By Kris Weldon
Special to the Turnagain Times
This topic has been bouncing around in my head since the end of last season, to be quite honest I'm almost too excited. But that can't be the case right?
I recently moved up from Portland Oregon where my ski season only ended Aug. 3. So coming from riding every day to waiting for the snow to be deep enough so that I'm not sliding on rocks has been an interesting venture. Wandering around town talking with fellow snow riders and getting each other pumped has been awesome; also the guys over at World Cup have some great info and conversation if you're looking for it.
It is pretty cool up here there are so many options when it comes to where to go and how to do your thing. One day you could strap on your Back Country gear and walk up Turnagain or head into Alyeska and get some vertical in with lift access; options are abundant.
Another decision is what ski or board to use. With the reality that not one will do everything you want it to, regardless of what the kid at REI said. Being from the Northwest we have a close consistency snow pack to what is around here. Going from Boiler plate, to dust on crust, to crud, and when your lucky some Hero snow or Sweet groomers, actually rumor has it the grooming isn't the greatest but we'll let that go.
So I found that with such a variable in the snow that going too small in a ski has been the issue, with a skinnier waist you aren't able to keep your boot from banging against the snow and knocking you out of your line of travel. So anything less than 80mm waist width is going to be pretty useless. However if you go with something over 120mm you're getting into something that is pretty powder specific. I was skiing an 80mm waist ski and I will be going bigger for sure.
As far as snowboards go I think that if you going to be in bounds most the time anything with the new Magna-traction technology has been an amazing feature to have on any type of terrain. Backcountry is a pretty big toss up because you have to weigh the option of a split board and packing snowshoes but any board so long as if fits your height and weight should suffice.
I have always swayed toward boot packing, but up here your going a lot further than anywhere I would go on Mt. Hood OR, so I'll give you more info when I experience everything the AK has to offer the Ski/Snowboard world.
