Winter 2014-2015 season - Day 3: Opening day at Crystal Mt

Welcome to warmer temperatures and soft packed groomers.
Decent snow conditions with foggy, flat light conditions.  At least the groomed trails were soft pack due to the warmer temperatures.
Fun for a couple of hours, no crowds, glades weren't  open due to lack of snow cover.
Back side was fun, for some reason the snow conditions are always better there.
Good deep carving turns type of fun.

Foggy, warmer conditions

Temperatures: 32 plus degrees
Sky: Foggy, flat light
Conditions: Groomed soft packed
Schooled: Spins
Vertical: 4992 ft
$229.00 season lift ticket

 

 

 

 

Top speed of 37.3 mph.

Winter 2014-2015 season Day 2: Hard Pack at Boyne Highlands

Another bluebird day and another day where I  had the slopes all to myself.

The conditions for the groomers was pretty much hard pack to icy, once the sun warmed up in the sunny areas the conditions softened up a bit.

Seems like Nub's had a lot more varying terrain to play on versus The Highlands

Overall it was another great day to be on the slopes, got back to my usual form from last year. And still working on the 180 backside.

Temperatures: 15-30 degree
Sky: 90% Bluebird
Conditions: Groomed hard pack
Gear: Burton soft Hero board and new Burton boots.
$45.00 lift ticket

Two days two mountains

 

Winter 2014-2015 season Day 1: At Nubs Nob for "Season Opening Day" for the 2014-2015 snow season

Comfort glades

Bluebird day, snow in the glades and the slopes all to myself. Not that I'm selfish or greedy but hey everyone's invited - if they don't come - more for me.
With 2-3 inches of 1 day old powder on top of spotty icy base along with dirt, rocks, leaves and twigs I had the glades at Nub's all to myself.
The conditions for the groomers was pretty much hard pack to icy, once the sun warmed up in the sunny areas the conditions softened up a bit.
First time at Nub's since 2005....Rode with Tim back then.
Overall a great day to start the season, played safe, felt good and took off from where I was last season.
Nubs seems to have more terrain to offer then the Highlands. The steeper terrain on the front side was facing north and remained hard pack and icy all day.


Comfort Glades at Knub's Knob

 

Temperatures: 15-30 degree
Sky: Bluebird
Conditions: Hard pack and icy.  2-3 inches of fresh untracked snow in the glades area
Gear: Burton soft Hero board and new Burton boots.
$28.00 lift ticket





MAX SPEED 29.56 MPH
SKI AVERAGE SPEED  10.16 MPH SKI DISTANCE 18.15 miles SKI VERTICAL 11583 ft. Recorded Time 3:39 (actual time 4 hours)

MAX SPEED 29.56 MPH

 

SKI AVERAGE SPEED  10.16 MPH
SKI DISTANCE 18.15 miles
SKI VERTICAL 11583 ft.
Recorded Time 3:39 (actual time 4 hours)

 

Grand Finally of 2013-2014 season

 

 

 April 2 2014, Wednesday - Season's finally.

Nice sunny, bright spring day, 40 degrees, no wind and with soft conditions.
Finally getting the back side 180 and feeling confident doing it.
Season is over for me time to remove winter gear from the van and stock it with the warm weather gear. Let's head south.
Best snow season ever, season pass at Crystal paid off, trips to Utah and Colorado were fun. Good solid winter from late November till early April.
Over 50 days of putting the snowboard on.

2013-2014 season total according to ski tracks.   

Max down hill speed 47.3 MPH
Vertical Drop 349,567 Feet
Ski distance 536.9 miles

 

Warmest day of the year nearly 60 degrees

 

 

 

Sunday 3-30-2014 - Crystal Mt. Snowboarding
Warmest day of the year nearly 60 degrees, mostly sunny, spring conditions.
41 degrees at the 9:00 AM start time and by 1:00 it was 59 degrees.
Total of 35 runs from 9:10 to 12:35.
Schooled at 180 backside from the toe side.

 

Crystal Lake Snow Kite with video

Wednesday 3-26-14, Crystal Lake Snow Kite

Tuesday's fresh powder was untracked on the lake. Wind has scoured some powder off
but still almost as good as it can get.
Rigged the 9 meter with south, gusty conditions with snow devils  spinning around occasionally.
Overpowered at times used full depowered mode when needed.
Fun session with some ripping toe side turns and 180 ollies.
Sunny, south winds 10-25 MPH.





Ripping a toe side turn with an added hand slide.

