The Official Michigan Winter Thread

[david_z]

Originally Posted by chomps1211

I had seen a few guys doing 360 degree circles, spinning their boards around while moving down slope. I thought I'd give it a try. If nothing else, I thought it might help me focus on my edge awareness! Turns out, now that I'm not crashing every time I go toe-side while switch, this felt pretty natural!

It definitely helps edge awareness! As you're starting to do this sort of basic "butter" maneuver, try to do them both clockwise and counterclockwise. I'm stronger going counterclockwise (frontside). Also work on initiating the spin from your nose and your tail so you'll end up with 4 exercises: 2 spins each from the nose & tail.

As you're doing these your focus about the 4 quadrants of your board. nose/toeside, tail/toeside, nose/heelside and tail/heelside. You want to keep pressure basically on only one of those quadrants as a time, and as you spin, you shift that pressure/balance so that you're unweighting whichever edge is crossing the fall line.

So thinking about a counterclockwise (frontside) rotation, from the board's nose, it is like this: shift weight slightly forward towards the nose of the board. Apply pressure to the nose/heelside, making sure to keep that nose/toeside edge unweighted - otherwise you will catch that edge and slam HARD like I did on Saturday while looking over your left shoulder, moving your arms in the direction of the spin. It should be pretty easy to turn 180 degrees to the switch position.

For clockwise 180 rotation from the board's nose, weight forward, look over your right shoulder and throw your arms in the direction of the spin, unweight the heel edge and pressure the nose/toeside edge of the board.

For counterclockwise 180 rotation from the board's tail, shift weight back slightly towards the tail, unweight the toe edge, pressure the tail/heelside and look over your left shoulder.

For clockwise 180 rotation from the tail, shift weight back towards the tail, unweight heel edge, pressure the tail/toeside and look over your right shoulder.

Once you've gotten 180 degrees -- i'm having a hard time conceptualizing this right now but I think you're going to want to shift weight slightly to the opposite edge -- keep looking over the same shoulder and be mindful of whichever edge as you bring it across the fall line and you'll complete the 360. Bonus points if you keep spinning

[boardaddicktd]

Originally Posted by SMDSkata

Heres the video from Saturday, ill post up the pics when I have sometime.

Keweenaw Backcountry 1st Trip - YouTube

We never did get to Mt. Houghton. About 3 miles outside of it, the sled got stuck when we almost hit a tree. We walked about another eighth mile to find the road was closed by a gate anyways. After some consideration, we found there was no route around it without back tracking 2 miles, so we decided to start hiking the hills around us. Nothing but balls deep powder everywhere, and that was before 10"-15" that fell last night.

Lonnie at Boho was telling my friends about 15"-20" on Wednesday. That should put the whole area in that video at about chest deep pow.

With spring break approaching next week, I don't think I'll be able to make another trek out there till after, but with all this snow falling, it should all be accessible still in two weeks.

yo jake nice edit dude. looks like having the sleds gave you guys a hell of an experience in the back country. i remember seeing guys up at boho with sleds and we were jealous as hell because we had a mini-van that we took back to the house in copper harbor. good quality edit!

[boardaddicktd]

Originally Posted by quicklx

Anyone heading up for krazy days at Boyne or Nubs that same weekend???


Had my first park experience while in Colorado last week and I must say it was more fun than I thought it would be...Landed some decent jumps...had a couple grabs..ate shit once...but not that bad. LOL.

yea i'll be up there dude! have you been up there before for the spring wknd? its a frikken crazy ass wknd!

[boardaddicktd]

seein all these vids is makin me want a GoPro! am i the only one that doesn't have one lol.

[quicklx]

Originally Posted by boardaddicktd

yea i'll be up there dude! have you been up there before for the spring wknd? its a frikken crazy ass wknd!

Awesome! No I have not been up there but my buddy has and he had a great time. We are renting a condo in Trout Creek for the weekend. Which is better Boyne or Nubs for that weekend???

[boardaddicktd]

Originally Posted by quicklx

Awesome! No I have not been up there but my buddy has and he had a great time. We are renting a condo in Trout Creek for the weekend. Which is better Boyne or Nubs for that weekend???

well Trout Creek is next to Nubs and across the road from Boyne Highlands. but if ur looking to party on Saturday then you better go to Boyne Mtn which is about a half hour/40 mins away from where you're staying. Highlands is more geared towards family fun. Boyne Mountain is where its at dude...much more drunken-ness and partying. all of the employees at Boyne Mtn are pretty chill about their spring wknd. if you go to Boyne Highlands they're going to be more strict because they want the crazyness to stay at Boyne Mtn. i guess it just depends on what ur looking for. last year we pretty much partied all day Saturday and snowboarded on Sunday.

[quicklx]

Originally Posted by boardaddicktd

well Trout Creek is next to Nubs and across the road from Boyne Highlands. but if ur looking to party on Saturday then you better go to Boyne Mtn which is about a half hour/40 mins away from where you're staying. Highlands is more geared towards family fun. Boyne Mountain is where its at dude...much more drunken-ness and partying. all of the employees at Boyne Mtn are pretty chill about their spring wknd. if you go to Boyne Highlands they're going to be more strict because they want the crazyness to stay at Boyne Mtn. i guess it just depends on what ur looking for. last year we pretty much partied all day Saturday and snowboarded on Sunday.

The drive isnt a big deal for me. I am usually the DD anyway (can't drink anymore). I will check with everyone else that is going with us and maybe we can change our place of stay for the weekend. I am sure they will want to be where the adult fun is.

[cmubennett]

I'll be up at Boyne this weekend too! What can I expect Saturday to be like up there? Chaos?

[chomps1211]

Originally Posted by cmubennett

I'll be up at Boyne this weekend too! What can I expect Saturday to be like up there? Chaos?

I think they're talking about "Crazy Daze" (Boyne's answer to Mardi Gras) weekend. I believe that's held the weekend of the 17th & 18th. I was there last year for it. Snow conditions weren't great so I don't think it was as crowded or crazy as it usually gets. Lots of drunkeness, lots of nice lookin' babes,.. a few "Douche Bags" of course, but all in all, it was fun. (I called in sick that friday to get a 3 day weekend out of it) One thing to watch for,.. LOTS of shredded empty beer cans on the runs. They will gouge your board & you sure as shit don't want to fall on one! (...oh yeah, saw a few "Full" cans get dropped from the lifts!, keep an eye to the sky too!!!)

This weekend, if the storm brings some accumulation & don't "F" things up with freezing rain,.. It will probably just be crowded!

[david_z]

This weekend I wouldn't expect chaos. There is good snow in this week's forecast though, although it is warming a bit on friday and cooling again overnight so I would expect mostly corduroy/packed powder conditions with some stashes of hidden pow in the trees. Expect crowds and long lift lines especially for main base-area lifts.