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Bananas and Powder
The last week has bought a couple of great days. Over last weekend it was president's holiday for all the Americans & the sun came out…which resulted in a few busy days. Not all bad as Lib Tech were doing demos. I had to check out there reverse camber board…called the skate banana. Got up early headed over for another fresh tracks breakfast (still not as good a English fry up but the pancakes make up for it)…I had a quick chat to the Lib-tech guy and got my self a nice shiny yellow board for the day. What a super fun board, loads of pop, its wavy side cut holds the edge real good and camber makes riding powder super easy…even on a 156.
A bit sad to give it back and the end of the day, so I'd thought I would see if I could buy it straight off the stand…since they are pretty hard to get hold of. The guy said I could have one of this seasons board for some cash. A bit of chin rubbing later I thought sod it I might as well go for it. The only down side was there was half a screw left in one of the insert on the board. The rep guaranteed that a tuning shop could fix it, cool no problem I thought.
I popped straight down to the shop at Whistler base, joined the queue of other owners with suspect boards in need of some love and attention. Handed the board over to this baggy pants French guy and hoped for the best. While waiting for my repair watching the other customers come and go it started to feel just like a vet's waiting room. Some boards coming in for a service…leave with a shiny coat of wax…some boards come in and they need to be put down (as they broke the core…v bad…terminal).
Mr baggy pants returned with his assistant in tow…who was carrying a big drill (ouch this isn't going be good). There had been a problem and they had to operate straight away. He assured me everything would be fine. Feeling slightly more on edge now and carried on waiting. On his return with the board things looked good the top sheet was mark free. I was thinking this guy is good. Until he turned the board around, they had to drill right through and fill it back in with clear expoy. So I no had a semi transparent hole in my board…like a mini fisheye lens….kinda looks like it's took a bullet. After some more encouraging words from the French board doctor thing were all good…. and I got done for free too. (He must have felt sorry he had to operate)
The 2nd sweet day was going over in to the backcountry as part of this level 1 avalanche skills training. Great conditions, fresh snow, blue sky, low avalanche risk and a good guide. We got in 3 runs in the day. It doesn't sound a lot but where you have to hike back up the hill its plenty. It's more a like day out to the mountains, and it's so quiet compared to the in bounds area (which was just over the ridge). We had certainly been powder starved before the course, as we haven't had any new snow for a while now. This resulted in lots of big smiles and wahoo's from everyone as they came down the powder face. The powder also felt super nice compared to resort powder….of which you normally need along of snow not to feel the packed down base below….the backcountry snow doesn't get super packed so it was super floaty and oh so creamy smooth. I can understand the draw to this snow wilderness now, no lifts, no people, no tracks. It does come with a certain dollop of risk as you have to plan you day well and be capable to find and dig you buddies out if thing go wrong. The day ended with a role play of an avalanche scenario to test out our new skills. A really great experience learnt some new things and rode some sweet powder in the sun on a shiny banana….fantastic!
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