Baldface Lodge Day 3

Sasquatch sighting..

YETI ATTACK!

TR

Baldface Lodge Day 2

Today was umm, well.. it was 'ok'.

Another 10-20cm overnight, and we just killed it. Was pretty much perfect snow density, tons of features everywhere, and you could just send it! Best day of the year so far at Baldface, and some of the best snowboarding conditions in the last few years for us. No time for riding pictures - today was all about gett'ner done.

Done got!

We were up past midnight last night reviewing prototypes - up again at 7a.m. Charged hard all day, then Andrew and Colin transfered back to Nelson to continue their journey to the far east.

On the in-coming transfer came our friends Palmer West and Jonah Smith, and the yeti crew, that will be our posse for the next few days. It's clearing and getting colder. It's possible tomorrow could be better yet..

Andrew, Susanna, TR

DingDingDing!

TR and Colin.

The sickest board in the world! Only 2 in existence. All I can say is reverse camber is the bomb. And it's 164 cm. Everything else is classified.

TR, Susanna, Andrew and Colin.

Yuske-san! Got to ride with our friend Yuske for two days. He transferred out for his week off today, and heading back to Rodger's pass to work on his ACMG guiding cert. Check out the profile on Yuske that was recently published in SNOWSTYLE below. Yuske Hirota [the man].

TR

Baldface Lodge Day 1

Was dumping snow all day today and getting progressively deeper every run. We connected with Andrew Burke and Colin Alger from Burton. They flew from Burlington to Seattle, to catch a flight back to Spokane, to rent a car and drive to Nelson, to get picked up by a boat and then snowmobile for an hour to get to the snowcat...  while merely stopping en route to Asia for factory visits and product development meetings.. No cliche here, these guys are dropping in and working hardcore, and yes, testing product at Baldface really is part of the job. 

All four of us are testing 2011 [ak] 2nd gen. protoypes, and making the final decisions and refinements for the 3rd gen. of development. We have a very compressed amount of time to really field test everything and make improvements. We are on-snow again tomorrow before they start reversing their moves back to Spokane, to continue on to Taiwan. 

TR

FYI at Baldface Lodge

We arrived at the lodge last night. The approach is by 20 minute boat ride down west kootenay lake, to the snowmobiles waiting at the other side. You then snowmo another 45 minutes up to the lodge at 6700ft. It was just dumping snow on the approach, and it continued all night. Today is going to be DEEEEP!

TR

[ak] Japowder movie.

A new [ak] movie by Neil Hartmann, featuring some epic blower

pow riding with Yoshinari Uemura(Ue), Narufumi Yoshimura, 

Takamasa Imai, Yoshiaki Oka, Shunsuke Hoshino, and Soichiro 

Tanaka. You can find the movie in the [ak] movie page of FYI. Watch

for new content of the Japowder posse in the [ak] team rider 

page of FYI posting soon..

TR

CRF450R Project update.

....opened the box.

Even though I knew what was inside, it was the best box opening ever!

TR

FYI in Snowboard Canada.

An interview with Susanna Bergstrom on the W's AK program, featured in the Snowboard Canada annaul W's issue. Can read it here; FYI/Snowboard Canada

FYI at PROJECT LV

A quick trip to Las Vegas to drop in on the PROJECT trade show. Spent the day walking, talking and connecting with friends at Aether, Nau, and the Vael Project. Followed by dinner and drinks with the Aether crew, Sven Sandahl and Shawn Stussy. 

Jonah Smith and Palmer West, founders of Aether Apparel.

Coleman Horn, and Geoff Rittmeyer have been developing the VAEL PROJECT for a couple of seasons already, and had a good presentation. I have known both for a long time and through many different ventures over the years. The Vael project being their latest collaboration. 

Matt Carroll, Geoff Rittmeyer, JamesVaccaro and Coleman Horn.

TR

[bc] field report.

F.or Y.our I.nspiration 

Just in from the [ak] underground. Chris Ankeny get'ner done [bc] style. These shots are from last week in the Coast Range. Thin snowpack this year, but conditions are finally improving.

