Bro Call - Heavenly, Friday, 11/19

The Tour De Bro Models continues. All three flexes of the demo fleet of Bro Models (soft, stiff, and Bro-Pro/Pro-Bro prototypes) will be available. I'll be bringing them to Heavenly tomorrow (Friday.) I probably won't be up on the mountain until about 10ish (I have an early morning appointment in Incline Village.) I should have them somewhere around the base of the Tamarack chair. Look for a guy with a solid blue Vigor helmet (w/ black face bar) if it is chilly out, or a light green Giro 9 (w/ Mr. Beer and Kirkwood stickers) if it is kind of warm. I'll have my cell phone with me. PM me if you need it or please post here if you'll be there and want to try the Bros.

Bump for info.

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The 2004/05 ski and snowboard season at Lake Tahoe officially begins with the opening of Heavenly Mountain Resort this Friday, November 19, at 9:00 a.m. Thanks to record-breaking snowfall during the month of October, the resort will open with more terrain than originally planned; offering skiing and riding on the upper California and upper Nevada sides of the mountain.

"The wait is over. We've got a strong opening on tap and we're thrilled," stated Blaise Carrig, chief operating officer at Heavenly. "The combination of record early-season snowfall and our snowmaking has allowed us to offer a much bigger opening than we have had in the past two years."

Thanks to record snowfall during the month of October, Heavenly received as much as four feet of early-season snow, making a solid base for the upcoming winter. In addition, Heavenly's snowmaking crew fired up the snowmaking system on Friday, October 29, and blanketed the upper mountain with snow. Since then, snowmaking crews have made snow nearly every day for a total of 170 hours.

Heavenly will be offering skiing and riding in two states on some of the resort's most popular trails: Orion's, Big Dipper, Comet, California Trail, Skyline, Jackpot, High Roller, Double Down, Canyon and Ridge Run. Access to the mountain will be via the Heavenly Gondola in Heavenly Village. Snow conditions will be packed powder and machine-groomed snow, on the designated runs. Six out of the resort's ten high-speeds lifts are scheduled to operate, including the Heavenly Gondola, Tamarack Express, Dipper Express, Comet Express, Sky Express and Canyon Express. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Lifts open a half-hour earlier at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Full-service ski school, rentals, and food and beverage will be available at the mountain as well. Parking will be available in the parking garage at Heavenly Village or at Heavenly's California Lodge. The resort's complimentary shuttles will be operating with service to the casino corridor, as well as from the California Lodge to Heavenly Village.

Bump because they open in less than 12 hours.

Walter,

You are right. I hope that they don't have the off-piste terrain roped off.

i'll be up there in the afternoon vets. i'd love to try the bro's but i've only got AT boots so itsa no go for me. i'll look out for ya though to take a run or 2. i just talked to troller buddy who said that "officially" only the trails are "open" and there's no tree skiing w/ closed lollipops everywhere:rolleyes: and then he told me where the goods be at. heh heh i'm stoked to ride my 1st lift of the year after those kirkwood fuckers still aren't accepting midweek passes even though its friday. i'll prolly be in a green jacket, black pants, gay blue denalis, and freerides.

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Originally Posted by gimpy

i'll be up there in the afternoon vets. i'd love to try the bro's but i've only got AT boots so itsa no go for me. i'll look out for ya though to take a run or 2. i just talked to troller buddy who said that "officially" only the trails are "open" and there's no tree skiing w/ closed lollipops everywhere:rolleyes: and then he told me where the goods be at. heh heh i'm stoked to ride my 1st lift of the year after those kirkwood fuckers still aren't accepting midweek passes even though its friday. i'll prolly be in a green jacket, black pants, gay blue denalis, and freerides.

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I'll ski back to the base of the Tamarack chair around 1:15-1:30 if I don't see you before then. What is your shoe size? I have a couple of extra pairs of downhill boots that might work. Let me know. It is strange that Kirkwood was accepting midweek passes last Sunday but they won't work on a Friday???

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Originally Posted by Vets

packed powder

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This description always puzzles the shit out of me. Is glacial ice also packed powder?

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Originally Posted by bad_roo

This description always puzzles the shit out of me. Is glacial ice also packed powder?

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Is the base of Tammy Faye Baker's makeup also packed powder?

i wear a 10.5 vets, but don't worry bout lugging an extra pair of boots around. i just wanna go skiing and i'm sure there'llbe other opportunities.

