Fernie Day 2: The Griz Doesn't Disappoint

I woke this morning to the sound of a cat passing by our window. Man I was excited; like a child at Christmas...

With good reason too. After arriving in resort last night, the snow continued to fall throughout the evening, and then through the night. We were chatting with a local who was predicting 25 - 30 cm of fresh. This morning the result of the new snow was closer to 40 cm. The Griz came through on our first day. Sweet.

We had to wait around some before they opened the lift, something like 30 minutes, while they made things safe up the top. At the start of the day there wasn't too much open, two or three of the bowls were closed. But Simon took us to a pretty quiet area in White Pass that we lapped all morning, and it was close to fresh throughout. It was all good.

Excellent in fact. Some of the best powder I've ever ridden, and it was so good riding through the trees. Such a great first morning/day. I can't wait to see more of the mountain.

The avalanche bombing contineud as the day went on.

After lunch I took the helmet cam out to give it its first run. The results were mixed. The quality is good enough, no doubt. But I had the positioning on the helmet a little off, and it showed. With lots of movement the video recorded isn't exactly smooth, but it is good at times. Tomorrow, I think I'll try using the camera in the hand, and see what those results are like. I might end up trying to tape the camera to the helmet in hope of achieving a more stable finish.

We were all pretty tired by time the lifts closed, so we hit the hot tub; loosen up the muscles ready for tomorrow. It's really good that they've got one here at the Cornerstone Lodge, it makes a big difference.

It has snowed all day and it's still snowing now. The temperature is also dropping. Tomorrow should be great, especially as the weekend has now gone, the slopes will be much quieter. More powder...

Fernie Day 1: Getting There

It's been a long day.

We set off this morning, UK time, at 02:45. By the time we'd collected Martin, dropped the cars off and arrived at the airport it was 06:45, for a 09:30 flight. The flight upgrades we'd opted for came in handy as we jumped straight to the front of the queue. But it wasn't all plain sailing.

The upgrades are booked with Inghams, the tour operator, but the airline is Monarch, so that's who we were checking in with. There's definitely a disconnect between the two, as the guy behind the counter was telling us that we were gonna have to pay £20 each to take snowboards because it didn't eplicity state on the tickets that we'd paid for this... What? After paying £220 to upgrade. No way. The following discussion ended in us checking our boardbags for free; it turned out that he was a nice guy.

I was however right to be concerned about the weight of my bag. It came in at 34.5 kg, with the absolute allowable weight being 32. He was fine with me diverting items to our other bags that weren't heavy, so after a quick bit of re-packing in the middle of a crowd we were set.

Well not quite. Manchester airport has the worst system I've ever seen for dropping off your over-sized luggage. A real bottleneck. Every person with a big bag queues to get into a small room, where they lift their bag onto a conveyer, wait while it is scanned and then have their boarding card checked. It took ages.

By the time we'd been through security there was around 30 minutes left before boarding. I was kinda hoping for a relaxed breakfast.

And then there was the flight itself. It wasn't all bad. The perks that come with upgrading are quite nice: bigger seats, free drinks and a healthy selection of films to watch. The food was good too.

There was also this cool view out of the window as we flew over Greenland.

But they ran out of beer! I had one can and then the next time I asked for one it was all gone. Damn it! What's more, we were flying into a 200 m.p.h. headwind for a large portion of the journey which added an extra 1 hour and 45 minutes. Total flight time was just shy of 10 hours.

I'm writing this on the coach transfer from Calgary to Fernie. There's an hour to go and it's just gone midnight, UK time. Given that I only slept for two hours last night before setting off, I'm pretty tired. In fact, we're all sick of the journey.

At least the views have been good.

But you know what? I'm stoked. We've already ordered our passes and they'll be delivered to our room later on, so no hanging around first thing tomorrow morning. We've also been given the info on booking a day of cat-boarding, which we hope to do towards the end of the week, maybe Thursday.

And it's snowing. It's snowing here on the road and we're told it's snowing in Fernie. Local time is now 17:00. There should be plenty of time to get things sorted tonight and I'll wax my board too. Awesome.

We just spotted three Cayotes... It's time to turn the laptop off.

Note 1: the terrain out here is amazing. It's totally different to the UK (I guess that's obvious). Calgary and the towns we've passed so far on the road look really cool. As the plane was decending the land was almost completely flat, and then all of a sudden, the Rockies spring up.

Note 2: the lift tickets out here are mega expensive compared to Europe, especially France. I budgetted £350 for twelve days, and that won't quite cover 10. Oops.

All Set

We set off for Canada tomorrow morning. I almost can't believe that it's here already. Having such a busy week at work has made it creep up I think...

