ian leahy

These are some side hits and jumps that I made at Cannon Mt. ski area in NH in 2021 and a few backcountry farmcountry ones near where I live in Monroe, NH.

Sometimes you just see a spot like ohh, there’s a jump there if you dig it out or pile up some snow. And sometimes the snowcats will take them out when they widen trails. Of course side hits aren’t in the middle of trails like terrain park hits, but normally on the sides and out of the way.

But by the time you go looking for these or even find this post they could be long gone because conditions change everyday.

Tuckerbrook side hit

Here’s me hitting a side hit I built.

Last season I made a few side hits in Tuckerbrook. This one which was off the side and near the top of Fox tail was one of the better ones while it lasted.

Like another mentioned here it started off as a snowmaking whale on the side of the trail. But I chiseled out a take off one day when the snow was soft and enjoyed it for a few days before it turned to ice.

Tuckerbrook is rad.

It’s the beginner area, the lift is slow and the runs are short. But there are a few fun blue runs, some rollers, banks and the snow tends to stay nicer here than the upper mt probably cause it is less steep, less windy and gets less traffic.

I think they could build a cool park over there on some of the trails mentioned below, but since it’s the beginner area maybe they won’t.

I worked on a few hits on Turkey trot, Bear Paw, Fox Tail and Deer run in early 2021.

I even sort of made a cool gap between Fox tail and Bear paw late season. There’s an area there that with enough speed you can jump from Fox tail over some pipes (hopefully covered in snow) and land on the side of Bear Paw. I had to shovel some snow in the landing to make it smoother and you have to ollie hard off the side off Fox tail. I was a little sketched out but knew I could do it. And I actually recorded it but when I went to play it back the camera phone had shifted while recording and I lost it ;-/.

Spookie hit

This one is on Spookie. It’s a snowmaking whale that seems to be sitting there and it originally had a straight wall of ice on it carved out by the snowcat which made it not hittable but I saw the potential and cleaned it up.

Snowcats up there often leave these icy walls on the sides of some trails and that is kind of dangerous and ruins any jumps or wall riding on the side of the trail – at least at Cannon. You can hire me to go in and smooth them outˆˆ.

It was/is a big block of ice and I first went in there with a shovel and tried chipping away at it to smooth it out and no way. Then the next day it heated up softened (when I took the pic) and I went back.

I was debating carving out a groove to hit it like a hip but just ran out of time. I smoothed out the wall and transition to make it more approachable. It has more potential to work on it. At the moment the best way to hit is like the line you see above if you look closely.

But it’s often very icy so beware.

Started making a hit above it too so you could hit it along the tree line pointed towards middle ravine, but that needs more snow.

Taft slalom hits

Taft slalom is my default choice trail off the top of Cannon. Upper ravine is nice too especially when the snow if good because you can carve those fun turns like a bordercross trail.

But I tend to stay on the sides of Taft. And you can hike out to the Saddle when the snow is good.

Here’s a fun hit especially when the snow is soft.

You got to zoom in on this one to see it.

It’s on the left before the second snow gun. I saw the spot and was like oohhh. Took my shovel there and piled a little more snow and tried to carve it out better but there’s a lot of ice in there and my plastic shovel couldn’t do much. So I kept hitting it and eventually carved out a take off.

One surprising day I went up there to find 3-4 inches up there and some wind drifts along the left side there and it was good and had a nice soft landing. It was sketchy though because if you zoom in there was a branch sticking out into the trail and you had to point it between the stick and snow gun to land right.

But luckily someone cut that stick out and fortunately did not take the jump out so it’s safer and better.

Farther down on the left of this trail is another sidehit that’s fun but I didn’t make except dig out a rut and some ice in the take off. I didn’t take a pic of that one though. It’s just past this one to the left on that last roller before Taft flattens out towards the saddle.

Tramway hits

This one to the left already lost it’s glory as it hardly exists anymore. The snowcats had built up an icy pile of snow on the side of a little roller there and I thought that would be a good place. Then it snowed and I went in with my shovel and made a nice smooth take off on the day of the pic. It’s between the 1st and second tram tower.

This one is also on Tramway below the other but near the 2nd tower shown in the previous pic. There’s a bank there on the side and you can drop off it and into this gully and shoot back on the trail.

It was kinda there but I went in with a shovel and chiseled it out and made the take off cleaner although last time I saw it it wasn’t looking very good.

Imagine a new kind of “park”

It’s my dream.

Normally a terrain park is on a separate part of the mountain.

But what if the park was all over the mt?

I mean it kind of is already, but what if you built a sidehit here, a berm there and a hip over there? What if you just enhanced some of the natural features already there?

