Where Will You Ski Today?

Fast Grass and Dirty Corn

2008-05-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Brian and Emily at EmberPhoto keep eking out the turns in Vermont. It’s not exactly advised skiing for your skins or your bases, but well, sometimes you just have to bridge to the next patch of snow…

Thank goodness for smooth grass on a ski resort slope.

What it Takes to be a Ski Guide, Part IV

2008-05-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

The fourth and final installment from Karhu ambassador Evan Stevens, wrapping up the AMGA Ski Mountaineering Guide Exam in Valdez, AK.

Today was the last day of the course/exam, and things are all wrapped up. I made a flight back to Anchorage, and have a few hours to kill before my 1am red eye back to the lower 48, allowing me to decompress and chill out for the first time in 10 days. Can you feel the weight lifting off of my shoulders?This is not an easy process - either for the aspiring guide or the instructor/examiner. The long days, lack of sleep and continuing challenges of touring and guiding day after day had taken their toll on everyone with a touch of fatigue setting in... but that can tell you a lot about a guide, as they process these issues, and still manage to guide and have some energy in the reserves for the anticipation of whatever issues may come out of the blue. Granted these courses tend to push people a little hard at times, as the candidates aren't used to juggling so many things day after day, but anything can happen in the mountains, and we need to know that these candidates can handle and manage all of these things before we can allow them to pass the examination component of this course. As a result, a 50% failure rate in guide programs throughout the world is not uncommon. Most aspiring guides usually fail at least one exam in their path to full certification as a rock, ski and alpine guide. This is for sure one of the toughest parts of the examining job, as you have 'journeyed' with these candidates through the last 10 days, helping them to achieve their goals and they don't always make it. But so it goes... if everyone passed just for signing and showing up, then being a certified guide wouldn't mean a thing.

At least for the last 3 days we got to hammer out a few more quality ski lines, possibly some of my last few turns of the season, as I will be diving head first into climbing season this week. In fact my last few turns were on one of my favorite runs on the planet, the Cherry Couloir on Python Peak. This dog leg chute drops right off the small summit down about 1,500' vertical, lined by cliffs holding an angle in the mid 40's. After that, another 3 grand of cruiser turns take you back to the car - you gotta love the big vertical of Alaska!

I already have a potential trip guiding in Valdez for next April, and I can't wait to come back! This place continues to blow my mind, and my last turns (possibly?!!?) of the season will carry me through to next fall...

(Marc leads Julia up the Python for some practice guiding. Photos courtesy of Evan Stevens.)

(Rapping down into the top of the Cherry Couloir right off of Python's Summit.)

(Julia Niles rips down the gut of the Cherry.)

(Joey Vallone showing us how its down on the lower part of the Cherry.)

(Yours truly getting in some amazing final turns of the season.)

For more on Evan’s experience during the AMGA Ski Guide exam in Valdez, see Part I, Part II and Part III.

What it Takes to be a Ski Guide, Part III

2008-05-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Part III from Karhu Ambassador and AMGA Ski Guide Evan Stevens:

Well, we are down to the final stretch, only three more days left of the ski guide course. For the last three days we were on a point to point traverse, that started off quite spectacularly with a heli-drop. Our friends at Alaska Rendezvous Heli Guides lined us up with a drop on top of the 7,000-foot peak known as Ice Palace. This run was only guided once this season, and has some pretty interesting positions to say the least. Crevasses and ice falls border almost every turn on the top of the run, and everyone's adrenaline was high, when we were left by the bird perched on top of the line with packs full of 3 days worth of gear. Joey and I led the group down to demo some guiding techniques, and 3,200' later we were all stoked with the unbelievable amount of boot top powder we just skied in the first week of May.

(Ice Palace. Photos courtesy of Evan Stevens.)

So we then traveled up and over a glaciated col, skied down another huge shot to the massive Tonsina glacier. We skied about 8km up that glacier to go over another col, and dropped down to the Tsina glacier and camped amidst the never ending peaks and glaciers.

(Small skiers head down to the massive Tonsina Glacier.)

This was a big day, and we have been driving the candidates pretty hard. 12 hours out on the snow has been pretty standard, and none of us have averaged more than 5 hours sleep for the last week. Every certified guide I know has been put through the wringer, and it is important to know that your guide can keep going no matter what. Call it a rite of passage, or what ever you like, it is a hard process and you have to be able to keep up for days on end.So of course we kept going the next day. We woke up at our beautiful camp, and trekked up another 2500' feet to another col that led us to the Hoodoo glacier, winding our way through more ice falls and crevasses.

(Mark finds a clear path up to the Hoodoo Col.)

As instructors, we were almost hoping for some bad weather, so we could see how the candidates navigate up the big white glaciers in fog and whiteout conditions, we got a little bit of fowl weather, but it cleared out in time for our descent onto the Hoodoo.

(Whiteout clears for us at the col.)

We dropped onto the Hoodoo, made camp and busted up Girls Mountain for a sweet 3,000' of later afternoon skiing.

(The Hoodoo Glacier and Girls Mountain.)

Time to camp again, and we actually got 6 hours of sleep, and took it easy on the candidates the next day, with only one short 3,000' climb and ski out the backside of Girls Mountain down to the Worthington Glacier and the cars.