Well I'm all set now. It's an early start tomorrow, around 3am, and all that's left to do is shoot nervous glances at my board bag. It looks heavy. It feels heavy.

I say this every year and it's normally fine, but it's difficult to guess the weight and I don't want hassle at the airport; I certainly don't wanna pay any more after having already upgrading the flight.

I might pop into work later on and weigh the damn thing...

Anyhow, I'm hoping to update things while I'm out there, so with a bit of luck, there'll be some photos and stuff, maybe even some video. The forecast keeps changing, but the trend is some half decent snow on Sunday and Monday. Right now it's registering at 15cm on Sunday... here's hoping for some epic pow!

Final Transeiver Practice

(Well, not the last ever, just the last time before we go to Fernie).

Yesterday we went to the beach again to work with the beepers. With it being less than a week before we head out, it was nice to meet up and share the building excitement, but also useful to practice a little more with the transceivers.

There's nothing to show really, but we did learn some stuff about the differences between the Tracker DTS and the Ortovox M2, which is the unit that Simon owns.

After practicing with both the Tracker and the M2 we found the second phase of the search (single burial) to be much quicker with the Tracker, due to the 5 directional lights on the top of the unit. (The second phase being the time from when you get a signal to closing within 3 meters).

With regards to the first phase, acquiring a signal and the thrid phase, the pinpoint search, the same methods can be used for both models and there isn't much difference between them.

With the Ortovox M2 the directional indicator works by showing a solid triangle on the display when the unit is pointing in the right direction. That, plus the audio signal and the distance read out make it possible to orientate yourself towards the beacon.

The difference with the Tracker is that the unit is constantly updating your direction; you simply turn when the lights change. With the M2 there are two things that make this update less straight forward. First, once the unit is no longer pointing in the right direction you have to stop and find the right direction by re-orientating it; you're not told the direction to turn. Second, the unit has a variable sensativity that needs manual adjustment as you get closer.

We were looking for a reproducible method, which we found after reading some generic guidelines. It is:

• First find a signal
• When a signal is found, find the direction in which the signal is strongest
• Take five steps in that direction
• Find the direction in which the signal is strongest
• Adjust the sensativity if necessary
• Take five steps in that direction
• Repeat until within 3 meters of the beacon
• Do the pinpoint search

It works really well.

After trying it a couple of times, I followed Simon on his search path and marked out the path in the sand. I then searched for the same beacon with the Tracker, starting in the same place. We marked the second search path as the Tracker moved in on the beacon.

As you might expect, the two transceivers took almost identical paths, with the M2 forming a less smoothe curve because we were moving in a series of straight lines. This goes to show that understanding the pattern of the electromagnetic field that a beacon emits can help you with the search. Once you detect that you're on one of the flux lines, you should have an inclination or which direction you'll be turning when you re-orientate.

I wish I'd taken my camera with me. Marking out the different approach lines in the sand was useful in understanding how the units work, and I could have shown that with a few pictures.

We've made other observations about the differences between the two models; each have their strenghts. I'll save the rest of it for a full review, most likely after we get back from Fernie.

A Few New Things

I've picked up a few things over the last couple of weeks that are worth mentioning. First up is The Avalanche Handbook. I was looking for something to read on the subject to add to what I've read in The ABCs of Avalanche Safety. At first glance, and that's all I've given it, the book looks pretty good. I'm basing that purely on the diagrams I've seen and the odd page read here and there. It might turn out to be different. Anyway, it will prove useful on the flight to Canada, along with the free beer.

Next up are a couple of DVDs. I've now got a copy of the much anticipated In Short. I quite like the DVD but I wouldn't say it's an all out winner. I'll save my comments for the review I'm writing.

Another film from this season that I was also looking forward to, that's now in my collection, is La La Land, by Runway Films. I was hooked in by the promising trailer, and watching the beginning of the film, it seemed as though it was going to live up to my high hopes. But it didn't.

It's not a bad film, it just doesn't stand out the way I thought it was going to. Maybe I'll elaborate with a review.

Martin and I were talking recently about the wave of snowboard films that come out each year, and questioning what it is that we're looking for in a snowboard movie. There are so many film crews these days...

Last up are the avalanche probes. Now I know that I've already mentioned the probe, but just this week I picked up a new one. Explanation: I was sorting out the beacons and probes for myself, Ciara and Martin, and ended up getting one of the sets later than the first two. We've all got BCA Trackers now, but I've mixed up the probes: two from Black Diamond and one from BCA.

I'm re-mentioning the probes because before I bought them I spent a good while procrastinating over which type to get. On one hand I was thinking how much difference can it make? and on the other it was I don't want one that's too short, but it's gotta fit in the backpack.

