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Hut down in the trees in the middle of the photo View from the front door  Near the top of our first line (I am on the left)  Tracks from right below the photo above  Lower pitches  Up to the video below  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqPzUoluVg Tracks from the trip. was pretty nice going back to the hut for lunch. https://caltopo.com/m/4BC0D
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Mar 8, 2024 03:14
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| # ? Apr 30, 2024 01:04 |
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Steve French posted:Not gonna lie it's a bit strange for someone to ask the same day they registered where an outing from my house is. Nice. Address and your SSN?
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Mar 8, 2024 06:38
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I too keep a detailed almanac of where all the other ski goons live
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Mar 8, 2024 13:51
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spwrozek posted:Hut down in the trees in the middle of the photo Absolutely sick. The views make me really want to so the Monarch Crest this summer
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Mar 8, 2024 17:36
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Going to Snowbird UT next week, staying in Sandy. Anyone got tips for how early to plan to leave for the mountain and if reserved parking is worth it or take the gamble on free? Will be there Thursday-Sunday, assume the weekends will require an earlier start.
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Mar 8, 2024 21:12
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When I went last year, I found using Cottonwood Connect or just the regular buses to be way less stressful than driving up and trying to find parking (especially on powder days). Nice thing is that if the canyon closes, the buses also get to sit at the front of the line so you'll beat everyone who's driving up to the mountain.
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Mar 8, 2024 22:11
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I recently did Brighton and Solitude while staying in the city and riding the bus. It’s good and easy. If you plan on riding the bus make it a point to get on at the very first stop. During the weekend or a powder day it will be full from the start and if you’re at one of the other park and rides you’ll just look at a full bus just pass you by as you look at it longingly. Arrive at the first stop a good 20 minutes before schedule departure so you can sit the whole time too.
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Mar 8, 2024 23:30
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Just finishing up a week in Tahoe and I really felt like I massively improved as a skier during it. I've typically just raced down groomers, but with all of the recent snow, I pushed myself to get into the trees and ended up really loving it. Definitely have a new appreciation for Heavenly, especially the woods on the Nevada side.
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Mar 8, 2024 23:52
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Heavenly has top notch tree skiing and mid-storm potential, sounds like you were there under ideal conditions
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Mar 9, 2024 00:03
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Heavenly tree skiing is kinda magical, I really love it. Probably heading up to Tahoe next week. I don’t have any resort loyalty and I’m coming back from an injury so I can kinda ski wherever - I don’t need crazy tree skiing this season. Normally I’d ski Palisades (esp with sports basement discount) but I’m concerned about how hosed parking is there. Is Heavenly parking also hosed with reservations? Are there any other resorts that are good up there without needing to wait for a parking spot drop?
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Mar 9, 2024 03:17
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Anyone have any recommendations for runs at Palisades? It'll be my first time there on Monday. I'd say I'm an intermediate snowboarder. I guess I'm looking for ungroomed terrain, maybe some easier tree runs. Not looking for cliffs and drops. It's supposed to snow a bit Sunday into Monday, so hopefully there'll be some ok conditions. Edit: Steve French, my goon atlas says you're a local...
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Mar 10, 2024 00:45
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Splinter posted:Tuesday Palisades trip report: did a few KT laps with poo poo vis before heading up the Funi to camp out for the upper mountain lifts to open. They opened Gold Coast, Shirley and I assume Big Blue at the same time and we were ~10-15th chair up Gold Coast and went straight to Shirley for a couple laps of mostly untouched before it got busy. For the most part it was pretty wind affected expected so it was skiing more like 6", but after that we started traversing high from the top of Shirley under Emigrant into the Granite Chief area and the snow there was great and actually skiing like 1'+ in spots. I believe we we started heading down around Rock Pile and subsequently traversed more and more until we were eventually we were heading down closer to Carnell's and ending up on the Granite cat track. Those runs made the day for sure and made up for Granite being closed. "skiing more like 6 inches" is pretty much the report I got from anyone skiing on Monday or