Wiinterpark/Maryjane Feb 1st-4th

[davidski]

I moved my stuff into the Rocky Mountain Inn in Frasor and killed a little time then hit the slopes of Winter park. It was mostly groomers on that side and some tree-- this slope made me think of Capt. America, it was corduroy heaven--





The SIA convention was happening--







a lot of a amazing stuff. I met some great people; at the hostel I was sharing a room with some brothers whose company is called NATIV -- they have a surfing mentality and their boards are short wide and directional every boarder in the place tried them and spoke well of them; even in the ****** conditions that prevailed



Another roommate was Kyle -- a snowboarder who mostly rides at cataloocchee -- small world



Johnny from the band umconcious hooked me up with the Icelantic people and I got to ski the PILGRIM -- I don't listen to music when I ski but for their song "trip" I might



Lastly though and my best part of the trip was talking to the people at 4FRONT; a guy about my age was saying that I should try the CRJ which is a superwide ski heavily rockered at tip and tail; I said I wasn't sure about that considering me and the conditions;

then he said "well hell, here's CR, talk to him about it, its his ski"



He was incredibly passionate about what he'd designed and spent a lot of time describing the ways you could ski it and what he was trying to accomplish. I didn't really clue in till later who he was but his ski is amazing -- you can skate or GS down steep groomers and it swiveled in tracked out trees -- no powder unfortunately. Anyway it was a pleasure to meet CR



Anyway -- not a lot of pictures -- a lot of tree skiing mostly -- here's a drop out of panoramic into trees that go a long time--











And me at the top of Panoramic--







And MaryJane side with Berthoud weather station in the background--







the same station from the pass on the way out









two photostichs -- an alice in wonderland from winterpark; and another from mary jane, in front of sunnyside with panoramic and eaglewind in the background



















Good trip despite conditions and I still skiied some untracked trees-- last year for the front range ; I'm going to learn to do Utah or Tahoe cheap next year

[Zeus]

What was your verdict of the Icelantics? I've always loved the graphics, but we all know graphics don't make the ski.



And meeting CR Johnson, hella cool.

[davidski]

@Zeus 207249 wrote:What was your verdict of the Icelantics? I've always loved the graphics, but we all know graphics don't make the ski.



And meeting CR Johnson, hella cool.



I had noticed the Icelantics too at the Loveland rental shop, both because of the graphics and the weird shape of the Shaman; but I didn't try them -- it would be worth it to pay LL's rate and work through a few of them -- At WP I only tried the Pilgrim which looks like a park ski but is actually a fast powerful carver; it was ideal for conditions that day or most days around here, and the people were also great



But the CRJ, once I got away from my "eastern" stance and put some weight on my heels, was priceless , and so much lighter then my P4's





btw here is a link to the snowboard company I mention and a review that reflects what the other boarders were saying when they tried them

http://www.nativboardriding.com/media.htm

http://www.theskichannel.com/news/equip ... rozen-surf

[KneeDeep]

It doesn't look like the conditions were too bad.... at least from the pictures.

[SteepNdeep]

Sick! I have been eyeing those CRJ for awhile, glad you posted some beta.

[davidski]

@KneeDeep 207287 wrote:It doesn't look like the conditions were too bad.... at least from the pictures.



any days a good day esp on a big mountain but some of my favorite tree runs (I'm only just scraping the surface there) were out of the question in this coverage -- that's a big part of me planning that much time at WP/MJ ... oh yeah, that and $22/night