Anyhow, now that I've got them I thought it would be useful to show the differences between the two models that I've got - I'll try to do that this weekend.

With only a week now until we go, I suppose I don't need to say how stoked I am. I can't wait to get there. The excitement builds with each day. This evening I was brushing up my playlist and tomorrow we're heading into town to pick up some bits. Still hoping for some epic snow conditions...

Fernie Snow Forecast | Snow Report | by E-mail

Helmets: Bern vs. ProTec

A while back, I was on the look-out for a Bern helmet, probably the Bern Baker. At the time I was kinda interested in the audio integration (as well as the overall look), but now I'm not so sure. Last season I ended up carrying my shuffle around but not really using it; friends kept complaining when I couldn't hear them...

I'm less sure about a Bern helmet in general. First, Martin doesn't rate the comfort of his Bern helmet, and second, they're really hard to get hold of.

More recently, I've been quite impressed with the ProTec lids; great style. Ciara picked up the classic snow helmet, which I reckon has a clean, no nonsense, low profile look. I really like the style of the assault range and it was a good fit too.

Then there's the the HiFi from Burton, which I've always liked.

To be honest, I'm not really in the market for a new lid as mine works just fine. It's more that I'd noticed a few nice designs while shopping with Ciara. There is however the option of rigging up something more secure for the helmet cam if I've got a spare that can be used solely for that purpose. But hopefully I won't need that if the standard strap does its job.

BCA Tracker Practice Session 2

Yesterday we went to the beach for a second practice session with the beepers. After seeing the multiple burial instructions in this video I was keen to have a go searching for more than one transceiver. The initial stage of the multiple burial search is the same as if you're looking for a single signal, so the practcie was useful for that situation too.

With the BCA Tracker there are two (there might be more?) methods of dealing with multiple signals. The first, which is what I was practicing and is general to all trasceivers, is called the three circle method; with the Track the searcher only uses the regular search (SE) mode. The second and more advanced method described, specific to the Tracker, makes use the transceiver's special (SP) mode.

This is my understanding of the 3 circle method. Once you've found the first signal, assuming you can't turn it off (perhaps because others are still probing/digging), you travel in a circle around the signal looking for a lower distance reading and/or listening for another audio beep. That first circle is three steps out from the lowest distance reading of the original find.

If you don't pick anything up on the first pass you take another three steps back and walk a second circle. Again, if nothing is found you perform a third circle, three steps back from the second. If you still don't find anything you go back to the point at which you left your orginal primary search (when you first detected a signal).

I think the theory is pretty simple. If there's another signal close by, at some point on one of the three circles you'll be closer to it, than the original beacon. This methodical approach seems to be a reliable way of seperating the two signals.

Check out my first attempt; apologies for the cheesy intro...

In this example I located the second signal on the first of the three circles. Note that first time the beeper detected the second signal I was unsuccessful in locking onto it. After returning to the circle it only took a couple more steps before the signal was detected again, this time the dropping distance was conclusive.

And here's my second attempt.

Here are some comments:

Picking up the second signal. In the first case where the signals were closer together, the search was quicker. This may seem obvious, but my orignal expectation was that in cases where signals are close together, they'd be harder to separate. The Tracker easily picks them out when rotated side-to-side.

In the second example it took longer to pick up the other signal. Quite a few times, each in the same area, I stopped to check or tried following a different signal only to turn back to walking the circle. In these cases I was fairly certain that the other beacon was over there, but the data I was getting didn't seem conclusive

Was I walking too fast? Should I have followed my instincts or kept using the circles? I guess more practice would answer some of these questions. Either way, I did end up clearly detecting a much lower signal, and it led right to the beacon.

Audio vs. video. At the time I was definitely paying more attention to the distance read out than the audio beeps. However, after watching the video back it's clear that the beeps are also very informative.

My original approach. Again, something that I didn't think about at the time was the direction of my approach to the first beacon. This should give a clue as to where the other signal is less likely to be.

Nothing found after three circles? If you don't find anything you need to return to the original primary search and continue searching the rest of the deposition area. In this case I'm not sure how you would ignore the first signal if it still wasn't turned off. It seems like it would be in the way...

Overall times. These were my first two attempts at finding two signals. The first search took around 4 minutes and second around 6 minutes. Considering that I was learning the search procedure, I think this is another indication that the BCA Tracker is an easy unit to operate.

Snowboarding Stickers

It might not be your thing, but I kinda like putting a sticker or two on my board. It's not always easy to get hold of decent stickers, especially if you're on the scrounge for freebies.

Well, Martin told me about a site with a decent selection of stickers that are also good quality. The site is B Smarter Graphics.

