Timeless

This is very interesting and useful, thanks. he definitely needs something that can handle the soft "off piste" stuff, though this is obviously not only powder, I had incorrectly assumed that the extra flex was unhelpful in this but need to re-evaluate this based on your comments. The mantras are definietly supposed to be a "freeride" ski and he does complain about their speed/chatter on the groomers compared to his K2's which are a "normal" ski but given a free choice he chooses the mantras 98% of the time. This was just the kind of input I was looking for, he will thank you for it.

It's new ski time (again) for my son and I wanted to get any useful input I can from here as he is coming into a difficult age/size range. He's currently riding 128cm Mantra's which are clearly too short now he has grown quickly this season and ideally looking at his height now and anticipating some growth before next season I think something around 140cm is going to be top of forehead for him. However, most "junior" ski's seem to be very soft and looking at some of the pictures I've taken this year he is really bending the mantra's in the soft stuff rather than having them carve through it. So my questions are: is "top of forehead" right for all-mountain/powder ski's of should I consider longer as he is on the heavy side for his height. are there better suppliers of Junior ski's that dont make everything out of foam. are there small adult ski's that would make more sense, he is quite a strong/aggressive skier. Any other advice / suggestions? he is only 10, 11 by next season. Thanks

Judging by the HUGE base and still occaisional fresh snow, I'm guessing we have many weeks left here in the "far left". Conditions this weekend were perfect spring weather and snow, from the best groomers first thing in the morning To soft spring conditions in the afternoon, here is my son having a harder time with this than his sister or I (on boards) This was honestly one of the surprisingly best days, not hot enough to destroy the snow but sunny and no wind, great surface conditions (4-9 inches of fresh 2 days ago and cold since), we rode from first to last lifts and came home completely exhausted but very happy.

at least 6 weeks left for me, Squaw have confirmed they will stay open to memorial day and I suspect others may be close to that given the 200+" bases and more snow on the way.

really? Excellent TR though, really enjoy reading the BC trips even though I am too lazy to get my riding this way.

Sierra at Tahoe was fun this past weekend, sorry no pics 'cos neither me nor me kids took a camera. Next weekend we will be back in the North Lake area. Anyone wanting some "spring" conditions will be happy out here right now. Despite the huge dump last week, the base is rock solid due to some warm days and cold(ish) nights. It took all afternoon for the off trail areas to soften enough to ride. The base is massive though, so the season should run for many more weeks and there are even some storms in the long range forecast Even late in my second season out here I still find it amazing that I can be sat out on the deck having a beer/glass of wine in 70-80 degree sunny weather deciding where to ski tomorrow and knowing the conditions will be really good no matter where you go. Oh, and GSS, you better start the snow dance early because pre-christmas conditions can be a real coin-toss. Northstar will be open but it could either be 5 feet of powder or 18" of man made and only a few trails.

Apart from the last post, this thread has degenerated into mindless shit-talking. You should all be coming to Tahoe anyway.....

Done, good luck with your trip.

concussions? maybe. Keeping this to snowboard helmets rather than others (motorcycles for example) where the dynamics are different, I am pretty sure that the rock that punctured the shell of my Giro Fuse and made it half way through the poly/foam liner would have caused some pretty serious, maybe even terminal damage to my skull. Did I still get a concussion? Yes, I think so (not sure as I was a little confused.... ). Just my personal experience, never ride without one now.

As someone that has thoroughly "tested" both motorcycle and snowboard helmets in the past, I can attest that they do indeed, work quite effectively. I would most probably have been dead in both cases without a helmet, I dont fall (or fall off in the bike case) so often but when I do it seems to be a big one. Sad news about the ski patroller, at least he went out doing what he loved.

glad you're safe, that kind of thing makes you realize just how vulnerable you are out there.

That's a really interesting thought, one or two things to consider: Would you really want to be in the "attack" stance all the time? For me when letting the board run flat I want to be in a relaxed "neutral" position. When initiating a toe side turn you do naturally "assume the position" with weight transferring to the front foot centered over your knee and toe as the board is on edge, I guess this is really what you are looking for. If you were to centre your foot you would move the ball of your foot further from the edge. With a heel turn, you are no longer on the balls of your feet no matter where you position your feet, your heel has effectively become the new ball of your foot, maybe this is the crux of your question, in a snowboard stance you have two "balls" at the heel and toe depending on the direction of turn. If you were to imagine a very "feet forward" alpine like stance, you would get much closer to what you are imagining would be ideal, but in this position the whole body position, flex and style are quite different. The other thing to consider is that strapped into a snowboard you cannot really be "on your toes" like you would imagine for the 'athletic stance" which would be necessary to keep your weight centered, it will just be like standing on one edge of your board unless you can fild a way to elevate your heels considerably. I can tell you something from personal experience, having them not centered makes the ride very uncertain, you are always compensating for weighting one side of the board too much (as you are not really "on your toes"), this is really tiring without being obvious, but the minute you get them properly centered the whole thing just feels much better. Also, dont centre the binding, put your boot in it and make sure the centre line of your boot (front of your shin) is in the middle of the board, this will vary with boot styles. A good test is to completely relax with your body aligned with the board on a long straight (but not flat) section and see how much correction you are having to put in, I've always found this quite obvious. Just my thoughts, thanks for something interesting to think about on a boring afternoon

