Category: Gear

Alaska 2005: Avalanches, Heli Crashes, and Boards To The Face, Oh My!

Posted by Frank – October 5, 2010

My Alaska stories occasionally come up, and I thought they were worth sharing for those of you who haven’t seen or heard them. All photos by Dev Finley…

In spring of ’05, a group of us convened in Valdez, pilgrims to Mecca, the “North Shore” of skiing. It was a strong group, one which would allow us to fulfill our dreams of Alaska Heliskiing, without being held back in any way. We had enough people for a fully private heli, meaning that we were calling the shots as much as the guides were. Things were looking good. But it was not to be…

We arrived at the heli-op headquarters with $1,200 worth of food and booze from the Anchorage Costco packed into the RV for the 10 of us. We were the first group of the year, and the heli had not yet arrived. The ATCO trailers were just beginning to thaw out, and smelled heavily of diesel and dampness. The first day was gray, so we decided to make some laps off Thompson pass. This was entertaining, but certainly not why we were there. Thankfully we got a good workout pushing the rear-wheel drive van around:
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The following day was partially cloudy. Sadly, this meant that our heli would still not be making the trip up-valley to us. So we decided to skin up across the valley for a much bigger run than the pass shuttles were offering. Plus, we knew the snow would be better up high. Being a large group, we split up into 2 groups for the skin. My group of 5 headed climber’s right, eventually skinning our way up a large gully. Jay, Adam and I all voiced our concerns about the skintrack location, thinking it would be safer on a nearby ridge. Quite stupidly, we continued up the same way, rationalizing that we were in a nice safe coastal snowpack, and it wasn’t anything to worry about. About that time, a cornice failed above us and sent a huge natural avalanche barreling towards us. Jay, Adam, Rob and I were all able to move to our right, where a terrain feature provided safety. Spencer, on the other hand, was behind us and unable to reach safety. He was caught in the avalanche and took a ride for a few hundred vertical feet, eventually stopping unharmed and buried up to his chest. We were able to quickly dig him out, although one ski was never recovered.

A couple of observations: We were all using Alpine Trekkers, since our main goal was heli-skiing, not touring. We were not caught, but we were left in an awkward position since we needed to deal with the Trekkers before we could even begin looking for the skier caught in the slide. Trekkers have their place for side-country and the like, but it sucks when you know that the first couple minutes of your search will be wasted dealing with trekkers. 2- The older style Tracker beacons were attached with plastic D-rings. These all shattered in the force of the avalanche, so the skier caught was wearing his beacon by literally a thread down by his boot. If the skier had been buried and the beacon had been totally ripped off, we wouldn’t have found him, just the beacon. The new Tracker beacons have a sweet harness, and the old ones can have the plastic D-rings easily replaced by key rings. Most new beacons have a good harness system, but it’s a point to consider when shopping for avalanche beacons.

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Q & A With 2-Time CTR Winner Ethan Passant

Posted by Frank – September 13, 2010

The Colorado Trail Race (CTR) is an annual bike race from Denver to Durango along the Colorado Trail, covering 470 miles and and an amazing 65,000′ of elevation gain, with a high point of 13,200′. For the most part, the race is on singletrack, although there are a number of detours around Wilderness areas that are on dirt or paved roads. Course Map:

The rules are fairly simple, you can do anything that anyone else can do. You can mail yourself some things to a post office, and you can buy groceries or a room or anything else- but you can’t eat and sleep at a friend’s house since the other competitors don’t have the same option. You can treat it like a race and forgo sleep, or you can take it a bit more relaxed and sleep every night.

My friend and fellow Crested Butte resident Ethan Passant has completed all four CTR’s, and has won on two of those occasions, including this year. Part of me is masochistic enough to consider attempting this race one of these years, while the other part of me would really like to do the Colorado Trail in semi-luxury, with a support vehicle stocked with plenty of fresh clothing and most importantly, beer. Regardless, I thought I’d give Ethan a call and ask a few questions…

Let’s start off with the bike and gear list… What do you bring? My bike is a Specialized 29er hardtail. I bring all the standard stuff anyone would bring on a longer ride: 2 tubes, a multi-tool, a few chain links, lube and a rag, stuff like that, plus an extra shifter cable. I use a minimalist 3/4 length thermarest and a 35degree down sleeping bag. I carry an emergency foil bivy sack, although I never used it. I don’t want to be too comfortable sleeping, otherwise I’ll just sleep. For water I use a SteriPEN. I use a
Black Diamond Icon Headlamp for most of my lighting needs, plus a handlebar mounted light. It’s not the kind of lighting that lets you ride full speed, but it lets you keep moving. Top and bottom rain gear, a second pair of shorts that I put on halfway through (Last year I tried to go with one pair: saddlesores were an issue), plenty of chamois butter. I should have carried brake pads- I was lucky to find some in Leadville. A lot of the course is hike-a-bike but I still used Sidi’s, and I would again.

