Buck Hill 2011/2012

[Speedzilla]

Nice temps for the next couple days, should make great snow!

[powell1.8]

Anyone know when the park equipment moves off the runs?

[Awesomo12000]

Anyone know when the park equipment moves off the runs?

Not looking good, I heard they just set up big jumps on the run for a "Big air Event". Looks like I'll be doing afton instead this weekend.

[Gerg]

The Big Air event is just part of the Thursday Night Snowboard Series (Rails one night, Big Air one night, Halfpipe one night). They'll be taken down after tonight's event.

[bobble]

Morning

decorative cord carving season begins.

great day to be out! sun! nearly all the runs were open. it got busy on a few occasions but overall not too bad.

erik, myself and alex were out in hardboots.

throats a little sore from yelling.

• crossroads - had big rollers under the guns. it got chewed up pretty quickly.
• milkrun - it was very icy where the park equipment was placed. i went down milk and when i reached that area it was unforgiving and loud on the ears. i stayed off the run after that. another reason to stay off was they were setting up gates.
• olympic - fast and hard. too early for me.
• warners - erik and i took one run. i dunno. it was groomed but somewhat harder than what i expected. the groom was no great. some chunky and pocked areas. not worth a repeat.
• red tail - okay.
• teacher pet - okay.
  

a few pictures...

skiers left on top of crossroads was not so great. i had to get below the top pitch because the fall lines were all over the place.

From 2011-12-10

roller

From 2011-12-10

we need to stop... right here on the run. unbelieveable.

From 2011-12-10

Dilbert Principle
working at a company that is closing has its precious moments.

a locked men's room! (tags: #ICantSpareASquare #SkidMarks)

From Drop Box

[BobD]

Just cut the lock off and replace it with one of your own. Et voila, your own executive bathroom. You could even personalize it a bit with nice towels, some potpourri, newspaper rack, maybe find a leather armchair from a disused exec office.

From Drop Box

[bobble]

Morning

conditions were fairly decent today. all runs were open. temps got warm, above 32F. its going to suck next few days.

fairly decent turnout of hardbooters: me, erik, joe, bobd, alex, steve, matt, bill

matt is new to the area and rides a sims. also briefly met bill who rides a factory prime freecarve board.

rode the chair with a snowboarder who told me that he's never seen so many hardbooters before and asked if this was a regular thing.

also rode the chair with the lady in purple and talked to her for a bit. she said that we carve beautifully but the ruts are a little hard on skis. i commiserated.


Dangers of Riding Fatigued

hadn't made a run yet. just got off the chair and clicking in when this skier started talking to me.

skier: hey were you the guy that got knocked out last year?
me: uhhh... no?
skier: i see you guys here all the time. thought maybe it was you.
me: no, not me but i think i know who you're talking about.
skier: yeah, that guy was out cold and laying out on the run. [he takes off]

thought maybe it was alex... seem to remember he had an incident. few runs later steve shows up. rode the chair together.

steve: you were out last day of last season, right?
me: yeah, i think so but don't remember.
steve: i tried to ride to closing but ended up waking up on the run.
me: what?!?
steve: i got knocked out. have no idea what happened. i might have hit a tower. i was somewhere over there [points to midway on milkrun].
me: a skier was just asking me today if i was the one that got knocked out!!!
steve: i was trying to make it to five and when i last looked it was about 4:15pm and thats all i remember.
me: oh man!
steve: i woke up and the ski patrol was there. took me down. was strapped to a board. transported to a hospital by ambulance. they took me downtown instead of ridges...it was $85 a mile. they said that Ridges doesn't have a trauma center.
me: thats stupid... we can see Ridges from right here.
steve: yeah, i had broken ribs and problems with my shoulder. have no memory of what happened.
me: broken ribs?!?
steve: i should've gone home sooner i was so tired. wonder if the ski patrol has a report of what happened?
me: i doubt it.
steve: was nervous about coming out today. a little leary of getting close to the towers.

Just cut the lock off and replace it with one of your own. Et voila, your own executive bathroom. You could even personalize it a bit with nice towels, some potpourri, newspaper rack, maybe find a leather armchair from a disused exec office.

ms. bobble likes your idea.