(Backcountry.com Athlete Julia Niles takes us down 4,200 feet to the cars.)

Sound like a lot? Well it has been, and like I said, we still have three more days of skiing left!On another note, it is always interesting to see what gear all of the guides are hammering on... especially when there are a few items that are in almost every single guides pack. First of course are Dynafit bindings. Light and bomber, there is no other choice for ski guides. The other items would be for camping. Jetboil stoves are universal as well; light, small and super efficient. The Black Diamond Firstlight (and other BD hyperlight tents) are the ONLY tents I see people with for winter camping - not amazing in the rain, but perfect in the cold and snow. Finally would be a plug for a new piece of gear I am using, the Outdoor Research Exped sleeping mats. I can't believe how well I slept on the Downmat 7 DLX, best night of sleep in the backcountry ever for me. Period. Okay, enough of a post for now... hope this inspires you to check out some new places, and if you hire a guide, to consider hiring an AMGA certified guide. We still have a few more days left, so check back to see what else we come up with for these aspiring certified guides!

For more on Evan’s experience during the AMGA Ski Guide exam in Valdez, see Part I and Part II.

What it Takes to be a Ski Guide, Part II

2008-05-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

More in the series from Karhu Ambassador and AMGA Ski Guide Evan Stevens:

Day 2 and 3 of the AMGA Ski Mountaineering Guides Course just wrapped up. We spent day 2 finishing off our technical skills, by teaching the candidates glacier travel and crevasse rescue techniques on the Worthington Glacier right off of Thompson Pass. You have to love this place... 20 minutes of skinning from the car and we are on a glacier, skiing towards a crevasse to huck ourselves into and get dragged out of.

(Candidates hanging out in the crevasse. Photos courtesy of Evan Stevens.)

As you can imagine, it is essential to know how to be able to haul someone who falls into a slot out of it. It isn't exactly a walk in the park, as you have to arrest the person's fall into the slot, then build a ski anchor as you hold the person's weight on the rope so that you can escape their weight and build a hauling set up to get mechanical advantage so you can pull the person out of the slot.

(Ben fighting the pull of gravity as he arrests a crevasse fall.)

The plan for Day 3 didn't include any more rescue and technical skills assessment and practice, so obviously it means that it included some ski touring. We were all excited to get out and cover some ground and ski some of the big terrain that the Chugach are famous for. The weather here has been a bit less than ideal. Joey Vallone, one of the instructors I am working with, keeps running into tons of skiing rock stars he used to ski with, who are here to film. However, they have been sitting on their butts for weeks, as clouds and unsettled weather have kept the helis grounded. Lucky for us, we are traveling under our own power and can get around in the mountains as we please, and capitalize on the small windows of good weather.

(Working our way up a run called RFS - Really F-ing Steep!)

Luck for us, this actually meant some good views and visibility in the afternoon, and the added bonus treat of 10-15cm of fresh pow - not bad for May 1st!

(Instructor Howie Schwartz helps candidate Mark Hanselman pick and choose his way down the glacier.)

We got some good runs in, and got to look around and drool in anticipation of the next week of refining guiding skills.

(Julia Niles works with Howie on figuring out where we will go for the next 3 days.)

Finally we sat down with some maps to plan a 3 day ski traverse off of Thompson Pass. If the weather agrees we might get dropped off further away from the road by a heli, and ski back to the cars - if not, good old lungs and legs will get us far far away! I'll let you know how it goes in 3 days!

(Joey Vallone getting ready for some AK Heli Time!)

For more, see Evan's previous post here

What it Takes to be a Ski Guide, Part I

2008-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

The guiding season is not over for Karhu Ambassador Evan Stevens, who is busying himself up in Alaska right now teaching the AMGA’s Ski Mountaineering Guides Course. Certified in the field last year and helping pass on the knowledge to other prospective ski guides, Evan offers us a great perspective on what it takes.

I finally made it to Valdez, Alaska for the American Mountain Guides Association Ski Mountaineering Guides Course. For those of you who don't know, the AMGA trains and certifies guides in the Alpine, Rock and Ski disciplines, and when a candidate is certified in all three disciplines, they are considered an IFMGA (International Federation of Mountain Guides Association) Mountain Guide. It takes most people in the US 3 to 6 years to complete all of the trainings and certifications to become a full Mountain Guide, and right now there are fewer than 60 who have completed this process (in the US). Last year I finished this task, sort of your PHD of mountain travel, and have now been asked to start to teach and train the next round of guides. This crop includes guides from Alaska, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho (to name a few) and also includes fellow backcountry.com athlete Julia Niles, who is on her way to becoming one of the few fully certified female mountain guides.

This course is 10 days long, and I thought it might be interesting (and entertaining) to give everyone a picture of what it actually means to be a trained and certified guide. Most developed countries in the world REQUIRE guides to be certified in order to work. This seems to make sense to me, you wouldn't want to trust your life to a doctor that wasn't board certified, so why trust your life to a guide that isn't certified? The land of the free, aka the U.S., has developed a guiding culture that did not require or put an emphasis in this certification process, but that perspective is starting to shift. More and more clients, guiding services and land managers are starting to see the importance of guide certification and the standards of practice and safety it brings to the table.

So here you go: I will bring you into the world of guide training and certification, and you can see what it takes to be a ski guide!

