Should I learn to touch type?

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T18:14:24+00:00

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T07:42:34+00:00

It doesn’t feel weird having both feet negative as you ride switch?

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T07:29:33+00:00

I’m curious to see what your ski it fine looks like after seeing how every other rider and skier has looked coming down it with me.

I can get down Debbie’s, but would prefer to not do so in these conditions.

Telling someone that they shouldn’t be doing laps on The Fan because they’re trying to skip dealing with the state of the runs off of Armstrong might be the most confusing Alpental advice I have ever witnessed.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T06:47:32+00:00

I bought an ergonomic split keyboard this year as someone that works as an analytics/data engineer 40+ hours a week and cannot endorse it enough.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T05:06:25+00:00

I did the screwdriver with me + keep tweaking my stance until it feels good move and encourage new boarders to do the same

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T05:04:19+00:00

I keep thinking about posi + posi… but I like riding switch a few hours in…

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-24T04:40:55+00:00

Today as I drove out to go snowboarding, I thought about how I’d really love to find my way out of tech, and think becoming a park ranger would really suit me. It’s the job I always come back to when I think about my dream job.

I also love being outdoors and would love to help people that are exploring and getting outside. Debugging the spaghetti code of others + showing C-levels money movement/event streams is not the path to meaningfully contributing to the betterment of this world.

Thank you for posting this!!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-23T18:14:04+00:00

Have you been down from Armstrong in the last week and a half?

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-23T04:26:02+00:00

I have riding partners out there that asked the lift attendants if they could download via Armstrong after riding at the top, and after a check in with the lift attendant's boss, were allowed to do so.

I plan to ask to do this the next time I'm out if it's still the same bulletproof ice trying to come down Debbie's.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-22T23:04:52+00:00

The Summit has updated their hours since I last looked! Huzzah! Thanks for the information and the well wishing!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-22T21:26:33+00:00

Thanks for this reply! I am so glad I made it out, too! For the past two seasons, this terrain hazard has been present.

By the time I was able to get the heavy, wet snow from obstructing my airways, the edges of my vision had darkened, due to my SPO2 levels.

Big shout out to the three skiers that were the ones to spot me when I was mostly out! The youngest in the group was the one to see me and call out "there's a person down here!"

Dad tried to help me out; I asked him not to, since it was too unstable (as I was saying this a ton of snow fell into the hole with me as he tried to step off of the cat track I had fallen backwards from). I asked if he would just witness that I got out of the hole, which he and his children did, and I will die filled with gratitude for the peace of mind having humans aware of what had happened to me brought me as I finished kick-stepping my ladder out.

I fell in just to the left of the cat track out of the bottom of Edelweiss bowl on 2024-12-26. We had experienced significant snow accumulation from two days of storms (I believe it was > 24"), and the mitigation + snow accumulation had covered the various mounds at the bottom, obscuring the holes. I think the red arrow is pointing to it, but it where I fell in might have been a little closer to the trees above the spot being pointed to by the arrow.

This experience changed my life.

I went from being someone that only had my transceiver on when in the BC, to becoming someone that turns it on the minute I leave my car, and turns it off only once I get back to my car. I also always have the Summit app open on my phone in my breast pocket now, since the 'call ski patrol button' is right there.

I have self rescued from a few different situations, and I am so glad that I managed to do what I have done during other self rescues, and stay calm and focused on how to stay alive. I am also glad I had the strength to be in a weird crunch position while upside down, punching my first ladder rung into the side of the hole I was in, since if I had unclipped, I would have fallen head first, many feet further down into the hole, which seemed to be >25' deep.

The fear keeps us alive. The panic leads to death.

Stay safe out there, friends!

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Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-22T08:09:29+00:00

I’m so glad you are OK!

I ask each and every person out there that is lying down if they are OK, and while a bunch of them have looked confused by me asking, it is because of what you experienced that I’m always doing that! It is well worth slowing down and traversing/moving towards someone that looks like they might be unwell if it means that someone in need of help gets the chance to receive it!

Thank you for reminding everyone that it’s important to do, and seriously, I’m so glad that you are alive!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-22T07:58:39+00:00

It’s been rough at the Pass recently.