[Scuff]

Coached some MN riders at the Nor-Am races this last weekend.
Heard that snow conditions at Steamboat were not great, but at
Howeleson Hill, there was plenty of man-made snow.
We saw some *amazing* talent compete and our two young MN riders also did well; Zach made finals in PGS (16th place), and Jack also qualified for finals the following day in PSL (9th). G-Team Alumn Mimi and Meghan also did well!
Results for the Race to the Cup for Dec 9th and 10th are posted on Live-timing.com

USASA Welch races were also this weekend.
Welch is hurting a bit for snow - Saw some grassy spots showing on Bakki on the way in. Conditions of course was much better than expected!
Dan's Dive was closed off for the races - there was one VERY vocal skiier who yelled his displeasure at his run being closed.. he has a seasons pass.. and let us know.. This skier used a lot of F words... well.. just
the same F word... many times.

Saw a random unknown alpine boarder in the lift line after the races - Anyone from BOL ?

Hope this rain goes away..
We are hoping to have some team training at Buck this Wed night.

[Scuff]

FYI - there is going to be a USASA rail jam at Buck on Sunday Morning.
(In case anyone wanted to bring out a freestyle board.)

[bobble]

what's with the rain?

[bobble]

Morning

snow guns were going this morning. conditions were slow. i stayed on crossroads. the snow was groomed underneath the new snow. every pass of the groomer there were windrows. if it was colder, those windrows would have been nasty to carve.

at the bottom it was a bit of a challenge. i'd slow down at the bottom quarter. tracks from the ATV and snow gun buildup were no joy to ride over. on one run i came in too fast and went over this ginormous roller with a steep face at the bottom. it came out of nowhere. i flew 37.53 ft into the lift line and ollied off the fence. i landed on my toe-side edge and it bit onto some groove in the snow. swung my arms frantically to get out of it. afterwards my heart was pounding. it reminded me of the time i went through a mogul field at welch. got on the chair to look for my tracks from above. the roller vanished!

tried the milk but the snow guns made it difficult to see. again slow and with rolls. went through it and it was not pleasant. fine if you're on skis.

the pulleys on the towers were dripping grease.

i stayed 1-1/2 hours.


Happy Holidays!
From The Industrial Military Complex

From Recently Updated

... and ... discuss!

[BobD]

I think it's shaping up to be good for the weekend (once this new batch of snow gets groomed in).

[bobble]

Morning

snow conditions were decent but the flat light was bad. on more than one run i ended up carving uphill. i was getting a touch of vertigo. around 11 am, sun started to poke through and i could see everything.

it got crowded with ski jammers and people racing on milkrun. on one run i thought the run was clear when i started down. midway i was on a heelside turn when a group of ski jammers appeared in front of me. they were doing a snake across the run. they must've been below a roller as i didn't see them from the top. i had to put on the brakes. it was like that most of the day. get a few decent carves, then brake.

From Recently Updated

long lift lines. etiquette in the lift line does not apply if you're wearing a blue jacket.

From Recently Updated

where's bobd? (didn't realize he was in the photo till now)

From Recently Updated

redbull

From Recently Updated

the forecast for tomorrow is going to be mid 40's. not sure if i'll go out. maybe.

[bobble]

Morning

i had to park in the back row today. it was crowded. the big disappointment was that crossroads was hardly groomed.

From 2011-12-18

the lows last night were in the mid 20's. not sure why they didn't groom. there was a narrow swath of cord under the chair. everyone wanted to ski that swath. i took two runs on crossroads and almost called it quits. it was bumpy and icey. hard to keep the edge. overall it was terrible.

From 2011-12-18

milk, olympic, and warners were groomed. there were races going on milk and warners. thought for sure olympic would be closed off. there were a couple of people hanging out in the race shack so i thought they were going to setup a course. fortunately they didn't.

saw joe. we both went immediately to olympic. conditions were excellent! for awhile we had skiers right to ourselves. more and more people started to head to olympic. good times!

From 2011-12-18

went back to crossroads for 1-2 last runs. it had softened and was carveable.

[Scuff]

Flew past Buck on Friday night - didn't see any carvers.

[Scuff]

G-team will be doing some GS training tonight (Wed) on Milk Run 5-7pm.

Singing: "Over the highway and through the woods, to local Buck Hill we go...Only
I know the way, to carry my weight through the piles of drifting snow-oh!"

Buck has new blown snow organized into a succession of (5?) Mounds/whalebacks/piles (choose your own adj.) down the fence at "Crossroads."
Kinda startling to see such drastic changes in a typically flat topography.

Snow rode more like Fresh Mountain snow than the typical heavy/humid man-made variety. Carving has mass potential to be epic once groomed.. but as of last night, the soft snow & irregularity (Holes, trenches, pockets + rollers) would make big-board free-carving a challenge.
If just free riding - think my choice would have been a SBX board.