First things first, being a mountain guide means having a TON of gear (luckily I get to work with backcountry.com). Still, I had to put away the bike and the cams, and load up the skis, ice axes, crampons, rescue sleds, shovels, etc... for one more stint of skiing this year.

I met up with my fellow instructors, Howie Schwartz and Joe Vallone, for some planning and prep for where and when we were going to take the candidates. Pouring over maps, past itineraries, recent snow pack data, and weather reports, we came up with a plan for the course.

Day 1 was today (Tuesday) and it entailed testing the candidates on their technical rescue skills. In our minds it is essential to know that the people I will be out in the mountains with on a course like this have my back.

The First of 4 drills was the construction of a rescue toboggan, loading a patient into it, lowering the patient 300 feet down a 45 degree slope (through 2 anchor stations that they construct out of skis) and finally dragging the sled 300 feet across a slope. This all has to be done in 70 minutes.

The second drill was finding 3 buried avalanche beacons in a 300 by 300 foot area in 7 minutes or less. Usually 2 of these beacons are buried about 10 feet apart and are at least 3 feet deep in the snow, with the third beacon being at least 5 feet deep in the snow.

The third drill was the construction of an emergency shelter with a tarp, shovel, and 3 pairs of skis and poles in 30 minutes.

Finally, we had the candidates dig some snow profiles (snow pits) so that we know their assessments of the snowpack are up to snuff.

Sound like a lot so far? It only took us 10 hours to get all of this stuff done...and tomorrow we still need to assess the students at crevasse rescue! After that we will start to get to skiing the big lines and covering some ground in the amazing Chugach Mountains...

Stay tuned here and on my blog for the next 10 days as I keep you posted on the daily trials and tribulations of what it takes to be a ski guide!

Whistler World Backcountry Freeride Jam

2008-05-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

The TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival draws thousands of snow sliders to Whistler for 10 days and 10 nights. Events range from slopestyle contests to concerts, but the special events of the World Backcountry Freeride Jam are particularly special. With its Backcountry Village to Randonnee Tours, the Race Series, Safety Clinics and Telemark Lessons, the Backcountry Freeride Jam provides great exposure for all things backcountry. Telemark instructor Tom Gellie sent us an trip report from the event…

(Wandering through the Backcountry Village. Photos courtesy of Tom Gellie)

I didn't expect there to be great skiing at Whistler during the World Ski and Snowboard Festival but that wasn’t the reason for going. Festivals are all about meeting up with old friends, making new ones, getting amongst some of the events on offer and generally celebrating the fact we love to ski. As part of the huge Ski and Snowboard festival there is the World Backcountry Freeride Jam. The organisers of this had done a great job in organising many clinics, demos and parties as a part of this get together. People could take part in Telemark clinics, backcountry tours with qualified guides, demo the latest equipment and all of this for FREE!

(Tom goes chuting on Blackcomb.)

The first day of the Jam was exciting because I had a new pair of Karhu Spires to try. Unfortunately though the mountain had gone from being above freezing temps to -7 C overnight. A dusting of a few centimetres made it a little more enjoyable. Some friends and I managed to find some pretty fun and challenging skiing given the conditions and many a time that day did I ask myself why I telemarked?? Hitting big ugly ice cookies hidden under a skiff of powder can suck while trying to negotiate some of Blackcomb's couloirs. I also wondered why I’d ordered that last drink at the bar last night? That day we skiied past the guys setting the courses for the three randonee style races held over the weekend. These ranged from 10km jaunts inbounds to the serious Spearhead Pasage. For those looking to blast the lungs a straight uphill race (4000ft) from the Village to the Roundhouse Gondola could be done on the Saturday.

(The telemark clinic crew.)

The second day I had organised to meet up with some ripping tele gals and let them show me some of Whistler Mountain. It was really awesome to have a big crew of tele skiers. It rarely happens I find except for at festivals. Even more rare is it that they all rip!! The energy was great and we managed to find some sweet pockets of new snow. I knew exactly why I chose to telemark that particular day. The girls demoed some new equipment and talked of how to tactfully approach their other halves on why they need new boots and skis.

(Whistler rip-session.)

That evening we all headed to one of the parties where they had a fundraiser for repairs to a popular backcountry hut in the area. Lots of great prizes where given away and a good time had by all.

(What a cap to the northern session!)

The Whistler World Backcountry Freeride Jam is a great event with lots on offer. Most of it free too. It is also held at the time of year when you are winding down your ski season so is a great way to finish off. I’m now on my way south preparing for skiing again back in Australia so it was definitely a nice way for myself to tie off a great Northern Hemisphere winter.

Ski you later,
TeleTom

100K of Skinning

2008-04-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Vermonter Peter Wadsworth sent us an email the other day with a link to a great video slideshow of his season. Peter set a goal of skiing 100,000 vertical feet in the backcountry to push himself this season, and came away from it with a lot of adventures and an awesome record of them. Congrats on hitting your goal, Peter, and thanks for inspiring the rest of us.

