Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

…when you scored that PBR beanie…

We have a ton of snow here in VT and the nice weather doesn’t want to quit…

Don’t get caught in a NIMBY mindset…you may have grass in your back yard but winter’s been happening… and now for the best tim eof the year: spring, with parking lot BBQ’s to match sunny park laps.

With Spring days at Tucks in mind, I hoped that the sun would bake the Rock Garden so I headed up…

Anyways, what I mean is: get out there the snowboarding is as good as you can ask for here in the East.

Thursday, a bunch of Rome employees were doing what we try to do as much as we can…get our snowboard on.

Generally, this is a good week for us working stiffs; we start the week blacked out, but the rest of the week the mountain opens at 7:30. If you can get your ass out of bed, this pretty much means you can get just under two hours of riding in and be at your desk in Waterbury before 10 am.

So i was riding with Toohey, Anna, & Brendan and got a little ahead of them and rolled up on Josh. So instead of waiting, I hopped on the chair with Josh and headed up. Then…the lift stopped…abruptly. We were not quite half way up the hill.

We sat there for a little bit with some shit chat, when a patroller rolled up and declared that it was going to be a minute and they were going to have to evacuate us from the chair. Years ago I learned how to do evac when i was an instructor…I knew “a minute” was the understatement of the century.

Well the guys who rolled up to do our section needed some practice in the little things but safely emptied the chair ahead of us. Watching them empty the chair Josh & I decided that it was bad steez to have your hand on the chair while you were getting evacuated.

While waiting for the patrollers who evacuated the chair ahead of us, an extra patroller rolled up and this guy was pro. His rope was over the cable on his first try and we were down in no time.

Once we all had regrouped at the office most of us were pretty okay having had the experience; our curiosity well outweighed any frustration or inconvenience. I had never had this happen before (for real), and no one else in the office had ever been evacuated either.

So, first time for everything…

PS- the lift is now fixed

PPS- I missed my grab too.

Photos: Brendan

So any of you on the East Coast know that it’s been a slow start to the winter.

No big deal, the Farmer’s Almanac has been making heavy claims so we’re in a good mood… Well winter finally set in with 20″ at Stowe last weekend and then the mountains around here started to turn the lifts this past weekend. We also have snow in the forecast every day this week.

I didn’t take any pictures of Stowe, so you get a picture of kids standing in line for Hot Dogs (or red hots as you call them if you’re from WNY) at the Waterville Valley pre-jib from Twitpic.

mmmm…hot dogs

(See if you don’t order a red hot dog in Rochester, you might just get a White hot dog)

Red Bull threw a pretty fun little contest the other night here in Stowe.

The Butter Cup had a unique layout. Basically it was a big half-pipe on the flats with box features in the middle. It was easily lit and super convenient right in front of the lodge. All in all a simple but neat idea.

Rome and Oakley helped out with prizes. Unfortunately, the Rome crew was in light attendance due to setting up for the Vegas show.

Fortunately I got myself out of that so I decided I was due for a night out in Stowe. The event was at the new Spruce Peak village so it was good to get inside some of the buildings I had not been in yet over there.

The event was pretty cool. Pun intended; I think it was like 10 below with gusts out of the South. More power to the kids that came out and brought the heat; they were also probably Tivo’ing the X-Games. Why sit at home in the warmth when you can get out there and give’r?

Some pics of the event…

Awards inside the warm Day Lodge…

After-party at Piecasso. Sorry no Saturday night Karaoke (I don’t think I even saw Danger!) …

You have to love it when the after-party is at your regular Sat. hangout.

Butter Cup events are happening up and down the East Coast. Check out the Red Bull site here for upcoming dates and locations.

Props to all the people who worked the event that I will forget to name. Again it was super cold so they get those props heavy.

If you care who won Mary will probably have a story on Snowboardermag.com or something….

Sometimes just to try is to succeed.

I decided to use my split-board to head off the property on Sunday and find some turns. It worked out…I didn’t cross another track all day (whether riding or skinning)…including the first line off the hill…

Now instead of taking the trail all the way to the bar, I decided to pick up a side trail and get another descent under my belt.

