WHITEGRASS 10/30

I've made Oct. turns here half a dozen times in the last 25 yrs., but none as good as this. It was especially sweet because the recent knee injury, followed by a month or so of physical therapy, was the wild card. Would it be an ace, or a deuce, or something in between? The open slope had been thoroughly tracked by the time I arrived after driving many miles of mountain road fog in fear of finding black ice. Doing that safely was the price paid for a "crack of 11" arrival. I had the junk boards, and the settled snow depth was ~ 6". It was still powder but not quite light & dry. The fat boards never hit bottom and that's how I define a powder day. I got 6 runs, all in untracked snow using my Whitegrass Spidey Sense to find the goods, just a short distance from the open slope. It was far more than just satisfying a summer long Jones, it was reaffirming and great. Chaga took some pics, which can be found here, http://www.whitegrass.com/report.html , if you hurry; it changes daily.

Looks like it was an awesome day! Glad the knee is holding up. Keep up that therapy.

Speaking of your junkboards, what are you using for uphill traction? Skins, wax, tree sap and hairy ptex?

I've been trying to decide what to do with an old board that I damaged the rear insert pack on last season. Saw the update on the WG site the other day and a lightbulb went off in my head. Thinking it will soon be a pair of junkboards with some older voile cables I have laying around.

What's the average lifespan of a pair of junkboards?

Nice effort Denis. Is this you?

Look at all that white!

He's working on the goggle tan. Slowly.

I use skins; skinny skins, or some call them thongs. They are 65 mm wide and the Jboards are ~ 130. With switchbacks at the steeper spots they work fine. Many Westerners and New Englanders are disdainful of anything but full width wall to wall skins shaped to match the skis. They mostly subscribe to the belief that manly men skin only straight steep skin tracks. I consider that dumb as well as expensive. Wide skins cost ~ $150 new. I last bought 65 mm skins on the web for $25 per pair, probably from these guys, http://www.steepandcheap.com/?cmp_id=EM_DLY5001&mv_pc=r204 . Do some googling for climbing skin deals. I set them up using Lou Dawson's rat tail method. http://www.wildsnow.com/tips/skin_tail_fix.html This makes it easy to strip skins without taking your skis off and also to use one pair of skins on multiple pairs of skis. On long flat approaches I have occasionally used kick wax. If you get it right it works great because you can glide. I have seldom gotten it right.

I've got a set of 70mm kicker skins. I might as well give them a shot.

Answering questions;

A junkboard lasts until it is trashed or you grow tired of it. the WG page gave a link, http://www.7dvt.com/2009jonesing-junk
I use T-nuts and an old 'Riva' binding. You need a wood core board to hold the T-nuts. Mine cost $35 at a used equip sale, hence it is junk and not worth keeping if damaged, just get another cheap one. That is my pic that JimK found.

Mine was going to become a bench or a longboard but its just too flexy for that. It was my favorite board so getting a few more turns out of it as junkboards seems like a good option.

Where to mount?

I did it this way, http://www.telemarktips.com/BindingMt2.html and like the result.

way to get on it D

Denis,
Pics look good, but the news about your ailing knee not bothering is fantastic.
The Colonel