(Video courtesy of Peter Wadsworth)

Thinking back on this season I realize that making this seemingly superficial goal got me much more than an arbitrary number. I skied in a way, in places, and at times that I may not have otherwise, and because of this the experience was neither superficial nor arbitrary. Nearly half of the days that I headed out I went to a place I had never been before, as opposed to lapping the same old hill under the lifts. More than half of the days weren’t “days” at all, but were dawn or dusk patrols that accompanied a full day at the office – some including skiing in the dark to earn my vert. Because of the inherent risks with this I also sought out ski partners that I might otherwise have gone without, and developed friendships with some great skiers that I learned a lot from. Now the question is: what is my goal for next season?

-Peter

Altai Skis at Powder Creek, BC

2008-04-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

(Nils and his touring quiver at Powder Creek, BC. Photos courtesy of Nils Larsen)

Inspired by his trips to the Altai Mountains of China, Nils Larsen began building his own Altai skis over the winter, chronicling his progress here on the blog.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

With the skis completed, Nils brought them up to Powder Creek Lodge, BC to test out on his recent hut trip. Continued from Monday…

I finally got out on the big boards late in the day Thursday and on Friday for some test runs near the cabin. The light was trending to milk bottle but the snow was cold and fairly deep. I had a bit of trouble adjusting the bindings (stiff rawhide is hard to tie) but soon got the hang of them. The skis worked great in my test runs and I quickly got up enough speed to generate several spectacular wipeouts.

Saturday, our last full day there, the weather finally warmed up. All tired from a week of touring, we headed out early for a short tour to the north before the snow warmed up. I strapped on the Altai skis and tagged along, wondering what I was getting myself into. The snow on the north side of the Back Door pass was still cold dense powder. My first run was low angle and I found the snow fast and eminently skiable. My next run was quite steep and I quickly exceeded my comfort level on these skis. I was able to make some modest turns and as the day progressed I got more comfortable with speed and balance.

The snow thickened and warmed though and after lunch we headed back to the lodge. We stopped at the top of the pass and some of the group tried the Altai skis off the north side. Slides were starting to rumble in the warming sun as we skied back to the lodge and the cold beers we had waiting.

Success!

Powder Creek Trip Report

2008-04-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

The US/Canadian dollar may be nearly equal, but a hut trip to British Columbia is still the best deal going for ski trips. Karhu’s Minister of Ski Culture, Nils Larsen, is freshly back from one of his favorites:

Powder Creek Lodge is in British Columbia’s Purcell Range – north of Nelson on the east side of Kootenay Lake. We flew in on Sunday, April 6 for a week of touring here in this wild range in central BC. We were blessed with cold weather and occasional snow most of the week, typical of spring in this area. If you have never hut skied, you have to try it. When it comes to backcountry skiing, staying in a comfortable lodge and day touring in spectacular terrain and powder snow is at the very top of the skiing food chain, and Powder Creek ranks high in world of BC lodges.

(Powder Creek Lodge and the view south. Photos by Nils Larsen.)

I had brought my newly finished pair of Altai skis in to try out. But with the skiing as great as it was, they would have to wait for us to tour the goods first. What fantastic skiing and a week with good friends!

(Ridge touring on a snowy day.)

(Bill Love, skiing home.)

(Forrest skis the trees. )

To be continued with a report on skiing the Altai skis on Tuesday…

Winding Down in the Adirondacks

2008-04-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Keeping it on the theme of spring in the East, Karhu rep Mike “Kaz” Kazmierczak sends us trip report from some XCD skiing in New York’s Adirondack region. Sunny skies, warm weather, good company, soft snow, what’s not to like?

Winter is fading quickly in the Adirondacks, but we still have some skiing opportunities up high. The approaches are muddy and the streams are running, but the temptation of corn snow keeps us trekking into the High Peaks each weekend.

(Jen Kazmierczak hiking across one of many stream crossings on the approach. Photos by Mike Kaz)

The classic Wright Peak ski trail was the destination for this trip. With its northern exposure and sheltered canopy, we knew it would have easy skiing and hiking up, and by the time the temps rose (almost 75 degrees this trip), the corn was perfect to schuss out on. The summit weather couldn’t have been better. Typically windy, Wright Peak offered us completely calm skies to scout our trips on neighboring peaks for the following week.

(Kaz on the summit of Wright, looking toward Mt Colden and Mt Marcy.)

XCDs are the skis of choice for a bunch of our objectives around here, but especially in the spring when "variable" conditions persist. And really, nothing jump turns on rock quite like the 10th Mountains! Still a couple more weeks left of skiing for us... after a truly stellar winter.

(At snowline, just below Wright Peak's summit, prepping to ski down. 10th Mountains all around.)

(Classic Adirondack Trail skiing on the Wright Peak Ski Trail.)

(Not wanting winter to end, our friend Rob Dross.)

White Mountain Wandering

2008-04-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

With longer sunlight and warm temps, the East Coast corn season is fully in session. Brian Mohr checks in from the White Mountains.

Ahhh spring! Barely fifty miles east of Vermont’s Green Mountains lie the snowcapped ranges and mountain clusters that characterize New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

(Dave Bouchard looking out across the options. Photos by EmberPhoto)

The Whites are significantly higher than the Greens, with the region's highest summit, the infamous Mount Washington, topping out at 6288' – nearly 2000' higher than Vermont's highest. Top to bottom descents of over 4000' vertical lure many skiers to the Whites, while an abundance of challenging alpine terrain, open slide paths and snow-filled cirques (e.g. Tuckerman's Ravine) offers a nice change of scenery for the forest-dwelling Northeastern skier. Mid-winter, the best ski terrain in the highest elevations of the Whites is often plagued by high winds and dangerous – if not totally unskiable – snow conditions. That is not to say that you can't score an incredible day of skiing here in mid-January. However, come early April, when the warmer days of spring begin to consolidate the snowpack, the Whites come into their element.

