Lower Mainland Carvers' Diaries, 2022/23

[roch]

6 minutes ago, BlueB said:

Can I take a guess: going too far right of the Tomcat, than almost falling to the flat part of T33? 

close  above that when you go off the left side of t33 if you go dead middle its a nice 10-15 foot cliff

[BlueB]

I think that's the same spot, you just entered those woods from the other side. 

[charliechocolate]

What a great day it was to bust out the malamutes and hop on the 3800. It's almost worth the foot discomfort at the end of the day. I spent more time riding than waiting in line, for a change.

[Jarcode]

Day 73, Manning

Excellent grooming, excellent hardpack for carving. Morning laps were pure bliss.

For some bizzare reason, we had double the amount of snowboard lessons compared to the ski side. 10 in total, and I was given four one hour lessons, booking me out for the full day.

First lesson was an adult beginner, very strong and very fast learner. Linked turns at the end of the lesson.

Second lesson was the level 5 highschool group. These three kids were extraordinary, they could all carve and wanted to bomb runs really quickly. After the first lap, I switched to my WCRM (convieniently sitting on the rack next to the lift), and lead the group with some trenching. One of the kids was an exchange student from Austria, and was already familiar with alpine boards. The other two weren't very interested in learning anything, so I showed them side hits and drops instead.

The last two lessons were individual privates for two brothers. First one went really well, second one was a struggle since the parents provided a very oversized board. Did my best, kid still had fun.

Had to voice my frustration with the one hour time slots because I have too much respect for snowboarding to cut my lessons short when I know I could be teaching a lot more. My first lesson felt like a speedrun of the CASI material, getting someone to linked turns that fast feels like overloading them with information.

Much needed day off tomorrow.

[BlueB]

Our day started with snowfall, but ended with sun. I had a regular "floating trainer day". 

Same boards as yesterday. One nice bump run down the Bowen, on Arbor. Few runs on the Nirvana - carves beautifully. Mostly too soft groom. One park run and a shy 180 on the 180 board

[BlueB]

CASI stuff today. Some talking, but a lot of good riding on steeps, moguls, trees... Couple of people that didn't know me, noticed only half way trough the morning that I was on h/boots

Saw a tow truck in the ditch, on my way down

[BlueB]

Day 2 of CASI... Another pow morning, bluebird afternoon.  

I tend to overrotate torso into the heel side, when riding duck. I also don't like straight lining and skating. 

[Jarcode]

Day 74, Manning

Excellent grooming & hardpack again. The sun came out for most of the day.

Morning half-day private, and then a staff carving lesson in the afternoon. Squeezed in a lot of laps of my own... my riding wasn't too good today though. Made good progress for both lessons.

The mountain was dead today. There were some school kids around as part of a "work experience program", which essentially amounted to free labour for a bunch of departments.

[Jarcode]

Day 75, Manning

Another excellent day of hardpack and grooming. Sunny all day.

Two school group lessons in the morning, staff carving lesson again in the afternoon. Patrol was very short-handed today, so I helped with sweep as well.

My sister was out here with a friend today as well. She's getting a lot better too! Blew past my lessons today.

Tomorrow we have very little scheduled. Might switch back to the Oxess!

[BlueB]

Evening staff sesh, crappy snow. Still, lots of enthusiastic happy faces. Last one of the season... 

[Jarcode]

Day 76, Manning

Yet another day of excellent grooming and great hardpack for carving. Some snow fell today though.

No guest lessons at all, and one special staff lesson... getting Daniel on hardboots! Our best ski instructor, who is responsible for the lion's share of private requests at Manning, wanted to try an alpine board.

I managed to fast-track him to perfectly linked turns unusually fast, thanks to a lot of instruction I got from the training at Cypress. I think he also drew from his skiing more than his experience on softboot boards, since he was getting some crazy inclination on the last couple runs that I wouldn't have normally expected out of a snowboarder.

It also looks like I will be teaching him more alpine lessons in the future!

[BlueB]

Another unexpected mini-pow day. Even the crowd was way smaller then normal, for Saturday and spring break!? Less clients showed up for the groups and I had a bunch of staff to run a session. All steeps, glades, bumps... 

In the pm, I hijacked Luka's pow skis for few test runs. Didn't have poles or proper ski boots, so I just carved them down Collins. They actually hold a mean edge, but it's a lot of work to get 100mm ski there. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by BlueB

[Jarcode]

Day 77, Manning.

Nice sunny day, good hardpack but about 5-10cm of snow fell all of a sudden this morning before clearing up. Ended up creating some soft, bumpy snow towards the end of the day. Grooming wasn't as good today, probably because the fresh snowfall made it harder to climb the steeps.

One school group lesson. A bit all over the place, but my students had fun. The rest of the day I was freeriding again.

I spotted over ten telemark skiers again. These weirdos are taking over Manning Park!