As I ascended i saw all sorts of possibilities but I decided to stick to the marked trails (most of which I had been on before in one shape or form).

My original goal was to make my way around the Ranch Valley (just under the ridgeline) and then grab a descent on the far side, but I’ll be the first to admit I misjudged the time to get there. The tube of my Camelbak had also frozen a second time when I hit the Dishpan; I got it to defrost in my coat early in the trek but when it froze the second time it didn’t want to come back, no matter what tricks I had up my sleeve. So that set me up to call it earlier (distance-wise) than I wanted.

So I hit another junction and headed down. Now I’ll also admit that what I headed down was flatter than I expected, but I was riding untouched snow so it was still fun. Unfortunately due to the lack of pitch I eventually had to switch back to “travel” mode and get back to the Nordic center. In no time, I was back at the Tollhouse and back on the resort.

So didn’t quite make it around to the the line I wanted, but still had a fun day.

(Stowe is littered with trails cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Great Depression. Some have become an integral part of the resort; others are outside the boundary and frequented by tele skiers. Please research your trip when heading out. There’s lot’s of resources so make sure you use them. Also, please make responsible decisions regarding what you ride and when to call it a day.)

PS- sorry for the lousy pics, apparently the batteries I was putting into the camera should’ve been thrown out, so you got some more phone pics

Oh wait, nobody did ask, anyways here’s some video I recorded after my other video fail …Basically I’m just holding the camera in my front hand…I slash a few times and whiteout the camera…Video is four parts of the run. Three coming down to the road and one riding the road back to Stowe. The lens is fogged up at the start of the second part as I was trying to clean the lense of snow. A little Jethro Tull as a soundtrack.

Shredding the Backside… from Waldert on Vimeo.

So we got some more natural snow on Friday…  If you live on the East Coast you really need to pack the car head up to ME, Northern VT, or Northern NH…  Down south may have had a heck of an ice storm, but fortunately we mostly got more snow.  We are in full on winter up here and you really should take care of yourself and come make some turns; you’ll feel a lot better about the world.

So Friday I hopped on a Notch 1985.  I had ridden one of the early protos, but hadn’t been on one in a couple seasons.

Friday was one of those storms everybody was jonesin’ for, so the parking lot was pretty full by 8 am, and  it got played out pretty fast.    Nonetheless, it was a good opportunity to make some turns on the 1985, to see if I would prefer it as my full-time powder deck.  I loved the ability to ride fakie.  Now, I can’t tell you I was doing huge airs in pow and needing to put down the landing gear switch, but it really was more about coming to a stop in a tight area and deciding that I feel more comfortable taking the option to my left (I’m goofy).   For example, I would never take on a water bar fakie on my tapered Notch, which I did Friday.  It really shows how this board evolved from the Design and much of why I rode the Design before we had the Notch in the line.

I had to give back the 1985 Notch that day, and so I rode my own tapered Notch (158cm) the rest of the weekend.  I was riding it with my Targa’s.  (The Green/Brown one’s look pretty tight on it, lame, I know…)

I had to start the day riding groomers or use groomers to get to “where I was going”.  I will say that for my riding style the tapered Notch is very satisfying at railing on groomers.  I tend to have a lot of fore and aft movement on my board;  driving into the nose to start a turn and powering off the tail coming out.  I really felt more confident initiating turns at speed on my own Notch (on groomers).  Honestly, I really was blown away how well the board coped with groomers; if you ride a bunch of pow and can only afford one board, do not hesitate to buy this as your one board.  Obviously, the board rides pow awesome so I won’t spend too much time on that.

So for myself, riding in VT on lift serviced stuff, I think I prefer the tapered Notch.  I think the same would be true if I was doing frontside and backside stuff out west.

If I was out building kickers or in general riding in more of true backcountry experience (hiking, using snowmobiles, cats, heli, skinning, etc.)  I would choose the Notch 1985.

I hope this helps you understand some of the differences between the two boards and why different people might choose the different models and why both exist.

PS-  I did a POV video of riding this gully but I had the camera on the “compact” setting, so it kind of looked crappy on YouTube.  I’m not really a fan of POV stuff so I guess it was karma.