Ottawa Carve-fest!

[Ian M]

Which day would you like to meet up with lots of other Ottawa riders and tear up a big hill? Vote for your day of the week, and also specify if you prefer Tremblant, Mont Ste-Marie, or either. Poll is multiple-choice, so you may choose all days that work for you. I'm suggesting late February or Early march for this event...

Cheers!

[loopback]

I'm in for a week day of carving on empty slopes at MSM.

//Paul

[GoofyFoot]

Ian,

Thx for putting the poll up (gotta find out how to do that!).
I will be there as long as it is not a Mon or Wed (meetings I cannot miss).
MT is my preferred mtn but MSM is OK, too, if travel time is an issue for others. I am very familiar with both set of slopes.

-Brian

[CaRtharsis]

$10 next Monday.

http://montstemarie.com/find-yourself-here/weather-ski-conditions/

or

$20 Tuesdays

http://montstemarie.com/whats-happening/cool-deals/

Anyone?

[loopback]

Am heading to MSM on Monday. Phil is in, my 10yr son is coming and another buddy (skier) is coming too.

Phil and I are going to try and do tomorrow AM at Pakenham too.....

//Paul

[GoofyFoot]

Hi folks,

So far, I have met Ben, Ian, Billy, Serge, Chris and Tabby since joining this list, but have only managed to share a few turns with Billy and Tabby at Vorlage to date! I am still waiting for some of you fellow carvers to rise and shine for first tracks at CF some Sat morning (except Feb 5th when I will be out of town). 8:29 at the Clifford chair...

Thus, I am going to propose two more dates:
How about Friday the 25th of Feb at Mt St Marie? That gives everyone a couple of weeks to make (personal) plans and excuses (to the boss!).

Also, I plan to be at Mt Blanc for the Shark Demo Day on Sunday Feb 20th. Chris is also on for this one. Cruising the QC ride board, I believe a fair number of local carvers will be out that day as well.

I'm hopin' that a good representation of the Ottawa hardboot crowd can make it so that we can collectively put a noticable showing of freecarvers on the snow.

-Brian

[Ian M]

Thanks for suggesting a date, Brian... I got distracted from this topic. Friday the 25th sounds great, I'll ask next week about getting that off from work. It shouldn't be a problem!

[Tabatha]

Oh! Can I come? The 25th should not be a problem ... but the 20th will be :(. Thanks for keeping the ball rolling on this one Brian and actually suggesting a date.

To all the Ottawa-carvers on the road this week / early next week- Have fun I am jealous!

[GoofyFoot]

[quote=Tabatha;335994]Oh! Can I come? The 25th should not be a problem quote]

Of course! EVERYone is invited.

Lemme know if you would like to drive up together.

-Brian

[GoofyFoot]

Thanks for suggesting a date, Brian... I got distracted from this topic. Friday the 25th sounds great, I'll ask next week about getting that off from work. It shouldn't be a problem!

My pleasure!

I look forward to seeing you on the snow.

[loopback]

I'm in for the 25th

//Paul

[philpjo]

See you there

[GoofyFoot]

...And then there were five!

[Tabatha]

Brian - would love to car-pool. Also; will send an e-mail to BillyG and Serge and let them know the plans.

[Ian M]

Awesome! So far we have confirmed:

Ian M
GoofyFoot
CaRtharsis
Tabatha
Loopback
philpjo
Has anyone ridden MSM recently? How have the conditions been?

Four other hardbooters randomly showed up at Calabogie yesterday while I was teaching. I told them we were getting together this date and invited them, but none seemed particularly interested in coming out to play with us. They were Rob, Sean (Shawn?), and a father/daughter team from the Quebec side. (Timor? and daughter)

Cheers :D

[Tabatha]

I bumped into Hilux at Calabogie on Saturday and let him know what the plans are - he said he was interested too.

[CaRtharsis]

Will be heading up EARLY and leaving by 1400H at the absolute latest. MUST be back to pick my girls up from school and daycare. WIll have space if needed.