As you might expect, the stickers here aren't free. What's more, while they aren't stupidly expensive, they're not cheap either. However, after buying a couple myself I can say that they are good. Not only that, the service is up there too: friendly, good delivery, good instructions and dead easy to pay with paypal.

A bit of light relief after all the talk of avalanche safety around here. I hooked up a pretty sick Analog decal with a 32 and a Nitro; the Nitro I bagged last season from Chopp, in Flims/Laax. Check out the T2:

Avalanche Mountain Safety Video

I mentioned recently that I'd re-watched the avalanche safety clip that comes with the extras on Absinthe's More dvd. The video is produced by Teton Gravity Research and is a great instructional aid. In the video they use the BCA Tracker, but I'm sure a lot of the principles apply to all beacons.

I was pointed at the video section on WhiteLines' site as they've got this same safety video. I was gonna suggest that if you don't have the More dvd then it's worth watching this clip... but as it turns out, the video I've embedded here has new stuff that I previously hadn't seen. In addition to covering a single burial search this movie also provides an explanation of transmitted flux lines, and looks at two methods of dealing with multiple burials.

The extra bits that I hadn't seen before are produced really well; the instruction is very clear. If I get a chance this weekend I'm gonna have a go at finding two burried beacons. Check it out...

Avalanche Beacon Practice (BCA Tracker DTS)

Simon, Sarah, Ciara and myself went to the beach on Sunday to get some practice in with the new transceivers. The beach is handy as it provides a nice open space to work with and sand that's easy to dig in. The dune rushes are also good to conceal the exact placement of the transmitting beacon...

It was definitely a useful session. Simon's used his transceiver in the past and I've read a few things here and there and watched some basic instruction. For Ciara this was her first real exposure to working with a beacon. Searching for a signal in a wide open space definitely helped to get a feel for how the transceivers work and how long certain things can take.

The Tracker DTS really is quite easy to use, with single burials at least, as we haven't tried the multiple case yet. I pretty much followed the guidelines in the manual, which cover: 1st getting a signal, 2nd moving to within 3 meters and 3rd performing a pinpoint search.

Our practice searches consisted of:

• Hiding a beacon
• Marking out the avalanche debris pile
• Marking out the last seen point
• Doing the search

The thing that I found most impressive was how reliable the unit was once a signal was detected. In one case Simon actually burried the transceiver outside of the assumed debirs pile, but close enough to be realistic. Totally unaware, once my beacon picked up the signal I blindly follwed it down to 3 meters and then did the fine search. It was spot on.

Here's a video I took of Ciara trying her first search in the open. Despite our banter (watching it back I can see how interfering I am, what a dick!), the video shows how an inexperienced user can go straight to the signal. Ciara started off around 100 meters away and had no idea of where it was burried...

I expect things are less clear when the transceiver is burried deeper beneath the surface, as would be the case with a real avalanche. There's also the issue of probing and then digging... Apparently within 15 minutes there's a 90% chance of survival, of which the digging uses almost all, so you've got to find the signal fast. That's why I think it's important to practice.

All in all it was as much fun as it was educational. We had really nice weather for visiting the beach, and, being at the seaside, we finished things off with fish & chips plus beer :)

ATC 2K Helmet Cam: First-Tests Review

On Friday evening I used and assembled the helmet cam for the first time. The thing that I'm most interested in with this camera is how well it actually attaches to a helmet. Is it going to be practical on the hill? Will it be steady enough for usable video? This is the main subject of this early review.

I do however have some other observations. I won't go into much detail, but I will list them here at the top:

• The video quality is actually ok, as good as I'd hoped
• The sound quality is aweful, almost a waste of time
• Connection to the pc and transfer of files is very easy
• It's not difficult to start and stop recording while the camera remains helmet-mounted

Here are the contents of the ATC-2K package:

The batteries (2 AA), SD card and connections are all at the back, which has a well sealed cover.

Mounting the camera on a helmet

Stability:
A rubber strap is used to wrap around the helmet. The strap is held in place by a plastic buckle, which also acts as the female part of the camera-to-strap connection. It's a slot and click connection.

The strap itself seems good; once in place it's pretty damn tight and doesn't appear to be going anywhere. The major problem with the design is the way that the strap is fed through the buckle. It leaves a gap.

Once attached, the weight of the camera causes it to sag, which in turn causes it to wobble once in motion. As part of the package there are a few rubber strips with sticky backs. I'm certain that these are intended to be used a padding for this gap - to help prevent the wobble.

The padding actually works pretty well. I tried 3 video tests: one with no padding, one with a single rubber strip and one with two pieces of rubber. The difference was cleary visible. The optimum seemed to be a single strip, and it cut out a lot of the wobble.