But someone might say that’s dangerous. Well, it depends on the feature and where you put them skiing is dangerous already and if you mark the hits off with signs and put them out of the average skiers way then you’re probably okay.

Some people like to ride the whole mt. and in safe areas on the sides of trails or where there is space you could hire me to build side hits with a shovel and basic tools;-).

It could be a new kind of park. You could be first to the marketplace with this kind of park^^. You could put some signs there next to features to warn people and hire me to make them (with my degree in fine art I could guarantee that they will stand outˆˆ!).

If you want to see some awesome non-terrain park sidehit jumping check out Arthur Longo’s side hits series… I recommend #3.

Of course most of us including myself don’t ride anywhere near his level. But here are a few more side hit jumps I made.

• Frontside 360 melon grab (tap, lol) off a side hit I made 0:07
• Frontside 180 tail grab off a side hit I made 0:22
• Indy straight air 0:37
• Mute straight air 0:32
• Backside 180 mute off a big park hit at Cannon 0:42
• Switch frontside 180 stalefish off a little kicker I made in the farm country 0:57
• Backside 180 mute off a little kicker I made in the farm country 1:05

Bill’s hill

A neighbor and family friend down the rode let me build some jumps on his hill. Some you can see a bit in the video above towards the end. They were melting down and this was one of the last days there. I would go there on days off and hike them.

This hill actually had a rope tow on it way back in the 60’s. There is also some steeper terrain up in the trees you could do if it ever snowed enough. You could get 500 vertical ft here with a rope tow up into the trees.

Who gets the most snow in the Northeast? If you are looking for a new snowboarding mountain to call home or some good places to go snowboarding/skiing in New England then this is for you.

The biggest mountains or ski areas in the Northeast lie in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

The tallest mountains in the Northeast lie in New Hampshire (Mt. Washington), but is that where the most snow is?

Yeah, possibly due to its’ higher elevation, but there is no ski area up there and areas to the west tend to get more snow so they say.

Who gets the most snow in New England?

This is kind of general but interesting. The most snow (annual snowfall average) unfortunately in New England is in a portion of New York known for its’ lake effect snow but there aren’t any tall ski areas there. Big NY ski areas like Whiteface and Gore are to the east.

Then in VT you have Jay towards the top leftish, Stowe and Smugglers. Then going south you have Sugarbush, Killington, etc.

Then the deepest places in NH are in the very north, around Mt. Washington, Wildcat, Cannon, Bretton Woods and Loon ski area.

The deepest snows there are maybe 200″ a year in Wildcat and the rest being closer to 160″ like Cannon was where I worked.

Cannon has a similar or higher elevation than some places in VT but it’s icy as hell.

Highest snowfall in Vermont and the Northeast so they say:

1. Jay Peak (350+)
2. Stowe (300+)
3. Smugglers notch (300+)

I was skeptical and dug a little deeper and found city snowfall totals. They did kind of vary depending on the site, but I did find usa.com and New York gets the most snow. But like I said there are no big ski mountains in those areas that you will see below.

Vermont Average Snow City Rank

A total of 294 results found. Show Results on Map.

Troy is near Jay Peak and Stowe is near Stowe and Smugglers notch.

New Hampshire Average Snow City Rank

A total of 264 results found. Show Results on Map.

Jackson is near Wildcat and Attitash. Up north where the higher snowfall totals are there isn’t any open ski area now. Maybe Balsams Wilderness will open again.

New York Average Snow City Rank

A total of 1,915 results found. Show Results on Map.

Maine Average Snow City Rank

A total of 470 results found. Show Results on Map.

Do they get as much as they say?

I am planning on going out west next year. This last season was good to be riding again, but the west is the best for snowfall.

How do you choose the right size snowboard boots?

Very carefully.

Should yo you get a size bigger than your normal street shoes?

Not usually.

Usually people size down if anything.

Why? Because you definitely don’t want any play.

But it depends on you.

Do you want a “comfort” fit, a “normal” fit or a “performance fit”?

A “comfort fit” might be for the person who snowboards twice a year or maybe 3 times if they are lucky. A “normal fit” is kinda like what we do at Cannon in the rental dept.

Normally we tell people if your toes touch the front it’s okay.

Then kick your heel back, lace up or buckle up your boot then bend your knees and flex and if your toes come back a bit then your probably good.

You don’t want your foot to move around in the boot.

Now a “performance fit” isn’t for someone renting gear.

Rented boots are usually all packed out so they aren’t going to feel like a new boot.

One of the things we do in rentals is we size their foot using a Brannock device. Those are one of the things you might have used before in the shoe store.

You might be surprised what your foot actually measures.

Here I am measuring my left foot.

Ever use one of those?

This is a good place to start.

Forget your current shoe size and start with one of these.

