BlueB Posted February 25, 2023 Report Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) Ok, I officially had the best teaching day of my career. Luka suddenly decided to learn to snowboard. Opted for hard boots and mild directional stance, in despite of me offering the soft boots too. He breezed through flatland and hiking/sideslipping exercises. Got to linked turns and fast traverses in less than 2 hrs. We had excellent packed snow for learning. It started to snow earlier than forecasted. It's going to be epic, tomorrow. Edited February 25, 2023 by BlueB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted February 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 @BlueB Nice! Maybe Luka can join the carving training in the distant future. Day 65, Manning Excellent grooming, excellent hardpack. I was taking it a bit easy today since my front calf was sore from one of my falls the previous day, opting not to carve featherstone (although it looked really good). I made many trenches anways. Had a surprise two hour group lesson in the afternoon, seven absolute beginners. Everyone learned at their own pace, and helped accelerate the progression for those with an athletic background. Some were very happy afterwards and pledged to return... It started to get cold and windy very quickly as we closed. That storm might bring us some snowfall, too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin of Beagle Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 (edited) Cypress Sunday morning. Eagle Chair was running on diesel. Lions Chair closed. Sky Chair closed. Midway Chair closed. It was one of those days. Pic #2 taken from the parking lot at 11:00 AM. You can see the bottom of the Raven Chair at a distance. Pic #3 shows Pic #2 zoomed in. Around 1 hour wait. Edited February 27, 2023 by Cousin of Beagle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charliechocolate Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 What a shitshow today was. That zoomed in photo by Cousin Of Beagle shows the tail end of the line up to be past the point where crazy raven meets 3 bears, and that's just one side of it. The other side was going up Benny's as far as black on black. I got on my third chair at 11:10. Three mediocre runs in the 3 hours that I was there is some kind of record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin of Beagle Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 (edited) I got to the parking lot at 7:45. I had two runs. Run #1 was a tracked out JJ to Ashley McIvor. Run #2 was Bilodeau's Gold. Deep snow. That took me to 11:00 AM, when I decided to cut my losses and go home for a steak lunch. Edited February 26, 2023 by Cousin of Beagle I added the part about "steak lunch," because it was the highlight of the shit-show day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted February 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2023 If they're running off generators, I guess that means they lost power? What an embarrassment for the mountain. Anyways... Day 66, Manning We started the day with a light dusting of snow. We thought the storm system missed us until the snow started to set in through the day... turned into a blizzard with awful visibility, and I headed in for an hour to wait until my single lesson slot for the day. Once I got back out, it was clearing a little, and there was powder everywhere! No crowds (<100 guests), no frozen pipes, and our chairs actually work I think some of you need to come out here to Manning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 27, 2023 Report Share Posted February 27, 2023 I only did few laps on Easy Rider, in the am, training teaching theory to some staff. But, I got to ride chopped up, bumped up runs of Raven, with no linup in the pm. Glades, Meteor, First Sun... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xy9ine Posted February 27, 2023 Report Share Posted February 27, 2023 hahaha... oh, cypress (operations), you never fail to disappoint. at least i approach the place with low expectations, so i'm rarely surprised. 3 runs in half a day (with early start), then we pulled the plug. that said, said runs were pretty good times; some ridiculously deep turns on raven & lions (when it finally opened) eastide glades were had, and poutine on the sunny patio - exchanging resort critical rants with fellow customers - was satisfying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xy9ine Posted February 27, 2023 Report Share Posted February 27, 2023 oh - one thing that did impress me - for the first time i actually saw a loading expediter (on eagle)! hopefully a more common practice; considering how busy things get, they're impressively bad at actually making an effort to fill every chair. (rants into the void). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted February 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2023 Day 67, Manning We stayed an extra day since there was a lot of talk about awful road conditions. Very good grooming in the morning on Hoseshoe and Shadow, everything else was a bit too soft though. Extremely dead (36 tickets sold). Lots of pow stashes left off-piste, which I ignored in favor of more carving. We left at lunch to pack and drive home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 1, 2023 Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 (edited) Incredible pow session from 1pm! Lions chair opened late and there were plenty of freshies to explore. In some places waist deep! Moons, Slash, Volcano, Bowen, Gibbons, Rainbow trees... goodness everywhere. I'm a weirdo, I liked the Bowen the best when soft moguls started to take shape Levi tried the Nidecker Proto, instead of his trusty Bastard and kind of liked it for pow. I brought out the 3800 169, that was retired for the more maneuverable 163, for couple of years. Now that Luka rides the 163, I'm back to the bigger version. Loved it in today's conditions. Edited March 1, 2023 by BlueB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 If I knew I was going to be riding in that, I would have brought my K2… thankfully your nidecker was a major improvement over the bastard in terms of floatation and handling in the soft bumps. A softboot board with plates would have been best, but I only brought two alpine boards up today. Manning seemed to be spared of any more of that annoying powder today. I’m looking forward to the corduroy tomorrow morning! I miss that sweet, sweet hard pack. PS: I returned your board to the instructor hut, but I sort of guessed the stance you originally had it set to after putting the burton race plates back on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin of Beagle Posted March 1, 2023 Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 How does Manning stay solvent if only 2 or 3 people buy lift tickets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roch Posted March 1, 2023 Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 They dont and the camp grounds fund most of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2023 Day 69, Manning Started the day by digging out my red (medium) .951 springs to swap out from my yellow (stiff) ones. It made a huge difference in my riding... threw me off in steeps, but helped in almost every other aspect. Loading the nose is actually recoverable now, and hurts my feet less since the spring doesn't rebound as hard. I find I can hook up tighter toe side turns now, I feel like I can work my weight along the board a bit better. Had a single student from a very small school group this morning. Was a pretty fun lesson! The rest of the day was freeriding. Grooming was done to olympic perfection this morning, hardpack was grippy but still quite soft from all the snowfall lately. Off piste was still quite soft.@Cousin of Beagle we lose money during the weekdays and make it back during the weekends and holidays. Passholders and other amenities are what helps Manning pull through during the winter. Friday is looking to be a pow day off Blue Chair when it opens again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 2, 2023 Report Share Posted March 2, 2023 1 hour ago, Jarcode said: Started the day by digging out my red (medium) .951 springs to swap out from my yellow (stiff) ones. It made a huge difference in my riding... threw me off in steeps, but helped in almost every other aspect. Loading the nose is actually recoverable now, and hurts my feet less since the spring doesn't rebound as hard. I find I can hook up tighter toe side turns now, I feel like I can work my weight along the board a bit better. "Told you so" cliché is necessary here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2023 12 hours ago, BlueB said: "Told you so" cliché is necessary here It's still comparatively stiff compared to what you use, but yes, you were right. Since swapping springs on the .951s shells is pretty effortless, I might look at ordering blue (softest) springs for off-piste. I can't imagine I would want anything softer than reds for carving though. Maybe I can sell my yellow springs to Ray since he wanted stiffer ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2023 Day 70, Manning About a foot of snow fell today. Cleared up at the end to reveal a bunch of pow everywhere. Had an intermediate school group lesson, and one staff lesson. Played around in the pow on my K2, didn't really like it much. It floats very easily, and I can carve quite well on it, but my sliding turns are awful with this thing for some reason, which is what I was hoping to use it for in the bumps. I think it's too soft between the inserts and too stiff on the nose/tail. Spent the rest of the day on the Bastard and WCRM. I was actually ignoring the pow most of the day, trenching through into the hardpack to actually carve. There is about 45cm of powder accumulated on Blue Chair now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 3, 2023 Report Share Posted March 3, 2023 Evening sesh with instructors. Still lots of soft snow. Was teaching them to ride the steeps (Rainbow) in quasi-carvy way, then we switched to moguls on JJA and Cascade. We met another h/booter, Aleksey... on Prior WCRM Had a good chat on the chair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2023 Day 71, Manning Significant pow (~45cm) on Blue Chair this morning. It was lighter than our usual coastal pow, so I had to switch to my K2 just to keep afloat on it. It worked well enough. I rode for a bit over an hour and went to my first and only lesson of the day: a single student from our school group decided to pick up a snowboard, while everyone else skied. She made it look easy! Had to help a lot of skiers on the bunny hill as well, though. I went for a bunch of carving laps in the afternoon, and called it an hour early. The snow was too soft to carve, and I had my fill of the pow. I'm hoping we'll be able to groom orange streak or featherstone... but they've been having troubles managing it safely since they don't have a winch. Our club was warned about excessively soft snow pack for courses too. More tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 4, 2023 Report Share Posted March 4, 2023 Ungodly amounts of white stuff still coming down. I had my almost forgotten Arbor Munoz D62, with duck plates for the am shift. Lots of comments on gorgeous Koa top sheet. In the pm I rode a new to me Nirvana 180/21, just because. It still rode great in conditions it wasn't designed for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 Day 72, Manning No snow! Finally, some acceptable conditions for carving. Hardpack was still very soft, but good grooming in the morning made up for it. I had three different lessons today, so most of my time was teaching. Started with a super skilled level 5 kid from the school group, excellent form and went almost straight into carving progression... we were linking perfect carves on greens in an hour. Next kid was bunny hill, skier learning how to snowboard. Fast progression, but nothing too crazy. Final group was a 2 hour private, teaching another two "heel side hero" kids how to toeside and link turns. Ended the day with a single victory lap on horseshoe, and ran into a telemark skier convention organizing at the top of Bear (12 people)! They were all asking questions about my equipment. I guess it's just one group of weirdos recognizing another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarcode Posted March 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 Oh yeah, @BlueB I handed someone else your card. They were interested in trying alpine equipment, having seen it before in Japan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roch Posted March 5, 2023 Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 first full day on skis (im sorry) was fun got down glades and almost went of a cliff in a space i haven't been on cypress before the snow was bucketing . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 5, 2023 Report Share Posted March 5, 2023 Just now, roch said: first full day on skis (im sorry) was fun got down glades and almost went of a cliff in a space i haven't been on cypress before the snow was bucketing . Can I take a guess: going too far right of the Tomcat, than almost falling to the flat part of T33? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.