InstaBase – Just Add Water

Published on January 25, 2012 in current conditions. 3 Comments

The weather gods must have read the Angry Half Inch posting, as they retaliated with a magnificent storm over the past week. It was a classic rager from the Pacific Northwest which finally made it through the Idaho high pressure road block (can’t that state be moved?) and delivered a good 2-4′ base. It took place during the Sundance Film Festival and the local newspaper reported 180 stuck cars during the event. The storm included some very high winds, and why not – it you are going to have a ton of new snow on top of a fragile base of depth hoar, you might as well ice the cake with some serious wind loading.

Avalanche-wise, it is not great, but I’m glad it came in as a big hammer instead of a bunch of little storms which would only delay the inevitable avalanche cycle. From what I’ve seen in the Wasatch backcountry, a lot of the big slopes naturally avalanched during the storm and are now starting over. That said, I doubt some of the major north-facing lines will ever be very safe to ski this year. Oh well. We had a dangerous year in 2008/09 and it was fun to work out a bunch of safe, low angle tours and I’m sure those will be getting some skin tracks this season as well.

Big, open slopes like this, especially those with cornices, are an obvious danger at times like this, but many naturally avalanched during the storm.

After a big storm like this, a lot of times the backcountry isn’t that great as you have to find a slope that is steep enough to ski down, yet not steep enough to slide, which limits your options to about a 5-degree window. This storm however deposited thick, supportable powder and there is plenty of GFP (Ghey Flat Powder) to be had. Big slopes that haven’t ripped yet are still an obvious concern, but an even bigger issue are the thousands of innocuous house-sized pockets that are big enough to bury you, especially in terrain traps like creek beds.

The Wasatch backcountry is filled with little traps like this - small slopes you normally wouldn't think twice about skiing, but now have a heavy, sensitive slab on them.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and play it safe with an ABS AvalancheRescue Devices Powder Line 5 Backpack from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Utah Almost Gets an Angry Inch

Published on January 16, 2012 in Random. 13 Comments

In a flurry of unexpected activity, Park City registered one of its biggest snow storms of the season early this morning with snow totals expected to reach .6018″ by the time it is all over.  Striking in the early hours of dawn, the storm raged for 23 minutes beginning at 5:21am and tapering off by 5:44am.  Plow drivers have been busy clearing the roads of all snow and large chunks of asphalt, which will help with next summer’s road repair maintenance schedule.  Exotic sports cars with less than 2″ of clearance are urged to avoid driving and infants who have not yet learned to walk should stay indoors.  Fortunately, schools were already closed for the Martin Luther King holiday, which helped spare the children from nature’s fury.

In upper elevation terrain, storm totals almost covered the exposed rocks, dirt and budding tulips.  Ski Utah is expected to issue a press release soon and the Crayons Ski Resort drafted BS-2012 House Republican Bill to appropriate 200 more acres of terrain to meet expected skier demand as a result of the storm.
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and inspect the snowpack with a Backcountry Access Snow Study Kit from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Wasatch Night Racing

Published on January 13, 2012 in Racing. 6 Comments

One of the cruxes of ski mountaineering races in America is that it takes a staggering amount of work to put one on. By comparison, there are all sorts of Citizen League XC races and dual slalom night events, which are a great way to get together, have a casual event/race, stay in shape and keep your interest in the sport.  Ski mountaineering night races have been held in Europe for quite a while and have also started up in some Colorado ski towns.  Now, after many years of discussion, there is an informal night series in the Wasatch Mountains as well.

The events take place every Thursday night at the Brighton ski resort and are very basic.  Based on the honor system, they involve skinning up a groomer, rounding a checkpoint and skiing back down.  Repeat as necessary.  The awards ceremony is held in the Molly Green’s bar where the winner gets a pie and the option of sharing it with everyone else.

The event is open to all ages and about 40 people turned out for the one last night.  For more information, check out the Wasatch Citizen SkiMo Series website, or the Wasatch Powderkeg Facebook page.   And speaking of the PowderKeg, it is being held this year on March 10th at Brighton and the surrounding backcountry.  Registration info can be found for the 10th Annual event at Ultra Signup.

___________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get the best prices on the best gear at Backcountry.com! Click the Golden Gear Goat below:

Touch me, for I am the Golden Goat of eternal discounts.

 

Scarpa Aliens

Published on January 11, 2012 in Gear Reviews. 2 Comments Tags: .