Tuesday; I think if you weren't out mid-storm in the backcountry you didn't really get the benefit at all of how huge the storm was. Except that it'll pay off big time for spring skiing, that just saved our spring season, for real. Thank god, I'm ready to start mountain biking again soon but definitely not ready to stop skiing. I was out Wednesday and didn't have high hopes, but it didn't even meet my low expectations. It wasn't bad, but wasn't good, either. Pretty average. Mostly fairly firm, some good but very unpredictable snow, so had to really hunt for it and guess where the wind blew things. A few times I went to some usual hidden spots thinking it'd be nice and sun/wind protected only to find real firm poo poo. Thursday was better partially because expectations were lower but also because the sun was out more and some of the south facing stuff softened. This weekend must be interesting, definitely more crowds due to the 8 FEET OF POWDER hype (Palisades parking lots filled up yesterday for maybe the first non holiday weekday this year) but despite the storm conditions are not above average; there's been tons of sun baking and wind scouring, everything has been open for days and skied out, and the weather this weekend is cloudy and windy so they're not even getting the benefit of early spring conditions. This bit from the avy forecast sums it up well: SAC posted:Most avalanche activity should remain unlikely today since cooler, cloudier weather should keep wet snow from forming and very little soft snow remains for the wind to blow around. Anywho. luminalflux posted:
I can't speak to Heavenly but at least with Palisades to be honest if you get a reservation, which isn't that hard if you have the ability to try right at noon or at 7, it's less bad than last year, because at least you know you've got a spot, can head to the mountain when you want, and traffic doesn't get deadlocked waiting for parking that doesn't exist. PolishPandaBear posted:Anyone have any recommendations for runs at Palisades? It'll be my first time there on Monday. I'd say I'm an intermediate snowboarder. If it opens, head to Shirley Lake / Solitude for mellow (blue) trees. If it's cold and not wet at the bottom, Paulsen's gully between Red Dog and Resort Chair is real good, a bit steeper, but a pain in the rear end if Far East isn't running, which for some mysterious reason it hasn't been on weekdays lately. For steeper than that, Granite Chief. I'm less familiar with Alpine but if you're on that side, go to Sherwood and Lakeview.
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Mar 10, 2024 03:58
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loving weird day at mad river. They got a foot overnight, with no base. I got there after driving through a lot of this and the power had gone out. So, I caught a ride in a truck up as high as you can go on the road to cut in, and thought about bootpacking all the way up but I wasn't sure about uphill status travel and also getting that deep in the woods solo with no cell coverage seemed very dumb, so I rode easy stuff through the woods down to base. I made a friend at base, and we started hoofing up and down a spot where someone had built a jump; I was just going for modest air, he was trying to 360. So, he lands one finally, but keeps at it and manages to break his loving arm on a bad landing. 10mph stuff, not much air, but that's all it takes. I hung out with him at patrol triage because it looked like he might need a ride to a medical center and there was no cell coverage but he managed to get hold of some of his family. Then the lights came back on like magic, so we exchanged info and said goodbye and I headed up four times. Super thick and chunky stuff, blew up some great piles in the woods but there was absolutely nothing under it.   so all that was super cool, I felt like my ski was dragging on the last run and figured I'd picked up some ice in a puddle. Nope, I should be so lucky, when I got home I noticed this:  That's pretty loving bad! Rocks will do that. I'm up for new skis next year but not this year, so, I am going to have to see if the shop can do some kind of bullshit base repair here so I can get out a few more times this year. Or I move my bindings over to my backup skis; possibly that's a better plan, though, they haven't been waxed or used in 3 years and are also pretty banged up. A torch it is!! Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 22:43
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Doesn't look like any damage to your edges or structural damage to the core of the ski. Easy enough to fix with a base weld. After they fix it, you won't even notice it.
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Mar 11, 2024 20:09
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Argh my ankle is jacked up and I’m supposed to go do heli drops on Saturday. Just gonna get it as close as I can and crank the boots down, I guess.
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Mar 12, 2024 02:08
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Eejit posted:Doesn't look like any damage to your edges or structural damage to the core of the ski. Easy enough to fix with a base weld. After they fix it, you won't even notice it. Hell, I was even thinking, last season with em. Clean it well, ptex it to hell, wax, profit.
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Mar 12, 2024 02:17
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Cabbages and Kings posted:loving weird day at mad river. A nice short reprieve as we head back into full blown spring weather again.