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Originally Posted by bad_roo

This description always puzzles the shit out of me. Is glacial ice also packed powder?

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Just like rain = liquid powder :D


As gapery as HEavenly seems, some of my best Tahoe powder days were in Mott Canyon, with 5 feet of fresh, and only about 10 of us hitting it all day.

The groomers on Sky Express laps is the bomb on DH boards too, on an uncrowded weekday morning.

I met up with Pow Day. He tried out the softer Bro Model prototype. Although Heavenly was only supposed to be groomed runs supplemented by manmade snow, there were some good turns to be found by being adventurous, braving some crusty snow, and eventually finding the good stuff. Here are a few pictures from today:
http://www.loloville.com/132-3300_IMG.JPG
http://www.loloville.com/132-3294_IMG.JPG
http://www.loloville.com/132-3295_IMG.JPG
http://www.loloville.com/132-3299_IMG.JPG

sorry i didn't catch up w/ ya vets. was eyeing everybodys skis i saw but no bros to behold anywhere. definately some decent cream cheesy pow to be had in north facing trees and it felt good to get some vert on. mostly lapped the milky/kill ropeline and dipper knob trees. took a peek into the canyons but they've got many moons to go till its on.

definitely was a good afternoon, more fun than I expected-there was some good snow to be had if you went and looked. Vets was nice enough to show me around and had the bro models on hand...I skied on the soft bros the whole afternoon and had a blast on them. :fm: Splat!! Your hard work is certainly paying off.
May have to head to mammoth on sunday so I can try out the stiff bros...we'll see.
Here are a few pics...

http://www.killingtonzone.com/albums...0441.sized.jpg

http://www.killingtonzone.com/albums...0438.sized.jpg

http://www.killingtonzone.com/albums...0434.sized.jpg

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Originally Posted by gimpy

sorry i didn't catch up w/ ya vets. was eyeing everybodys skis i saw but no bros to behold anywhere. definately some decent cream cheesy pow to be had in north facing trees and it felt good to get some vert on. mostly lapped the milky/kill ropeline and dipper knob trees. took a peek into the canyons but they've got many moons to go till its on.

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Sorry that we missed each other. Dipper Knob trees were good. There were other short tree shots that were good too. I didn't get over to milky/kill ropeline. Getting over there looked like it would be pretty interesting.

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Originally Posted by Pow Day

I skied on the soft bros the whole afternoon and had a blast on them.

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Any chance for a bit more of a review on the soft Bro?

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Originally Posted by Vinman

Any chance for a bit more of a review on the soft Bro?

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I chose to test drive the soft bros instead of the stiff ones since I'm only 5'9 and about 140. Huge difference from the K2 axis XPs that I have been skiing on, and it took a good 2-3 runs to really get used to them, but once they clicked, they rocked. The conditions were variable (to say the least) yesterday, and we pretty much hit every condition possible except deep pow and big bumps...and they handled everything with ease, except for the thickest of crusts. :eek: Surprisingly quick for short radius turns, also.
Hope this helps.

Helps a lot. I am pretty much the same size as you and I'm torn between the stiff bro and the soft. Thanks for the info it will help me and I'm sure a few other to pull the trigger on one or the other.

How do you think they'd be in tighter trees? Those are boulvards in those pics compared to some of the trees we get into on the EC.

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Originally Posted by Vinman

Helps a lot. I am pretty much the same size as you and I'm torn between the stiff bro and the soft. Thanks for the info it will help me and I'm sure a few other to pull the trigger on one or the other.

How do you think they'd be in tighter trees? Those are boulvards in those pics compared to some of the trees we get into on the EC.

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after skiing on the soft, at my size, I would almost buy them without even trying the stiff - but if I wind up at mammoth tomorrow, i'll definitely give them a spin and let you know.
that's funny you say that...I moved here a couple months ago from NY and I've always been used to tight VT trees...

This thread needs copying too or starting over on epic...ok lots of them are gapers but some of them will like the bros and maybee even want to try them!.....it's worth a shot.

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Originally Posted by Pow Day

after skiing on the soft, at my size, I would almost buy them without even trying the stiff - but if I wind up at mammoth tomorrow, i'll definitely give them a spin and let you know.
that's funny you say that...I moved here a couple months ago from NY and I've always been used to tight VT trees...

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Cool let me know whta the soft to stiff comparison is like if you get the chance. I think I'm leaning towards the soft but Im waiting for the Bro demo tour skiers to put up some more reviews.