Cypress Diaries 2010-11

[BlueB]

First snow at Cypress is the perfect news for the start of the new season's tread!
We've got 15cm mid-mountain! Still raining at the base by the looks of it, but it won't be long now. 14 days forecast cals for temps pretty steady bellow seasonal.

My teaching schedule for this season is Tuesdays 9:30am to 6:30pm - trying something new, instead of Sundays...

Follow the Cypress news at www.cypressmountain.com

Looking forward to seeing all of the "tribe" pretty soon.

[crucible]

Thanks for the Mountain update Boris!

After a 5 year hiatus, I will be BACK at Cypress this season! The family pass program at Grouse was where I was during my long "exile" , it'll be great to bring the family down the "new" runs at Cypress.

Now I have to remind myself to get my season's pass photo and pick up the pass this month.... Got myself a NITETIMER.

C y'all up there - hopefully sooner rather then later....

Geo

[Cousin of Beagle]

Got the Off-Peak pass. Latest snow report: 20 cm fresh!

[CarvingScooby]

Bro, thanks for the update

Enough with last year dry season This season is snow time for Vancouver I rather shovel my drive way...


RT

[BlueB]

Possible opening, this Saturday, Nov 20!

[Cousin of Beagle]

You mean Saturday November 27?

[BlueB]

I actually ment this Saturday, the 20th. Fixed the original post.

[Cousin of Beagle]

From the Cypress web site:

It’s official! Cypress Mountain will be opening for skiing and riding on Saturday morning November 20th, 2010 – another November opening which is certainly great news! We hope to open terrain on Eagle Express along with the Easy Rider Quad Chair.

[Cousin of Beagle]

Got there 8:00, and parked in the rock-star parking lot in the first row. Got a comp pass, because my season pass is still in the mail.

8:50 first run down Jasey-Jay. 12 to 18 inches of dry pow, baby! Did two more Jasey-Jay runs before it got skied-out. Good coverage. No rocks.

Then finished the morning with three more runs down Panorama/ Windjammer.

At 10:30, about 10 minute wait in the singles line.

Weapon of the day: Dynastar 3800 163.

[BlueB]

Pretty decent cover for the early season! Lots of snowmaking going on too - Cypress scored big with the Olympics, so many guns now. On the down side, our superpie is gone, RIP I guess it was too much o liabillity and maintenance cost...

Day started overcast with a bit of snow, nice and cold. It turned out into a suny afternoon! Another sunny cold day tomorrow, then worming up and more snow.

Today's crew consisted of Cousin, Scooby, Yoshi, BlueB and Rod the Softbooter.

It was funny, I kinda forgot how to ride the alpine board after all the slalom scateboarding in the summer!? First few turns I fell into every turn - lightening action of the ankles just wasn't there to bring the skate, oups, I mean snowboard around and back under me... Scooby had a bit of similar experience too. Once we got over those glitches, it was yet another good day in the office.

Toys of the day:
Cousin - 4wd
Scooby - 4wd
BlueB - ElDiablo, Vampire
Rod - Lib Banana (only monkeys need bananas, buddy, where is the Tanker?!)
Yoshi - mini Bx

Lots of interest from the public.
Nice chat with the head of the lifties - he was interested in TD3 elastomers and I gladly explained. I used that opportunity to prime him on the appearance of the plates, talking about JJ's win on the one, describing how it looked and worked. I guess I won't be kicked out of the lift line when I brought mine

Scooby has a pic or a few, he might post later...

[crucible]

Sorry I missed opening day boys- it couldn't be helped, because today was the day I took possession of our new house....

It's off of Nanaimo and Napier Street in East Vancouver, and right now we're in the middle of the move.

I have my priorities dialed in though, all of my boards, boots, snow clothing and tuning equipment have been packed and organized so that I know where all of it is in our new house.

As soon as the moving truck leaves, I breaking out the sliding gear and heading up to Cypress!

Geo

[xy9ine]

hilarious. i'm on venables near templeton. howdy, neighbour!

[BlueB]

Congrats on your new home, George!
Few tips for a snowboarder home owner:
- Do not start too many home projects, it would interfere with your snow time and cut into your toys' budget
- Nice portion of the garage has to ba alocated for board storage and shop
- Try to build a board rack that doesn't show too clearly (to your wife) how many boards you had
On a more serious note, do you need any help?

