Arrived on the 12th, didn't get to snow slide until the 13th, and have been too busy since finishing up to post this thread until now. For those who don't know, I'm using ACTUAL skiboards now rather than the 99cm short skis (and prior to that, full-sized skis) I've ridden during the past two decades.
Day 1: Brighton (West) 01.13.2014
There was good and bad today. I managed to get the whole party out of bed and down to hotel breakfast bright and early, but the rain on the drive to the resort was incredibly worrying. As we got up into the mountain it turned to snow, though, and the very low amount of wind meant it wasn't drifting. Solitude was firing avalanche cannons most of the morning, which was some interesting background noise. For only a 61" base the snow at Brighton was fantastic, and as only 6 or 7 people made it on the lifts before my group there was ample powder - which is both good and bad when you're learning to slide on a new type of sticks... I'll talk more about that later. We stuck mostly to the west half of the mountain as we intend to go again on Wednesday.
In line for the lift to my second run, halfway up the mountain, disaster struck. I noticed that the base plates on my ski boots (yes, heel and toe on BOTH FEET) decided to completely shatter at some point, and I was forced to head back to the lodge. For 45 minutes a shop tech monkied with my boots and finally managed to jerry-rig a solution with newer plates that he managed to chop to the proper size with a bench grinder. I guess my boots are like 20 years old and they just don't make the parts in the same size these days. Anyway, the boots got fixed and I was out the door.
The rest of the day went without any more such technical difficulties. Things didn't start to freeze until 3pm, and even then there were SOME runs without ice on them all the way up until 4pm. All in all it was a fantastic outing. But anyway, back to my change from skis to skiboards...
I'm riding Revolt Trees with original Bomber Elite bindings. While they weren't the floatiest they handled the powder adequately and there's no way I'd have made due in the deep stuff with my 99cm short skis. I struggled a bit with the "centered" position of the boot and kept bumping the ass ends of my skis together while pedaling. Also, constantly having to lean back (for powder riding) did a number on my upper legs. Solitude is tomorrow, and for the first half of the day I intend to ride my boards with the "main" four binding screws installed so that I'm ever so slightly set back from center. I can still adjust the bale mounts back further if this isn't enough... project for lunchtime tomorrow possibly.
Day 1: Brighton (West) 01.13.2014
There was good and bad today. I managed to get the whole party out of bed and down to hotel breakfast bright and early, but the rain on the drive to the resort was incredibly worrying. As we got up into the mountain it turned to snow, though, and the very low amount of wind meant it wasn't drifting. Solitude was firing avalanche cannons most of the morning, which was some interesting background noise. For only a 61" base the snow at Brighton was fantastic, and as only 6 or 7 people made it on the lifts before my group there was ample powder - which is both good and bad when you're learning to slide on a new type of sticks... I'll talk more about that later. We stuck mostly to the west half of the mountain as we intend to go again on Wednesday.
In line for the lift to my second run, halfway up the mountain, disaster struck. I noticed that the base plates on my ski boots (yes, heel and toe on BOTH FEET) decided to completely shatter at some point, and I was forced to head back to the lodge. For 45 minutes a shop tech monkied with my boots and finally managed to jerry-rig a solution with newer plates that he managed to chop to the proper size with a bench grinder. I guess my boots are like 20 years old and they just don't make the parts in the same size these days. Anyway, the boots got fixed and I was out the door.
The rest of the day went without any more such technical difficulties. Things didn't start to freeze until 3pm, and even then there were SOME runs without ice on them all the way up until 4pm. All in all it was a fantastic outing. But anyway, back to my change from skis to skiboards...
I'm riding Revolt Trees with original Bomber Elite bindings. While they weren't the floatiest they handled the powder adequately and there's no way I'd have made due in the deep stuff with my 99cm short skis. I struggled a bit with the "centered" position of the boot and kept bumping the ass ends of my skis together while pedaling. Also, constantly having to lean back (for powder riding) did a number on my upper legs. Solitude is tomorrow, and for the first half of the day I intend to ride my boards with the "main" four binding screws installed so that I'm ever so slightly set back from center. I can still adjust the bale mounts back further if this isn't enough... project for lunchtime tomorrow possibly.
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