We arrived to find soft snow conditions on Milk Run and some deep ruts from previous ski training, but once the course was thoroughly slipped, the snow was pretty darn nice!!! Kids (and Bruce) had a blast!

[BobD]

It's a different story today; perfect cord. I've missed those rollers, especially last season. There's been a lot of catching up with various programs, so things have been over used for racing and getting trashed quickly. Should be getting better now.

[Awesomo12000]

It's a different story today; perfect cord.

It was amazing cord! With my new spring system and perfect conditions, I got lower than ever! Hopefully it will be the same the upcoming days.

[thebionicman]

I'll most likely be out riding tomorrow morning. Now that the temps look like they are going to drop tonight.

[BobD]

Conditions were pretty good today. Everything was groomed despite the warm temps. That wind on the warmer days earlier in the week seems to have save the snow from getting too wet and icing up. Creamy packed powder all day.

[thebionicman]

I was out on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I only went for about a hour and a half. Probably head out tomorrow morning.

[BobD]

I was out on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I only went for about a hour and a half. Probably head out tomorrow morning.

Tuesday got a lot better after the sun came out, as did today.

[thebionicman]

This morning was good. I woke up hoping to see the 1-2 inches of new snow, only to see my dull looking yard.

Flat light morning. There was a little peak of sun around 10:30 only to cloud up again.

The snow on the other hand was really great. I think the humidity really softened things up. Carves were about 4 inches deep and could hold them on anything. I actually did a heel side over one of the rollers on skiers right. It was kind of a euro/nothing below me/drive board into snow and pop up turn.

Not sure if I'll make it out tomorrow, probably depends on what the weather actually does.

[bobble]

surprised (and grateful) that buck groomed today. early this morning the temp at my house was about 30F. got to the hill and it was already around 33F. got to be 26F when i left. it is/was supposed to be raining sometime today. as i'm writing this i see sun.

erik, alex and myself were there.

flat light but it got better. conditions were very soft and slow. i kept falling over on heelside turns on one spot on crossroads. it was too soft and i'd slow down and fall over. the rollers on skiers left are almost gone. thinking about switching to my other boards.

conditions on milkrun were better than crossroadz. milkrun had a big air jump taking up room. made some surfy toe-side turns just below the blue fenced off area around the jump.

last night i had made some adjustments to my rear toe bale to see if i could get the intec pins centered. it helped. got a bit over confident in my setup. on one run my rear boot popped out twice! scared the crap out of me. on my first descent i made a heel-side turn. the rear boot popped out. i tried to turn uphill to slow down. wasn't very graceful. i tried stepping into the binding again and jumped up and down on it. started to move and i popped out again. got back in and went straight to the bottom to see what was going on. i didn't see anything unusual. felt like there was some play. for the rest of the day i was paranoid. as the time wore on the snow was turning slushier and so snowpack wasn't much of an issue.


ambient temp was about 36F. snow temp varied from 27F to 33F. had to know.

From Dec 31, 2011

[bobble]

happy new year!

left after one run.

flat light.

the conditions were groomed but it was rock hard. it rained last night then turned to snow. i could hear the skiers coming down the run. on the way up i saw that the groomer made uneven passes. on the way down it was too fast for me. the idea of wiping out on the hard snow was a deterrent. i sketched to the bottom and left.

i might go out later. maybe the snow will have softened.

[Gerg]

Snow guns just fired up for the day.

[thebionicman]

Snow guns just fired up for the day.

Great news! Thanks for the update.

I'll probably head out tomorrow and rip up the cord.

[BobD]

Snow guns just fired up for the day.

[bobble]

went out in the afternoon. saw that it was sunny. went for round two.

if you stayed home, congratulate yourself on making the right decision. if you went riding today, how many runs did it take you to call it quits?

not many people there. snow guns are going.

the wind is gusting up on top of the hill. its glare ice getting off the chair. the wind blew me sideways as i was clicking in. balancing on ice is not fun. there was someone walking up milkrun with a snowboard (might've been a ski patrol). he was holding the board like a wing and the wind knocked him off his balance. teacher's pet chair was not running.

extremely icy on crossroads. there was a ski team on skiers right. i veered over to milkrun where the snow guns were going. still too icy and hard. there was just enough snow accumulation on skiers left that it might've been okay for skiing or boarding in softboots. i thought about warners but there was training going on over there. my second run i went over to milk and then just left.

[MUD]

My daughter and I were there for the "early bird" We stayed on the big magic carpet. Must fun I have had on snow in a while. She was having a blast.

The snow sucked, but didn't matter.