It's been long overdue, so here we go- there's so much to download!
The Winter here in Northern California has been pretty great! A little late, but even so, there's been plenty to keep me busy. Last season, I bought an Epic Pass and the season was cut short, due to the pandemic. But since Vail gave me such a generous refund, I opted to purchase a season pass for this year and take my chances. So far, I've been able to punch in thirteen days on the slopes! The pass allows me to choose between going to Northstar, Kirkwood or Heavenly Valley with just a few restrictions- no skiing at Northstar or Kirkwood on Sundays, plus there are four separate blackout periods. Still a tremendous bargain, since it typically costs about $150/day to ski at Northstar this season.
Now that I've had some time to break in and evaluate my new ski equipment, I can more accurately assess whether or not I bought the right stuff. Boots- the Dalbello DS 100! The BEST thing I bought! I've been skiing them all season and not until just my last day did I ever experience any cold toes. (I did purchase some Superfeet Redhot insoles to give my feet more support, while the reflective material under the toes help keep my toes warm. Well, I can say that they definitely made a difference! My feet felt steady, stable and strong.) The boots are a traditional 4-buckle overlapping construction (because it works), fortified with the Dalbello Power Cage. The boots never gave me any hot spots or wet feet. My heels didn't lift and only once did I experience cold toes, but it was 25°F outside that day. They're very responsive and can easily be stiffened up by cranking on that strap! I'm a happy camper!
The beginning of the ski season started slow with not too many storms that came in. I skied all three of the local Vail resorts from the start of the season. Kirkwood was absolutely horrible, which was a little bit of a surprise, since Kirkwood is generally known to get the most snow on the lake! Northstar was just okay early on, having three lifts running. But Heavenly was pretty awesome right out of the starting gate! They were blowing the best and most snow out all three resorts! Much of the backside (Nevada) was already open! There, I could put together some nice long runs, where the coverage was great with not many rocks or wood showing. As the season went on, Heavenly just got better and better! Northstar got pretty fantastic too! For the first time in my life, I was able to explore Lookout Mountain! Seems like in the past when I would got to NS, there wasn't enough snow to even open Lookout Mt. since it's the steepest stuff that the resort has to offer. It's fast and steep with not a lot of bump runs, so if carving hard is your thing, this is where you want to be! Kirkwood eventually fully opened- it took eons for them to the Wagonwheel lift running, as there wasn't enough coverage on the Wall. I'm thinking that I should hit Kirkwood one more time this season just to get in some GOOD runs.
At the same time, I've been putting some time into King, my Jeep. I knew that 2021 was the year that I was going to need new tires and I had been planning on moving up to 35". Bigger tires means a heavier setup. Typically a wheel/tire combo weighs around 100 pounds each! I'm just getting too old to do a 5-tire rotation with a setup this heavy. For the past three years, I've been cheating with my setup on the 33" using 1.5" wheel spacers to set the backspacing correct. The problem is that Wheelworks will not work on a wheel setup like this. So it was time to bite the bullet and buy aftermarket wheels. I was particularly interested in a wheel that came with a protective ring. Somewhat similar to a beadlock ring, a protective ring just protects the wheel from rock damage, while the tire bead is conventionally mounted. Method wheels are popular and have that beadlock look, but their rings are not removable/replaceable if they get all mangled.
I had been considering the AEV Borah wheels for a while now. They checked all the boxes, except they were kind of pricey. But hey, they're quality. I started browsing the web to find that AEV was blowing them out with a huge sale of 30% off! So I pulled the trigger and bought five of them. The next task was a little tougher, trying to find the BF Goodrich K02's in 315 at a decent price. I went online and worked all the different pricing models, trying to find rebates, looking for the best bang-for-the-buck installation. In the end, I went back to Wheelworks (where I already have a lifetime wheel alignment for the Jeep) and put the thumbscrews on them. I bought in a couple of quotes and they were able to meet my threshold- I paid $1500 for five tires installed and mounted on King with lifetime balance and rotation. Not too shabby!
Now that I have the bigger and better (heavier) wheel setup, I needed stronger axles- don't want to twist or break an axle out on the trail. After weeks of shopping, I found some Revolution Gear chromoly axles front and rear for a good price. I just need to find a warm day to do the installations.
Big tires need stronger brakes. Rather than going with a big brake kit, I elected to buy better brake pads. I bought a full set of Power Stop pads. They have very good reviews and the forum community seems to believe that brake pads are really all you need. No fancy discs. Stainless steel lines are not necessary. I flushed my brake system and swapped out all the pads. They feel great! Less than $100 on Amazon and I have stopping power again!
One thing I said I would do this winter is get my ham license. Well, I started studying for it and I'm nearly there. With this Covid thing going on, I can take the test online for $15! I've just got to finish it up now. But that didn't stop me from buying a mobile unit for King! It's my first radio, so I didn't want to break the bank on it- used would be fine. I found one on eBay from a local SF seller. I ended up winning the auction on this Yaesu FT-7800R dual band unit. It came with a Vertex external speaker and all the fixings to run the remote faceplate installation. I paired it with a Larsen NMO2/70SH dual band antenna. I installed the main unit under the passenger seat and mounted the faceplate low at the front of the console. I couldn't find exactly the mount that I wanted, so I took some leftover sheet metal and fabricated my own mount.
The installation seems sturdy, but will it put up with trail abuse? I guess we'll find out, as we're signed up to do this year's Cal4Wheel Sierra Trek. I decided NOT to do the Fordyce Trail this time around, but rather a couple of other "intermediate" runs. King's definitely getting there, but for Fordyce, I think it will still need some under armor protection and maybe an aluminum tie rod. That will have to be next year's budget.
