Man, the snow in the sierras is beautiful, isn't it? But every time we go out into it, we learn: Snow is SLOW. Ok, maybe frozen snow can be fast, if you have spikes on your feet, but the deep powdery stuff we have now is SLOW. You have to snowshoe through it, carrying your camp on your back, since you're so SLOW that you won't make it to your destination in one day and now must carry everything with you for an overnight.
I hate moving slow. So until now I've kinda hated deep snow. But we had a hypothesis- we could be fast, maybe, if we changed our approach. What if we used skis? It works for Kilian Jornet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eVBrMcflDE
Minute 10 is where it really starts to get ridiculous.
OK, but I don't want to only travel in ski resorts (downhill skis) or on mostly long angle terrain (cross country skis) and I can't do the drop knee thing (telemark skis) so it's gotta be randonee skis.
This sounds like a great idea. So we purchase all the pieces from various people on craigslist. Some of them turn out to be janky and we're forced to replace parts, but after a few weeks the whole setup seems to be working. In short: these skis are like XC skis uphill, with a free heel and some sticky skins on the bottom, but like downhill skis for the downhill, with a fixed heel and the skins removed.
So, a few times in the last month we took advantage of breaks in the storms and headed to south lake with all our cyborg parts and give this a try. Here's a few lessons:
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Fig 1: technique, technique, technique! Skinning uphill is a constant battle to get friction |
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| Fig 2: OK, when the snow goes away (on ridges) you have to carry the skis which seems counterproductive. Not shown: backside of this ridge which has no snow. |
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| Fig 3: You are wearing ski boots. They are not good for much other than skiing |
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| Fig 4a: Downhill is pretty fast if you're GG. |
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| If you're C (Fig4b) you are probably still back in the woods trying to find your ski which came off when you crashed |
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| Fig 5: Backcountry snow is not groomed. Here is a mini-cornice. It is fun, but if it were a big cornice it would not be fun. |
Basically, we learned that neither of us is Kilian Jornet, but that this method of travel is much faster but also much more unpredictable than snowshoeing. So far, we've only done what GG calls "ski picnicking" because the mountains we pick are so weenie that it doesn't really qualify as mountaineering. See:
as fdk suggested, this is us trying to make lemonade out of atmospheric rivers.
CR proving once again she is more of a badass than the rest of us! Look at the views in fig 2 and 3!
ReplyDeleteSerious life goals picking up Randonee skiing, you're definitely beating the rain on this season.
I was really hoping for a dug-out kitchen with wine and cheese!
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, clearly the title implies something like that. You know us, we like forgot to being real food.
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