East Coast like conditions at Bear 3-2-08!

[gdboytyler]

The forecast called for a cooling trend on Sunday, so I made a last minute decision to go to Bear.

I expected hard conditions early, but softening up quickly.

I found hard (almost icy) conditions in the morning alright, but then the snow stayed hard all day long! I'm guessing this was due to the off-shore winds that were blowing through.

I ran into DarkClone and he was ripping carves in the hard conditions:biggthump For the first 3 hours, I was mostly skidding. I eventually got my sh!t together and started carving my Madd 158 (switched from EC push/pull to Bomber style). Breakthrough day for me. First time I was honestly carving on what most So Cal riders would call "ice".

Thanks to DarkClone for inspiring me. If I didn't see him carving, I might of said screw it, put on the soft setup and went to the halfpipe.

Once the offshore winds die, we'll probably be back to slurpee conditions.

[DarkClone]

First things first. It was a pleasure riding with you gdboytyler!! Bear Mt. is so unique in the skiing/snowboarding world due to the microclimate there. When it blows Santa Ana the humidity and temp. are unreal for making snow, and if we get wet snow the winds dry it out once the front has passed. This year will go down as one of the best for day after day of great cond. Yeah Sunday was very cold and with the wind chill I'm guessing in the teens!! Surface was hard granular, but if you wanted it and put the pressure DOWN after initiation of turn you would hold. Sorry I did not make it back to Silver. Was looking for my son Shane, worrying that he was cold in just a pullover/hoody. Stood for like a hour with his jacket looking for him and then he tells me he isn't cold when we finally hooked up. Anyway you rip and the style is right on gdboytyler!! My only worry is if you rode as much as I do, DarkClone would have some serious comp. on MY run. Till the next session... DarkClone

[Bullwings]

Damn, I was at summit.

I loved the conditions though. It was an awesome day for me. I much prefer icy conditions to slurpy stuff. It made for a great carving day. The snow/ice held my edge (assuming i could get it in) even up till 1pm when i left.

Wish i was using hardboots that day. Still, a tanker 182 on softies did pretty well.