Side mount vs. top mount:
As per some of the pictures I've seen, it's possible to mount the camera on either the top or the side of a helmet. To facilitate this, the connector that is attached to the camera can be rotated. This means you can set the camera to be level wherever it is mounted.

I chose to side mount the camera for two reasons. 1st, I can't see how the rubber strap will wrap around a helmet to achieve a top mount. 2nd, I think I'll look more of a dork with it in that position.

There are two issues that I've encountered with having it side-mounted. 1st, you can actaully feel the weight of the camera. It's slight, but it's there non the less. 2nd, it really gets in the way of your googles. I'm going to have to wear the goggle strap under my helmet.

Aligning the camera:
I didn't find aligning the camera to be that difficult. After the first attempt of setting it up, I walked around the room looking at specific objects and then watched the video back to see if the camera was looking in the same area. After a few slight adjustments I've made a reference line on the helmet, and it seems pretty reliable.

Robustness:
These comments may be a little premature, but I can't help thinking that a half decent slam is going to smash the whole thing. The camera unit itself seems very solid, but there are quite a few plastic pieces in the whole connection jigsaw, and that seems like a weak link.

What's more, when the camera is disconnected it still has part of the plastic connection wrapped around it. I'd hoped to carry the camera in my pocket as an ultra portable alternative to my video camera, at times when I don't want to carry something larger. Now I'm just worried that I might damage the plastic connector...

Summary:
At this stage, I'm still fairly encouraged. The design of the helmet mount could be better, but it might just work out to be ok. Time will tell. On the plus side, the quality is good enough for what I want and the operation of the camera is dead simple. On the down side, I don't like that plastic connector being wrapped around the camera all the time; it's in the way. I might be able to get it off, but it looks to be a right fiddle.

I'd like to try the helmet cam on my skateboard before I go to Fernie - and see how the footage comes out...

BCA Tracker DTS, First Use

Last night I had a go with the new transceivers for the first time. Just simple stuff. Reading the manual, turning it on, switching between transmit and search modes, and trying some noddy searches around the house.

Hopefully I'm going to get a chance to practice with them outdoors sometime this weekend. After that, I'd like to get another session in before we go. The aim is simply to get familiar with the device.

Last night was the first step.

I've got to say that at this stage, the Tracker DTS is living up to its reputation of being easy to use. There's not much to the device; although I haven't looked at the options for dealing with multiple burials.

The guidelines in the manual describe the 3 phases of a basic search: the primary search (or signal search), the secondary search and the pinpoint search.

As you might expect, the first phase involves trying to find a signal, and this is required whilst you're still more than 40m from the transmitting beacon. The second phase, once you have a signal, is designed to bring you to approximately 3m. Finally, the pinpoint search should bring you as close as possible to the transmitting beacon before you begin probing/digging. Different techniques are used for each stage.

It would be nice if my house was big enough for me to say that I could hide a transceiver in one room and be too far away to get a signal in another room, but that's not the case.

Searching in this environment is far from representative of a real slide; but it was cold, wet and dark outside, and I was eager to play around. Besides, it was still possible to get some kind of feel for how the tracker picks up a signal and displays the feedback on the unit.

I also re-watched one of the extras from More, an introduction to performing a single burial search. I'd forgotten that the transceivers used in this video are in fact the Tracker DTSs. It's a useful show, that covers the basics of how to use your transceiver. I'm keen to get out to an open field or the beach to try things out on a larger scale...

The Legend Of Griz

It was snowing in Newcastle today. Amazing. There was snow on the ground when I woke this morning, and it actually continued to settle, on and off, throughout the day. I headed out at lunch time and was caught in some pretty heavy snow/hail stones... walking through the slushy snow in the streets got me pretty stoked!

That said, it was all rain by mid-afternoon, and the reality is that this light dusting is nothing in comparison to the large amounts of snow falling in resorts all around the world, Fernie included.

Fernie Snow Forecast | Snow Report | by E-mail

With the reports showing that the snow continues to fall, I'm hoping that nothing changes! So, in an attempt to help keep the white stuff coming, I'm appealing to Fernie's Powder King, Griz, with an offering. I'm growing a beard.

Spurred on by my friends, the idea is to grow something grizzly, in honour of the great Griz himself. The unfortunate truth however, is that even at the age of 27, soon to be 28, it's not that impressive. Still, it's early days yet, and if the Griz stops bringing the good stuff, I can alway sacrifice the facial hair to win back his favour :)

On a completely different note, the lunch time outing led to the cheeky purchase of Almost's Cheese and Crackers. Even if you don't particularly like skateboarding it's worth watching because the mini-ramp action is pretty amazing. It's a short DVD, but it's fairly cheap at £7.50... if you don't want to buy it (boo!), there are plenty of clips on youtube.