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Mar 12, 2024 20:31
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A group of skiers on a tour died at the weekend here in Valais, up on the Tête Blanche which is on the Patrouille des Glaciers race route. It's kind of weird, the terrain up there is not that challenging although it's pretty high, 3700m. From the reports it sounds like they were practicing for the race and were just in race gear, a storm came in and they got stuck, eventually dying from hypothermia. They were headed towards one of the cabins up there, but ended up trying to dig a snow hole and apparently didn't have great shovels. There has been loads of snow recently and I think the storm was forecast. I think the main takeaway is just to always take proper gear... but I don't think I'd ever just take race kit for that kind of tour outside of the race itself. https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/val...e-28433013.html
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Mar 13, 2024 12:09
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knox_harrington posted:A group of skiers on a tour died at the weekend here in Valais, up on the Tête Blanche which is on the Patrouille des Glaciers race route. It's kind of weird, the terrain up there is not that challenging although it's pretty high, 3700m. Hopefully not as extreme as using one of these things https://skimo.co/camp-crest-shovel
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Mar 13, 2024 15:02
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I suspect that's exactly what they had, it's what everyone carries on the Patrouille des Glaciers race
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Mar 13, 2024 16:41
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knox_harrington posted:I suspect that's exactly what they had, it's what everyone carries on the Patrouille des Glaciers race  I have that shovel, was only used for the Grand Traverse where I was quite confident there was basically 0 avalanche risk, as a token shovel required by the race organizers. Would never consider using it for an actual outing, and wouldn't go out with anyone who was. Did get a nice afternoon tour out on the west shore yesterday, snow was a bit deeper and better than expected. Last new snow for a few weeks here, probably.  https://gopro.com/v/vkMrkPXgErPpB
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Mar 13, 2024 17:35
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Master_Odin posted:I hope you were able to get out yesterday and today. The second foot of snow was proper powder and was way more fun to blast through. Did a handful of woods lines and it was nice not having a crust underlayer for once. I did not make it out Monday because of child and work related reasons but I made it out yesterday for longer than I really should, and ducked through today for a few more lines. I thought yesterday was basically S-tier conditions at MRG, easily one of the 4-5 best days I had this year in terms of conditions and the stuff I like the most just being powder city in the woods. Today was fun, too, but the snow is slower and the woods were still fine but getting sketchy. I might do another day of groomers at some point but I am pretty ready to hang it up for the year. Slopes says I've skiied 170k vert feet, 144 miles over 25 days out, and I know there were another 2-3 days I didn't track at all. I'm not going to hit last season's numbers for vertical but I made an explicit decision this year to chase quality over quantity and mostly had shorter days.  it's been sunny and crystal clear, too. Just an enjoyable end to a season that would have had a sort of lovely end if not for that last storm system.
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Mar 13, 2024 18:24
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I’ve been taking out that Mega Death from Capita in the French Alps. Goddamn, that thing is just ridiculously fast. When I’m for instance riding cat tracks, there’s definitely better skilled people, that I’m however hauling past with no effort, just because that base glides like a MF. God forbid there’s an actual decline. And these full carbon top and bottom sheets are hard to explain how different they feel from fiber glass.
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Mar 13, 2024 20:15
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Steve French posted:If it opens, head to Shirley Lake / Solitude for mellow (blue) trees. If it's cold and not wet at the bottom, Paulsen's gully between Red Dog and Resort Chair is real good, a bit steeper, but a pain in the rear end if Far East isn't running, which for some mysterious reason it hasn't been on weekdays lately. For steeper than that, Granite Chief. Thanks for the tips here. Shirley Lake and Solitude ended up being pretty great because the runs were sheltered from the wind. We tried some Gold Coast runs too, but the winds swept everything away down to the ice, so those weren't very fun. The cloud cover higher up on the mountain also got thicker later in the day and made it hard to see the snow, and of course I didn't bring my low light lenses. Would have been nice to spend a couple more days there. Palisades is huge.
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Mar 14, 2024 07:13
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lol this is Eldora's snow stake.
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Mar 14, 2024 16:43
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I was a little worried about the avy danger at Silverton until we showed up and there were like 400 people in the lift line. Apparently the new owners lifted the limit on daily skiers. We waited an hour on the ridge to get on the heli. Fantastic day of skiing though.
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Mar 17, 2024 23:02
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Just moved to Longmont from Estes Park and looking for some ski partners if anyone is searching. Have my Level 1 and ski about 100% in the backcountry.
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Mar 18, 2024 02:15
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Going to Telluride for the first time this Friday, any recommendations for best runs?
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Mar 18, 2024 05:23
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Cut hard right after Claude’s couloir and ski the trees under that cliff band it’s v good
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Mar 18, 2024 08:10
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regulargonzalez posted:Going to Telluride for the first time this Friday, any recommendations for best runs? Oak Street Lift to Plunge Lift, then take See Forever alllll the way down to Village Express. The views are EPIC. Then take Village Express to Polar Queen for some more epic views near Bon Vivant. They have a really nice bathroom right there too. These are all intermediate runs IIRC, super fun though.