[GoofyFoot]

Brian - would love to car-pool. Also; will send an e-mail to BillyG and Serge and let them know the plans.

T,

Sure, I just called MSM to confirm what time they open the lifts: 9-4 Daily.
Thus, I plan to be pulling out of my Orleans driveway at 7:30 and should be in yours at 7:45.
I have room for a fourth if anyone else needs a ride.

Let's hope the weather goes cold again so that nature's snowmaking can get back in gear.
Coming back to Ottawa for a rainy Feb day has not been the highlight of my week. :(

-Brian

[GoofyFoot]

Will be heading up EARLY and leaving by 1400H at the absolute latest. MUST be back to pick my girls up from school and daycare. Will have space if needed.

I look forward to seeing you there, Chris!

Could you bring the extra CATEK screws along that day?
It would save me a trip to the west end of town.

Thx,

-Brian

[GoofyFoot]

Just a reminder to the list; this coming Sunday is La Boutique Shark's last demo day for alpine SB gear for the season. They will be at Mt Blanc this coming Sunday with a booth/tent set up outside the main lodge.

Mt Blanc opens their lifts at 8:30 and I plan to be there at opening to ride some new gear if anyone is looking for a ride.

That is, if the weather does not completely suck!
I am NOT looking forward to teaching this coming Sat if the current forecast holds true; rain on Fri follwed by below zero temps and snow flurries on Sat which I translate to ice patches forming overnight, then covered over with a dusting of new snow to terrorize the novices...but the groomers will have that all sorted out by Sun AM :eplus2:

-Brian

[CaRtharsis]

Will do!

[CaRtharsis]

For those of you attending, has anyone purchased ticekts per Ian's email earlier today? I'm about to purchase and was wondering if anyone would like me to pick up tickets for them.

[Ian M]

^ I'm good thanks Chris; bought two this morning. I tried to reply to your email but Rogers rejected messages to both you and Brian.

[loopback]

We still have to pick up our weekday season passes:confused: Thanks though!

//Paul

[CaRtharsis]

Rogers has been screwy like that lately. Bruce couldn't respond to an email I sent him and I was having problems texting only to specific individuals over the past few day. Odd.

I'm itching to get out riding. Looking forward to Sunday.

[GoofyFoot]

On Sunday, Chris, Billy, myself and honorable mention, Amber (teleskier) made our way to MB and the Sharks demo tent. Michel and his small team of elves had a full range of F2 and Prior boards to demo. Personally, I tried three different boards; one F2 and two Priors. Maybe its 'cause I never liked F2 aethestics, but I did not enjoy riding the board either. OTOH, I really enjoyed both Priors I rode - even as the snow conditioned continued to deteriorate over the day.

However, I was inspired after watching a couple of the Shark guys come down a difficult pitch late in the day laying down clean arcs ('trenches' would be far too great an exageration given the continuous boilerplate lurking under the half inch of "hard groomed granular!") on some very hard "snow."

The silver lining in the cloud is that local icy conditions will be an interesting challenge after the inspiring riding I saw at Mt Blanc.

I sent a Thank You email to Michel yesterday on behalf of the the Ottawa crowd for bringing out his gear and for being so patient with all the Qs he fielded during the day.

Hope to see a bunch of you at MSM on Friday.

-Brian

[loopback]

Everyone still good for tomorrow?
Phil and I (and 1 skier buddy) are planning to be there for 8:30am to get passes and gear up.....on lift at 9:00am. I have to bail by about 2pm as I have to pick up kids on the way back....

//Paul

[Tabatha]

Very excited about tomorrow - Brian is picking me up at 7:45, so we should be there in good time to hit the lifts at 9am when they open!

[Ian M]

Definitely still good to go, sounds like like we can all aim to meet at the lifts at 9am.

It's not a big mountain, so if anyone is late we shouldn't have a problem meeting up. (The first hour or two will probably be warming up on the nearer of the two sides.)

*stoked!*

[CaRtharsis]

Sick child today. Tomorrow pending.

[Ian M]

Thanks for coming out to play on Friday everyone! It was great to ride with all of you :biggthump

Cheers!