New Gear

Having a birthday in early January allows for some Christmas/birthday combined-presents. As a result, Santa delivered some pretty nice snowboarding gifts this year; thanks! And the timing is really handy too. With Fernie just around the corner, I think the new gear that I was hoping to take has all been sorted out.

In my stocking I found some new snowboarding pants, with accompanying tool belt, a helmet cam, a backpack, some (much needed) socks, an avalanche beacon and an avalanche probe. The transceiver was kind of a present to myself, but hey :)

There are a couple of things that I'd like to try out before we go. First, I'd like to get some practice in with the beacon, get a little familiar with it. I'd also like to try using the helmet cam a few times, to try and find a consistent way of setting it up so that it's pointing in the right direction. I'll probably hop on the skateboard for this... There's also the actual attachment to the helmet itself that I'd like to get as solid as possible - I hope to get a chance to post some pictures showing this.

Perhaps the coolest thing though is the 686 tool belt. I've been wanting one of these suckers for a while now, and it was bundled with the pants. You'll never forget the screwdriver... Sweet!

So that's the list wrapped up. All I need to do now is go snowboarding.

• Pants
• Backpack
• Transceiver (& probe)
• Helmet cam

Is It Going To Fit?

I'm pretty well rested after the Christmas break. Normally I would work over this period, choosing to keep the days for something else, namely snowboarding. But not this year; the rules where I work mean that everyone is off between Christmas and New Year.

It's been nice. Despite the enviable snow reports, the Christmas break also had the benefit of distracting me from the count down to Fernie. Compared with being at work, the days go much quicker when you're whiling the hours away eating, drinking and opening new snowboard toys.

Mind, there has been one, more grounded thought churning away over the last few days. Is all of our luggage going to fit?

I'm talking about the journey from the North East to Manchester airport. There are five of us in total, four starting out from Newcastle/Gateshead and one being collected in Huddersfield. Two cars, five people, five board bags.

With four people in one car and a driver plus the boards in the other, it should work out fine... But then again, 3 of the bags are pretty big, which could make it all a little tight.

I performed a quick test, mainly just to see if a long board bag (185cm) would fit, but also to give an idea of how much room there's going to be overall. I could have rounded up a few more bags and filled them up, but that seemed like a little too much work given that it's Christmas!

Sick

I stumbled across the following video on YouTube. It's really short, but I think this bs 180 looks so sick that I should share it... Smooth and stomped. I'd quite like those skills :)

What's The Park Like?

It's a question that I've asked myself many times. So what is the park like? Can I expect something good? Is it gonna be all rails or kickers too?...

If you don't know someone who's been to a resort before, finding out what state the park is likely to be in when you get there isn't always easy. Sure there are resort reviews out there, and these do help, but I've always felt there's a need for more comprehensive coverage of resort snowparks.

I've tried to provide some information myself; there are some pictures of one of the Avoriaz parks from last season, and also some of the Deux Alpes summer park. But a few holiday pictures aren't really up to the job!

This is where the SnowParkGuide comes in. It's a website dedicated to covering the European snowparks. What a mint idea.

The website has only just gotten going (press release), but it looks like there are enough people contributing to it to make it work out. Plus, if they can build a good community on there, the information will get better still.

Personally, I think the Shapers Blog is a pretty cool idea; they're the guys who are closest to the park setups, if they can update the blog regulary it will be great. Also, the index of parks with links to photos is spot on. I hope the whole thing really takes off!

The ABCs of Avalanche Safety: Review

This is the first book of its kind that I've bought and read. Most people would agree that when it comes to avalanche safety, a book alone is no substitute for regular practice with avalanche equipment, guidance from an expert or real life experience of travelling in the backcountry. I was looking for an introduction, some background knowledge, things to think about. The ABCs of Avalanche Safety covers exactly what the title suggests - it's a good place to start.

The book is pocket size, say 4" by 6", with around 130 pages. The content is split up into 4 chapters - Snow and Avalanche Basics, Practical Guidelines for Stability Evaluation, Safety Rules and Rescue and Case Histories - each filled with concise information.

Concise should not be confused with simple, however. The book is written with technical and scientific language, especially so with the descriptions of how the snow cover forms. Photos and diagrams are used in places to suppliment the text, and to good effect.

I think the size of the book itself is a plus. Being handy, with a small number of direct chapters, makes reading encouraging; it's easy to dip into any of the sections for a quick read. Its size also makes it portable; weighing you down isn't a concern, so it's easy to take away.

In contrast, I occassionally found the vocabulary a little slow to digest. At this stage, some of the snow science seemed quite heavy, given my lack or practical experience.

So what about the scope of information? This is where the book really scores. Starting with an explanation of avalanche terms, it then provides foundation knowledge about different types of snow and how avalanches form. There are guidelines for assessing the risk, how to avoid avalanches and how to perform a search. It's a good mix of theory and practical advice. Simply put, it's the ABCs of avalanche safety.

Written on the back cover: A respected authority since 1961. I can see why. This is a good book. What's more, at around £6 it's very accessible. At the time of writing, Amazon has it listed with the Search Inside feature - so go take a slightly closer look!

Helmet Cam, Round Two

Well I've ordered the Oregon ATC-2K helmet cam. I've got some reservations, but I'm confident it's gonna fulfill at least some of my needs. The whole package was pretty reasonable too.

I bought the camera itself from purely gadgets. It was £75 plus £5 delivery. It may not be the cheapest price around but I'm sure it's close.

I also ordered a couple of 2GB SD cards. The manual recommends a couple of SanDisk models; I opted for the SanDisk Ultra II SD 2GB, rather than the standard card, just in case it makes a difference, as was hinted at in that review I read. I'd like to say I knew more about this kind of thing, but I don't, so I figured I just spend a few extra quid to be on the safe side...

I picked up the SD cards from play.com, £11 each with free delivery, making a grand total of £102. That's not bad!

I'm sure I've read it somewhere, but I can't remember what the expected battery life is. I'm gonna get some lithium AAs from somewhere as they're supposed to be better in cold conditions, but it would be handy to know how long they're expected to last. The two, 2GB cards gives me around 2 hours of footage, so I hope to be able to cover that with one set of batteries...?

I'm pretty interested to see how it turns out! Here's an update on the list:

• Pants
• Backpack
• Transceiver (& probe)
• Helmet cam

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Absinthe's Optimistic: DVD Review

I'm a fan of Absinthe films, especially the last two, so I was really looking forward to this season's Optimistic. It didn't disspapoint - I think Optimistic's a good snowboard movie with some exceptional parts... but for me, overall, it didn't grab in quite the same way as Futureproof and More.

So which bits didn't work? Mostly, I think it's the case that having really liked Futureproof and then thinking that they took More farther still, Optimistic had a tough benchmark to beat. I do feel that as the film gets going, it kinda settles in. My favourite bits are mostly at the beginning, so it seems to mellow out as the movie goes on. Don't get me wrong, the riding and filming is strong throughout, it just bobbed around my personal that's so good meter, whereas More kept leaping above it.

What about the excellent parts?
Gigi's section really appealed to me. The music's funky and the riding is varied. There are some heli follow-cam shots of Gigi and Danny Davis hitting this backcountry kicker that might be some of my favourite ever. The action smoothly follows the rider showing how big the jump is and you get an idea of what the kicker might look like from the rider's perspective on the run in, yet the rider and the kicker appear small in the vastness of the whole scene; awesome. There's also this sequence of Gigi riding down a side street with steps and rails, how can he make that sequence look so good? It just oozes style.

As well as some pretty sick shredding (I really like the way he rides powder), MFM's part has a true laugh out loud section - a snow-spray assault on skiers. You might think it's a little harsh, you might think some of it's justified, either way you'll probably think it's hillarious. The film is worth watching just for this bit!

Trees. There's some excellent tree action in Optimistic. Trees and deep powder. The section shot in Canada towards the beginning of the movie shouldn't be missed. Visually it looks fantastic, the trees, deep snow, the sun. And then check out the riding, Marco Feichtner and Wolle, it's like the trees aren't there, except when they're jibbing off them!

Perhaps most impressive in the movie is Wolfgang. I reckon Wolle Nyvelt was on a mission last season. Seriously, he has so much footage in Optimistic, so much powder, so many good shots. It's like he owns the DVD. The guy is riding deep pow on a wooden stick with no bindings better than most people when they've got both feet hooked in, it's insane. His riding alongside Matt Beardmore is also top drawer. I can't always tell who is who, but it's all good. Wolle really kicks this film going, he's killing it!

Other parts that I liked
Annie Boulanger is representing female snowboarders and has some really nice backcountry riding, pushing it pretty hard. I found myself liking quite a lot of the urban scenes. Mikey LeBlanc provides a lot of charisma along with some gutsy street moves. Then there's Hans Ahlund putting down some really sweet jibs, making it all look varied. The section with Romain De Marchi and Danny Davis has a handful of hits from a backcountry kicker that deserve to be watched over - super smooth riding/filming and a sick tail grab in there.

If you're into extras you may find the DVD a little thin in this area... having said that, Flipside's The Making of More (part1) is included, and it's really good!

