White Pass Washington
Nwboarder28 and I met at Morton Washington and we loaded his gear into my Exploder and drove the remaining 60 miles up to White Pass to get our pow fix.
Seldom do I ever say that there is such a thing as "too much powder" as doing so is a sacrilege of sorts, However, today was a day where there was in fact too much powder for most of the terrain. In places, the wind deposits were chest deep and we ended up in chest deep snow when I ventured off into the "wrong" spots and after a couple of these events, I expected Nwboarder28 to clobber me upside the head with his board....
Overall, you could not ask for a better, more challenging powder test of this board...
Preliminary Review:
This is the first time for me riding a hybrid rocker board of this configuration (Aggressive rocker between the feet and a short, but intense section of camber under the bindings). The first few runs were taken just getting used to the feel of this board. My initial reaction was "Holy shit, this board is super responsive". Getting off of the lift, I felt how this thing really likes to pivot around the center due to the highly rockered shape and learned that it was even more important to shift my weight farther forward than a camber board. This board has no bevel to the edges (it is 0,0) so with just a tweak of the front foot, the camber section engages.
Once strapped in to ride a packed powder groomer, I found the board to handle excellently but had to go easy on my control inputs or it would whip into a turn and I would end up behind the board. The Vario sidecut, holds an edge like a startled cat to the back of a sofa and soon I felt comfortable laying into some more aggressive carves. Edge release felt a little different and a down unweighting move felt more stable than trying to use an up unweight and rebound. Overall, the board feels moderately stiff and super damp but the rocker shape allows it to be playful like a much softer board.
The only thing that took some getting used to was the "pivoty" feeling while cruising and with no edge bevel, I can see that catastrophic edge catches are quite possible. This board does require the rider`s attention at all times like a Thoroughbred horse. Sloppy technique and inexperience will still get the rider into a world of misery so for that reason, I think this board is definitley more suited for the intermediate to advanced rider. A noob can handle this board, but I think there are better Neversummer choices for a training board than this one.
Low Aspect Powder Review:
The new area of White Pass, called Paradise Basin was a land of deep, untouched powder, strong wind, moderate snowfall and total flat light. Staying near the trees was essential to maintain any semblance of visual references. On our first run, I got "powder fever" and I ventured into the untouched deep poo and on any moderate pitch of even 15 to 20 degrees with Nwboarder28 following in my "trench" as track does not adequately describe the reality here. This board just plowed through it and I was in knee deep, heavy, wet Cascade powder. It was not until I hit a little dip and sank to my waist that I got us into trouble and we got hopelessly stuck. Realizing that I just took us where we had no business being on any snowboard, we spent the next 20 minutes happily swimming back up my own trench to get out of my navigational blunder. The next several hours were spent lapping the trees on very mellow 20 to 25 degree pitches and I soon got a basic feel for how to work this board.
The rocker of this board really has a teeter totter feel and as long as my weight stayed shifted just a tad aft, the nose came up on plane and I could go just about anywhere. I laid first tracks down underneath the Couloir Express and "paved" the way for Nwboarder28 and others to follow and soon we had a good trail established. In places, I was ankle deep in wind packed powder and then without warning, I would find myself in knee to thigh deep loose, unconsolidated Powder. A simple, quick shift aft was all it took to get engage the rocker and increase the pitch of the board and I could float through it. Timing is crucial and I got spanked hard for any errors; usually resulting in being buried upside down so that all that Nwboarder28 could see was an upside down snowboard laying in the snow.
One thing that I really noticed was how easy it was to overdue edging movements and dive the board in as a result of the heavy camber under the bindings. While I would not consider this a "negative" on the part of the board, it is something that the rider has to develop a real feel for. The rocker tends to give you a "false sense of security" because it is so damn easy to ride, Then all of a sudden you go to make a medium radius powder turn and get a bit ham fisted with it and you get yourself very stuck. Being used to riding a board with camber between the feet and rocker at tip and tail, this took me awhile to get used to, but eventually,dialed it in.
Powder Steeps And Tight Trees Review:
Due to the increasing winds (top gusts 52 MPH) and horrible visibility we elected to return to the base side of the mountain and lap the steeps. I put this board through its paces on several runs like Paradise Cliffs, Execution and Hourglass which are all short, but intensely steep pitches ranging from 40 to 50 degrees. The powder here was churned up and there were moguls 3 to 4 feet high down the runs. Theses were soft and easy to navigate and this to me is where the responsiveness of this board really shined. I was able to ride these pitches through the giant moguls with relative ease. The rocker design really enhance good fore-aft movements to stay in tight, dynamic skidded turns to ride the troughs of the moguls.
Again, due to the responsiveness of the camber sections, I had to actually ease up on my movements to avoid over steering. I felt like this board reduced a lot of my work as a rider in this terrain. The rocker made recovery from timing errors in the moguls a lot more successful and I recovered from mistakes that other boards would have dumped me on my ass.
Toward the end of the day as my confidence in my ability to control and use the properties of this board solidified, We ventured into the tight trees on the backside of the mountain; going down Star Wars. It is an area about a mile long and a couple wide down a fairly consistent pitch of around 30 degrees in tight, mid growth lodgepole pine and fir. The responsiveness of this board builds confidence to ride these trees a bit faster than I might normally. Just as in the moguls, a good fore-aft shift allows this board to work and complete tight turns on a dime and slow for the next turn.
Conclussion:
Considering the unbelievable depth of the powder and the mellow terrain at White Pass, I ended the day far less fatigued than I had a right to. You have heard the phrase "work smarter not harder" well this board is like suddenly having a PHD in powder riding. Any real soreness or overall fatigue I experienced was due to my own navigational idiocy of going into gullies and flat spots in powder this deep and swimming out. One such event happened in Paradise where I veered too far left and wound up in a creek drainage that led out of the ski area boundary and I had to stop and hike uphill to get back to where I could ride to a perimeter groomer. This was about a 1/4 mile slog through chest deep powder. Someone with better route planning than I did, would ride this thing in impossibly deep powder and hardly break a sweat.
So, for day one in powder I would give this board all thumbs up or a 9 out of 10. The only thing that keeps me from going 10 for 10 is I am not 100% sure I prefer this rocker with camber under the feet as well as I like camber between the bindings and rocker at tip and tail for powder. This will take more time to evaluate as I need to adapt my riding to this configuration. In any event, today would have been 100% total misery on a conventional cambered board and this thing slayed it....
REVIEW: 2012 Neversummer Heritage
REVIEW: 2012 Neversummer Heritage
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