Based on the weather forecasts and light snow already falling I loaded the car on Tues. AM and headed for Whitegrass after work. Met Chip and a bunch of friends and skied 6 runs of about 400 vertical feet each. There was about 6 inches with a lot of drifting and a lot of wind all day. It was light and dry and skied beautifully; windblown lake effect powder. I used my junkboards, an old snowboard cut in half and mounted with tele bindings,
http://www.whitegrass.com/NewReport/IMGP0039ghghgh.jpg
They were perfect for the conditions. The waist width is 140mm and I rarely hit bottom. They are so easy to ski they should be illegal. As I was changing out of my ski clothes to drive home 2 guys who work at Wintergreen showed up. They had been at Canaan and said that it was drifted 18" deep on the entire skiers left of Gravity. Maybe I should have been there but can't complain about where I was.

The forecasts for Canaan Valley are always valley biased. I routinely double their predicted totals and am rarely disappointed.

Day one and it's still Oct.

Denis, you lucky dog!! I wanted to try and make it up there so bad. I've been chomping at the bit online since monday. Now you come here and make me feel even worse about not being able to make it. It's all good though. I am glad to hear that some were able to enjoy it. Thanks for posting!!

WOW! Skiing the Mid-Atlantic in late October. That is impressive. If you ski in April in the Mid-Atlantic, you will have skied in 7 of the 12 months in the Mid-Atlantic. Not many of us can say that. Sounds like one of those days you won't soon forget.

Inspiration Man!!! I knew you'd pull it off..you always do.Its only a dream untill ya do it!

I'm trying to understand this junkboard thing..Like slick Snowshoes?

Canaan hit the 12 inch snowfall mark(..some wind packing & a little ground melt has left about a 9 inch snow cover now) at 8 pm & at 130 am thur its just winding up...nothing heavy all day, just that energizer Snow bunny Canaan kind of stuff that keeps going & going.............

Ok I should have cked the pic 1st...How are those things old snowboards?...awfull long for snowboards!

Andy, don't you remember this thread? I guess in your old age you tend to forget easily.....

http://www.dcski.com/ubbthreads33/ubbthr...38528#Post38528

Now you listen to me sonny..you little whippersnapper...Now what was I sayin??...Oh..yeh..like I said before, They are supposed to be Snowboards split in half...are there snowboards that long?..anyway the link was outdated & it didn't tell me anything...so there ...You MUDDA!

PS Back in the Day..Disrespect to the Capt meant that you would have taken a long walk on a short Snowboard...

I am holding the junkboards well off the floor in that picture. The board is (Was :))) a 148 and of course it is a pair of twintips after you cut it. The board was wide and very soft, much softer than any ski I've flexed. It may have been a women's board, I'm not familiar w. the brand or model but 148 sounds awfully short. Anyway these factors combined with the snowboard sidecut on the inside edges mean that all you have to do is think turn and they turn. They love to make continuous linked turns right down the gravity line.

My son in law bought the board on commission for me at Cochran's preseason sale last year ($40). It was in great condition but without bindings.
http://www.cochranskiarea.com/ That is a great sale BTW, far better than anything we have in the DC area where people sell mostly junk and ask for ridiculous prices. Cochran's is a race hill and every year race kids want the newest stuff. Many of them are sponsored and they sell last years stuff at very good prices. If I were in the market for high end stuff I'd make a trip there. The Killington sale is also very good for the same reason but Cochrans is the best.

Edited to add that the width makes them very stable and allows you to just kind of smear over bare and thin spots on flat skis. They ski best when you keep them flat with very little edging. Yesterdays powder was deep enough in places that I'd lose almost all speed. Then I'd find some iced over grass and straight line it to regain speed.

From looking at it that board is a Jamie Lynn signature board by Lib Tech. That's more of a freestyle board which is why it probably feels a little softer. You can actually buy skins for those things. There's a company in Utah who will take your old board, split it and add hardware to it so it can be split apart, have the bindings shift positions and be ready to use to skin up into back country then reconnect it and ride it down as a snowboard.

Which edges are inside, straight side or side cut?

I ski them on the inside, as do most of my VT friends where I got this idea. Perhaps for this reason they parallel better than they tele, although yesterdays powder was so good they worked equally well both ways. Some say that they tele better with the sidecut edges on the outside since rear ski control is key to the tele turn. I'll try it sometime, but I have no complaints about they way they ski now.

Denis, have you loosened the shackles of full time employment freeing yourself to now chase storms in glorious retirement ski bum mode?

yeah, Denis.... tell us and really make me jealous! Like the split sno board thing. What is on the straight edge? How is it sealed?

I'm going to guess there is no metal edge on the straight side and it's sealed with an epoxy or urethane. I'm guessing if you're tooling around on soft stuff the lack of edge metal shouldn't hamper you too much.

No, not retired yet but soon. But I like your phrase. After a career with gov't acronyms I'll just call myself a GRSB.

It's just raw wood with some splinters, exactly as when I finished with the ripsaw. No need for sealant. The junkboard is supposed to be a use it til you trash it device, then throw it away and get the raw material for the next one as cheap as possible. I've lost cred with my VT friends for paying $40 for it. I don't think any of them paid half that and some are dumpster diving or taking friend's throw aways. An important point is that you need a wood core board. Foam core won't do.

Denis, I have some spare Hardwires. Would that be too light a binding?

Hardwires should be fine. Even 3-pins should work. I can't use 3-pins because I ground down the duckbills of my backcountry boots so they will fit in crampons. I'm using a Riva Z that I picked up for about $25 a couple years ago that has been sitting in the box in case of whatever - - - . I like Riva bindings for backcountry; they are releasable; i.e. they blow up or release your boot if stressed hard. They're also light and light is part of the goal.

Mounting is a little different because you are getting a twintip ski. I used the center ball - center running surface method and have been happy with the results.
http://www.telemarktips.com/BindingMt2.html
Also used T-nuts. I just drilled clear holes right thru the board, countersunk a little bit on the P-tex side, inserted T-nuts and mounted. I understand this is what snowboarders did in the early days. Keep it simple. Try it, you'll like it.

That is just too awesome, Denis. thanks.

You know, that might be good option for the occasional back yard snow down here. I have used both xc and downhill skis in my neighborhood, but would feel better and a lot more hip with junkers. hmmmm.

How hard are junkers to get the hang of, especially if I'm a novice tele skier?

If conditions are like they were on Wed. it is easy. I'd stay away from hardpack and ice, but you knew that. If you have an alpine background start with parallel turns. Don't forget that falling is part of skiing and don't forget to smile when you fall.