Although there were still 100" of settled snowpack at treeline in Vermont earlier this month, a stretch of warm, clear days and cool, clear nights made it impossible for many to resist the lure of Whites. Personally, I kicked off the spring with a fun, solo traverse of a good stretch of the region's Presidential Range (from Castle Ravine to Franklin Brook), scoring several runs of beautiful, untracked corn along the way. In the days that followed, with bluebird weather prevailing, I connected with various friends. We shared some truly adventurous turns in some seldom visited places, as well as some great descents right off the popular summit flanks of Mount Washington.

Then, just a few days ago, I finally got to connect with Karhu skier Dave Bouchard, of Hinesburg, Vermont. Always a joy to ski with, Dave recently scored first place in the men's telemark division of Mad River Glen's annual Triple Crown. Busy all week as a school teacher and busy at home with two growing kids, Dave was psyched to have a whole day to go ski. So we made the most of it, with a 5am start here in Vermont and a tour that included some of our favorite White Mountain gems.

By 9am, we were up high on the White Mountain divide, dropping into our first of many fine lines we planned to ski. A thin coat of fresh snow that had plastered itself to the springtime base was still skiing dry and nearly powder-like in the shadier aspects, while corn was already taking shape in wind-scoured zones and gullies catching the direct morning rays. By noontime, the fresh snow in the direct sun was getting sticky and best avoided, while anything else in the sun was delectable.

After another great day in the mountains, we spotted this beautiful little fox back at the trailhead.

Back home in Vermont, most of the ski areas are now shut down for the season, but an impressive snowpack leaves us with another 1-2 weeks of top to bottom skiing. We'll likely be hopping on the bikes a bit, too – but with the skis in tow – to access some of this skiing, so stay tuned...

Brian
Moretown, VT
EmberPhoto

Guiding Alaska

2008-04-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

With the Jackson Hole season wrapped up, Karhu skier Eric Henderson is once again up in Alaska, guiding with Valdez Heli Ski Guides. With good snow and blue skis last week, he sent along a dispatch from several days of guiding and shooting with Tough Guy Productions.

One of the highlights of my job in Alaska is working with professional athletes and delivering the goods to them. Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to work once again with the Tough Guy Production crew and their selected team of athletes.

(All-star line-up in Valdez, AK. Photos courtesy of Eric Henderson)

The weather for the first few weeks of April was milky to say the least. Continued cloud cover, mixed precip and high winds had shut down almost every operator on Thompson Pass. The Tsaina parking lot scene was a well-blended mix of frisbee, early beers, lots of cheese quesadillas and half-crazed heli skiers waiting to see the sun pop. Without fail the first question out of every skier’s mouth was “What’s the forecast?” with the standard refrain of “More of the same.” We have a saying in Valdez, if you want clear skies, then Drink it Blue.

Sure enough the night we decided to close down the Pipeline Bar, the skies cleared and we were flying by 10AM. Load One was Stephane, Kevin and David, with me to guide. Second load was Max, Tyler, JT and Lorenzo. I received both groups on top of Imax, a classic run in the Promise Land with the cameras start rolling. We proceeded to get three more days of flying and skiing, allowing the cameras to capture all of the athletes experiencing some of the Chugach’s magic. This year, unlike others, we combined the one-drop heli touring program with scattered pick-ups throughout the day, allowing us to ski some unlandable peaks and couloirs, then travel a few drainages over and do it again.

(Lorenzo Worster drops in with speed.)

One-drop skiers are groups of four that launch early in the morning before the public skiers, and end up skiing most of the day on their own human power. We land on top of a heli run to start and then proceed to hike and skin for the goods through out the day. The usual day ends up with over 12,000-vertical skied and some tired legs. All groups end by skiing down to the highway for a van pick up. It’s hard to beat a cold beer and a friendly van drive after teeing off in the Chugach for the day.

Working with a crew like this year’s Tough Guy athletes makes my job harder yet extremely satisfying. Having some of the best freeheel skiers in the country as your clients keeps it exciting at all times. I am either opening large slopes for them to ski, setting up for rescue, or standing by as they launch huge air. Not to mention watching some of the most impressive telemark turns on some the country’s biggest freeride lines.

As I have said before, the modern age of freeheel skiing now has a place in the Valdez/Chugach ski culture and should be here till the end.

For more info: http://www.valdezheliskiguide.com/

Spring Roller Coaster

2008-04-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well into April and its roller coaster of weather and temperatures, but winter still won’t quite release its grasp here in the Cascades. Steady snow showers last week piled up a foot-plus of new powder at Alpental for their Thursday morning reopening. A couple of us in the office headed up for a morning session .

(Fog lifts from Alpental early on Thursday morning. Photos by Graham Gephart)

(Karhu engineer Eben Sargent dropping down Adrenaline.)

