a tib-fib at ECES a few years ago. I was needing that width to control my speed. I would really like to go back for a first-chair situation. I stayed out til 9:30 on account of arriving so late, by which time it was a lot less crowded, but I was getting tired  

Whistler was epic! Quite busy. I 'rode the mountain' on my MFR and hard boots, but did no carving. Many times I was wishing I was on my soft setup because I find it a more relaxing & less tiring ride, but there were times when I really appreciated the leverage that hardboots give. I was really happy with the MFR. It is a great board for a place with so much variety. I think if I ever pare down to one board (heaven forfend!), it will be the MFR. I was exhausted by 3 and started making mistakes (more than the usual), kind of scaring myself on a traverse in Whistler Bowl. I used my hand on the snow wall for balance because I wasn't trusting myself not to make a mistake and go end-over-ending down into the bowl. Then I fell on a flat in the glades below and struggled to first of all get upright and then to make forward progress with my back foot out, trying to skate it on light-packed & powder snow. That's never a worry at home. After that, I headed for the family zone at Peak-to-Peak to skid it down to the bottom, to my anxiously waiting beer.

Funny, on my first ride up the Whistler gondola, I looked out and thought "tree wells". Then I completely forgot about them, even riding in some of the glades in the Symphony area. Someone mentioned "tree wells" at supper last night and I thought, "Oh sh!t ... yeah, gotta remember about tree wells".  Especially riding alone. 

Anyway, all in all, loved it, and planning to get out again Sat & Sun, staying in Vancouver Sat night & flying out at 6 pm Sun. Also, the workshop I'm in includes a trip to Grouse 2-8 pm Thursday, so I'll bring the MFR.

Will be looking for advice on whether to bus or car-rent to Whistler on Saturday. Apparently the rental cars only have M&S tires, slightly better than 'all seasons'. I lucked out last weekend because the guy at the Avis desk at YVR asked where I was going. When I said whistler, he gave me a Santa Fe instead of the Impala I booked, for no extra charge. Nice guy. 

Edited by MacSkiddin
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7 hours ago, charliechocolate said:

A little girl rides that Hot Blast. I shared a chair with her and her mom. Dad was riding a 185 Donek. They're an entire family of boarders.

I also saw a guy on an old F2 (or nitro?) asym with step-ins.

Bring on the rain.

Ah, I saw dad and brother, then. 

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MacSkiddin, 

You'll like the Cut on Grouse, it's the widest, longest, straightest green groomer around! 

Nice that you had good time at WB. The MFR is a great board, I have an ancient 166, while it was still called FR and it rides as good as the modern stuff. He was ahead of his time with nose rocker even back then. I wish I had a slightly narrower version for hard boots... 

Sorry about sketchy conditions at Cypress, it can happen often in the evening, especially after the weekend crowd. I guess we'll see you on Sunday am? The temps will be just below 0 from Friday and on, should be good. 

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