Magic...errrrrr Pico 12/30/12

[Madroch]

So decided to hit up Magic on 12/30- arrived and booted up and was told the chair would be delayed until 9:00- got in line, and about 5 minutes or so later the chair died for the day. Grabbed a voucher and we decided to drive to Pico-- hadn't been there in maybe 25 years. Arrived and the lot was full, had to park on some road-- but, lines were never bad at all.

Fog/snow on and off most of the day (or at least the part of the day I was there) - snow was deep in woods and not to skied off on the trails- mini bumps with some grass, and ice on steeper sections, but all in all skied really really well. Skied the summit stuff first- KA, Sunset 71, upper giant killer, pike and some woods between and betwixt-- not necessarily in that order - and possibly repeating a couple--then headed over to Outpost and skied everything off that chair save the far skiers right. Great runs, had forgotten how much fun that area is. Short visit- got there late and had to leave early (3:15)- but well worth it.

Some vid thrown togethor late last night-- so editing a little sloppy- Gopro died early or there would be some better runs...

 

[bdfreetuna]

Nice skiing. What kind of Fischers are those?

 

[Madroch]

Fischer motive 84-- length is 182- that is a lotta ski for me (5'8"- 150lbs)-- haven't used em much so I sense the more I break em out the better I will get with em. They are a year old but last year really didn't produce many days where I used em...

 

[Nick]

I'd recognize those orange pants anywhere :lol:

 

[Madroch]

Yup-- some of the usual Sundown suspects were on hand.....

 

[Nick]

You know, after using my GoPro at Magic last week; I'm kinda annoyed with the default white balance. It's fairly easy to adjust in post processing but I used a Drift HD and the default image quality is much, much better. I can pretty much match it with the GoPro after adjusting but it's way yellow. That's with the most recent software update that includes ProTune.

I will put up a before / after soon to demonstrate.

 

[Madroch]

I didn't toy with anything post processing-- it truly was a rush job. I will try and play with it some at home later-- I use powerdirector, and we'll see what I can do. No idea what a drift HD is-- I'm a bit of a tech newbie.

 

[thetrailboss]

I love Pico. Great mountain.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Fischer motive 84-- length is 182- that is a lotta ski for me (5'8"- 150lbs)-- haven't used em much so I sense the more I break em out the better I will get with em. They are a year old but last year really didn't produce many days where I used em...

I was wondering they look similar to my Rossi SC80 / 185 which are also black. Looks like you are handling your skis very well. I enjoy the length of my skis most of the time.. maybe a little more work but more reward as well. And the twin tips are great so I don't get stuck in the woods.

Drift HD is another brand of POV camera. I'm pretty happy with the white balance and video quality on the Contour ROAM2 I picked up a few days ago. I might have chose a GoPro but I'm not a big fan of the square form factor. The ROAM2 is a little more stealth in appearance.

 

[Nick]

I have the Drift for review purposes, I have to send it back soon. I do have a GoPro hero 2 and am about to get a Hero 3. I can compare those three pretty well. Have yet to try a Contour, although we did give one away last year (Powhunter won it).

It's not bad just the GoPro ends pu being a little yellow and dark. The Drift had a much more accurate color balance to it. The video I did at Magic had it all edited up so you wouldn't have seen the difference anyway.

 

[deadheadskier]

Fischer motive 84-- length is 182- that is a lotta ski for me (5'8"- 150lbs)-- haven't used em much so I sense the more I break em out the better I will get with em. They are a year old but last year really didn't produce many days where I used em...

Definitely a lotta ski, but everyone is different in their preferences. I'm 5'8"-190 and ski the Motive 84 in a 175. Love the ski for front side days and cut up pow. I'm not the biggest fan of their mogul performance, which I think is mainly due to the integrated binding system. Even on the loosest flex setting, I don't feel I get enough flex in the tails, which can cause a bit of a hang up on the backside of the bump. For hard snow days and mixing in a bit of bumps and trees when the snow is less than 6" deep, they're a pretty fantastic 1 ski quiver.

Looks like you guys had a great day. How were the bumps on Upper Giant Killer?

 

[Madroch]

Bumps on UGk were pretty good, some ice and rock in steeper skied off sections, as would be expected, but spacing was pretty good and the snow was generally really good. Can I blame my riding the backseat in the motives in the bumps on the ski or the length, as opposed to my poor form? I do really like the ski.. but it is by far the longest ski I own, by a good bit. I do think with more time on it I will work it better in bumps and tight trees-- well, time and some focus on staying balanced with better leg extension on the backside....

 

[deadheadskier]

I think with the Motives, you can somewhat blame the ski with getting stuck in the backseat in the bumps. They don't have the right flex for ripping straight down the zipper. I find I have to alter my technique and take much rounder carved turns to keep forward pressure on the boots. If you try and run em' straight, the tails get hung up in the troughs and pull you back with them as opposed to completely flexing through the backside of the mogul and allowing you to release from 1 mogul straight into the next. The ski is so excellent in other conditions though that I'm fine with their shortcomings in the bumps.