Amazing..... +1

Not that I didn't enjoy your stuff Jeff, and it may be that it just brings back memories of some great trips to Utah, but it was just a realy good, honest trip report with no BS and lots of good pictures. Just kinda gave a really good feel for them enjoying themselves, which is what it's all about in the end.

Best trip report and pictures of the season, by far. Makes me want to go to Utah again as soon as possible and really nice to see people enjoying places like powmow without bitching about the lack of steeps. Thanks

If memory serves me correctly this is just above the sun deck on one of the many really nice lodges, so you can see all the lemmings dropping in while you eat, "dinner and a show".

No idea when it opened, it's a very basic, no frills resort some way out from the main cluster around SLC, actually just outside Ogden, not far from Snowbasin (heard of that one? also very nice). It might be my favorite Utah resort but for some it's not as challenging as places like snowbird. To demonstrate the "low key" approach, they have an area you can access from a lift served peak, but it runs down to the approach road, some awesome slopes, no grooming, nice trees, then they have someone drive a van up and down the road picking you up and ferrying you back to the base area where you catch a lift and repeat..... I've never seen anywhere else do this kind of thing and it just about sums up the place.

Seriously? Powder mountain is a great place, didn't see many shots from powder country in the trip report, mostly under the central lift, was the van not running?

Sib' How bad are the tree wells there? I had my first real experience with one recently and with the kind of snowfalls we get here in Tahoe this is no joke (sometimes 3-6 feet at a time and not often heavy wet snow recently), with the obviously evergreen trees there, but I guess mostly heavier snow, is it a big thing there? I ask mainly because the tree runs look amazing.

Nice real-world trip report, glad you got good snow and weather. As an ex-east coaster I find it hard to complain about "tracked out" snow when it's sunny and warm and you would kill for those conditions back home.

dont you ever have to work? not much past half way through our season and 49 days, that is some effort

Acess to munchkins depends on how you like to hike. It's straight up-hill from the access road if you're really into the back-country touring kind of thing, or you can hike out from the summit past wolverine, beaver and estelle bowls, it's essentially the backside of KT22. Plenty of stuff out there to keep you happy. Never got as far as Munchkins myself, I'm told they are 3 chutes, only one of which is a death trap. There's probably plenty of stuff on you-tube, they are quite famous locally,

some pics from this weekend. no apologies for lack of steeps or pro-riders, just me and the kids having fun. Sugarbowl on Saturday, sunnier than expected and the snow was not blower, but not really heavy. VERY deep, so much so that a fall was almost dangerous in places. The open faces were quickly chewed up but still deep, soft powder, speed really your friend here. Alpine Meadows on Sunday, took a couple of "vista" pics just to give a good feel for the place for those that haven't been there. This is backside and frontside of the resort, everything seen in these pic's is either directly lift served or hike-able. despite the lovely view of the lake from the resort, this means not many (decent) slopes where you can catch the lake in the background. Overall this was a great day at Alpine, quite warm and the snow still soft and loose off of the groomers, groomers were kind of "pebble"-like, fun but quite slow. Base is enormous up there wih more snow coming, back-country must be amazing right now. Hope you all had great weekends too.

Sugarbowl Saturday (nearest, most sheltered from the wind and less likely to be affected by traffic issues, plus my kids like it) Alpine Meadows Sunday (My favorite) Where will you be? I will have pic's both days but saturday might be too snowy for good shots....

Northstar to Squaw is about 20-30 minutes in a car, probably no direct bus. Northstar is worth a day, has some great trees but not much (maybe nothing) in the way of real steeps but not if it's your only day. It also get real busy mid season. Regarding the snow depths, it packs down anyway so none has to deal with 100", we rode after 8 feet had fallen at thankgiving and only my 10 year old was struggling with the depth. Alot depends on the snow ratios, which for this weekend look very high, real blower.