Ski Sundown - 3/20/09 (Bump or Bust Warm-up)

Skied from 2-5. About half that time with Brian. Cloudy with peaks of sun, and it felt cool until you got going. Temps in the 40's. Warm enough for a mogul alert. The big burnout was all covered up and I did my best to get a line started in there with some success. Also saw Chris who said he spent hours this morning shoveling snow into burnt out troughs. Seriously, what other mountain does that. I know it's for a good presentation for the comp, but I think he might have done that anyway.

The two lines for the comp have both pros and cons. The right line is as we all know pure money till the first kicker and decent in the flat stretch after that. Below the lower kicker, there's just not much there. The left line kinda sucks up to the jump. Is similarly okay in the middle as the right and is good below the lower jump. With ripper traffic on sunday I think they'll both shape up. Hopefully there will be some good skiers there tomorrow working them.

I gotta say though, there is the most perfect line that starts at the top, heads to the right of the right little jump at the top and continues right down into the snow patch of snow they pushed over. With a little jog to the right you can carry a moneyline right from the top to the first comp kicker. A little thin here and there, but really just sick.

Overall, the mountian looks in a million times better shape than Wednesday. It seemed to drain well, Ex bumps are smashed and spread out covering most of the dirt there. Stinger has an obscene amount of snow and Jarrod was working the PB to build the slopestyle course. The big air jump is rough cut and it looks sick. Gonna be fun to watch that from the lift. Chris mentioned there is plenty of snow on the groomed side of Gunny in spots to keep up the patching as needed until Sunday. It should be awesome.

I didn't go at a nuts pace but got enough in to feel satisfied, but not enough to be really worn out. Tried to learn the lines and took several comp length runs. The vision up thing from the other day really stuck with me.I was looking well beyond 5 or 6 bumps; basically to the top of the headwall from the top, then the first kicker area once I cleared that, then the next kicker, then the bottom. Everytime I bobbled I immediately noticed I was looking only 2 or 3 bumps. Tried casting my pole further and had some decent runs. I detuned the Twisters and that helped a lot too. Psyched for Sunday!

Great mini session for me. I couldn't believe how soft the snow was considering how much colder it was today then it has been the last few times I've been there. I only skied from about 3:45 till 5ish. I was pretty beat by then so I bailed when Greg did, opting not to kill myself

The looking up thing really seemed to work for me, when I could get the confidence up to actually do it. I skied with my new composite poles today and it instantly became apparent that I had been using my poles to support my upper body and slow my self down in the steeper bumps, since the composites just sorta bent like a noodle if I put my weight on them. It took a little getting used to, but in the end it'll make me a better skier.

Greg - What did you do to detune the skis? I noticed mine were grabbing quite a bit the one time out on them.

i was there tonight for a bit. didn't think it was going to get as cold as it did, the snow firmed up a lot. slush flash froze making for interesting skiing.

Hadn't skied Sundown since 3/7, can't believe the transformation the bumps on gunny have gone through. amazing.

powbmps said:

Greg - What did you do to detune the skis? I noticed mine were grabbing quite a bit the one time out on them.

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I took a fine shop file (you're supposed to use a diamond stone, but I don't have one) and "unsharpened" the edge slightly from the tip and end of the tail to the contact points of the skis - put them base to base and where they touch is about where I stopped, perhaps a half inch further towards the bindings or so. Then I just smoothed out the edge with a gummy stone. You don't need to go crazy unsharpening, just a few passes. It's detuned enough if you don't get any fingernail shavings coming off when you rub your nail across the edge. With the tight bumps on Gunny, it made a big difference. Coming to Sundown tomorrow?

Greg said:

I took a fine shop file (you're supposed to use a diamond stone, but I don't have one) and "unsharpened" the edge slightly from the tip and end of the tail to the contact points of the skis - put them base to base and where they touch is about where I stopped, perhaps a half inch further towards the bindings or so. Then I just smoothed out the edge with a gummy stone. You don't need to go crazy unsharpening, just a few passes. It's detuned enough if you don't get any fingernail shavings coming off when you rub your nail across the edge. With the tight bumps on Gunny, it made a big difference. Coming to Sundown tomorrow?

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Thanks! That must have been my problem :???:.

Wife's out of town and I don't think the kids would enjoy the three hour drive down. I know I wouldn't . I'm assuming there will be plenty of good video of the festivities.