How did you carry all this gear? I used a really minimalist pack from CAMP. It has mesh pockets on the side and I was able to carry a lot of trail food there so I could keep riding on the easy terrain. My sleeping bag goes on the handlebars along with another small bag, while the thermarest goes on a seatpost rack. The tubes and a few other things go in a saddle bag.

What did all that weigh? The bike and all the gear was probably around 32lbs. My pack was probably another 15-20lbs when I rolled out of Buena Vista. [The longest stretch between towns is Buena Vista all the way to Silverton, so racers have to really stock up on food in Buena Vista]

How much money do you spend from start to finish? Well, besides all the specialized gear that I bought before the race, I’d say I spent about $300. I spent $87 at the City Market in Buena Vista alone.

The weather was pretty bad this year. What’s it like to keep riding through that? The margin of safety is pretty minimal when it’s like that. You get cold and wet and you need to just keep going or else you’ll just get really really cold. Having a big mechanical or crash when you’re on the edge like that would be disastrous.

What are some of the secrets of your success? I don’t even need a map anymore- that familiarity with route finding is huge. It’s tough to keep your concentration the whole time on what you’re doing- which is riding your bike. Crashing or breaking something when you’ve stopped paying attention can cost the race in a hurry.

What’s your favorite stretch of trail? Probably the stuff around Decker and Buffalo Creek- It’s really good trail that’s all bermed up and flowy, but it’s also near the start so you’re still pretty fresh. Molas Pass all the way to Durango is really good too, but I’m usually so tired by then I’m just trying to finish.

Worst? Sargeants Mesa. [Roughly between Marshall Pass and North Pass CO 114] It feels like you’re going nowhere fast. It’s all grapefruit and baseball sized rocks and you end up walking a lot.

Why do it? The personal challenge. It’s just you and the trail. I think that without the date written down on the calendar, I might not do it- it’s easy to procrastinate otherwise. With the race, you’ve got to just show up and do it. It’s nice to know that there are other people out there, too, so there’s some safety if you knock yourself out or something. Plus the hikers are fun to talk to- they’ll say things like “There are 2 guys ahead of you but you’re looking good, go get ‘em!”

Ever thought about doing the Colorado Trail like a normal person? Well, I took 3 months and hiked it years ago. Next year, I might do the race with Dawn [his wife]. You’re supposed to be solo, but I figure if neither of us are competing for the win, it’s not that big a deal.

That’s about it, anyone inspired to do this race next year? The more I think about, the more I realize what an incredible trail the CT is. I’ve ridden sections near Waterton canyon, Buffalo Creek, Kenosha Pass, Summit County, the Arkansas River valley, Monarch Pass, and a lot of the trail from the La Garita wilderness boundary all the way to Junction Creek in Durango, and the only section I don’t like is a few miles just North of Highway 50. It’s amazing how uniformly good the CT is. My favorite section is Cataract Ridge, though it’s kind of hard to choose. Anyone like a different section more?

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Trusting Your Gear

Posted by Frank – April 22, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about how much we, as ski mountaineers, rely on our gear to perform flawlessly and get us home safely. The failure of an AT boot, and the injuries caused by that failure, really drives the point home- if your gear fails, you’ll get hurt, or even killed. Granted, your ski gear isn’t the only thing you rely on, your car is another obvious one, but your bindings better keep you attached when you’re skiing something exposed, and your beacon better work if you get buried.

I have already experienced one injury caused by equipment malfunction. In the 2004 Crested Butte Freeskiing contest, my binding pre-released in my Superfinals run. My buddy Ian took this photo on my first run, and I prereleased in about the same area, going REALLY fast.

Pre-releases happen, especially when you’re really pushing it, so I don’t begrudge my Salomon bindings at all for failing me. I broke a bunch of branches with my back, one of which was 4″ in diameter. I was wearing a spine protector at the time, which really saved me, but I still missed about a month while doing PT.

