HardBooter Blog

No work today. Oh well… I took out the Speedster 177 for the first time.  Took runs on Snodancer (not really steep enough for the 177, but still fun), Another World, Cloud Nine, and Doc’s Run. The snow is great right now after last week’s storms. Looks like we’re due for another storm the first part of the week too. Conditions should be excelent for the WTC… Tried out some Titanflex Intec bindinngs for the firts part of the day with the new Fin-tecs, then mounted up the regular race titanium clips.  I’ve now had enough time on the Fin-tecs to have an opiniont: The Fin-tecs work great. Seems you have to be a little more precise to get them into the receivers. Hmmm. Fin made something that’s more “precise” than it’s predecessor? What a surprise. No more worrying about plastic heels exploding, that’s a good thing in my book.

Dave has mentioned that we may want to try spending a day at The Canyons for the WTC. I’ll be working on Sunday the first of March, and could direct people to the best carving runs, and possibly do some riding with folks also, or we could possibly do a different day. If anyone out there is interested in trying to get together for a ride day at The Canyons, hit me up at: skully (at) hardbooter.com, or post a comment here – I’ll keep an eye on it. We’ll see what the interest is, and go from there, otherwise, we’ll probably spend most days at Park City.

Looking forward to next week…

Curt / Skully

Saturday 2/14

Happy Valentines Day… As some of my cohorts at the resort said, it was “puking” all day long: In other words, lots of fresh snow. I glanced at the Tanker at one point, and thought about riding it, but changed my mind. Rode the softies all day, taking numerous tree runs in the AM, enjoying the new snow. About lunch-time I got booked for a 1-hour private lesson. Chatting with the client he said: “I’m from Hawaii, and come from a long line of watermen, so I’ve been surfing my whole life.” Then he asks me if I know who Eddie Aikau is… Turns out this gentleman was ‘nephew. So, “coming from a long line of watermen” was kind of an understatement. It was fun riding with / teaching someone with such rich surfing history in his family. You get to meet some pretty cool people working in the snowsports industry sometimes.

Sunday 2/15

The “puking” was over on Sunday. No snow, bluebird skies, and great groomers. A great day to be out playing in the snow. Took a few runs in the trees again to take advantage of the fresh snow from Saturday, then changed out of the soft gear, and grabbed the Tanker 192 to take advantage of some of the groomers. Spent an hour teaching after switching gear, and after that there was no more work, so the Tanker got put to work on Doc’s run on the way off of the mountain. The tanker just put’s a smile on my face every time I ride it. I guess it’s kind of the “do everything” board….

Monday 2/16

Another day on the hill. The grooming is great, and the the skies aren’t so blue, with a few clouds hanging around, as there is supposed to be a big storm blowing in. Business levels are down in the Ski / Snowboard school, so It’s time to do some training. Our trainer today as one of our long-time instructors from Australia, which is great, cause he won’t be shoving AASI doctrine down our throats the whole time. I like clinics with the “foreigners” because of that. The trainers who have an international view are more open minded that the guys who are totally indoctrinated in to the AASI way of thinking. No-one had a real strong opinion on what to focus on in the clinic, so some old guy (me) suggested carving.  So, we spent a couple of hours working on carving drills with 20 instructors in softies, who had nothing better to do, with one double black diamond run thrown in at the end of the clinic for good measure. After the clinic, most of us get released for the day, so I jet home to help my daughter with her science project. Snowboarding in the morning, hanging out with the family in the afternoon… All in all, a great day in my book.

Curt / Skully

Disclamer: Once again, the above photo of the 9990 lift at The Canyons is “borrowed” from their website…

Not much to report from the Canyons as far as carving goes. It was raining in the valley again today, but snowing in Park City (Whew!). When I got to the locker room, there was a Kessler GS stick with the full-on Hangl plate sitting against the wall. I wondered what was going on, since I don’t see too many Kesslers at The Canyons, and found out later that there was a USASA race going on down on the lower mountain today.

I thought about riding the Tanker today, but decided on a some tree runs instead when there was no work for me in the morning. The snow was still decent in the trees. I made my way down to see what was up at the race. Of course Billy was there with the Park City Alpine Snowboard Team, so I chatted with him for a few minutes, and then had to check in for work. It was cool to see a decent turn-out chasing sticks.

Ended up working in the PM, so my fre-riding adventures were done for the day.

Curt / Skully

Finally had the time to put the Virus Scalpell through the paces. Business levels are down at the moment, so a part-time guy like me doesn’t get much work. So I had to check in every once in a while, and ride….

Met up with MJDC25 from the BOL forums, and we proceeded to make a couple of runs on Saddleback / Snowdancer before I had to check in. It was fairly crowded as usual, but the snow is in excellent condition.

Headed on over to the Tombstone lift, and hit up Another world a few times. Again, great snow. On the way to Tombstone on Chicane, I was able to really open it up a few times, and the Scalpell did well on the chopped up stuff, with patches of ice here and there.

To end the day we took a run down Could 9, to show MJDC25 another good carving run. It hadn’t been groomed since the day before, but again, the metal in the Scalpell did it’s job. I have to say, that the Scalpell is my favorite Virus, of the Virii that I have ridden. Keep in mind, I’m not an X world-cup racer like Billy and Will, so I enjoy a board that’s a little easier to turn. The Scalpell isn’t as damp as a Prior or Kessler, but it still holds it’s own on the chopped up stuff where the metal boards excel.

Also chatted with a couple other BOL forum members on the way off the hill. Must have been a record for this year- 4 or 5 hardbooters at the Canyons on the same day… The snow is great for carving right now, if you can get up and play in it, do it!

Disclaimer: the photo was “borrowed” from The Canyons website… I couldn’t help myself…

Rain……..

It was raining in the Salt Lake Valley when I started my trek up to the hills. No biggie, It usually snows at the resorts when it rains in the valley this time of year. The bad news was that it was still raining over the top of Parley’s Canyon, and on hwy. 224 on the way in to Park City. What the Fluff is up with rain in Park City in January?

At least it was snowing at the top of the Gondola. Business is still pretty slow this time of year, so I get the day off, but I have to stick around for some training in the afternoon, and I just threw bindings on a Virus “Dee Scalpell Supercarver” so why not?

After changing to the hardboots, I try out one run on Snowdancer off of the Saddleback chair. It’s quickly apparent that mellow lower-angle runs aren’t going to work today with this wet sticky snow, so It’s over to the Sun Peak chair for a couple of runs. Only problem is, it’s raining at the bottom of the Sun Peak chair. Oh well, let’s see how it goes.

So I finally get to some higher angle slopes, and take off. Visibility is next to nothing in the rain / snow, but I can’t resist making a few turns. I pick up some speed, and the metal in the Virus does it’s job and sucks up a some bumps I didn’t expect and I don’t get bucked off like I probably would have on a regular constuction board. Since I’m riding an “EC” board, I try to lay out an “EC” style carve, which I suck at to begin with, and I immediatly blow out.  So the Euro-Carving isn’t going to work for me today, back to the regular angulated turns.

The snow is actuall kind of fun, and there’s no-one around due to the weather, but after 3 runs on Sun Peak in the rain / snow, my gloves are soaked and the rest of me will be soon, so I pack it in to dry out the clothing before the afternoon training.

One of these days I’ll actually get to spend some quality time with that Virus, but today isn’t the day.

We’re supposed to get up to 30 inches of snow in the next couple of days, let’s hope it cools off so the precipitation falling from above will not be in liquid form…..

Curt/Skully