Beginning tree riding?

Heh. A good pair of kevlar gloves is useful, too - I often find myself
knocking branches out of the way, or in some cases grabbing onto them
for a little assisted redirection/braking.

yeah, good point. both the knocking and the assisted redirection.
Definitely need something more than a pair of spring gloves...

wrote in message
I think the big part is being able to make slow skidded turns on slopes
as steep as you need.

Next is being able to control how much you side slip down the hill
compared to how much you move forward in the direction the board is
learning. If you can learn to control these seperately, then you can
angle your board however you need to get through the gap, while still
just sideslipping downward at an angle so you don't pick up warp speed.

Everyone after you would appreciate your using the barest minimum of
sideslipping. It quickly removes the snow everyone goes there for.

Bob

First off you must be able to fully control your board on a black
without sideslipping. In other words, if you can start, stop, turn,
point it without thinking then you will be ok. Otherwise you will just
scrape your way down the hill and **** everyone off that comes behind
you. You will also run a greater risk of falling into a well and Lassie
might not be around to save you. It happened to me and it was one of the
most frightening experiences of my life. Leave the mp3 player at home
and wear a helmet. Don't forget to stop once in a while and take in the
silence of being deep in snow surrounded by the timbers. I guarantee
most of the time you are out there, you won't see another soul...the
best place to be.


Mike M. Miskulin wrote:
hey now,

looking for pointers on beginning tree riding. Hard
to believe I've only done it once out at Brighton, but
I'm not sure that really qualified as tree riding.. they
were so far apart! Certainly nothing like what we have
here in VT.

Part of the problem(?) is my local mountain is a pretty
empty place when I'm out there and I'm hesitant to be
going into glades on my own.

But assuming I can hook up with somebody else, or at
least get a day when there's some traffic, whats the
technique? I've heard 'dont look at the trees' but
beyond that I'm clueless.

thanks

Loads of good advice, especially about gloves, using them as additional
brakes and for pushing branches out the way - helmets are also a damn good
idea, as much as I hate wearing them - make me sweat like a pig - one other
point, is about backpacks - unfortunately carrying a pack is almost going to
happen 100% of the time - and having poles, handles sticking out of the pack
can be a real hassle as you duck under a branch - plus try and keep loose
straps tucked away - all this advice is based on me screwing up on a couple
of occassions.......plus if you can see where you intend to go prior to the
snow fall, (if only I had that luxury) you could try and spot the barbed
wire, tree stumps and fallen trees that cit across your intended route - all
good fun, hence the helmet - bit like that movie "What Lies Beneath?"

Everyone after you would appreciate your using the barest minimum of
sideslipping. It quickly removes the snow everyone goes there for.

Bob

Maybe in some east coast flat mountain or trees along the side of the
bunny hill runs you could get away without sideslipping. Everywhere
around here though, speed control is going to be a big part of being in
the trees.

Unless you tell me the magic way to stay in control on a 1000 foot run
of 30+ degree trees. Going 40mph through trees doesn't sound like a
good idea to me.

For the most part, thier metabolic process is either stopped or
drasticly slowed. They do partially freeze. I remember someone
explaining how clever tree's construction is in highschool biology:
there's enough air bubbles in the capilary tubes that when portions of
them freeze up, there's room for the icey bits to expand into and not
cause splitting.

I thought tree wells were formed by the tree shielding the area
underneath it's branches.

A girl died out at Bachelor a
couple years ago because she ran into a tree

Very good point. I can tell you I stopped riding in those trees alone
after I heard about that in detail from one of the locals.

Be careful, even if your buddy is near by, he may not get to you in the
100 seconds or so it may take to suffocate in a tree well.

Just to be clear here, when I say "sideslip" I don't mean doing the the
beginner falling leaf. I mean making a skidding J turn... as in
comparison to a carved turn.

wow.. quite the response! Sounds like most
of you guys are out west. I'll definitely
watch out for the tree wells

Any east coast riders? From the few peaks
I've taken I don't think its possible (well
desirable might be better) to go very fast
at all. Everythings too close and got to
wonder about the obstacles lying just
underneath.

looking for pointers on beginning tree riding.

A few additions to what's been said already...

Picking your line is probably the hardest part. Start slowly and work your
way up to higher speeds. Got a buddy who knows what they are doing in the
trees, and that you trust? Following someone else's line, providing it's a
good line, is the easiest way, it reduces the decision-making factor and
lets you concentrate on not getting tripped up.

A run where you can duck in and out of trees is a good place to start.

FRS radios can be helpful if you get tangled up and need some help getting
out too!