You’re less likely to push the limits in the same way out in the backcountry versus at a freeskiing comp. But of course some of the other hazards are greater. I’ve been out with people who were using the old Ortovox m1 beacon, which was a horrible beacon which only occasionally worked, even after Ortovox “fixed” the battery issues with them. Since I couldn’t get a signal, and my buddy couldn’t reliably search for me either, we turned around and called it a day.

Just the other day on Little Bear, Pam lost a ski and almost lost her ski over some pretty big exposure, but thankfully Brittany was able to grab it. Dynafits are fickle bindings, and she thought she was in them properly. She wasn’t. Locking the toepiece in a situation like that will help ensure that you’re really in the binding, in my opinion.

So what can you do? Well, beacon checks are always a good idea. Check your gear for excess wear and tear, micro-cracks, that sort of thing. Check the screws in your bindings for tightness. Lube and clean your bindings. Sometimes, you’ve just got to bite the bullet and replace gear, too, even if it seems fine. In the end, though, there’s still a lot of trust in your gear. Anyone have some good maintenance tips?

Potential Problem with Salomon’s New Quest AT Boot

Posted by Frank – April 19, 2010

Let me start off by saying it’s too early to tell- this could be an isolated incident or a major design flaw with Salomon’s entry into the AT world. At this point it’s simply something to keep in mind for those of you shopping for new AT boots next year. Salomon makes a great boot, so I’m sure many of you were interested in their AT offerings, which just came out mid-season.

On Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, a skier on exposed terrain fell and severely injured his leg. Doctors are hoping to save the leg, but he may never be able to ski again. The worst part is that he and his companions are insisting that the fall was caused by the dynafit-compatible “tech fittings” in his boot ripping out and causing the fall. For more information on this, go here and here. It also seems that at least one product tester also experienced a problem with the fittings not staying in the boot.

This isn’t a great photo, which is all I could find on the internet since Salomon doesn’t even have the boots on their website yet, but here it is:

I haven’t gotten a look at these boots in person, but some folks are wondering if there is enough material surrounding the inserts to keep them in place, or if there is a defect within the inserts themselves. One other thing to perhaps take note of is that the injured party weighs 260lbs- that weight, combined with big skis and aggressive skiing, may be more than the dynafit system can handle at either the binding or boot end, in my opinion.

In any case, we certainly wish the best for Dalton and his recovery, and if this is an engineering defect, lets hope it’s fixed before next fall when they will be more widely available. Also, if anyone knows of other failures in this boot, please get in contact with Dalton and leave a comment here, as these are things that need to be known.

EDIT 4/22/10 Lou did a great service by buying a set of sole blocks and quickly and easily blowing them up. That post is here. Really sad someone had to get so severely injured to prove that these things are shoddy. Yeah, they’ll probably be fixed by next season, but I’m not sure I would want to have anything to do with Salomon after seeing the lack of engineering put into these sole blocks. Buyer beware indeed.

Skin Glopping: Helpful Tips and Techniques

Posted by Frank – March 31, 2010

We’ve entered that time of year when the dreaded “skin glop” begins to make its appearance. Frozen snow sticking to your skins can make for an incredibly tiring and frustrating day. For the past couple of seasons, I’ve been able to largely avoid skin glopping, even when my partners have been having trouble, which I can partly attribute to some hard work refining my skin technique. (Having said that, Murphy’s Law states that I’ll be suffering through glopping of epic proportions the next time I head out.) For those of you who have never experienced the joys of glopped up skins, it looks something like this (photo found off the internet):

Glopping occurs when skins go from a warmer, moist environment to a colder and drier one. Glopping is often a problem in the springtime because a skintrack may go from a sunny slushy slope to a shaded powdery slope (such as in the shade of a tree or on a more northerly aspect). Other ways glopping may become a problem include getting skins wet while crossing a creek, which is easy to avoid, and downhill skinning, which may warm the skins enough due to friction to cause glopping as well. To avoid glopping after a downhill skin section, simply keep moving, which will let your skins gradually readjust to a colder temperature and thereby avoid glopping.

Avoiding glopping in the sunny/shady springtime snowpack is the hardest glop scenario to avoid, but there are still a few things to do that make it less likely.

