Try that general area in summer. A few years back we visited Lake Louise in late July. Along with 250,000 of our closest buddies.
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Northern Rockies/Alberta The scrub strikes back: Sunshine report part deux
- Thread starter Yepow
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Try that general area in summer. A few years back we visited Lake Louise in late July. Along with 250,000 of our closest buddies.
Thread Starter
TS
Today the snow started off great, with a little bit of fresh--probably 13-14 cm all told yesterday and the bit overnight that fell between 5pm and morning. We started off on Standish and in places the snow was close to a foot with wind blow. Unfortunately, I slept very poorly the night before and mojo was approximately halved for the entire morning. I know mojo ebbs and flows, but today it was low before noon despite conditions being great--tried to reproduce some of the same attitude and turns but just wasn't feeling it. My sons went off to seek adventure and I sought the feeling from yesterday rather than tentativeness. Kept at it, skied terrain that was nicely within current levels of mojo and had a long lunch break. After a fair amount of food and some time, by 2pm things started getting right between my ears and I was finding a little more aggression off piste, and the last couple of hours were very good. I can tell when things are going ok because the legs complain a little bit when I'm skiing defensively--one thing I'm really focusing on is doing as little bracing/scrubbing speed with the quads as possible. In cruisey places where I needed to come to a non-urgent stop, I just overcompleted turns rather than hockey stopping, etc.
I spent the entire day on the Enforcer 110s. Granted, it was a bit of powder day, and the snow was soft, but I get why some people run such a wide daily driver--it was fun the entire day on chop and in the bumps and even on cruisey soft groomers. Obviously they would have been less fun on hardpack, but I liked carrying some speed through scarred stuff at the end of day. I found that they liked me getting my weight forward more. I found them bouncy flat planks if I was really back seat going fast, but with more weight forward on a little edge they were much happier and the shovels drove.
By the end I spent a bunch of time in easy bumps (again, good runs I was able to keep forward and barely tired at all after getting thru the moguls, poorer ones felt like a lot of work and burning quads). It's neat, I think there's some built-in feedback here.
It was a nice day--a shame about the headspace before 2pm, but whaddya gonna do? At least it was largely recaptured by the end
I spent the entire day on the Enforcer 110s. Granted, it was a bit of powder day, and the snow was soft, but I get why some people run such a wide daily driver--it was fun the entire day on chop and in the bumps and even on cruisey soft groomers. Obviously they would have been less fun on hardpack, but I liked carrying some speed through scarred stuff at the end of day. I found that they liked me getting my weight forward more. I found them bouncy flat planks if I was really back seat going fast, but with more weight forward on a little edge they were much happier and the shovels drove.
By the end I spent a bunch of time in easy bumps (again, good runs I was able to keep forward and barely tired at all after getting thru the moguls, poorer ones felt like a lot of work and burning quads). It's neat, I think there's some built-in feedback here.
It was a nice day--a shame about the headspace before 2pm, but whaddya gonna do? At least it was largely recaptured by the end
LFGoooooooo
Going to be a fantastic reward after giving a seminar on vendor contracts to 25 people over Teams…lol… (done now) and delivering a eulogy I haven’t written yet in two languages (Friday)
Thread Starter
TS
Alas, only til Friday. But I will pack some powder and leave it in pristine shape for you!
PS it's snowing right now
PS it's snowing right now
Leave some of the fluffy stuff for us to float on please! I brought my powder board (gasp).
…….In fact I packed 3 snowboards, 2 pairs of boots (ski/snowboard), 1 pair of bindings and a partridge and a pear tree. I am so, so freaking excited and happy I have this to look forward to after a rough week. Am loving the hype on this thread.
Thread Starter
TS
My-friend-I-haven't-met, you are going to be pretty happy I suspect, conditions are amazing (not even close to marginal, full winter right now) and there's not much that can wreck this...
My earnest goal is for Banff to be an every year thing. Favorite place on earth.