As for the riding, Roy and me might hit the slope again, tomorrow morning. Rod and Tony also thinking about it.

[Cousin of Beagle]

Tony also thinking about it.

I'm always thinking of riding!

[CarvingScooby]

Sorry I missed opening day boys- it couldn't be helped, because today was the day I took possession of our new house....
in East Vancouver, and right now we're in the middle of the move.
As soon as the moving truck leaves, I breaking out the sliding gear and heading up to Cypress!
Geo

on your new place...

If you need to moved all yr snow gears (specially the decks) let me know Just kiddin, if u need to move thing give me a bz. Email sent

Cheers
RT

[BlueB]

Pics just came from Scoob... Somehow the sea in the background is not visible...

[BlueB]

Blue-bird skies, -14C, close to 0 crowds, hero snow with some weird details (more later).
Scoob, Couz and BlueB braved the cold.
Toys of the day: Roy - 4WD, Tony - 3800/softies!?, Boris - Kessler 185/Plan B Plate, Kessler 168BXn.

Cypress' enormous snowmaking fire-power crates some really bizarre conditions on the PGS (now renamed to "Jassey Jay"!)... From hero hard groom you suddenly end up in a foot of man made dry powder! It made me whipe out few times...

My home made Plan B Plate made it's maiden voyage today. Wow! More in the plates treads...

Some pics:

[CarvingScooby]

Anyone having fun today wud kindly share the snow condition?

Most likely will go tomorrow, nd to know if POW decks will be in action ...

Cheers
RT

[BlueB]

Hate you!
Better take that pow board with you - Cypress site reporting 20cm over last 24hrs and -7C. Forecast for the city, for tonight says 2C and 20mm of rain. That means about a foot of fresh overnight in the mountain.

[Cousin of Beagle]

Friday November 26 morning.

About 12" of fresh. A bit heavy.

Fog was extremely thick. Couldn't see worth a crap.

At least I have my new season pass.

[BlueB]

No fresh, hero groom on PGS (JJ) and Midway, no grooming on Rainbow or Ravens. Ok visibility. Crowd smaller then one would expect for Sunday.

Scooby - WCRM 177/Vist, WCRM 173/21
Cousin - 3800/softies ????????????
BlueB - Generics 170/PBP, WCRM 173

Really good day in the "office". Scooby improved his toe side a lot over the last few sessions. Couz kinda dissapeared from us... I loved riding my old Generics with a new life given by the plate, more in the plates' threads...


Lots of interest from public, about our setups and riding. All positive comments.

Things are looking good a the Snow School. We've got a new Level 4 instructor/trainer (occasional hardbooter) - Carlos. It's been loong time since we had a L4 on the snowboard staff...

[BlueB]

30cm of fresh over night and aprox. another 30 durning the day! Very wet stuff, though. Very few people, all chairs running except Sky and Midway.
We opened the day on the Upper Bowen and Rinbow (rope duck on both). Later we switched to Raven, where snow and visibillity were better. We mostly did runs No 2, 3 and 4. We saw Tony up the chair, but never caught up with him...

For 2/3 of the day we were both on 4807s - fun, as always. Later I switched to Nidecker Proto, while Scooby tested a, new to him, rare titanal SG BX with tons of rocker in the nose. Somehow, in the afternoon's chopped/bumped stuff, I prefered the Nidecker (at least on extreme steeps of Raven 3 and 4). I guess due to playfulness of the smaller board and easier edge changes (narrower). On flatter parts it sucked (literally) - poor wax.

We've got quite wet... My golves were holding fine, then suddenly they had tons of water in them!? No idea how the quick transition from dry to wet happened... Below is a little pic of squeezing the glowes after the ride.

[Cousin of Beagle]

Rode the green runs this morning with the Prior 4WD 169. Softening to hero corduroy by noon.

[BlueB]

Good crew today - Scooby, Couz, Rod, BlueB... No big crowds, variable visibillity, groomed runs, mostly crunchy with death cookies, but some nice runs (Humpty Dumpty).