[GoofyFoot]

Thanks for coming out to play on Friday everyone! It was great to ride with all of you :biggthump

Cheers!

I second that motion! I only felt bad that the snow conditions were less than great; my crystal ball was not working so well a month ago when I suggested MSM :freak3:

I would be up for doing another get-together carvefest at a more "carve-friendly" location like Tremblant in a week or three.

Anybody else have any thoughts on this topic? :argue:

-Brian

[loopback]

Great day riding!! Had a great time meeting/riding with everyone!

Agreed, the snow was less than ideal, but I enjoyed the hill enough that I'm going back this Friday..

I'm in for another carvefest....be it at Tremblant or MSM! The more notice the better for me....Spring breaks are starting too, not sure when Quebecs is but Ontario is the week of the 14th.


//Paul

[CaRtharsis]

The week of March 14-18 would be ideal for me as my wife can pick up the kids after work. Therefore I am suggesting Friday the 18th. Hopefully then we can all sit around and have an apres carve beverage of your choice. Alternatively would anyone be game for an overnight and make a 2 day trip out of it? Tremblant would be my preferred venue.

[Tabatha]

I am SO in ... willing to do one day (March 18th would work) but can easily do two days as well.

So good meeting many of you last Friday and I hope we can ride again soon. Note that on my hate list Mt St Marie is now higher than Fortune!

[Tabatha]

I can do Friday's ... but was wondering if we also wanted to look at other days of the week. Sometimes mid-week is easier to get away for a day. Just thinking. Looks like as many people said Tuesday and Thursday as Friday.

[philpjo]

Was great meeting everyone. Tabitha, how's the knee?? Any vids of the day yet? I need to burn lots of vacation days between now and April 30th. The more I ride the better!!

[CaRtharsis]

I have 1 Tremblant ticket for anyone intersted. $55. Let me know ASAP if interested.

[GoofyFoot]

I need to burn lots of vacation days between now and April 30th. The more I ride the better!!

Phil,

I am heading off to Mt Tremblant on Monday with my girlfriend.
Would you like to join us there?

-Brian

[philpjo]

Brian, thanks for the invite. Monday doesn't work out for me this week. I'm thinking of taking most of the week though, you heading out any other days?

[Tabatha]

Knee doing much better - really been good to it over the last ten days, will give it a try on Tuesday @ Vorlage and, depending on how it goes, make plans for additional days ... maybe I can be lured back to Tremblant:)

[GoofyFoot]

I'm thinking of taking most of the week though, you heading out any other days?

Phil,

Well, not this week, but here are the highlights planned for the rest of my season:

Jay Peak 18-20 Mar
MSA/LM 24-28 Mar
Mt Tremblant 1-3 Apr

If anybody is interested in joining us for any of those dates, I can tell you where to stay at great rates and how to come by discount lift tix.

Cheers,

Brian

[GoofyFoot]

... maybe I can be lured back to Tremblant:)

FYI, Tremblant was good yesterday (but not great). Conditions were spotty. Given the fresh snowfall, I expected the corduroy to be deeper, but MT is known for its high winds and the top of a lot of runs were bare. OTOH, some runs were in good shape even late in the day. It was literally "hit or miss."

A bonus from riding MT yesterday is that I finally had a chance to run down Algonquin, a looong greeen run on Versant Soleil that was just opened last season. If you get past the "green" designation, it is a monstrously wide run with a nice consistent pitch until almost the very end of the run. I can't wait to go back and catch this run first thing in the morning on my longest GS board to do fast, flat out loopy turns all the way down. As Phil says, you can get a race board up to some serious speed in a short time - even on a "green" run. Note to other MT enthusiasts: keep your speed on all the way to the bottom of this exceptionally long run because it takes a big right-hand turn near the bottom to go back to the chair. At this point, which you will quickly recognize by the large wood rails set up on the outside of the run, the train both narrows and flattens out for ~200 metres. You have been warned! Otherwise, an exceptional recreational carving run.

-Brian