Thread Starter
TS
In addition to the ad nauseam collection of identical color photos of white snow, I present motion pictures of my spastic and increasingly geriatric scrubbin’ down the mount, collected by offspring as requested
View attachment IMG_1053.MOV
View attachment IMG_1054.MOV
View attachment IMG_1055.MOV
View attachment IMG_1053.MOV
View attachment IMG_1054.MOV
View attachment IMG_1055.MOV
Thread Starter
TS
Today started with packed powder groomers that were well preserved from the night before; luckily no melting yesterday. Everything was soft and pleasant. I spent some time trying to coordinate the rolling of both ankles to work on A-frame and to keep weight forward, then went for a croissant and a latte, and then skied with some friends for a bit. After lunch, my boys went for a couple of runs and on a sunshine black in nice conditions (read: blue) you see me skiing straight down towards camera man-boy. Despite attempts to keep separation this is as good as it gets right now, and that's in very nice conditions
After that, they went off with their friends and things were nicely softening and the sun came out.
I worked on sideslipping, and I don't know whether it was the very soft snow, the 110 underfoot, or some practice paying off, but I got to a quite comfortable slideslip and was even able to start working on pivot slips! They're still not great, there's a hitch in the middle where both feet don't turn at the same time and I don't stay perfectly in the corridor yet, but it's also not AAAAHHH when the skis are pointed more down the fall line. Will take some more work but I think there is significant progress from the beginning.
About 2:30pm the allure of bombing spring condition cruisy groomers became too great, and I did a couple runs of sunshine coast. Like I said last time, I think my favorite thing about these new enforcers is that they give me instant feedback (that isn't super punishing) when I'm not driving with shin touching the front of the boot and leaning down the hill. They feel locked in when I do that, but pretty bouncy/planky when I don't. It's nice! Also, I can report I like the Boostercershire strap. There is so much less slop now.
We came back together around 3:45 and got into some easy bumps in the trees (the above videos are from that). Felt like it was a decent run for me (the ones that got captured, it's the same run split into 2 videos). As usual, how dynamic I feel doesn't translate into much besides looking fairly stiff But was nice to be off piste with them even for a few runs.
Another actually pretty good day... if I had another 30 days this season we probably could make some progress
After that, they went off with their friends and things were nicely softening and the sun came out.
I worked on sideslipping, and I don't know whether it was the very soft snow, the 110 underfoot, or some practice paying off, but I got to a quite comfortable slideslip and was even able to start working on pivot slips! They're still not great, there's a hitch in the middle where both feet don't turn at the same time and I don't stay perfectly in the corridor yet, but it's also not AAAAHHH when the skis are pointed more down the fall line. Will take some more work but I think there is significant progress from the beginning.
About 2:30pm the allure of bombing spring condition cruisy groomers became too great, and I did a couple runs of sunshine coast. Like I said last time, I think my favorite thing about these new enforcers is that they give me instant feedback (that isn't super punishing) when I'm not driving with shin touching the front of the boot and leaning down the hill. They feel locked in when I do that, but pretty bouncy/planky when I don't. It's nice! Also, I can report I like the Boostercershire strap. There is so much less slop now.
We came back together around 3:45 and got into some easy bumps in the trees (the above videos are from that). Felt like it was a decent run for me (the ones that got captured, it's the same run split into 2 videos). As usual, how dynamic I feel doesn't translate into much besides looking fairly stiff
But was nice to be off piste with them even for a few runs.Another actually pretty good day... if I had another 30 days this season we probably could make some progress
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Thread Starter
TS
Thread Starter
TS
only *starting*?!
This must be akin to seeing a chimpanzee find a Stradivarius and start banging out some sounds on it...
This must be akin to seeing a chimpanzee find a Stradivarius and start banging out some sounds on it...
Thread Starter
TS
The last day was another good one, with gradually softening temps all day, and a surprising amount of snow throughout. It's the second time I've had an afternoon squall actually kind of freeze up otherwise corn-y kind of snow. We had a good day, and cut things short by maybe an hour. Was a very good trip, and a good season, and now it's time to work on off-season training. Only 234 days until my next trip!
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