tigre

Great thread, and congrats on the new board! The Solution is one of the boards I've been thinking about for my next split, so it's good to hear your review of the Flagship. I'm 130lbs. and both my current boards are 154 (Charlie Slasher solid and K2 Panoramic split), but I think my next one will be around 160 and a bit stiffer. I even think something close to 170 would be great fun, especially on deep days when you have to stick to low angles because of the avy danger.

neni

I have no tree experience. The parts below the timberline is wildlife reserve in our region and we strictly respect that. Oh, there's a short part between narrow trees to the hut but this hardly counts, its only some meters (20).
On a steep slope (30°) I can turn it within 2m in a longer line but I have no clue how long I could stay how narrow in deep snow with having real constraints. Backcountry, we've got mostly wide chutes with only short parts that are narrow. Theres only one long narrow brook valley of about 2m going seesaw I had to negotiate. That's all fine. But I'm the completely wrong person to ask, where the limits of this board are (or even other such boards) 'cause I only had few different boards and a more experienced rider can certainly handle far more difficult stuff with it. All I can say is that its the longest/stiffest board I've ever had and it feels far more agile/easy to turn than the shorter ones I had. So it really depends on the individual board, I guess.
and then... well... big... 158 is big for ME but actually its not really big

neni

Just read in an other post that you hardly have any snow up there at the moment...

poutanen

Lake Louise claims they got 19 cm last night, Sunshine says 9 cm or so... Although you're right, compared to our usual big powder dumps it's been quiet for a month or so. Spring is when the biggest dumps are though, expecting them soon!

Everybody do the snow dance!

This was back in November...


And December...


And January...


More January...


I think we get too used to regular powder dumps in the Canadian Rockies, so we forget that we've had a great year already and there's another 3+ months to go.

neni

Looks lovely! How high is it there? At what hight is the timberline?
After several years of less snow we now had 2 years in row with heaps of it
At 1400m - end of december (see me waving at the door, left side):


It was snowing 3 days in a row now, so i think we have to dig out the chimney this weekend

poutanen

Holy crap!

Here's the base and top elevations for my favorite mountains. Treeline in many cases goes to the top or nearly to the top.

Lake Louise - Base: 1650m, Top: 2600m
Fernie, BC - Base: 1070m, Top: 2150m
Kicking Horse - Base: 1200m, Top: 2450m

neni

Just drove up to the hut, heaps of tourist coming down from the resort (end of school holiday here). I'll have the whole region for myself tomorrow

I love the approach to the mountain... this eager, corious feeling. We had warm weather down in the valley and I'm always concerned whether there's still enough snow up there. Some days of hot south wind can easily destroy the tracks at lower parts (base 600m, top 2250m).

While driving higher bend by bend I get more and more excited to see: yes, there's still a lot!



The flagship is waxed, bagpack packed, they annouce blue sky, pow and only moderate avy danger. Could become one of the best days of the season

poutanen

Have fun!

EatMyTracers

Wow I weigh more then you and was told even the 154 would be way too big for me. Forget that though, I'm going for the 156 never summer raptor.

neni

OMG, what an awsome day! Total 4000m of 40cm deep almost untouched pow, just some minutes walking distance from the chairlift.
The Flagship rocks! Couldn't be happier