It measures my left foot at 27.5 which translates to a 9.5 US mens and my right at about 27 which is a 9.

So that’s a good place to start, but keep in mind all boots don’t necessarily follow that.

My old boots were 9.5 Burtons then I recently got a size 9 in Thirtytwo boots which felt very tight when I first tried them.

I was questioning if they were too small, but after heat molding and 2 days I decided they were two big because my foot got loose in the boot.

DON’T GET HUNG UP ON A NUMBER (a certain size).

People come into rentals to get boots often saying, “I wear a size ___ (fill in the blank)”.

That’s their street shoe size. Some have it in their head that they are a certain size and their ski boots should be the same.

Sometimes they are and often they aren’t.

But we pretty much always start with the Brannock scale.

Here’s a little story…

Recently I had pretty much narrowed my choice of new boots online down to a 9.5 TM 3 Thirtytwo boot.

I thought 9.5 because my old Burton’s were a 9.5 and my larger foot measures 9.5 and I almost bought them online, but I decided to go back to this shop to try them on.

The 9.5’s felt like sort of comfy, but I could tell they were going to pack out and be too roomy. So I tried the 9 on and I felt pretty tight in those and after about 10 minutes I got some pain in one pinky toe.

I couldn’t imagine going any smaller.

It didn’t even cross my mind. Hesitantly I went back the next day, bought them and did heat molding. I put a little soft foam toe cap over my toes, stood and sat in them for 10 minutes+.

It was actually a little painful.

After the heat molding I took the caps off and put my foot back in and noticed they were a little more spacious although it felt like the foot bed on one foot was bunched up in the toes.

I sort of shrugged it off and figured it would fix itself.

Later I read the sign below in the boot box, examined the messed up insole and figured it was either defective or damaged from heat molding.

At the end of my first day riding in them I noticed one of my feet (actually the longer one) was sliding a little bit.

Then I did one more day noticed further play in the boot then I decided I would sell them because the boot was only going to break in more.

Here’s my Thirtytwo TM 3 boots review.

Should you feel any pain?

Depends on what you are going for. And it’s hard to see and no one wants to feel pain, but will that boot feel the same after you use it 2, 5, 10 or 20 days later?

No, it won’t.

Why not?

Because it’s going to break in and pack out.

More comfort now might be more pain later (and less control) when your foot is sliding around in the boot. But it depends what you are going for. If you are someone who just rides less than ten days a year then yeah, maybe you want to stay away from pain.

As Angry Snowboarder said you have 3 kinds of fits:

1. Comfort fit
2. Normal fit
3. Performance fit

It’s kinda like buying athletic shoes but different.

Have you ever played B-ball or soccer and needed some sneakers or cleats? You don’t want to play with your foot moving around in those right?

If your foot is sliding around in the boot or sneaker then your game is going to be off and that’s the same with boarding, but sneakers and snowboard boots are different in that a snowboard boot contains a lot more soft material.

That will pack out.

To some extent.

How much will a snowboard boot pack out?

Well, that probably depends a bit on the construction of the boot and liner and you.

But this site says:

Snowboard boots will stretch approximately 1/4 of an inch to 3/4 of an inch wider and longer during the break-in period…

And this site says:

…at least 15 hours of wear before they break in and pack out to half a size bigger.

Is pain and “curled” toes a bad sign?

Most every place you look will say “yes” but is that necessarily so?

In the rental shop this is usually a bad sign and we will give people larger boots if their toes are curled.

But what’s different about rental boots and the people who rent them?

A rental boot is usually a packed out boot.

They’re not new boots and these people are just going for a day. Most of them are newcomers and don’t want to be uncomfortable at all.

They want a comfort fit or…

If they are a little more experienced then they are probably going to want a normal fit.

A normal fit is how we try to get them and that’s toes touching the front, heels back, and when they squat their toes should come back.

Then there’s the performance fit.

I don’t think anyone comes into rentals looking for a performance fit. That’s for people who ride a lot and are buying a new boot.

A new boot is not a packed out boot.

How that boot feels in the shop when you try it on won’t be how it feels 10 days later.

So it’s tough because a little short term pain now is a better fit later. And if the inside of a boot expands in width and length anywhere from a 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch then just maybe toes curling a little bit isn’t bad.

But don’t get my wrong you could go too small.

So how small is too small?

Do a shell fit

This  makes sense when I saw it. So take the liner out of the boot and put your foot inside the shell. Does it make contact with anything when centered in the boot? If so then it’s obviously too small.

Then slide your foot forward till your toes touch and see if you can stick at least a finger behind your heel.

The liner will flatten out to a pretty ridiculous degree, but the shell isn’t going to change much at all. So check your shell fit:

Take the liner out, put your foot in, if your forefoot touches the sides of the shell, you definitely want out. If you push your foot all the way forward so your toes touch the end of the shell, and have less than one finger’s width of space behind your heel, you definitely want out.

If your foot does neither of those things with just the shell, then your liner will most likely pack out enough to accommodate your foot. Most liners will lose just about a whole shoe size worth in space after 5-10 days of riding.

Irahi

Does the thickness of the liner matter?

I think it could but that’s tough to measure.

Perhaps get a smaller boot than you think

Start with the Brannock scale, but don’t assume that’s set in stone as each company and each boot is going to be a little different in terms of size and fit.

Do a shell fit.

I like to be in the smallest boots I can manage. At first, my toes are definitely curled up a bit. There’s some mods you can make to ease that pressure until the liners pack out, and some mods you can do to speed that process along. It’s important to really seat your heel into the heel pocket by kicking your heel on the ground before you lace the boots up. Maybe settling that heel pocket issue will be as important as making more space in the toe box.

–wigwar

That’s interesting.

Most heat molding techniques involve expanding the toe area by wearing the top of an extra sock or special toe cap or I’ve even read of some people kicking their toes into something.

But what about kicking your heels into something?

That is a good way to put your boot in. It’s what we recommend people do when they first put on a boot in the rental shop.

Kick your heels back and lace your boot up and do a squat or riding stance.

If you stand stiff legged your toes should touch the liner but when in snowboard stance it should only barely graze the liner.

Motogp990

Should your boots be comfortable to walk in?

Snowboard boots are made to snowboard in not to walk in. So walking around in them isn’t the best test. A better test is simply mimicking your riding stance.

I think doing a shell fit (above) is one of your best tests for a how a boot will feel in the long run.

Bonus: How to fix a new boot that’s too tight

1. Do heat molding (maybe wear a toe cap), but make sure the guy takes the footbed (insole) out of the boot 1st or it might deform it.
2. Wear it: around the house or just snowboard in it and possibly alternate it with an old boot till it breaks in.
3. Kick your heels into the floor.
4. Kick your toes into the floor, ouch.
5. Get a foot bed with less volume (a thinner insole).
6. Put a foot bed with a higher arch in the liner. A higher arch will pull your toes back more.
7. Wear a thinner sock or no sock.

Bonus: How to fix an old boot that’s too loose

1. Put a flat insole or some sort of dense foam in the boot between the shell and liner. Make sure it’s sized right.
2. Use a thicker insole.
3. Put some foam behind the tongue of the boot.
4. Buy a new liner.
5. Buy a new boot.

What sources say for choosing a ‘ski boot’ size

Of course you are a snowboarder, but how do skiers think when it comes to sizing boots? I took this bit from EVO.com:

Beginner/Intermediate Skiers should generally choose a boot close to their indicated Mondopoint length or slightly longer, even if it feels small. Keep in mind that the liner of the boot will compress after you ski in it a few times, and you’ll generate more space fairly quickly.

Intermediate/Advanced Skiers should also choose a boot close to their indicated size or slightly shorter, but in a stiffer flex. Pay attention to the width of the boot as well, and choose one that offers a snug fit if possible.

Advanced/Expert Skiers normally choose a shell size 1/2 to a full size smaller than their indicated size for a super precise and responsive fit, and a stiff or very stiff flex. Downsizing in ski boots may call for a collaboration with a skilled bootfitter to make the boots comfortable enough for skiing.

Any differences compared to snowboarding?

The sizing above sounds kind of like the different fits mentioned before like: comfort fit, normal fit and performance fit.

To generalize…

It’s like most beginners want a comfort fit because they don’t understand the difference and snowboarding is painful enough to begin with.

An intermediate rider wants a normal fit because they’ve learned.

Your average advanced rider has probably had a number of boots and knows boots break in and they want that glove like fit when it does because they want a performance fit.

Boot stiffness=rider ability???

I’ve heard skiers say that and I think it partially applies for snowboarding.

Beginners do tend to use snowboard boots that are softer and more advanced riders tend to use boots that are stiffer.

BUT…

Some advanced riders prefer softer boots. For example, lots of guys (some of them professional) who ride a lot of park and do jibbing use softer boots.

They may like the flexibility for tweaking their tricks and setting tricks up at slower speeds.

Yet, then there are even pro riders who do lots of jibbing that wear stiffer boots.

People who ride a lot of steep terrain and like to go super fast also tend to like stiffer boots as they offer more stability, support and control at higher speeds.

And some people ride lots of different terrain and want an all around boot so they look for a medium stiffness boot.

The flex is part preference and not just ability.

ThanXs for reading!

There you go I hope this helps you decide on the right snowboard boot size for you. Let me know how it goes.

Related:

• Thirtytwo TM-3 snowboard boot