There is fresh powder falling in the Oregon Cascades, the northern Sierras, the Tetons and western Colorado Rockies. I love fresh powder and I admit I’m a complete powder snob.
My ideal snowboarding day would be a blue bird day after getting two feet of fresh at Jackson Hole. I would be the first person carving turns down Rendezvous Mountain and the Hobacks, which would be 4,139 feet of glorious vertical drop. After boarding, I would return to the cabin with my friends, where we would cook and feast on homemade chicken pot pie with sage biscuit topping and chocolate pudding cake. Afterwards, we would hop across 20 feet of snow in our bare feet and ease the pain by jumping into the hot tub. It’s 10 degrees outside but the hot tub is HOT, filled with close friends and the stars are shining brightly in the pitch dark night. That’s my ideal snowboarding day.
I hope you are looking forward to the snowboarding season as much as I am. If you are in need of a new snowboard, here are Outside Magazine’s 2007 Snowboard picks by board type.
- Free Ride: Arbor Element Alt Snowboard - “A dimpled base reduces friction for increased speed—great on long, Vail-type traverses—and a carbon-fiber leaf down the center provides torsional strength for high-speed turns. But our favorite part is that Arbor uses sustainable wood for all its topsheets.”
- Park: Flow Infinite Snowboard - “A park junkie’s dream, this fiberglass-and-carbon board is as lightweight and spry as a Russian gymnast lining up for the vault. The incredible responsiveness comes thanks to a titanium-and-aluminum fork that stretches laterally from the foot plates, transferring every toe twitch directly to the edges.”
- Carving: Ride Prophet Snowboard - “Ride furthers its well-deserved reputation for smooth, stable boards with the Prophet, a high-speed fiberglass-and-aramid (another strong synthetic) carver that has carbon-fiber strands running diagonally from the center to the tips to distribute rider power over the full surface.”
- Powder: Rome Design Snowboard - “The lightweight build—intended for hikes to the deep snow—results in a board that soars off jumps and rails. Specially designed hardwood plates underfoot keep the board in one piece after jarring impacts, and a carbon-fiber base layer gives it an energetic feel. But if you’re looking to rip big-mountain steeps, the Design may be a bit too soft—Stout suggests going for something slightly longer than your normal board length to compensate.”
- Featherweight: Salomon Special Snowboard - “Salomon’s ultra-lightweight (108 ounces at 159cm) construction took some getting used to. But once our testers realized that the secret lay in riding aggressively and diving hard into turns, the Special came to life.”
- All-Around: K2 Podium Snowboard - “Both testers found that the board’s springy tail allowed for “huge ollies.” But it was the deep sidecut and capped tip and tail that enabled this K2 to easily initiate and hold turns—it’s usually one or the other—in variable snow conditions. Added perk: The Podium offers more binding positions than most boards, for a wider variety of stance options.”
Have fun this boarding season and I hope every day you board is epic!