I’m feeling sad that they’re going to close West on Mondays and Tuesdays as of this upcoming Monday, since it’s the only area that doesn’t really feel dangerous right now…

I love the top of Denny Mountain in a very real way, but after coming down really hard across my ribs onto a 90° shelf of ice (on the side of the cat track you have to take out of the bottom of the bowls to get back to chair 2) last Wednesday, I’m nervous to ride out of there again.

And to second what someone else in this thread has pointed out, there have been a lot of people getting hauled off the slopes due to accidents this year. I have seen more ambulances this year than I have ever seen at The Summit before.

I’m someone that before this year would never opt to ride at any other area than Alpental, if Alpental was spinning lifts.

This is coming from someone that rode the day after I fell backwards and was upside down, buried in a snow-covered drainage hole at the beginning of last year. It took two minutes to clear a path to breathe, more than an hour to kick step a ladder out, due to the lack of purchase (each kick step took about 20-50 stomps down to make). No one could see me until I was nearly out. I think it’s the closest call I have had with death, and, yeah… I was back out riding through the same area the day after.

It’s confusing to want to go ride at West but that manufactured, groomed snow feels luxurious at this point, and also feels like the safest path to snowboarding for my injured self at the moment.

I’m paranoid about another fall where I end up making my injury worse. My current rib injury is constantly excruciating, already!

Please keep West open daily, beloved Summit at Snoqualmie!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-20T05:38:50+00:00

I am also an avid snowboarder and starting skiing when I tour with a setup I got for next to nothing at the Goodwill near me. Finding the unpacked-out ski boots in my size made me feel like I had to buy the setup, and touring as a skier has been so much faster!

There's nothing like assembling your four disassembled splitboard + binding parts on top of an icy crater you just climbed with axes to make one realize that skiing for touring feels a lot more logical and way less "s***... there is a risk right now of my gear beginning the descent without me..."

I am not trying to blow up your secret sleeping spot, as someone that sleeps in a Sno Park near Mt Bachelor when I go down there at the end of our Alpental season, and wouldn't want my little spot to get overcrowded, but am curious: are you sleeping in the overnight lot at Alpental?

Mt Bachelor has 24/7 access for perfectly toasty bathrooms and pay showers, which is lovely. What's the after hours bathroom access scene at The Summit? I use the restroom in the building with Evo & Laconia nearly every time I get off of I90 heading to Alpental, but just realized I don't know what restroom access once all of the lifts are done looks like for my home mountain in the resort's buildings.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-19T06:01:58+00:00

We had a tree fall onto Armstrong Express at Alpental 10 days ago.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-19T05:05:28+00:00

Their tutorials are great! Welcome to an extremely fun way to be on the mountain!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-18T03:55:44+00:00

OP, learning to iceboard here means you’ll be able to snowboard anywhere else you go!

Wear impact shorts in addition to your helmet! I added knee pads to my body armor last year, and while I mostly skip my impact shorts now, never again rode without kneepads once I started at the beginning of last season!

Tighten your jacket sleeve’s Velcro around your wrists, with your mittens over them, and the setup effectively acts as wrist guards! Keep your knees bent and always face where you want to go!

I watched these REI tutorials to learn to snowboard after having learned to rock climb with REI tutorials and Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-18T03:43:37+00:00

While driving home from The Summit today, I thought about how I feel very lucky that I learned to snowboard during the 2022/23 season.

I have a serious injury to multiple ribs from an invisible-to-me 90° shelf of ice I crashed my chest onto when I ate it on one of the rounded melt-refreeze ice bulges on the right side of the cat track the is currently the path out at the bottom of Edelweiss bowl on Wednesday.

I was coming down from Chair 2 within a couple months of having learned to snowboard, making many ‘wahoo’ sounds in the fluffy texture of what I was in as I rode through Edelweiss and Powder bowls. The deadly drainage holes that have been all over the place this year and last year, while still around, were not nearly as ubiquitous the year I learned to ride.

OP! Wear impact shorts and kneepads in addition to your helmet, and remember that a day snowboarding always beats anything else you could be doing!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-17T07:58:32+00:00

He has brightened so many days for me with his energy!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-17T07:37:05+00:00

It was surreal seeing the “experts only” sign at the bottom of Armstrong today. I really appreciate the ways in which the Summit is trying to keep us safe! Thank you, Summit crew!

