Category: Random Thoughts

Trip Update 2.24.10

Posted by Frank – February 24, 2010

We’re having a great time on our roadtrip up north, despite the lack of snow and abundance of the white stuff back in CO.

Bridger Bowl was great, we went for a long tour to the south and got up close and personal with the huge slide on Saddle peak from last week. From there, we went up to Whitefish and had a good time there- it’s a big mountain with lots of little zones worth checking out. We actually had blue skies which is rare for the area, and we were able to check out the peaks of Glacier National Park. Fernie was a bit wind hammered, but some locals showed us around and we toured ’til our legs were about to fall off. Now we’re in Golden, BC and had another great day, this time at Kicking Horse. The backcountry right out of the area here is as good as anywhere I’ve seen. Kicking Horse has been super impressive, and we’d like to come back here for another visit. Tomorrow, we’re off to Roger’s Pass, followed by Revelstoke. We’ll get some TR’s up when we can…

A Skiing History Lesson

Posted by Frank – February 11, 2010

Skiing has been around for thousands of years, and despite all the talk of “progression” from the pros skiers, the truth is that people have been getting after it for a long, long time. Check out this great rant by Mike Douglas if you don’t believe me:

Winter Wildlands Alliance And Their Sponsors

Posted by Frank – January 27, 2010

The Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA) is a group dedicated to eliminating types of winter recreation other than the ones they support, namely human-powered recreation. From their website: “We believe winter wildland adventurers and future generations should have sizable areas of public land on which to experience the natural sights, sounds, and winter beauty of public lands free of motorized vehicles, and that our backcountry wildlife habitat should be protected from the negative impacts of motorized intrusion such as snowmobiles.” One can only guess that their supporters are not aware of these “sizable areas” available throughout the west, otherwise known as Wilderness areas, many of the National Parks, areas that just aren’t suitable to snowmobiles, areas closed to snowmobiles via the local Forest Service travel management plans, etc.) They must also be unaware of the evidence that people on foot are often much more disturbing to wildlife than people on snowmobiles (See here for more info.)

Here at 14erskiers, we’re supporters of quiet places free of snowmobiles just like any other lover of wild places. The question, of course, is how much is the right amount. In most areas, I think there is already a solid compromise between the different user groups. We’re skiers, not snowmobilers, but we use snowmobiles to go up roads that are open to cars in the summer in order to access some backcountry areas. Personally, I fail to see the difference between a car on a road in the summer and a snowmobile on the same road in the winter. WWA seems to think snowmobiles should be banned virtually everywhere.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, to be sure, but what I find interesting and sad is the list of sponsors the WWA has garnered. Some of WWA’s sponsors include Keen, Clif bar, Black Diamond, Cloudveil, Osprey, and even REI. It would seem that snowmobilers and snowmobile skiers might want to purchase products from these companies, whether it’s a backpack from Osprey or a pair of goggles from REI. Hopefully everyone who is interested in keeping their National Forests open to multiple forms of recreation will let these companies know that their support of WWA is unacceptable. the best way to do this, as usual, is by voting with your pocketbook. Personally, I will no longer support these companies as long as they continue to support WWA. I hope you will too, and please let your friends know about this if you care about your National Forest recreational opportunities.

The Season Begins

Posted by Frank – January 24, 2010

I’ll admit it. I’ve actually thought about mountain biking in the past couple of weeks. It makes me sad just admitting it. But given the nearly non-existent base, the lack of steep terrain open on the mountain, and the backcountry filled mostly with sugar, it’s been groundhog day every day this winter, and the date seemed like it was stuck in early November.