1- Stride and Glide. Like many skiers, I learned how to skin using Alpine Trekkers. Trekkers are both heavy and awkward, and they promote poor skinning technique more suited to snowshoeing than skinning. The correct skin technique leaves the skis on the snow surface, shuffling your way up the hill. Bad skin technique involves picking the ski up every step, more like walking than skinning. Leaving the ski on the snow not only takes much less energy because you don’t pick up the weight of your skis/boots/bindings/skins with every step, but it also helps avoid glopping. Every stride on the snow surface acts like a squeegee- the snow tries to stick to your skins, but it gets wiped off with every stride. Like I said, proper skin technique takes a lot less energy anyway, so it’s not a bad thing to constantly work on.

2- Don’t. Stop. Until you reach the top. [Sing it Fleetwood Mac style] This is similar to the first tip, Stride and Glide. Stopping allows time for cold snow to bond to your skins and glop up. If you continue moving, the snow simply may not have time to freeze up on your skins. If you want to talk to your partner or eat something, consider slowing to a crawl rather than coming to a complete stop. If you must take a break, choose your spot carefully- stopping right after a sunny slope enters a shady one is a near guarantee of major gloppage. Think of it as nature’s cruel personal trainer, much like the flies and mosquitos of summertime hiking and biking.

3- Choose your skintrack wisely. As I mentioned before, glopping occurs when you skin from warm areas to cool ones. If you can stay entirely in either shaded snow or sunny snow, you can avoid glopping problems. Sometimes, there simply isn’t a route choice that doesn’t go from shade to sun to shade again, as in a dense forest. However, in a sparsely treed area you might want to stay on sunny snow the entire time, putting in the occasional extra switchback to avoid the shade of a tree and the powdery snow that may lie in wait there, ready to glop up on your skins. Of course, other considerations, like choosing an avalanche-safe route, take precedence over choosing a glop-friendly route, but it’s still something to keep in mind while skinning in the springtime.

4- Use Glop Stopper. This product from Black Diamond will help stop glopping from starting, just as the name implies. It is best applied at the start of the day, rather than after glopping has started, although it is still beneficial even after glopping has started. It’s basically just wax for your skins. This product stays in my pack year-round, you never know when you’ll need it, and it also increases the glide of your skins. Weight weenies split the block in half in order to save a few grams. Here it is:

Finally, it may be time for new skins. We recommend Black Diamond skins, and would also recommend staying away from G3 skins which have been problem-prone over the years. They’re on sale right now, so springtime might be a good time to buy a new set.


Climbing skins from backcountry.com, on sale now. Free Shipping over $50.00

Anyone else have some helpful hints to avoid glopping up in the springtime? Let’s hear them…

Meow!

Posted by Frank – February 7, 2010

14erskiers has a new access vehicle, and we’re excited to set up a good ski carry system and get out there. I won’t be spending the $ on a Cheetah rack system, so I’ll try to make my own. I’m not sure which way I want to go, so if anyone has some good mod suggestions, I’m all ears.

TR: Carbon Peak 12,079′ 1.9.10

Posted by Frank – January 10, 2010

Carbon Peak sits in the headwaters of picturesque Ohio Creek and is one of the more distinct peaks from the town of Gunnison. With the current snow conditions remaining less than ideal, We started brainstorming ideas for a good weekend outing. Since Carbon is one of the few local peaks I have yet to climb or ski, and I feel a lot better about South faces than other aspects, we decided to give the Spoon route on Carbon a go.

The Spoon:
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On this trip, I was sporting the newest beta version backcountry poles from Black Diamond.

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Lets take a closer look at these new poles. They feature the newest in moldable grip technology, which they have dubbed the “washcloth grip system”. I found them to form-fit to my hand very well, thumbs up!
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By moving the pole to its’ sideways position, the pole doubles as a snow picket. Top-notch versatility!
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The beauty of their new system is that each pole is different, to better cover a wide variety of uses. The other pole featured BD’s new patented “goggle brush”. Faceshots are a thing of the past, as this pole allows the skier to quickly wipe their goggles whenever an annoying vision-stealing faceshot occurs. Brilliant!
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Finally, the other end of the second pole is designed to chop steps in ice, the way mountaineers used to do it. What a weight savings, not having to take crampons anymore!
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14erskiers gives these new poles a big thumbs-up! They can now be purchased at ImjustjokingIforgotmypolesandhadtomakedue.com

On to the action… We started off from the Carbon Creek trailhead and headed up the road to avoid private property:
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Finally we were able to leave the road and make our way up the southeast side of the mountain:
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Does Gear or Skiing Skill Equal Backcountry Safety?