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Mar 18, 2024 08:33
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PolishPandaBear posted:Thanks for the tips here. Shirley Lake and Solitude ended up being pretty great because the runs were sheltered from the wind. We tried some Gold Coast runs too, but the winds swept everything away down to the ice, so those weren't very fun. Glad the advice worked out well for you! Happy to help and if it ever worked out timing wise I'd be happy to show folks in this thread around. I had a lovely day Monday and had an invite from two friends that day to go on a big ski the next day that I wasn't gonna take and then decided gently caress work and I need my mental health, so changed my mind and at 10pm decided to wake up at 4am to go to the other end of the lake and ski Pyramid, the highest peak in Desolation Wilderness (just shy of 10k, not that high but started at 6k and views were unreal). Had a bit of hiking to start until we could start skinning  Most of the trees we were in, before getting above tree line, were in the Caldor burn scar  The view south as we started was across US-50, to Sierra at Tahoe, which had burned. It was not, as far as I know, wide open terrain like this before that fire.  The peak, this is with I think about 1500 ft of climbing left  Looking north from the summit. Mt Rose area on the horizon to the right, Palisades/etc area center, closer peaks on the right 1/3rd are Dicks/Jacks in Deso  Looking south, Lover's Leap in the foreground, Kirkwood in the background  Looking NW from the summit, the scary side of the mountain with big cliffs    Horsetail falls  Lover's Leap again, on the way out. Note the ski tracks 
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Mar 21, 2024 04:06
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Lover's Leap was the first spot McConkey ski based from wasn't it?
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Mar 21, 2024 05:06
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bawfuls posted:Lover's Leap was the first spot McConkey ski based from wasn't it? I did not know that off hand but I believe you’re right
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Mar 21, 2024 16:24
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The name triggered a memory and the images look a lot like what I recall from the MSP film about him where it was definitely discussed in depth.
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Mar 21, 2024 18:27
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Spring skiing day at Vail today. No new snow in a bit, so it was...alright. Fairly empty and I was pretty much able to ski on as a single. A few times I thought "I should have stayed home and ridden my bike today."
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Mar 21, 2024 22:54
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Obligatory spray for skiing in Rocky yesterday 
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Mar 21, 2024 23:50
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Anachronist posted:Obligatory spray for skiing in Rocky yesterday How was the stability in that second photo? Were those fresh roller balls? By the end of our day Tuesday the snow had gotten pretty rotten. We had a safe route down but any patch we touched that was steep enough (only very short shots) reliably triggered a wet slide.
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Mar 22, 2024 02:19
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Steve French posted:How was the stability in that second photo? Were those fresh roller balls? Pictures are out of order. All that wet action in the second photo was from the day previous. Things were just starting to corn up in that line. The second couloir was starting to get a little sloppy and we saw one little rollerball go while we were skiing. It had really slid the day prior also too though.
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Mar 22, 2024 04:03
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The east coast is f I r I n g i didn’t bring enough ski I’m sinking into waist high stuff in the trees on 88s
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Mar 24, 2024 14:45
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I spent money I don't really have so I figured I'd share with you guys. I lurk a bit in here.  Quick story time: I decided to get back into skiing. I've been once in the last 20+ years since switching to a board in my teens. I hadn't boarded in over 6 years. Since I was single again after being in a long term relationship with a gal that wasn't into snow I decided to grab an Ikon pass and hit mammoth a bunch. Last season I boarded since I still had my old board. Well my bindings broke immediately and ended up buying some new boots and bindings and a buddy gave me a board to use. The boots suck and it was frankly a painful but still fun experience. My goal for the duration of the pass was to use spring to get used to boarding again, which came pretty quick, and then this season get back on skis. So this last week I decided to rent. Ended up demoing and then buying since the demo price went to purchase and the boots fit sooo well. I tried a couple different skis of different shapes and it was probably my lack of technique and muscle but I was struggling. Never crashed but low sided in semi control a couple times. Got on these and was able to move around and build a little of the old confidence. I was trying to find some used gear leading up to this trip and was getting frustrated with the whole process so I bit the bullet and made the purchase. The poles were my grandfathers from the 90's. They did get a little heavy by the end of each day but I don't really know how to use them so that's on me. Anyways having a blast, next time I go up I'll be working on carving smoother and weighting myself correctly as these things are bouncing and moving around quite a bit. Cheers! 
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Mar 24, 2024 16:43
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