chrisp41

im goin to montana this upcoming week to snowboard at snowbowl, discovery basin, lost trail, and big sky
and disco has some sick looking double black diamonds on the back side of the mountains as well as others have
double blacks too

i am a very experienced snowboarder, i can handle black diamonds with ease, and i am confident in my riding mechanics and ability

just one question though

lets say i was goin down one of the double blacks, and i fell trying to link my turns or something, are the double black diamonds so steep that i would fall and roll down the mountian for a very long time,
or will i be able to stop my self, get up, and keep going?

im scared i will just end up sliding down the mountain if i fall

heres a link if u wanna take a look at the trails

http://skidiscovery.com/images/maps_images/dbmapb.jpg

i know u cant really tell by looking at a picture so i will have to see them when i get there
but who knows? maybe they wont be as hard as i think they are?


thanks for any advice guys

-chris

sedition

I was up at Stratton last week. They have numerous double blacks. On some of them if you fell with any decent speed there was no question that you would not be getting up again for quite some time. Others, didn't seem nearly as bad. Just take a few mellow runs down them at first so you know what to expect, and then let the speed out after you know what your dealing with.

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chrisp41

yeah thanks, im gonna go on one of the more mellow ones and just work my way up

just creeps the hell out of me picturing myself flipping down the mountain like a ragdoll lol

w/e ima try it and hopefully shit goes good

im pretty confident in myself and i just gotta comit to it

Snowolf

Everything depends upon snow conditions. The double blacks out west here are typically VERY steep and in hard pack conditions there is a real risk of an uncontrolled tumble. I once descended Mt. Adams in Washington carrying my ice axe in position to self arrest due to icy conditions and a high risk of an uncontrolled slide from a fall. The best advice I can give is to get a real feel for conditions and adjust your riding accordingly. Take a few runs on the blues and blacks prior to commiting to a double. As you know the difficulty ratings are unique to each mountain. I am a very advance free rider and backcountry snowboarder and can handle anything Mt. hood dishes out. I went up to Alyeska over the holidays and their blue runs are like Meadows` blacks. I did a lot of their double black runs off the north face and one day with soft pow they were easy and fun. The next day when it was icy and I dropped a narrow chute that at places is 60 degrees, I was damn scared. Just really use good judgement when you drop into something and don`t be too proud to "falling leaf" something if it gets ugly. There are times and conditions when the risk of a failed edge change are just too great. Pay attention to your snow conditions and you will be fine.

If you fall in a bad situation, the best advice I can give is attempt to position yourself so that you are trailing your board (head down hill) and use it to self arrest by dragging the edge. If you fall back with your board beaneath you, be very carefull putting the board into the snow. It can flip you and start the tumble. Often, it is best to spin around head downhill before trying to stop.

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chrisp41

thanks snowwolf for the great advice

i know i really have to be careful cuz out west, some of those runs arent a joking matter