Toys of the day:
Rod - Banana
Couzin - 4WD 169
Scooby - WCRM 177, Tinkler 180
BlueB - Vampire 175/Plan-B, Hooger 179, Tinkler (had to pinch it for the afternoon!)

I beat up myself pretty good today... Few wash outs on Virus due to "plate-out", hitting a death cookie at full speed to knee cap, and finally, almost going over the nose of Tinkler, landing on shoulder and wrist, ouch! One of those days... Never the less, I had fun!

As mentioned above, the Plan-B plate is slightly to wide for the Virus... I had plate-out on almost every high-inclined heel side. More in the plates threads.

Hooger is an intersting animal. It was built for a rider about 40lbs lighter then me. It was a hoot to ride on mellower slope with smooth snow - hooky and quick edge to edge. On the steeper stuff and uneven snow, or anything that compromises dead-centered stance, it washed out as soon as I had my weight outside of the very small sweet spot. Somewhat chattery compared to the modern boards, but not too bad for its age. Very pretty contour.

Tinky was a blast to ride, just as before, when I managed to pray it out of Scooby's hands. Today, for the quickness of change-over, I just slapped my TD2 top plates, over Scooby's bases, so I ended up with wrong stance width and wrong canting, but still rideable. Didn't like much his extra suspension kit under the TD3 elastomer, on the board that's only 17 wide. In despite of all odds, the board is adjustable enough to provide good ride.

We kept fooling with a lifty girl, along the lines os "Invasion of hardbooters, run for your lives!" and "Bunch of old farts...".

Clam chowder at the lodge was a great ending of the day. It started snowing again, as we were packing to go.

[BlueB]

Quick report...
Sunny skies, crowds, hero snow...

I saw Rod, Slava and Pierre. Rod's going for CASI L1 next week - good luck buddy, you are perfectly capable of that. Slava red all the articles on Bomber and was practicing Norm on Easy Rider, way to go! Pierre was ripping on Midway, didn't get to talk to him...

I skied with Luka for about 3 hours. Firs tun was a bit sketchy, until he got the last years knowledge back. No problems after that - carving the turns, using a bit of "pizza" here and there for speed check or turn initiation, stops by going uphill... Great improvement from last year is that he doesn't bomb (much) the fall line when not following my tracks. I actually let him be the leader few times. We'll do it again tomorrow.

Roy will be there tomorrow with 2 softbooters, one potential convertee.

[CarvingScooby]

Start early at 9AM & called off at 2.30PM.
Awesome `Hero` condition and it stayed same condition till late noon. Ben & Dan (softbooter) - potential to convert to HB
Blueb came later with Luka.

Board for the day:
Brought 2 boards but stick with WCRM 177 all day -Great board. TD2 set up with air suspension http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulleti...ad.php?t=30599

RT(6)

[Cousin of Beagle]

11:00 to 2:00.

Snow was soft, moisture-laden and compacted, which made for hero-style turns on Panorama with the Prior 4WD 169. The freezing level was high. Sky was overcast, but the lighting was good which made for adequate contrast for reading the snow.

It was really easy to make turns.

Met another carver, named Kevin. He was on a mirror-finish Prior FLC 1-seventy-something with TD2's.

At the end of the sesh, I noticed a cant disc fell off my UPZ boot. Ordered another one from Dan Yoja.

[CarvingScooby]

Met another carver, named Kevin. He was on a mirror-finish Prior FLC 1-seventy-something with TD2's.

Kevin aka BliTzkri3g

he end of the sesh, I noticed a cant disc fell off my UPZ boot. Ordered another one from Dan Yoja.

The grey disc with of centre hole? If so, blue loctite (non permanent) all the screws, try not to drip any loctite on the plastic (I've heard is a nono).

The plan Blueb & me will be on the slope this Tuesday.

RT

[Cousin of Beagle]

The plan Blueb & me will be on the slope this Tuesday.

RT

Tuesday = wind & rain

The grey disc with of centre hole?
RT

Yup.

[BlueB]

Morning forecast is for 7C in the city, which is marginal for rain/snow at the lodge elevation. If the Sky Cahair is running, we can easilly stay above the drizzle and enjoy the monster powder (or chowder). My estimate is at least 10cm overnight and 50cm during the day.