May 10 2015

Solo Avalanche Safety

 
Are you getting fatigued from so much avalanche safety talk these days? It’s become a media obsession to discuss ad infinitum all the nuances of being safe when skiing in the backcountry. Which begs the the question of how safe you really are if you’re having too many safety meetings. There’s a tendency to think that as long as you’re recognizing the need to be safe, you must inevitably be acting more safely.

Timing is critical with avalanches, especially solo.

Timing is critical with avalanches, especially solo.


Ironic isn’t it, the more attention we pay to safety, and safe techniques, procedures, and gadgets, the less safe we may actually be. This is a tricky line to walk here and I’m not saying that learning about the factors that cause avalanches, from the snowpack to the human trigger, isn’t beneficial, it is. But with all this knowledge available and all this discussion of the topic you’d think that our hopes of at least reducing the number of avalanche deaths would be visible, yet it’s not.
Keep making backcountry turns

May 08 2015

Il Passo in Curva – Telemark

A quick little vid that shows why telemarking became fashionable. These guys make it look easy and they’re doing it on inferior equipment, or so we like to think. Don’t know much Italian? Just watch the skiers.

In case you’re in a dry state, here’s a little diversion for the weekend. If you’re in California, Utah, or Colorado, time to make up for lost turns this weekend.

Il Passo in Curva – Telemark (RAI – 1993) from Alessandro Comai on Vimeo.

Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 27 2015

Loveland’s 14th Corn Harvest

The band promised to play; rain, snow or shine.

The band promised to play; rain, snow or shine.

The 14th Annual Corn Harvest at Loveland ski area this past weekend wasn’t a harvest of corn, but there was a nice spritzer of fresh snow on a bed of lightly furrowed slopes off the top of Loveland ski resort. That plus another 200 skiers who registered, some in completely appropriate Hawaiian shirts for the occasion that were completely out of sync with current conditions. Regardless of the conditions, all registrants got lei’d and enjoyed marvelous ski conditions.

In the morning the fresh coat filled in the spaces between spray from yesterday’s tracks that created mini moraines of frozen cookie crumbs that weren’t so hard they deflected your tips, but they did add a crunchiness to each turn. They were substantial enough to require commitment to your edges or you would need good recovery instincts to avoid the lurking snow snakes hoping to trip you up.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 20 2015

BC Skate Skiing in Desolation Wilderness

There’s a group of Nords in the Tahoe area that love to get out and take extended skate tours in the backcountry. As with any other form of skiing, the majority of folks skate ski on a groomed track at a resort, a XC ski area, or Nordic Center. Conditions for good skating, a firm yet edgeable snow base, are most common at a resort, but when conditions are ripe, there is nothing better than a corn snowpack while it is still frozen, or maybe al-dente as it starts to ripen.

Skating across Aloha Lake, Desolation Wilderness, California

Skating across Aloha Lake, Desolation Wilderness, California. Photo by IMNXCGUY


At that point you get all the real ingredients of skating, with an icy surface that melts under the pressure of a ski edge, allowing the skater to glide large distances with each pump of the leg. Skaters know the thrill of that gliding sensation, but everyone else does not, including, or especially, alpine skiers for whom the act of skating is necessary on occasion, but laborious at best.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 17 2015

Take it off! Zippered baselayers from
Northern Playground

 

Skinning up in howling winds at 70° north.

Skinning up in howling winds at 70° north.

Regulating body heat when your heart is pumping hard to keep up with your lungs and legs is typically a balance between wearing the right amount of insulation combined with the ability to bleed off the heat and consequent sweat. Some of that can be managed by what fibers you chose to wear next to skin, but in any case, whether you use hydrophobic synthetics, or temperature regulating natural fibers, there comes a time when you either wish you had less on underneath, or more.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 15 2015

The Sweet Spot

 

Robert Bland harvesting corn with tele turns when it was considered the cool tool.

Robert Bland harvesting corn with tele turns when it was considered the cool tool.

As it was the early 1990s, I honestly don’t remember why I decided to try telemark skiing. What I do remember is being vaguely disenfranchised by skiing in general, turned off by the euro-style stretch pants, the macho swagger that went along with 220 cm skis, and the hey-i-went-to-a-ski-academy perfect turners. It wasn’t a great snow year. I wasn’t a great skier. And those telemark freaks simply seemed to be having more fun than anybody else on the mountain. I was sold.

I was fascinated by the rippers who were flashing their free-heels from the first chair to last call, and I remember the feeling of seeing my first telemark movie: tingly and exciting, like getting a love letter from a long lost girlfriend. It didn’t matter that my boots were too flimsy, the skis were too narrow, and I had zero idea of what I was doing, because the whole thing was contagious, refreshingly different and totally addicting.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 14 2015

USFS to increase snowmobile access in Eldorado NF

 

Eldorado NF winter recreational use map. Link to interactive map here.

Eldorado Natl. Forest Service Map

The US Forest Service recently extended the comment period to April 20th, 2015 for their review of winter travel management plans of Eldorado National Forest to determine what changes should be implemented for the future. According to Snowlands.org, “the Forest Service’s Proposed Action for the Carson Pass area designates nearly all the lands adjacent to the highway open to snowmobile use. This includes the route to Meiss Meadow, toward Winnamucca Lake and to Woods Lake.”
Keep making backcountry turns