Crystal Mt - Day after powder day

Crystal Mt 3-26-14

Kind of a let down after yesterdays powder day, that's expected.
Generally soft pack with some groomed hard pack areas.
Every run down I did a least one 180 backside over a natural terrain bump.
Sunny 12-18 degrees with south winds picking up.
Big spring break crowds with a lot of lift delays.

 

POWDER DAY! At Crystal Mt.

Tuesday 3-25-2014, Powder Day at Crystal Mt

4-6 inches of fluffy powder, partly cloudy, snow showers, 15-20 degrees.
It's amazing how a small place like Crystal Mt still has small stashes of powder left at noon.
Large Colorado resorts would be skied out in an hour.
Riding in the glades, catching the steeps before skied out, finding stashes on the blue runs past noon. Nothing beats a powder day!
Photo courtesy of Crystal Marketing Dept.
Image of my figure 8s at noon on the north side slopes.

 

 

 

 

Crystal Lake Kite session 29.4 MPH

3/24/14  Monday,  Crystal Lake Kite session

Good snow fresh 1-2 inches with a soft base underneath.
9 meter kite, winds WNW to 25 mph, bluebird day. Had depower at 100%
Best speed run this year for snow kite - 29.4
Long tack of 1.2 miles across the lake

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Bright and sunny Crystal Mt. morning session 47.1 MPH

3/24/2014 Monday Crystal Mt

Bright and sunny 15-27 degrees, hard pack to soft pack

Best top speed of the year
Maximum Speed 47.1 MPH

Distance 9.5 mi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unexpected Snow Kite Day (video)

3/23/2014 Sunday Crystal Lake snow kiting


Was going to go to Crystal Mt. for some snowboarding but as I drove to the mountain I noticed 1-2 inches of fresh snow on the road. So I thought it might be a good idea to check out the frozen Crystal Lake. Sure enough it was kitable. Looked to be lite to medium winds but it felt like enough.
Rigged the 11 meter with the Burton board. Launched and enjoyed the next 2 hours with non-stop action.
Surface conditions were not bad about an inch of fresh powder with soft pack underneath.
Mostly sunny day with temperatures 19-22.
Seemed like light winds on the ground maybe medium winds up where the kite flies.
It is amazing how lite the wind can be for snow kiting - estimated wind speeds from 8-20 mph from the WNW.
Data:
Maximum Speed 25.8 MPH
Distance 16.0 mi
Duration 01:49:19

Crystal Mt - cold start, warm finish

3/21/2014 Friday Crystal Mt

Started out at 15 degrees and hard pack at 9:00 by noon it was 40 degrees and soft pack.
Great bluebird day once snow softened up the conditions were forgiving.
Getting the backsides 180 down over small jumps and feeling confident doing them.

Maximum Speed 33.7 MPH

Distance 11.9 mi.

Vertical 7140 ft

Slope 20°

Duration 03:58:28

Runs: 32

 

 

Crystal Mt - a spring bluebird day

March 18, 2014 Tuesday.

Bluebird 45 degree day, afternoon session.
Snow was nice and soft from the 2:00 pm start.
Schooled at toe side and heel side back side 180s.
Enjoyable afternoon session no hard pack this time of day.


Maximum Speed 33.5 MPH
Distance 7.4 mi.
Vertical 5081 ft
Slope 23°
Duration 02:12:29
Runs: 29

 

 

 

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Crystal Mt - Cold Hard Packed

Monday 3/17/2-14 Crystal Mt



Another cold 7-10 degree start to today, eventually warming to 20 degrees by noon. Mostly sunny with lite winds.
Groomed hard pack  - need some fresh snow it's been over 10 days since fresh snow has fallen.
Schooled at backside - getting better at 'em.


GPS Data:
Maximum Speed 42.6 MPH 
Distance 10.8 mi.
Vertical 6694 ft
Slope 22°
Duration 03:00:04
Runs: 36

Crystal Mt Sunday 3/16/14 Bitter Cold with Bluebird Skys

Bitter Cold to start the morning 4 degrees with hard pack groomed conditions. 15 degrees by noon.
Bluebird day with lite winds

The bigger Sunday crowds never did materialize.
Rode from 9:18 to 11:57.

Schooled at the backside 180s launching from toe side.

GPS Data:
Maximum Speed 39.5 MPH
Distance 8.4 miles
Vertical 5897 ft
Slope 21 degrees
Ave Speed 7.4
Runs: 32

Post Spring has sprung day at Crystal Mt

Post "Spring has sprung day" at Crystal Mt Tuesday 3-11-14.

