Have you ever bagged it after two runs?

[Sultan Guy]

Went to the hill early this morning only to find a hard layer of freezing rain on top of the groom. Like an ice skating rink on its side. I did two runs and couldn't get an edge in anywhere. Not worth just sliding around like everyone else. Decided to go home and live again for another day.

[jp1]

I've 'bagged it' after 1 run ! That's the beauty of a season pass for me If I'm going to get hurt on the hill, I'm going to get hurt in Good Conditions !!

[Galen]

+1 on the season pass. Hell, I've even bagged it in the parking lot!

[Boarder_Ted]

Snowboarding is supposed to be fun. If I'm not having fun, I go home.

[Allee]

I did this at Lake Louise ... it was like a Zamboni driver had gone nuts on the front side. Thank god I'd scored a lift ticket off a guy in the carpark who was leaving ... if I'd paid full whack, I'd have been choked.

[valsam]

On wednesday it was perfect,so i went again yesterday and the slopes looked perfect from the parking lot (they where all groomed)so i took the lift and then realized that they where perfectly groomed because they where combed solid ice !!!!
1 day of high temperatures destroyed 1meter of fresh snow!
Went down sold my ticket to someone else and left!
Now here is the good part!!!!
Went in a shop to get a cup of coffee and it started snowing very heavy
15 minutes for the coffee and another 15 to my car to get un-geared and realized that i forgot my snow chains !
Started back down the mountain only to realize that this was the worst experience i had in over 20 years of snowboarding!
20-30 cars off and some in the middle of the road others in ditches and collisions and stupid me trying to get down 20 kilometers with racing almost slick tyres and no brakes trying to avoid them and avoiding free falling of the mountain too!
MY FALT ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!
I always try to find the best days to go up the mountain(my job and can go any weekday!)by looking at weather maps, cameras on slopes,temperatures and also snow conditions,but since it is the start of the season and buy visiting this forum i got carried away!

[jonbass]

I have a hard time bailing on a lift pass once its bought but if it seems really busy i will turn around and go home. I should know when to quit at the end of a day but I always take one more run and thats when my legs are jello and I end up going for a tumble.

[queequeg]

I bailed after two runs last sunday. I was tired, hung-over, and the mountain was super crowded. Done. But I don't usually do that sort of thing.

[Erik J]

Snowboarding is supposed to be fun. If I'm not having fun, I go home.

I disagree. Snowboarding should be painful, emotionally draining and it should leave you soulless and empty inside at the end of the day.

with a season pass - I'll leave whenever for no reason. 1 run, 2 runs - maybe I just remembered that I have pie in the fridge at home - I just leave.

with a paid day pass - I will stick it out and find something good. There's always something that's available to play in. Or I'll just try harder to make it work on really bad conditions.

[Seraph]

I've bagged it five minutes after getting out of bed at 5:00AM.

Seriously though, I actually bagged the board today after two runs as it was getting way too crowded for me to feel comfortable trying to carve and I just couldn't focus on what I was doing with out feeling completely paranoid of running into someone. Threw on the skis for a bit, then headed home.

Which led me to to ponder how many hardbooters are affected by the crowds? Do you guys just bag it or just work through it? As a newb I get so paranoid about what is going on around me when its getting crowded that I completely lose focus and it goes to hell.

Big ups on the season pass and staying near by though.

[NateW]

Snowboarding is supposed to be fun. If I'm not having fun, I go home.

This. I've bagged it after a couple runs on two occasions. Once, the ice was transparent and a couple inches thick. Sounds like what Sultan Guy was describing. Once, the ice was the usual frozen-snow white stuff, but it was so hard that I wasn't leaving any trace in the corduroy. Half the problem that day was that the slightest skid sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. So, the skidding was just as unbearable as the carving.

Thankfully those circumstances are super-rare. Once each in about 20 years.

BTW, I was going to go up this weekend, probably to the same place as you, Sultan Guy (Stevens Pass?) but pre-bagged it because of the weather reports. I figured it was going to suck but I never guessed it would suck that bad. Wednesday is looking good though.

[Dr D]

season pass

I have even gone up and hit two runs and bailed over a lunch hour when its good

[Sultan Guy]

BTW, I was going to go up this weekend, probably to the same place as you, Sultan Guy (Stevens Pass?) but pre-bagged it because of the weather reports. I figured it was going to suck but I never guessed it would suck that bad. Wednesday is looking good though.

Nate- I tried to PM you but your mail settings are turned off. Send me an email so we can connect up at Stevens sometime.

[RideGuy]

I only remember one day I've ever bagged it after a couple of runs. It was super warm the day before so the runs were like mash potatoes. It was so soft they didn't groom that night. The next day if froze over. It was like riding on ice shards of various sizes. If you ever bailed at high speed in this stuff it would mean certain injury. I packed it up.

[NateW]

Nate- I tried to PM you but your mail settings are turned off. Send me an email so we can connect up at Stevens sometime.

Email sent!

[philw]

It took me a while to work out whatr "bagging it" meant. In the uk "debagging" means taking someones trousers off against their will (don't ask), but I figured out it wasn't that.

One turn. Spend an hour or so driving up a mountain in a cat, drop in, realize it's about a meter of lovely fresh powder with a nasty wet layer on the top of it. Survivable for hard booting snowboarders but you'd be pulling skiers and boarders with broken bits out of it if you tried to ride it. Call the cat, walk out, refunds all round...

When I was young, being English I'd ride even it it was chucking it down (raining). Actually riding on plastic in the rain is the best time to ride it, but on snow it's... well, something mad dogs and you-know-who has to ride. The rationale is that most of my countrymen get only 6 days a year on snow, so if it happens to be raining for one of them, well you still need to get what you can..