(Finding good powder under International)

Since then, temperatures climbing well into the 50s and 60s in the mountains, and are again cooling back down and leaving snow this week. It’s all setting up for an epic spring of touring, especially as the lifts wind down. The resort is now opening only on weekends through May 5th for a Cinco de Mayo closing celebration. While the resort is closing, with any luck we’ll be holding a special opening celebration of our own on the 5th, up in the North Cascades once again. Fingers are crossed for the road opening, but the progress report from WSDOT looks good for a month or two of good skiing from the passes:

From WSDOT's Jeff Adamson:

Here's what's up there right now, east and west: 4 Kodiak snow blowers, 3 Caterpillars (1 D-8, 2-D-6), 2 snow cats, an excavator, front end loader, and grader.

Weather has been clear or overcast, but temperatures have remained about 40 which kept the avalanche chutes that still have the 10-inches of snow they got a week ago, stable. Becker says they're hoping the warm temperatures forecast for the next several days will either melt it in place or cause the snow to slide by Monday. "We're bringing all our equipment to a site below Cutthroat Ridge so nothing we'll need Monday morning will stranded on the wrong side of a big slide." Don also sent me some new photos which we're posting to the Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157604271503716/

Hide & Seek in the Adirondacks

2008-04-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

One more trip report from Nils Larsen’s swing through the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains in early March…

The Adirondack Backcountry Festival continued on Sunday with another 4-6 inches of low-density snow overnight. Conditions looked stellar and Ron Konowitz - a near legendary local skier who has skied in the ‘Dacks since the late 70s - agreed to take me touring. Ron is also famous for his secrecy about where he skis, something I had heard about from other locals. Maybe it was because I was from across the country, maybe it was because we were both old-time (some might say over the hill) tele/XCD skiers, but Ron led me off to some choice private stashes.

Ron and Nils near an unnamed woods slash. Numerous Adirondack slides in the distance. Photos courtesy of Nils Larsen.

The snow was cold and light, knee-deep in places.

Ron, bringing up the rear and covering tracks.

Our second ski of the day clued me in to the extent of the previously mentioned secrecy. We parked along a main road (I must be ambiguous here as I am sworn to secrecy), quickly grabbed our ski gear and dodged into the bushes. We put our skis on and took a roundabout route up to a well-used snowshoe trail, carefully disguising our tracks entering the trail. We climbed for an hour or so, passing lots of snowshoers but no skiers (the dumbing down of winter sports is a sad thing). Ron was careful - very careful. The trail was narrow and studded with roots and rocks, but we let all questioners know that this was our planned route down. I won some points here for diving into the role, telling people in my folksiest voice that ‘we may be foolish but, hey, what do we know?’ People looked at us strangely and, Ron thought, sometimes suspiciously. He recognized a few folks which made him all the more careful.

Finally, near the top and in what I thought to be an impenetrable thicket of spruce, we stopped. There was no one in sight and Ron and I quickly took off our skis. "Throw your skis as far into the thicket as you can," Ron whispered. There was a sense of urgency as we crawled into the thicket after our skis. While we may have been able to throw the casual snowshoer off our true intentions as we skinned up the trail, throwing our skis into the woods and dog-crawling in after them would be hard to explain. Ron continued to whisper directions. I had just found my skis when he told me, "Throw them again, we're not far enough yet." I hucked them again, and we crawled on. Ron, bringing up the rear was filling in our tracks as we went – erasing tracks in snow is impossible but when you throw snow in them, they could be anything. If anything, they would likely be considered dog tracks... people don't normally crawl into thickets.

Finally we stopped and put our skis on. Ron did a few final loops through the brush and trees to throw off any possible trackers – something I considered highly unlikely at this point. The snow was excellent, deep and light, and we were now scouting for skiable lines. As we dropped a bit things started to open up. This is a relative term, and I use it here measuring with an Eastern yardstick. It seemed unskiable to me, but Ron knew my limitations in Eastern forests and he led onward.

Ron, scoping for good lines.

We finally hit some narrow but skiable slots in the trees, once again in Yellow Birch. These trees were quickly endearing themselves to me.

True to his word, Ron delivered excellent skiing. We did a few laps in here, our private forest. We did see another ski track, though Ron thought he knew who it was. Our ski out was thickety in places, but I had the extended forearm position wired, and combined with the good snow, I almost felt proficient in these Eastern forests.

We circled wide to get back on the trail, again disguising our tracks as we hit the track.

It was a great day of skiing, made all the more interesting by our need for secrecy. The ‘Dacks are a big range, but there is not a lot of good skiable terrain close in. Secrecy is certainly common with backcountry skiers, especially in well-used areas. Out West the landscape is far more open, so it becomes problematic to try and hide your tracks. In the East though, the finding and protecting of secret stashes has been developed into a fine art. Who knows what gems lurk just out of my range of view as I drive through the mountains back insto VT.

One by the Numbers

2008-04-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, it’s been a great year…

Northwest
Alpental, WA – 545”
Mount Bachelor, OR – 523”
Timberline, OR – 723”
Alyeska, AK – 815”
Whistler, BC – 382”

Rockies
Jackson Hole, WY – 605”
Steamboat, CO – 489”
Wolf Creek, CO – 492”
Loveland, CO – 363”
Alta, UT – 641”
Snowbasin, UT – 422”
Bridger Bowl, MT – 394”

Northeast
Stowe, VT – 371”
Jay Peak, VT – 399”
Sugarloaf, ME – 216”

Sierra
Squaw Valley, CA – 416”
Sugar Bowl, CA – 462”
Mammoth, CA – 339”

…and in the backcountry, it’s just getting started.