Not quite as good as 3-10-14 "Spring has sprung day". Cooler temperatures with groomed packed conditions.
Mostly cloudy, lite breeze with 40-45 degrees.
Rode from 10:19 to 12:24. Around 11:30 it softened up enough to be forgiving that meant try anything without fear.
Overall not bad conditions if not compared to 3-10-14.
 23 runs total

Crystal Mt - Spring has Sprung Finally a warm spring, bluebird morning.

3-10-2014 Monday Crystal Mt - Spring has Sprung finally a warm spring, bluebird  morning.

Started out at 32 degrees and went up from there. All the hard pack of the last 2 days softened up and a whole new style of snowboarding was now available. All tricks and moves were in the hero mode. Easily performed in the soft forgiving conditions.
About 1:00 it was to warm and conditions were sticky and slow. Called it a day a stoked day it was.
If you can't have powder snow I'll take these conditions as my second choice.

 

 

 

Crystal Mt Sunday 3-9-2014

Crystal Mt Sunday 3-9-2014

A cold start with hard packed conditions.
Decent session - left at 12:30 crowds were starting to arrive.

Maximum Speed 36.3 MPH
Distance 6.3 mi.
Vertical 3672 ft
Slope 19°
Duration 01:53:04
Runs: 21

Crystal Mt - New bindings to adjust

Saturday 3-8-2014 - Crystal Mt

Back to the local up north ski hill. Icy hard pack conditions with 100% groomed slopes.
Weather 20 degrees, Bluebird day, slight breeze.
New Flow Flight 2 bindings - good to go.
Schooled: backside 180s from heel side.

GPS Data:
Maximum Speed 33.0 MPH
Distance 6.0 mi.
Vertical 3956 ft
Slope 19°
Duration 01:55:58
Average Moving Speed: 7.1
23 runs

Saturday Snow Kite session

3/8/14 Saturday Snow Kite session
Lite wind session about an hour long, wind became too lite to kite.
After a morning at Crystal Mt headed over to Lake Leelanau to kite in some lite NW winds.
Conditions, Bluebird day, Lite NW winds, icy to hard pack conditions.

No GPS data

Milner Snowkite session - Downwinder with good untracked snow

Wednesday 3-5-2014

Winds were peaking at 20+ mph from the NE.
Took a 3.2 mile straight tack to Ford's cove south of the 9 mile tower. Coming back it was a different story. Had to take several tacks pinching into the wind to get back.

Conditions: Up to 2-4 inches of 3 day old untracked blowing snow - medium wind session
Gear:11.0 Slingshot and snowboard
Schooled:Toe side, pinching up wind
Weather: mostly sunny 14-16 degrees
Maximum Speed 25 MPH
Distance 22.7mi.
Duration 01:48 (15:33--17:20)
Average moving speed 14.41 mph

Fresh snow - A Good day snow kiting even with marginall NE winds

Sunday 3/2/2014 Lake St Clair,  Milner Beach

Conditions seem very marginal but finally some fresh 3-4 inches of snow to cover up the crud that's been there since the last thaw.
Since winds were marginally I rigged up the 11 meter kite which worked fine for the first hour.
NE winds to 15 mph worked well to my surprise. I got in a good hour until winds became to lite to fly the kite.

Weather: mostly sunny 16 degrees
Conditions: Up to 4 inches of untracked snow - lite wind session. Winds were lite probably at best 15 mph from the NE.
Gear:11.0 Slingshot and snowboard
Schooled: Toe side

Maximum Speed 18.8 MPH
Distance 7.1 mi.
Duration 01:19:20 (10:23-11:43)

 

Tuesday 2-25-2014 - Mt Holly

Tuesday 2-25-2014 - Mt Holly

Back to the local ski hill. Decent conditions with 100% groomed slopes.
Weather 20 degrees, mostly cloudy, slight breeze.
GPS Data:
Maximum Speed 32.4 MPH
Distance 11.2 mi.
Vertical 6307 ft
Slope 15°
Duration 03:13:03  (10:30-13:45)
Runs 33  
Elevation: 932-1262

A rare Kite Wing, Kitewing, KW Ski Day (Video)

Saturday 2-22-14 -  A rare KW Kite Wing Ski Day.

Rare day to take the KW out, I've been averaging about 1 day a year on the KW.
Crusty crud surface with ice patches and some crusty snow patches.
Gusty WSW winds to 30 mph made for very challenging conditions. Had to stay focus due to erratic wind gusts and surface conditions.
Bluebird day with temperatures' near the 35 degree mark.

Maximum Speed 22.5 MPH  
Distance 20.9 mi.

Duration 2:09
Time:  14:00-16:00
Moving Average speed: 14.36

A sample video of what KW looks like

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