[Keyser Soze]

Which led me to to ponder how many hardbooters are affected by the crowds? Do you guys just bag it or just work through it? As a newb I get so paranoid about what is going on around me when its getting crowded that I completely lose focus and it goes to hell.

Not just you. I'd like to hear any sort of tactics that experienced riders have for dealing with crowds, but even Jasey Jay says that when it gets crowded, it's time to get the skis out.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/HardBooter/videos/8/

At the 6:25 mark.

And if Jasey says it, IT'S THE TRUTH!

[b0ardski]

I'll switch to skis when it's a zoo and the offpiste is crap(Schwietzer has 2600 acres of sweet trees), this pic is about half of it

[philw]

Um, why switch to skis? I can ride as tightly as any skier, and I'm at least as much in control.

Tactics for crowds? It depends who they are. Crowds at our local snow dome? Don't go, someone will crash into you. Crowds in the alps? Slalom around them; expect them to try to elbow through you in the lift scrums. Crowds in BC? Go somewhere else.

[b0ardski]

when the carving becomes human missle dodging, I'll ski just to change things up, use some different muscles, practice ski carves switch so I can see the straitliners comin at me

[Dave ESPI]

Yep.
Killington... New years Day 2009.

I took one run and said F-this.

Minus 30 degrees, bulletproof slopes, howling wind and chunks of crud everywhere and got frostbite on my cheek from the lift ride UP, I couldnt feel my toes or fingers once down, and broke a ladderstrap because it was so cold. Locked my board to a fence, Went right to the lodge and there I stayed all day.

I still have (a now useless) 50.00 voucher for a lift ticket from that day.

Sat and ate Sushi, drank beers, and laughed at my 3 friends who were being "brave"(read as complete idiots) out in the elements.

I don't do "large radius turns" when the slopes are crowded. Im paranoid about getting blasted from behind and I've seen it happen right before my very eyes with other carvers (even from this very forum).

If the slopes get relly crowded, I head for the parks, and carve thru them... always find untouched groom in there late in the afternoon

[Seraph]

Um, why switch to skis?

Because that was what I had available, and I grew up skiing and still like to break them out.

I can ride as tightly as any skier, and I'm at least as much in control.

That's the thing, I don't have the control yet to carve as tightly as a skier and as in control.

[b0ardski]

I break out the Head Liners once in a while, at 93 cm they'll carve tighter than any snowboard and still hold an edge on gs style turns when the crowd thins out.
Much more than a toy ski, they're built for carving.

[Keyser Soze]

Um, why switch to skis? I can ride as tightly as any skier, and I'm at least as much in control.

I wouldn't switch to skis because I've never done anything more than cross country on two sticks. I can ride tighter, but if I'm not out there carving, it isn't much fun for me. Perhaps I need to incorporate more into my riding, but I hardboot because I crave the carve, so otherwise I'm kind of missing the point. For me anyway.

Also, I definitely don't ride nearly as well as Jasey-Jay, so if he's suggesting a switch to skis, it can't be a ridiculous idea.

[SteveInOregon]

I drove 100 miles each way to Shasta in nor Cali , 2 runs and "Im outa here", rain-sleet pellets, fog and human bowling pins every were on new year day.

[Arclite]

I've turned around about 15 minutes from the resort...

bad rain. we hoped it would turn to snow.
but it didn't...

[aactis]

+1 for season pass.

I usually bail after 2-3 runs if lift lines are 30min+, which can happen frequently early/late season Colorado. Or if it's super cold with bad wind chills. Either way, I usually take it as a sign that it's time for brunch/lunch and some drinks.

[crucible]

I've bagged it five minutes after getting out of bed at 5:00AM.

Seriously though, I actually bagged the board today after two runs as it was getting way too crowded for me to feel comfortable trying to carve and I just couldn't focus on what I was doing with out feeling completely paranoid of running into someone. Threw on the skis for a bit, then headed home.

Which led me to to ponder how many hardbooters are affected by the crowds? Do you guys just bag it or just work through it? As a newb I get so paranoid about what is going on around me when its getting crowded that I completely lose focus and it goes to hell.

Big ups on the season pass and staying near by though.

My local hill in Vancouver, Grouse Mountain, has a reputation for being the most convenient hill to learn on, so the density of new skiers and boarders is higher than average.

I tend to go up first thing in the morning, and be off the hill by 1130- the lift lines just get too slow and the runs get too congested with meat gates.

I know the hill well enough and am confident enough in my riding ability to weave my way through almost any kind of traffic, but I get tense about keeping people from dinging my topsheet when standing in very long and SLOW liftlines with people with little or no situational awareness or board and ski etiquette...

To keep this thread on track, yes, I have bailed after my first run. It usually is because of two or more of the following factors being present: rain, limited or no visibility, equipment malfunction, or illness...

Geo

[photodad2001]

...and it was awesome. Of course I bagged it after 4 hours, but the ticket I paid for was good for 2 more. I left because I don't have my legs back yet and when I came in for my second break and stood back up I could tell I was done. I could have gone back out, but that's typically when I injure myself. The crowd was also starting to build as it was 2:00 and after work people and even some kids were showing up.

[photodad2001]

I drove 100 miles each way to Shasta in nor Cali , 2 runs and "Im outa here", rain-sleet pellets, fog and human bowling pins every were on new year day.

That reminds me of the time I drove 3 hours through a foot of snow at night to hike the hill twice and "poach" 2 powder runs because I knew by morning they'd have groomed it all. I went the next day too. That was when I was in my early 20's. Looking back I could have gotten injured and possibly even groomed over the next day. But I didn't.