Spinning the wheels

Spent Wednesday at Magic Mountain getting re-acquainted with some of the best ski terrain in all of New England.

Magic 12/30/09 from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

Of course even the mellow terrain at Magic has the ability to shred your legs and I woke up stiff and sore, and given that there's the potential for a big weekend I decided that it'd be a good idea to get out and spin the wheels a little bit. Plus I figured it'd be a good idea to check what conditions looked like after the rainstorm earlier in the week.


I really had pretty low expectations given the last time I had been out conditions were crusty and thin. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the rain had thinned the snowpack considerably, it obliterated any of the remaining crust layer and set up a bombproof base.



The area had picked up 3-4" of snow which made for surprisingly good skiing above 2000'. Below that there was a very definitive rain/snow line and conditions deteriorated accordingly.




Looking forward, I feel very good about the snowpack and with an added 3-6" this weekend hopefully getting our season going for good

Winter finally arrives!

It's about time

Picked up 4" of snow last night




So of course a snowman had to be built

This morning I headed out to try some junkboarding near the Mass border and while it wasn't great skiing it was fun to get out



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Further proof

In the mailbox today. Yes it's skiing and not powder but at this point I could be getting back issues of Ski with reports of where the best grooming and lodging is and I don't think I'd care


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The countdown begins

And so it begins......

Needed new boots as my old ones had packed out and needed replacement. So after much consternation and gnashing of teeth I pulled the trigger on a pair of Tecnica Vento 95

They're a full mondo size smaller then I'd been using and a touch softer flex then my old boots. The fit out of the box was impressive with no hot spot over the instep which is normally my biggest fit issue(after needing a wider lasted boot) so I'm very pleased to find a boot that appears to work without needing a whole lot of modification. In fact I didn't get the liners formed yet as I'm going to wait until I get some on snow time. I've added world cup boosters to help add some stiffness and I'm pleased with the results but I won't know until I get them on snow





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Tubing fun

Sun, inner tubes, and snow make for a fun day



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In the airport

Waiting to board my flight south

What a week though, great snow, great friends and stellar weather made for some of the best 7 days of my life

Alright they're boarding now

Laser

OUT..............

And PHOTOS!

 

 

 

 

The best part of banging your head against a wall......

Is stopping

6 straight days of charging through nearly bottomless snow is fun and all. But the best part of the day is the happy contented feeling you get when you quit

Pictures and video to come later tonight. Unless I pull a last night and sleep for 12 hours straight cause I'm exhusted.

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4 days of powder SLAYAGE!!!!!

The damage

1 bruised shoulder
1 cut lip
1 hurt forearm
1 pair of sore legs and knees
1 broken Marker Duke

but the goods were SOOOOO worth it


Powder Madness! from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.


heading back for round 5 tomorrow AM!!


GET SOME!!!

Minianimal POV

Minianimal trees from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

Mini shows us that his steeze isn't limited to the park and pipe scene

Once again packing.......

I feel like I've spent the entire winter season living out of a suitcase..............


Now I'm packing for almost 2 weeks on the road in two VERY different climates. Minianimal and mommy leave tomorrow AM for the Mouse, and I'm pointing the car due North from the Albany airport and heading towards snow for the next 6 days.

Then I've got to turn around, come back and get on a flight to FL myself for a 5 night excursion during ESPN the weekend. At this point I'm figuring its going to be a better idea to simply pack for the entire trip so I can stay North for the entire time.

This is far too complicated

Finishing up a great day

With PIZZA!!!


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Crowds at Killington

This is exhibit A in how NOT to run a lift line. Nice job K-mart now that the Skye peak express is the only way out of bear you might want to think about opening more then one or two lines in the corral.


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Superbowl Sunday

Horry for hype and snack foods!

Just thought I'd drop in with the midseason ski update

Minianimal informed me yesterday that he'd like to ski more and would like me to find him parents that allow him to do so. If this kid doesn't wind up sponsored it's going to kill him when he realizes that most NORMAL four year olds don't get 16 days of skiing in before Presidents week and if they do more then 7 they're really lucky.

In any event, the season has so far been a resounding success I could not be more thrilled with minis progression from forgetting how to ski at the beginning of the season to a switch skiing, tree ripping, bump pounding, cliff* dropping, I will not stop until the lifts close, monster.

I refuse to discuss nor forecast the weather upcoming. It sounds like it could go either way. I'm just hoping it goes the right way.

*by cliff I mean ledge and by ledge I mean mound and by mound I mean just enough to get his skis off the ground


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And yet more POV

Maggot Mountain from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

One photo from today

Need I say more?



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Magic POV footage

Minianimal at Magic from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.


Yeah my kid pretty much rips ;-)

Homemade rocker part duex

After the success of the Powspatiplus, and my recent love affair with Mavens, I decided that I needed a touring ski with rocker. Unfortunately most rockered skis are 120mm wide monsters that make for wonderful touring setups if you're using lifts or helicopters. Unfortunately the touring community hasn't quite gotten the whole fun shape thing so there is a paucity of shapes in the 99-105mm waist range that have rocker. So never being one to let the facts stop me it was time to create one. For this I chose my bluehouse districts, they're fairly lightweight, wide, and aren't foam cored. Now the one issue is the lack of any metal whatsoever. With the pow plus it's very simple, bend metal and you have rocker. I'm not sure how this will work without something to hold the bend. My hope is that pressure and time will be sufficent enough to "warp" the core into a reverse curve.













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Lexington

On the plane from Louisville to Baltimore and wanted to post some photos





My dad



Daniel, Ethan, and Will





Ethans photo of Christina





Say cheese






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Catching up

well now, I haven't posted anything resembling ski stoke for QUITE some time now

In the words of the Joker "here we go"

First up we've got the Mini-animal at age 4 deciding that skiing forwards is so 3 year old

Switch from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

And for all those closet Jamie Pierre fans, YES he did ride it to the road :-)

Next up we've got 2 days of POV footage from Magic

Magic Mountain POV from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

Day one was pretty solid, if unspectacular, had a bit of an ice crust in spots, but once that got skiied, it was just fun to get out there and charge

Thin Cover charging

From Magic 11009

From Magic 11009

Magic Mountain Pinhead shows us some tele steeze

From Magic 11009

Bumpskier ripping it up

From Magic 11009

Day two was probably one of the best days of the year at Magic thus far, we got 6-10" of blower new snow and it was fantastic skiing

Magic Pow Day from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

Once again Thin Cover shows us how its done

From Magic Powder

From Magic Powder

>From Magic Powder

 KillWW slaying it on Lhasa Pows

From Magic Powder

And to top it off I spent Monday afternoon poking around in the BC for some fresh, found a nice new line that will be pretty good once we get a little more snow

Mass Backcountry from Andrew Weyl on Vimeo.

I have now seen everything

It's snowing in Orlando!














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Happy New Year

So we're a day late









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Test track

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It's a small world

God I hate that song and mini is bummed beyond belief that his boat is blue and not yellow



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Monorailin'

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