Posted by Frank – January 6, 2010

This is a bit of a continuation from my last post, when I mentioned a highly geared-up skier having a rough time descending Schuykill. Rather than ridicule this skier, I’ll just compare two hypothetical skiers. Their avalanche skills and knowledge and routefinding skills are all the same for the sake of this argument.

Skier ‘A’ has all the gear: avalanche beacon, ABS backpack, SPOT personal locator beacon, avalanche cords, helmet, body armor, avalung, nose plugs, etc. Of course, skier ‘A’ hasn’t put any time into getting good at… skiing. Every turns this skier makes in an adventure- he may fall, he may not.

Skier ‘B’ has a beacon, but that’s about it. Skier ‘B’, however, has put a lot of time in on the lifts and is an expert skier in any condition or situation.

So which one is safer? I’ll venture to say that skier ‘B’ is the safer one, by a lot. Stories abound of skiers falling and creating a slide, or a snowmobiler getting stuck highmarking and starting a slide while trying to dig out. If a slide were to start, skier ‘B’ would have a fighting chance of skiing out of it, while skier ‘A’ would almost certainly be stuck in it.

Which isn’t to say that skier ‘B’ couldn’t be even safer with all the gear, it’s just that skier ‘A’ should consider investing in another safety item with a big bang for the buck- a season’s pass and a few lessons.

Misadventures in Snowmobiles and More Pow… 12.31.09

Posted by Frank – January 2, 2010

Let’s start this post off on a good note, with Rob’s helmetcam footage from 12/30:

Obviously, it was good and we went straight back to the same spot the following day. My snowmobile was really running poorly and stalled a couple of times so I put it back on the trailer and decided to ride Brittany’s sled, at least down the road to Pittsburg. Unfortunately, I forgot to do something very important as I started off down the road, as I would soon discover. Since I haven’t ridden Brittany’s sled very often, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t running normally, and kept going down the road. Soon enough I started to smell and then see smoke coming out of the hood, so I hit the kill switch and lifted the hood to find… flames! I started scooping snow up and throwing it on the flames, which only made the flames go higher, now 2 feet high. I kept throwing the snow on the snowmobile, wondering if it was time to start running away. Tom was behind me and had accidentally driven off the road, so he didn’t know what was going on, while Rob, Trevor, and Sydney were up ahead, also with no idea of what I was dealing with. Just as I thought the snowmobile might be a goner, the flames went out under the mounds of snow I had piled on it.

As I sat on the snow waiting for Tom to catch up, I tried to figure out what had happened. The fire was centered around the brake rotor, which was odd, I thought. My first thought was that the brake was iced over from the day before, but then I came to the sad realization that it was my fault. My snowmobile doesn’t have a “parking brake” for lack of a better word. Brittany’s sled does. Long story short, I never thought to undo the brake, and drove it like that. The disc got red-hot, burned a hole through the oil reservoir, and started it on fire.

Tom caught up and since there really wasn’t anything to do at that point, we tandemed up to make some turns before dealing with the dead snowmobile. I’m not sure how many times I’ve not enjoyed powder skiing, but skiing after ruining Brittany’s sled is probably the only time. Beautiful day, though:

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This might be one of my favorite scenic shots ever:
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Trevor:
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Tom Runcie took some nice shots as well:
Sydney:

Frank:

We tried towing the snowmobile out after skiing, but the brakes were welded together, so we couldn’t do it. So Trevor, Tom and I headed out on New Year’s day, armed with a plastic kid’s sled. We stuck that under the track, bungeed it down, and we were out of there before I even had a chance to take a photo. It was amazingly easy, thanks to the help of my friends. I rode the dead snowmobile, and couldn’t see a thing as the spray came up off of Tom’s sled. It was actually pretty entertaining. With any luck, the old Cougar only needs a new brake and a new oil reservoir. It could definitely be worse, that’s for sure.

The Hunt For GPS

Posted by Frank – December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!

So, Brittany and I decided that our Christmas gift to one another would be the purchase, together, of a GPS. Our preliminary search at REI back at Thanksgiving left us underwhelmed with the choices, features, and prices of the units we looked at there. So, the question for you 14erskiers out there is this: Which GPS should we buy? Help us out here, throw out some choices for us…

Thanks!