Since our season is coming to a close, a lot of departments are getting staff cuts to save money. I get the impression we didn't do so well financially this year due to the road closures during the Christmas holidays. I'm not going to expect many lessons as we get closer to April.

[BlueB]

Very good snow today and some real grooming... on Midway at least. NFC 180 eats groom for breakfast  

Saw Patrick and George (rare sight) on their alpine boards. 

[Jarcode]

Day 78, Manning

No lessons, short snow school meeting and then the final session for the club, which I was invited to for free food and to advertise my program more. Some kids were interested but most are pretty invested in skiing. I have had much more success getting the little shredders from the resort lessons interested in our club's program.

There was unusually firm hardpack this morning, thanks to the little bit of freeze/thaw we got over yesterday. It made for excellent carving on my WCRM, but I heard a lot of complaints about "icy" snow from clueless guests. By Cypress standards, it's still soft.

I am staying and working an extra day since we are down a very important instructor (Daniel), who hurt himself today

[Jarcode]

Day 79, Manning

Over a foot of heavy pow landed overnight today. Probably some of the most exhausting to ride in because of how much it would weigh you down if your tip just happened to dip under. My K2 was required off-piste this morning.

First lesson was chairlift, uneasy rider but very fast learner and good form. Just not comfortable with speed.

Second lesson was bunny hill, really smart kid who was very close to linking turns in an hour. Love these lessons.

Third and fourth lesson was for a kid and his parents. They were booked as separate lessons, but I sort of "merged" them together since they were all on the bunny hill. Kid had a blast, went from nearly giving up while trying to ride on his own, to wanting to stay past closing. Got his dad on the chairlift afterwards.

Then I was asked to help patrol with sweep again. I ran into FIVE people on the way down... a group of three skiers trying to hike up to the pow stashes (30 minutes after lifts closed). Had to yell them to come down and give it up. Then I had a kid and his dad, kid was still very much learning and the dad was unfamiliar with the mountain. We were on shadow, so the kid was struggling a bit.

Had to accompany both of them down the hill, and then the dad proceeds to injure himself on the moguls above tower six under my supervision. I swore under my breath a little and then kept the kid entertained as I got him down while the snowmobile went for his dad.

[Jarcode]

Day 80, Manning

Soft hardpack. So much snow has fallen over the last couple days, so it's going to take a while for the groomers to recover...

Three lessons, one injury, and helping patrol with sweep. It was a long day, and I didn't get many runs in.

[Jarcode]

Day 81, Manning

Good hardpack in the morning, subpar grooming (probably because a lot of snow is being moved around in preparation for the Streak to Streak race). Very warm, snow got a bit too soft in the afternoon.

One two hour lesson, and helped patrol with sweep again.

[Jarcode]

Day 82, Manning

Firm hardpack in the morning (for once!), snow softening up a lot in the afternoon and resembling spring conditions. Freeze-thaw is in full effect now. Blue chair had about 35cm of fresh snow upon opening but the first 10cm was a frozen slab. Back bowl was nice since it avoided the sun baking, but the rest of Blue chair was really weird to ride.

Had one lesson in the morning, and a staff carving lesson in the evening. I have also been asked by two staff members to teach to the CASI L1 cirriculum! They are planning on becoming instructors themselves...

The last lap of the day was hilarious. We were joined by a small seven year old kid on the lift who wanted to ride with us, and he proceeded to completely smoke us! Looked like a future racer.

[Jarcode]

Day 83, Manning

Race day! We had two end of season events, "streak to streak" and "rail jam". The former was a slalom race, the latter was a park competition.

Naturally I competed, and got the fastest time on a snowboard. Not by a large enough margin though... it was a harsh course that started with SL radius ski gates and opened up at the end to Super G speeds. I used the WCRM but had to "slarve" it for the tight half of the course, and messed up a couple gates.

Saw lots of funny costumes today.

The snow started extremely firm this morning and ended in slush. Very warm. Awful grooming on horseshoe this morning... they prioritized the race course and rushed everything else.

[Jarcode]

Day 84, Manning

We had a PSL course set up today with stubbies. I couldn't run it because I had so many lessons, but I also can only really do it on the bastard... next season I am picking up a SL race board.

There were two other hardbooters up today... one I already met before, and his brother trying out hardboots! I lent out a board to the brother since he was riding a really old oxygen with no lift in his bindings.

Very firm conditions in the morning, very soft in the afternoon. Gibson pass is approaching genuine off-road terrain due to the rather extreme erosion.

My knees are extremely sore.

[charliechocolate]

Anyone have cypress ticket(s) they want to sell?

I hate how you have to have an account on the site or else have to sign up and all that. I just want to get my guests lift tickets.

[Cousin of Beagle]

Brewski this weekend. And complementary Brewski Mug???!! Yes, please!!

[BlueB]

Luka and I were planning to go to the Big Bear resort, on our last day in California. The place received 1m of snow over the last 48 hrs. The chains became mandatory - we couldn't  get there... 

[Cousin of Beagle]

Saturday Brewski