Thankfully, the last week has started to get us over the hump. Sure, the backcountry is still scary, and will be until springtime to some extent, but at least the ski area is moving forward. Today was the long-awaited opening of the North Face lift at Crested Butte, and it didn’t disappoint. Finally having the ability to make some steep turns on runs like Cesspool and Hourglass made all the difference, and I don’t think I’ll be thinking about the bike again until at least June. Here’s to more storms on their way in a couple of days…

What’s Old is New Again

Posted by Frank – January 21, 2010

I’m currently reading “Two Planks and A Passion” (see right sidebar), a historical look at skiing. I haven’t gotten too far into it yet, but one thing that I already found interesting are ski shapes and dimensions. Things like fat skis, reverse camber, and reverse sidecut seem like new inventions, something just introduced in the last 10 or 15 years at most. Turns out, they’re not.

Some of the earliest skis ever discovered look like a lot of modern skis- reverse sidecut, well over 100mm in the waist, reverse camber, basically the whole deal. Just like the park rat jibbers of today are mostly just rehashing tricks the hotdoggers of the ’70s used to do, it turns out the modern shapes look a lot like some transportation device some hunter used to shoot reindeer back in the day. Weird, huh?

Top Ten Ski Areas in North America

Posted by Frank – January 19, 2010

Brittany and I are hoping to head up to interior B.C in about a month to do some touring and some lift riding as well. One of the reasons I’m excited about this trip is that we will hopefully visit some of the areas I have not been to, but have wanted to visit for years, such as Fernie, Kicking Horse, and the new Revelstoke resort. I may need to adjust my top ten list once I visit those areas, but for now, of the areas I’ve been to, here’s my top ten list in no particular order:

1: Crested Butte
2: Whistler/ Blackcomb
3: Red Mountain
4: Jackson Hole
5: Snowbird
6: Alta
7: Snowbasin
8: Squaw Valley
9: Bridger Bowl
10: Big Sky/ Moonlight

That’s my list, what’s yours?

Weekend Accidents

Posted by Frank – January 18, 2010

There were a couple of tragic freak accidents in the Colorado backcountry this weekend. One was right here in Crested Butte. A local skier was ascending the skintrack to ski “Coney’s” when he apparently collapsed and died of what appears to be a heart attack from what I hear. I’ve been told he was only 35.

Meanwhile, in Telluride, a woman who was snowboarding with Telluride Helitrax accidentally fell into a creek and drowned. What is really strange about this story is that reports have indicated the guide was unable to free her because her helmet was wedged under a rock. This may be the rare circumstance when a helmet may have contributed to a death, rather than preventing one. More information on this accident can be found at the Telluride Daily Planet and the L.A Times Read the comments in the L.A.Times for an outrageous take on what “gender roles” had to do with this accident.

Some of the dangers of the backcountry are a given, such as avalanches. The thought of a backcountry partner having a heart attack in the backcountry is a tough one, knowing there is nothing that could ever be done in a case like that. Likewise, while creek crossings evoke a healthy dose of respect in the backcountry, who would think that a helmet would create a deadly situation like that.

In the end, these accidents are just that- accidents. Bad things happen, sometimes when crossing the street, sometimes when skinning up a hill to do some skiing. It’s sad, but I’m not sure there is necessarily a lesson in it. Condolences to all the friends and family of those involved…

$16,072

Posted by Frank – January 11, 2010

That’s what 14erskiers.com is currently worth, according to bizinformation.org Brittany and I will happily take as little as $15,000 at this time. ;) Make us an offer. Act fast, it might be worth a lot more than that a year from now :) It’s fun to think our little project is worth much, but I’m not sure it’s worth a dollar right now. Whatever the case, it’s kind of fun seeing what websites are presumably worth… TGR is $838,237, while wildsnow is $337,270, for example. That’s it for now…

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.

Wave Skiing

Posted by Frank – December 22, 2009

Apologies to TGR regulars that already got to see this…

About ten years ago, when really fat skis started becoming more popular, you’d here the inevitable “What are those, water skis?” jokes. That gave me an idea. I remember telling people that I wanted to ski waves, like a surfer but on skis. After all, snowboarding is just some sport that took surfing to the snow, so why not take skiing to the water? Problem was, I’m made out of oil (i.e. I don’t mix with water). I’m so stoked that someone finally pulled it off, and with style, too. Check it out: