exskibum
~<>~<>~<>~<>~
Not sure I can adequately answer that, since I've never boarded. (It was only about 12 years ago that the last of the large resorts let boards on -- Alpine Meadows being the last around here. By that time, at age 43, I saw no reason to go from expert to intermediate just by strapping different sliding equipment on my feet, and getting used to an entirely new way of hitting the ground, and much more frequently.)
Having said that, I have observed the difference in motivating on flat ground, especially in spring conditions where the snow gets sticky, and you can't just skate like I can on skis. So, while I can't name specific resorts that would be a problem, I can address a few places at areas. Sugar Bowl below the Lincoln lift might have you walking, same trying to get back over to Jerome off the top of Lincoln along that catwalk/outflow through the trees, and same below Crow's Nest and the runouts from there to the bottom of the Disney lift. Homewood also has some flat runouts back to the lift on the north side. Sierra at Tahoe is another, especially in the spring. That ridge from the top down to the other stuff (sorry, haven't skied it enough to recall names) in the spring would be a real ***** -- it's bad enough on skis. Heavenly has a few spots, but the more I think of it, that's mostly just becasue I'm trying to take a high line to get to something specific, and you don't have to do that if you take a different alternative. Same thing with some of my chosen routes from lift to lift at Squaw. (BTW, Squaw is like a bunch of connected small ski areas with different exposure, different ebbs and flows in lift and slope traffic, and THE skill to really enjoy it to its potential is to know it well enough to circulate around the mountain for the least traffic and best snow (noting that some exposures that are great in the morning are wet in the afternoon, while some are hard, steep and treacherous in the morning but great later when the snow softens.)
Alpine and Squaw have great powder stashes available with a hike, but that's on skis OR boards -- boards just have a tougher go of it, and in powder (just as in backcountry poaching) you might need snowshoes and pack as a part of the gear. (Specifically, I'm thinking about hiking to Beaver and Estelle Bowls behind *****'s off the Summit lift at Alpine, but hiking over the top off Summit and Alpine Bowl Chairs and along the cornice back there might entail the same kind of thing.)
Getting out of Killebrew Canyon to the Motts Canyon lift on the Nevada side of Heavenly would be a *****, but you best not be over there unless you're an expert skier or boarder, anyway -- you won't easily get down to that long flat traverse around a ridge and over to the lift for a long while, if at all. The Wall at Kirkwood is another place where I've seen a lot of intermediate Boarders slide down on their butts because there really isn't an intermediate way off that lift -- the skull and crossbones "Experts Only" sticker on my FJR fender is from that lift (my favorite there), and they aren't kidding about posting those at the bottom and top of the Wall lift -- don't go up there if you expect mere intermediate ways off the lift. While a lot of the routes are true expert off that, you can get down the easiest way with just advanced skiing abilities, but still.
Flatstar (Northstar) sucks to my tastes, and IMO is best when it's snowing hard -- in the trees off the Shaeffer's Camp side. Otherwise, there are plenty of flat places and crowds. Still, it is layed out well enough that I don't think there are too many dead stop kinds of outruns, just general unchallenging and crowded stuff.
Hope that helps some, though I'm sure not much.
Last edited by a moderator:
Advanced/expert snowboarders generally don't have a problem but the intermediate snowboarders are very uncomfortable going fast on a single edge on a long flat. Calf cramps--and crashing-- become issues.
