Category: General

Summer is here… unless you are in the Northeast and it has rained 30 of the last 37 days, and it is time to chill with friends and plan the next place you are going to have your next summer rail session. It is also a great time to search for awesome deals on tee’s, ski beanies, and hats from the previous season as companies make room for the new 2010 ski accessories. Some places are selling their accessories at cost trying to make room so their loss is your gain. Look styling with an all new outfit this summer and don’t forget to support the brands that choose to support their customers.

Just saw the all new 2010 K2 Darkside Ski today and was really impressed at how light the ski was considering it is a 128mm in the waist. If you are going to AK and are looking for  a big mountain AT ski the all new 2010 K2 Darkside would be an excellent choice all around. With K2 designing skins just for their skis it will make a huge difference in getting yourself up the hill with ease. K2 made a very wise decision in combining their AT/Tele line with their Alpine Backside Line. It helped them from having to double up on models which saves us all money in the long run and it also helps with not wasting materials as well.

With summer fast approaching some of the larger online shops are starting to receive their 2010 Line and K2 product. I have even seen some of the new EP Pro’s and a couple pair of the Line Afterbang which is going to be one of the best selling freestyle skis ever. With an all new construction for the ski industry the Line Afterbang is more durable for everyday park and urban skiing. I will go into more detail about the Afterbang hopefully later this week. Enjoy the search for the new 2010 skis, it is always an exciting time of year when the new product is being released.

So for those of you who have given up on skiing for the season and do not have any plans for taking trips to the Southern Hemisphere it is time to get the bike out and start riding. Just like you usually get your biked tuned in the spring to make sure everything is in good working order you should make sure to put your skis away so as to not damage them when being stored in places that take on moisture. The easiest way to store your skis for the summer is just by doing a simple base prep. All you have to do is to put a nice thin coat of Paraffin Wax onto the base. What this wax will do is prevent any moisture from getting into your ski during the humid summer months. The most important thing to remember though is that you will want to make sure to get all the wax out of the base in the fall before you have them tuned or if you do them yourself make sure to get all wax out of the base before you put any other wax into the base for the fall/winter conditions.

Rumor has it from a reliable online ski shop that K2 is about to release some of their 2010 K2 Skis to a few select online shops for summer sales. The important skis that will be released early are the K2 Hell Bent, Obsethed, Kung Fujas, and many other of the factory team skis including the all new EXT. With new technology coming out every year it will be fun when some of the other companies out there can catch up to what K2, Line and Armada are doing to progress not only the sport, but also the technology being used in skis. We have Eric Pollard to thank for much of what has happened in the rockered/wide ski movement of the past few years. How many people thought 5 years ago that you could be skiing a ski that was 110mm+ in the waist as an everyday East Coast Ski. Most shops 5 years ago even out West had never even seen a ski that was 110mm in the waist. It will be interesting to see where it goes, but for now lets just enjoy the ride as the skis being made today and tomorrow are the most fun and versatile that we have ever seen.

With wind predicted to be around <15mph and temps in the high 50’s on Tuesday it wasn’t a hard decision to make when someone asked if I wanted to head to Tuck’s. We arrived around 10am and reached the bowl by noon. Conditions were epic and the atmosphere was euphoric. After a run we hung out for a bit on lunch rocks in nothing but our t-shirts, snow-pants and socks. Coverage was excellent, though avy dangers are increasing. Sherbourne was closed about 3/4 of the way down.

Last night, as April graced us with its presence, a freak storm dropped around 38 inches of snow on Sugarloaf. No surrounding mountain received snow, as this was a storm system which seemed to form and remain over Sugarloaf. Better get there before it melts!

It’s been warm lately… The skiing has been soft and spring like. It was awesome. But are you ready? We were all enjoying the sun, the atmosphere, the packed deck at the widomaker, but I couldn’t help but think how nice another big storm would be. Who is ready for spring? Who isn’t? Leave some thoughts in the comment field, I’d like to see what others think.

So even though there was more snow projected locally, we figured why not go on a road trip? As it was dumping snow we packed the car and skipped town around 8:30pm. Our goal was to reach Jay Peak, normally a 3.5 hour drive. By the time we were getting close to Sunday River, usually about an hour from where we had started in Farmington, we were debating whether or not to pull in and cut our losses. The streets were barely plowed and the snow was coming down so hard visibility was near 0. But, we kept on going and Ross’s jeep cherokee, with a 6 inch lift and somewhere around 32" tires took it on like a champ. We had packed tents, but when we finally arrived at Jay Peak around 3am no one had the energy to set them up in the howling blizzard. Continue reading “Jay Peak and a 6 hour road trip”