(End of April a couple seasons back in Santa Fe, NM, Peter Kray watches his head at the patrol shack entrance. Photo by Graham Gephart).

Making Skis Part IV

2008-04-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

The final installment from Nils Larsen, as he finishes building his own pair of traditional Altai skis:

After the skis had dried for about 10 days I did a little clean up with the plane and a knife and then prepped them for the bindings. The skis are mounted on balance point and the bindings go through four vertical holes in the skis (this four-hole pattern corresponds with some of the oldest bog skis found in Scandinavia and Russia). The bindings are rawhide, from some fresh cowhide I picked up a month ago. Now dried and dehaired, I sliced it in strips and softened it by working it over a bar and rubbing it with oil.

Cutting rawhide for the bindings.

Burning holes for the bindings. After I dug out the holes with an awl, I cleaned them up with a heated steel rod.

Building the bindings. I followed the binding design that was most common on the Altai skis, basically a rawhide 'X' that the toe of the shoe went through and a strap around the heel to hold the shoe in.

Putting the skins on. The last big step was putting the horsehide skins on the bottom. I soaked them overnight so I could stretch them over the skis. They will dry tight as the skin shrinks when it dries. I used tacks to hold the skins on, as they do now in the Altai. Traditionally they would lace the skins on the skis with rawhide but I have not seen this in my visits.

As a final touch, I cut up some old rubber boots to put in the foot area. This is common now in the Altai and reduces icing under the foot. I will take these into Powder Creek with me this week and try them in there!

For more on Nils' project, read Making Skis Part I, Part II and Part III, and watch a clip from Journey to the Source.

Friday Video

2008-04-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

After epic powder descents just last weekend, Mother Nature brought a long spell of warm sun to the mountains and got us thinking about traveling light. The shoulder season of winter into spring is often the perfect season for XCD exploration. The right aspects keep soft snow tucked into trees, while longer daylight and warmer temperatures make it easy to cover a lot of ground and see new sights. The possibilities challenge us to ski lighter, be quicker with the footwork, and to smile at the kind of turns – dancing through a short slope of trees, lapping quick corn laps on a sunny mountainside – that we often neglect in the middle of winter.

I recently stumbled across a couple XCD ski videos online. One trying XCD gear for the first time, another who seems to have a bit of experience – both bound together by great big smiles and the sounds.

(YouTube video from orangerider1)

(YouTube video from distantfellow1)

Thank You Old Man Winter

2008-04-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

After an epic weekend in the Northwest, a dispatch from EmberPhoto on New England's winter, still going strong:

Old Man Winter has been especially generous with us here in the Northeast this winter, and although spring is creeping into the valleys and up the warmer hillsides, Old Man Winter seems to have no intentions of letting up. Over the last two weeks, the snow stake that marks the depth of settled snowpack at treeline on Vermont's highest summit, Mount Mansfield, topped the 100-inch mark! And a weekend storm pushed us even closer to the 12-foot limit of the old wooden stake – to 110 inches. To put this in perspective, a snow stake reading of 110 inches indicates that we are enjoying 40-50% more snowpack in the mountains around here than we normally do in late March. For this, we can thank the steady string of storms that Old Man Winter has been throwing our way since October.

The storm from a week ago Friday (we've been calling it "Really Good Friday") not only produced 10-20" of Vermont Grade A powder, and thus some fine powder skiing...

(Photos courtesy of EmberPhoto.com)

...but it also cushioned the snowpack that had been crusted over in most areas a few days earlier. With the Really Good Friday storm, and then another 6-8 inches last weekend, we've been able to take full advantage of our unusually deep snowpack, and ski safely and smoothly into many beautiful gullies, creekbeds and alpine zones that during many winters don't get a chance to fill in.

We've had little new snow this week, but temps are preserving the fresh snow up high. Down low and in the sun, the maple sap is running and the corn cycle is in effect. As nice as the powder touring high in the mountains has been, we've also been scoring some beautiful sunset corn runs in our local farm fields with the XCD skis... We step into our skis on the porch, climb through a beautiful hardwood glade, and slide into one of many pastures that leans toward the setting sun and the higher Green Mountains across the valley...

Spring approaches, but the prospect of another dose of Vermont Grade A is still there. Last early April, Old Man Winter blessed us with over six feet of snow in the mountains. By morning, we were skiing powder under the shelter of the forest canopy. By evening, we were carving sunset turns in the alpine, in the calm before the next storm.

Maybe he's is the same mood this year. We will soon find out...

Happy spring!
Brian and Emily
Green Mountains, Vermont
March 26, 2008

Link: Mount Mansfield Snow Stake

Must Have Been Dreaming

2008-03-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to exceed the bar when you start with expectations of the best ski day of the year. Looking back on it now, I almost wonder if maybe my season should be over. It’s March 31, closing out a weekend with the deepest and lightest snow, most aesthetic of lines, all as close to home as we’ve been all season – would you quit while ahead?