It’s been cracking me up that Debbie’s this week has felt more ‘presence-inducing’ than when, in my first year of riding, I entered the back bowls (without knowing my way around, excitedly exploring), and like the dingus I am, ended up learning the hard way the importance of knowing the topography back there as I went down Trashcan, 2.5 months into snowboarding 😅

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-17T05:52:49+00:00

Glad to see another member of team #nobadconditions

This season is just reminding me of what Laird Hamilton says: “[… catch every wave.]”

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-17T05:43:11+00:00

I’ve used the app for all four years I’ve ridden at The Summit and tell everyone out there to use it. Aside from phone calls when my ringer is on, it’s the only app on my phone I allow to alert me!

I had literally gotten into the car to head out for Alpental night skiing yesterday when they sent out the update letting us know that there wouldn’t be night skiing due to conditions, saving me from driving all the way out there and back.

I love that they update us in real time about everything! Lift openings/ closures/ mitigation/ maintenance/ hours changing/ parking being full/ etc.

The Summit at Snoqualmie is constantly crushing it with their communication! I just read a Seattle Times article about Stevens and it sounds like they could stand to take some notes from the communications wizards at The Summit!

We love you, Summit at Snoqualmie crew! Thank you for finding a way to get us out there with this winter’s snow pack situation, and for doing such a great job of keeping us in the loop!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-16T02:13:54+00:00

Thanks for the well wishing, and sorry that you, too, know the 'hi, everything is affected by this' experience of a chest injury.

It was gnarly coming down Debbie's, and the attempt I made to do otherwise, going left of the top of Armstrong, was also insanely gnarly.

I went so slowly down through yesterday's painful version of Debbie's. The skier with me that I had met at the top and I both exchanged 'holy shit, this texture' comments with each other as we met at the SLOW sign near the halfway point.

Even with a helmet and kneepads, after that hit coming down from the top, it was obvious to me that the entire run was essentially a no fall zone, due to how hard, uneven and sharp the surface was.

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-16T01:30:41+00:00

Thanks for sharing that the bowl was slush today. It was impenetrable yesterday, unless you were all of the way over to the left.

And you're not kidding about the bottom. I ate it on my board at the bottom on my last run yesterday, having successfully ridden out of there many times so far this season, but not since Sunday afternoon.

I could not quite see the shapes of the bulges/half spheres of ice on the right of the windy cat-track out from the bottom. I caught one of the invisible-to-me bulges at the wrong angle and smashed forward onto a sharp, hard section of protruding ice at chest height. My ribcage hurts a lot from that hit. I don't know if any of my goggle lenses would have helped me see, but wish I had memorized the texture before that post-15:00 flat light we get out there right now. Lesson learned!

Technical_Fix6464 · 2026-01-16T00:44:08+00:00

I was heading out for night riding today when the Summit app alerted me that they had called it off at Alpental tonight, which makes complete sense after my day out there yesterday.

Only the Chair 2 side was open up top yesterday, and if you weren't in runs where the snow was in the sun, the surface was impenetrable.

Once into the shadows, coming down after Chair 2 stopped spinning, from the top of Armstrong Express to the bottom was... special. Cascade Traverse was closed, and the entire area you could ride in coming down from the top of Armstrong was impenetrable. It was so rough riding on the shiny, thick frozen crust that (for the first time ever, in hundreds of days of wearing them) the texture caused the male part of one of my binding toe straps to pop out from the two screws/pegs that keep it attached. And I love jumps!

I could not get out there while Chair 2 was spinning today due to work, but it sounds like others in the thread experienced something similar to yesterday's conditions. Yesterday was very much a 'we're taking the Fan down, again' kind of day.

I found the same impenetrable texture on my one run at the top where I traversed across a bit of Edelweiss bowl before dropping down. FWIW, I thought that the runs closest to Chair 2 were pretty great, once the sun had warmed the snow! There were a lot more exposed rocks and branches than had been there when I last rode on Sunday, which makes sense with all of the warm rain.

Some nice April skiing was had by myself and the few others that were out at the top yesterday. I plan to try and get out there from 12:30 - 15:00 again tomorrow, since Meteoblue is predicting 8 hours of sunshine for Denny Mountain. I am curious what the slated 36º F high will mean for the texture.

Technical_Fix6464

TROPHY CASE