The Soundtrack
I really like the soundtrack to Optimistic, there's some nice tunes in there, the mix is good. I'm not going to try and classify it, I'll just say it's right up my street. The production of the movie's intro is especially noteworthy. Excellent song, it's pretty inspiring. Here's the track list in the order played, with uk iTunes hook-up:

• "Rusted Wheel", album "Carnavas", by Silversun Pickups
• "Wolf Like Me", album "Return to Cookie Mountain", by TV On The Radio
• "Season of the Witch", by Donovan Leitch
• "Calling For The Dissolution", album "Criminal Saints", by Scott Sullivan
• "Don't Sweat the Technique", by Eric B and Rakim
• "Frosty", Meka
• "Cadillac Dust", by Elliot Brood
• "John The Baptiste", album "File Under Forgotten", by The Ants
• "C'mon C'mon", album "Pawn Shoppe Heart", by Von Bondies
• "Ain't Cha", album "Hell Hath No Fury", by Clipse
• "Jamna Plagor", by Dungen
• "Spring and by Summer Fall", album "23", by Blonde Redhead
• "The Man Who Came To Stay", album "Killamangiro", by Babyshambles
• "I Love My Bitch", album "The Big Bang", by Busta Rhymes
• "Presentazione Orchestra", album "Stasera Shake! Volume 2", by Rafaella Carra
• "Fragments", Meka

Here's most of the soundtrack to sample:

Helmet Cam?

I'd quite like to try out a helmet cam next year in Fernie. I've seen some footage around the web that looks pretty good, and then there's some of the examples from snowboarding films.

My current video camera doesn't have video-in, however, which eliminates nearly all of the options on the market. As far as I can see, it certainly eliminates the chance of getting half-decent video quality.

At first I decided to just drop the idea, due to the camera's incompatibility. But since then I've seen a couple of self-contained helmet cams that might be worth considering.

I've found two options. actioncameras.co.uk has a decent summary, with the only suitable models being Oregon's ATC-2K and the Tony Hawk Wireless Helmet Camera.

Of course the quality on these devices isn't great, but you'd expect that given the size and the price. The self-containment does have several advantages, the main one in my eyes being that I don't need to carry the larger, more delicate camera all of the time...

I hate riding with my camera in my backpack. I don't mine riding with it while I'm using it, and of course, if I'm riding while one of my friends is using it then all the better :) A small helmet cam could be carried in a pocket, giving the option to get some video at any time, without having the backpack with you.

I've pretty much ruled out the Tony Hawk camera as the resolution is too low at 320x240. It's only 640x480 when attached to a pc, what's the point in that!?

That leaves the ATC-2K. There's a good review of the camera on Helmet Cam Central, which includes some links to sample footage: one being the raw footage and the other a YouTube sample.

There's another good review of the ATC-2K on Nollie, which looks at some of the usability issues, including the act of attaching it to a helmet!

So what am I thinking?

• The camera is cheap, as are additional SD cards for storage
• Self-containment is a big plus. Being solid state it's also pretty robust. These benefits to me are worth the trade off in quality
• I'm concerned about how well it attaches to the helmet
• I'm concerned about regular batteries working in cold conditions
• I'm concerned that the choice of memory card might effect the quality

So will it end up being a waste of money, or a really handy device to carry on the hill to use either in the hand or attached to my lid?

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Deep Powder And Avalanche Safety

So it seems that it's snowing everywhere. Fernie had a half meter during a 24 hour period this week and I think some places in the Alps have had as much as a meter.

There's still a while to go before I get there, but it's a good sign all the same. The thought of all that powder is really exciting...

And a little scary. Well, not scary, but thought provoking. I was reading an article from last month's WhiteLines around the same time that these snow reports hit me; the article was about being burried alive...

It was describing an avalanche safety course in which the participants underwent a practice burriel. Even the controlled environment came across as pretty damn hairy. It sure made me re-think about the dangers of riding off-piste.

But it's not like I've never given it any thought before. I'm trying to hook myself up with a transceiver, and I've done a small amount of homework with the book The ABCs of Avalanche Safety. It's more that I feel I should practice. Practice with the transceiver, practice a search pattern, practice looking at the snow. Just practice something.

I was talking to Ciara about the article and we both agreed that the whole situation would be so freaky. But that's the point. We're all hoping to ride as much powder as possible in Fernie, and in the unfortunate event that we're in the vacinity of an avalanche, I don't want to be stood around trying procedures for the first time...

Airline Charges For Snowboard Gear

I've been stung at least once with charges for transporting my snowboarding gear on a flight; actually it was a two-leg flight with KLM, and I'm pretty sure I ended up paying the charge for both legs, in both directions.

Anyway, a friend pointed me at this table that airport parking company APH have, which summarises the charges with different airlines for taking your snowboard. It might be useful...