Aston Martin One-77

The One-77 is an automotive art project. Conceived as the ultimate expression of Aston Martins full design and engineering capabilities. Only 77 cars will be hand built and tailored to each specific owners tastes. Customers are encouraged to be heavily involved in the design and development process of their personal car. Currently the most expensive road car in the world at £1.2m

The One-77 has a handbuilt 7.3 liter v12 with over 700hp, carbon chassis and aluminum body.

Watch.

episode 1

episode 2

TR

AETHER Highland Jacket.

 

Just arrived. The Highland Jacket is my favorite piece from the spring  AETHER  collection, developed by FYI. It's a waxed cotton shell with a slick nylon lining. It's made in Canada with premium materials, like Pittard's perforated leather from the U.K. , and polished zippers from Riri in Switzerland.

The Highland uses a 'busted seam' construction, and a double topstitch so that the seams lay flat. I really like the contrast stitch as it gives character to the cut lines.

TR

Paul Smith and the thing with the stuff.

I found this at a Paul Smith store in Tokyo. It's ummmm, well... maybe a coin case? I'm not sure. I'll just call it the thing with the stuff. The point is it's beautifully designed and crafted. I love the closure. You just press it shut, and the friction of the press-fit holds it closed. So clean and simple. The design would only work through the proper manipulation of the materials, which means you couldn't have designed it without a working understanding of how the materials will behave. A rare crafted object, in a world of hyper-cookie-cutter mass production. 

Very cool. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

TR

TR profile in TWS Japan.

A Tom Routh profile recently released in Transworld Snowboarding Japan. It's all in Japanese, and I have no idea what it says. Can try to read it yourself here: TR/TWS

FYI- BTN Co2 EST ETC.

My new favorite binding. The Burton C02 EST binding is like having little Herman Miller Aeron chair's for your feet! And just as comfortable as an Aeron chair too. The highback has tensioned mesh across the back, combined with enough flex in the highback to optimize riding comfort while staying responsive. Think of having a tennis racket pressed against the back of your leg (instead of a relentlessly rigid plate of carbon fiber).

In addition, underfoot you have a combination or different foams in between your boot and your board that absorbs vibration while at the same time giving you great edge feel. Better edge feel equals better edge control.

The bindings also feature the 'Channel', which is an innovative way to mount the bindings to the board. You mount with just two screws for each binding. Super quick and easy to adjust. My only issue is that the channel only allows a max of 26 degrees on the front foot, and while riding 26 degrees is ok with me - I lose all the adjustability otherwise. For example if I want to be able to adjust the binding from side to side to center between the edges, I would have to back off the angle to gain the adjustability. As i'm not riding -less- than 26 degrees, i forfeit the 'infinite' adjustability. Aside from that I love the system. Overall Burton has taken the soft binding to the next level.

TR

Project 2006 YZ250F

FYI- Susanna's dream bike goes to the next level.

Her bike is a 2006 Yamaha YZ250F. This is a really amazing bike that was worthy of a freshin up for the 2009 moto season. To start with this bike has a White Bros. motor handbuilt by Tom Morgan. The motor includes a high compression piston, custom cam and jetting, and an FMF titanium header / 4.1 factory exhaust pipe. 

We run the bike on 50/50 blend of VP race gas, and high octane pump gas. The net result is a bump from the stock 33hp to over 42hp, with noticeably snappier throttle respone. This bike pulls like it's a 350cc, which is the sweet spot for a motocross bike if you ask me. The bike also has a Hinson Racing clutch to put the power down with authority.

It was time for a new drivetrain and the original wheels were getting pretty beat, so we updated to Excel Rims, with Talon Hubs, Renthal Sprockets and a D.I.D. Chain.

The suspension has custom KYB works valving by ENZO Racing. This suspension is confidence inspiring! It's super plush yet at the same time has amazing bottoming resistance when over-jumping. Jumps I would be eyeballing for a week on my CRF250R (which is set up well), I would hit on my warm-up lap on this bike. Honestly, when this bike is set up perfectly, it has some magical qualities to it.. greater than the sum of it's parts. Susanna instantly fell in love with it the first time she rode it.