Then the reality kicks in. We’ve had over 530 inches on the season and a 143-inch base at the Pass. I have 40-plus days under my legs, but I’d say the season is just beginning. For sure, whoever decided that March 21 was the beginning of Spring forgot to tell La Niña.

As she has done many times this winter, La Niña delivered this last week with a ridge of cold temps and low-density snow. Friday night we scrapped plans for a Saturday tour when reports of high ridge-top winds threatened the possibility of wind slabs on lee slopes. Instead, the work crew hit our new local hill, Alpental, for some of the deepest, lightest conditions of the year. Chair 2 lines were long all day, but the rest time allowed us all to ski bell-to-bell.

(Video from RDLinde, of Elevator at Alpental on Saturday.)

Anticipation built into the night, with calm winds and another 9-12 inches of light, low-density snow making Sunday even better. Plans were formed for an early morning attempt on simply the best ski line in the valley.

(The group heads out. Photos by Graham Gephart)

Five of us started up the base of the Phantom after a quick assessment showed at least 18 inches of unconsolidated cold smoke, all right-side-up with very little cohesion. The sun – a potential spoiler for the plan – stayed put behind a grey Snoqualmie sky and intermittent snow showers. As we rose out of the Alpental valley, 18 inches quickly became 24, and anticipation sparkled in every eye.

(Darrin and Charlie scope out the apron and the exit chute.)

We paused at the ridgeline for a gut-check and a look at conditions in the exit ramp out of Thunder Basin. A pit and kicking around the exit chute revealed deep stable snow. The skintrack depth had changed from mid-shin to knee height, and now it brushed mid-thigh in places. As my new Storm BCs floated up the last 1000 feet to the entrance, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had stumbled onto something I shouldn’t have. How could I be so lucky to be on top of this line, in these conditions, with these friends, at this point in the season?

(A deepening skintrack as Ben and Michelle add vert.)

The couloir has to be North America’s most aesthetic ski line within an hour of a major global metropolitan area. Others might quibble with that statement … but looking down its untracked pitch, it sure felt like it. The entrance is a steep ridge/arête and hanging snowfield that doglegs into the heart of the chute, where vertical rock walls speckled with snowy moss overhang both sides, rising hundreds of feet above the snow. At an average steepness of 40 degrees, it’s just right for letting your skis run.

(Peering over the edge into the line.)

I skied the first ten turns and posted up at the top of the dogleg to watch as Ben carved waist-deep trenches through the new snow and sluff that choked the chute. We leapfrogged down to the top of the apron, laboring to breathe through choking faceshots, until pulling up to watch for Graham, Darrin and Michelle to drop in. We regrouped below the bottom of the left wall and stared incredulously back up our line.

(Michelle heads for the heart of the chute.)

(Cold smoke trails Darrin through the center section.)

(Darrin, looking small under the rocks, heading for the bottom of the couloir.)

Did that really just happen? Did we really just ski those conditions? Everything – goggles, facial hair, helmet vents, jacket hoods, backpack straps – was plastered with snow, and anything that wasn’t became clogged in the untracked 700 feet of blower down the apron.

(Charlie coming down the apron.)

(Darrin finds faceshots all the way to the end.)

If we were taking snow observations at our transition point, it would have read, “Ski Penetration: 18 inches. Boot Pen: Double Overhead.” The exit skintrack went smoothly in fleeting sunlight, and the final bootpack push up the exit ramp necessitated a quick swim through armpit deep conditions. From the small col, our descent took us another 2300 feet down the Phantom path to the car, regressing slowly from blower powder to typical Snoqualmie cement as we descended the south aspect. The exit ice/waterfall was so filled in that we all flashed it easily with skis firmly planted on the snow. We packed up in the lot, awestruck and grinning, and only an hour later we were back at home under sunny skies reflecting off an unusually calm Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

(Breaking trail out to the exit col.)

(Looking down the last face of the Phantom, with Alpental in the background.)

Can it get any better than yesterday? Only time will tell. But rest assured, we’ll be out there to find out.

-Charlie Lozner

Making Skis Part III

2008-03-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Another dispatch from Nils Larsen, as he builds his own Altai skis:

I tried first to bend the tips in the fire as I saw done in the Altai. The problem with this was that I waited too long and a lot of the moisture that was in the tree when I cut it had evaporated. I tried soaking the tips in water too, but this didn't work either. I had been told by people in the Altai that when the wood was dry they simply boiled the tip for a while and then bent it.

I finally came up with this set up: a 20-gallon barrel over a fire with a slot cut out of the top.

The bender is made from Douglas maple, a good stout wood that grows in the creek draws around here. The benders in the Altai were a mixed lot of whatever they could find, but generally White Birch.

The bender is worked up and down the ski tip to get a uniform bend. I found the thickness and taper of the tip needed to be right in order to get a good shape to the tip.

In my movie, Skiing in the Shadow of Genghis Khan, Gessir tied off the bender to the ski to hold the bend while the ski cured, but I chose to secure as Chokue had. He was the premier skier in the region as well as a great woodworker, and I only had one good bender.

This is the blocking method Chokue uses. The skis need to cure now for a week or two. I plan to have them finished to take to Powder Creek, BC on April 6.

For more on Nils' project, read Making Skis Part I and Part II, and watch a clip from Journey to the Source.