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jjue
11-08-2009, 11:28 PM
Nice weekend road trip to get the skiboard season off to a great start !
My son had a big cross country meet this saturday at Angels Camp
in the California foothills a 1 1/2 hr drive from our house . My wife and I went up there to watch him run .

Nice fall day in the foothills

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0828.jpg

Here is the start of my son's race ..
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0825.jpg

And here is my son doing a great job coming into the finish and qualifying for next weeks sectional championships .

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0827.jpg

I had heard that Tioga pass the highest road over the sierra through yosemite national park was still open , and that Mammoth was reopening this weekend with top to bottom skiing and riding . A 3 1/2 hr ride over the sierras from angels camp would put us right into mammoth to spend the night and then ride in the morning and head back to Sacramento in the afternoon .. It did not take much to convince my son to say good by to his team mates and join my wife and I for the trip .

Here is a view of the road over tioga pass in the Yosemite high country .. where is the snow ? ???
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0834.jpg
jjue
11-08-2009, 11:43 PM
Mammoth did not disappoint . There was early season riding from the top to the bottom of the mountain with natural snow up on top and man made stuff at the bottom . Here is a view of the mid to upper mountain conditions.
The niciest snow was in the middle section , the upper mountain to the right Climax bowl , was very steep and very icy !

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0841.jpg

Here is a closer view of the nicest run today !

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0843.jpg

Jordan and I took the gondola to the very top , my wife wisely chose to stay on the mid mountain runs .

Here is the top .. note the experts only , and fast , hard snow conditions , that was a bit of an understatement .. very challenging today on the upper bowl primarily because of the very steep icy conditons. but the view from the top was spectacular !
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0835.jpg

Father and son enjoying the fine weather , and enjoying the first big mountain turns of the season .
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0836.jpg

Dad showing off his gear .... lots of questions from other riders , nobody had seen the likes of the condors before !

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0837.jpg

Views of the Minaret's in the distance
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0838.jpg


sorry no action shots .. we only had the morning to ride and were very , very busy making as many turns as we could !


great day !
slow
11-09-2009, 06:12 PM
Thanks for teasing us Jack. I aways enjoy the pictures.

How did the Condors do on the ice?
jjue
11-09-2009, 06:40 PM
...
How did the Condors do on the ice?


Fantastic! , this was a pretty icy and steep slope and the Condors chattered a bit but held me firm , amazing how versatile that board is ...

here is pic from the Mammoth web site of the run from the top of the cornice , it is in the shade and icy ... they groomed it in the morning and it was best then but still quite icy , our 2nd and 3rd runs on it later in the morning were worse as folks skied off the groomed snow and exposed the underlying ice .. and it never warmed up .. i would not say it was fun , but it was very challenging survival riding .. i was amazed that the Condor held well in this stuff .. i saw one snowboarder lose an edge and careen all the way down the slope , my son had a GNU snowboard with magna traction edges and was still chattering a bit and sliding and had to be careful ..

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/img_5409_std.jpg



Here is a Mammoth promo vid from Saturday , we were there sunday
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slow
11-09-2009, 06:52 PM
Looks like a fun time Jack.

Please let us Condor pre-order riders know your tuning tricks to get that fantastic ride:

I assume 0 base angle, but what about the side edge angle? Staying with 90 or are you going more aggressive to 89 or 88 degrees?

Are you detuning near the tips? If so, how much?
jjue
11-09-2009, 06:59 PM
Looks like a fun time Jack.

Please let us Condor pre-order riders know your tuning tricks to get that fantastic ride:

I assume 0 base angle, but what about the side edge angle? Staying with 90 or are you going more aggressive to 89 or 88 degrees?

Are you detuning near the tips? If so, how much?


I rode it stock out of the box when I got it last season , left edge as is , with no detuning ,just put a wax coat on the base
and it rode perfectly ,
this season , just rewaxed the bases and sharpend the edges . leaving them at 90 degrees , ...
wjeong
11-09-2009, 07:49 PM
Jack,

You and Jordan did Daves Run? That says a lot for the Condors. You guys are brave to do that in icy conditions. Nice photos.

Wendell
jjue
11-09-2009, 08:00 PM
Jack,

You and Jordan did Daves Run? That says a lot for the Condors. You guys are brave to do that in icy conditions. Nice photos.

Wendell

Wendell we did Cornice Bowl after you get off the Gondola you go to the right , Daves run you get off the Gondola and go to the left ,they are both rated black diamond runs and both start off the cornice and are about equivalent in pitch and steepness. in low snow and icy conditons like we had yesterday , ,yes it was pretty sketchy ..