Fresh plastic, grips, tires, Etc.  Still more to do... three weeks left before sending the bikes down to Southern California to PerformX. The next post on this bike will be from SoCal!

TR

PerformX Motocross.

PerformX Racing is a developmental camp for motocross racers run by our good friend Todd Shumlick. During the winter Todd sets up shop in SoCal, within striking distance of dozens of world class tracks. Todd is a Kinesio-motologist, or something fairly technical sounding along those lines.. And has assisted serious athletes across a broad spectrum of sports push their progression. In addition, Todd is a total ripper on a bike, and a lot of fun to kick around with.

Susanna and I are signed up for the the April Brogram session with some friends. I can't wait!! Start getting adrenaline just thinking about it! Moto season is right around the corner.

See you soon Todd.

TR

Saweeeet.

Atle from Sweet Protection just sent Susanna a new helmet.

Sweet is a Norwegian company that has been doing really

beautiful carbon fiber work with their helmets.

I met Atle at his first I.S.P.O. show in, errrr, 2001 (?). I had

already been looking for a low-pro helmet for a couple of

years. It seemed that all snow helmets were adopting bike

helmet technology - and as a result, just getting bigger and

bigger. I suppose Atle had been thinking the same thing, as

the Sweet helmet was exactly what I was hoping to find. I've

used one ever since. I love how lightweight and low profile

they are. You literally forget you have it on. Exceptional design

and quality. Still one of the very best helmets made.

TR

FYI with Honeyee.com

An Interview with FYI and Hiroshi Fujiwara just posted

on Honeyee.com

[ak] guide project.

FYI

The [ak] guide program was spawned by the outerwear needs of working guides, pro patrol, avy control, and search and rescue professionals. These guys live in the elements and destroy gear. In addition they have a totally different set of needs and priorities to regular skiers and snowboarders. The mission was to design and develop purpose built gear, that helps them do their job better. 

Naturally we needed to spend time with our friends at Baldface, and Powder Mountain to take a closer look at how they used and abused their gear. It was immediately clear that the first problem to solve was dedicated radio management. In addition some operations like to use remote mic's, others didn't. They are in constant communication with other guides / pilot's etc. and need to have their radio secured and accessible. 

Nobody wanted hand pockets - they all wear backpacks all the time, and the waistbelt strap renders hand pockets useless. Consensus was to not have a powder skirt either. The guide book, however comes out every run, all the time. And the book includes a thermometer for checking snowpack temps that can't get bent or broken. Another problem was clients skis or boards getting ice build up on the base, while shuttling outside a cat or heli - they needed easy access to a scraper. They also asked for easy access to big pit zips, and to be able to adjust their lower hem cinch with gloves on. Everybody asked for durability. They literally live in the gear, and average product just gets destroyed.

We went to work and developed organizational solutions for the primary tools first. Commercial radio pocket that locates the radio to not inhibit movement, or interfere with wearing a backpack. Above the radio pocket we included a mic pocket that's accessed from the inside, with ports linking the pockets for the mic wire. The guide can key the mic and speak while wearing gloves, and not exposing the radio to the outside elements. On the opposite side we developed a reach across cargo pocket for easy access to the guide book, properly positioned on the chest for backpack straps. We incorporated the [ak] drop hood, so the collar can stand properly when the hood is down in foul weather (guides keep their hoods off most of the time so they can hear better). The jacket is constructed out of the toughest Gore-Tex 3L Proshell in the [ak] range.

Simple, bomber tough, and ultra functional.

The cool thing about projects like this is that an interesting aesthetic emerges from purely functional needs. It's honest design as nothing is superfluous.

Baldface and Powder Mountain are running pilot programs in 2009.

Electric blue was used for all the guide jackets as it's the most visible at a distance in low-vis conditions.

Baldface guide crew gett'ner done [bc] style.

Not for sale at a dealer near you. Less than 50 guide jackets are currently in existence, and being tested on-snow by workin pro's. And most of them are at Baldface.

TR