I’m wearing a Scarpa Alien boot on my right foot and a Montrail running shoe on my left, and without looking, it’s hard to tell the difference.  The Alien is the latest full-on race boot from Scarpa and one of the things I love about it is that it is so completely, apologetically specialized that it is hard to compare to anything else out there, including running shoes. For many years, the Scarpa F1 boot dominated the world of Ski Mountaineering racing to the point that the starting lineup at a race was referred to as “The Green Line” due to F1′s being green and everywhere you looked.  At the time, the F1 was also a state of the art race boot, but as racers started to tweak the living hell out of their boots by slicing, drilling, milling and grinding them, new rules were put in place to ensure that boots were hitting a minimal level of safety by having a certain amount of tread on the bottom and would work with crampons.  New boot makers started to get into the market and although the F1 was still popular, it took extensive home modifications to make it competitive.

The Scarpa Aliens have all the features and more that you might expect in a racing boot, including a quick release heel throw, BOA style forefront tensioning, a minimal powerstrap and some sexy lycra gaitors to help keep the liners dry.

In sailboat racing, certain classes of boats are designed to hit a set group of requirements, and the Scarpa Alien does the same thing with ski mountaineering race boots.  An alternative name for them might be “Barely Legal” (legalesse miminalissimo in Italian) and they are intended to be competitive right out of the box, although for $1,000 more, you can get a carbonfiber infested upgrade called the Alien 1.0 which shaves a few grams.

Although the Aliens are intended for racing, they also work well for ultralight ski touring, especially when coupled with short little skis and basic Dynafit bindings.  In Europe, this type of skiing is known as “Ski Running” which is an apt description of the activity.  It’s about as far from Freeriding as you can get, but considering you can double your vertical and halve the weight, it has its advantages.

I first got into skiing on racing gear after an aborted traverse of Baffin Island left us with no other options but to ski steep chutes on spindly gear.  I was initially paranoid about skiing committing lines on F1′s and 160cm skis, but after a few runs I got use to it.  The key is to be very centered, which is much easier if the snow is consistent.  Skiing punchy, crusty, gloppy snow on race gear is no fun, but powder, foam or corn are no problem.

Booting up the 40-50 degree "Terror Firma" in northern Baffin Island.

"Look Ma! No brains!" Hahaha. getting set up to ski Terror Firma on some F1's.

One very unusual thing about the Aliens, or F1′s for that matter, is that in steep terrain, they have the potential to actually be dangerous if the rear heel latch comes undone as the boot instantly, and dramatically goes into tour mode.  With many boots this isn’t such a big deal, but because racing boots have such incredible ankle flexation, this means you can end up flat on your back with no warning.

Details to follow once I get them molded to my foot and hopefully, when we get more snow.
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and crank up your vertical harvest with a pair of Scarpa Alien Alpine Touring Boots from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Skating & Scambling in the Sierra

Published on January 10, 2012 in Trip Reports. 8 Comments Tags: , .

After long hiatus, I made a trip back to the east side of the Sierra range last weekend for the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center fund raising party.  This area is one of those places that after visiting it once, you swear you are going to return for annual skiing trips as it is incredibly beautiful and has fantastic terrain.  But, in a perverse case of misery love company, the Sierra is having an even worse year than the Wasatch, which is currently on track to being one of the worse years on record.   Given the choice between skiing a 12″ base of rotten snow over rocks in the Wasatch or going alpine ice skating, hiking and rock climbing in the snowless Sierra, California wins hands down.

The aptly named “Lake District” around Mammoth Lakes has an endless supply of beautiful alpine lakes which are now all frozen over and snow free, which makes for perfect skating.  I hadn’t skated for years, but the $40 investment in a pair of used hockey skates was instantly worthwhile as the setting is so sublime and the access is so easy.

It was also nice to get a break from Utah, where we hardly ever see anarchy like this.

We also had a chance to head down to the Owen Gorge for some climbing.  There wasn’t any water flow in the gorge last time I was there, but nowadays there’s a steady creek running through it with trees, wildlife (aside from snakes) and fauna, as well as fantastic climbing.

Owens now has over 1,200 climbs in it and a high proportion of them are in the 3-5 star range.  It’s a blast!

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and clip in quick with a Black Diamond LiveWire Quickdraw from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Chuting Gallery Ultimate Upgrade

Published on December 29, 2011 in Wasatch Mountains. 8 Comments Tags: .

Just as I was thinking of putting The Chuting Gallery out as an eBook, I received a fantastic gift from Andrew Thompson that put the eBook concept into perspective.  Andrew is an artist, illustrator and bookbinder from  Brooklyn, NY who comes out to the Wasatch Mountains to go skiing.  We had emailed me in the past about getting galley proofs of The Chuting Gallery for a bookbinding project, but I didn’t have any at the time, so I put the project on hold. Then, a few days ago, a package showed up from Andrew with an unbelievably beautiful, hand tooled leather book case, custom made with Chuting Gallery imagery and a Whippet graphic on the back.

The cover is a clamshell case with round spine which features a painting of a Wolverine Cirque style chute framed by the entrance to the Heart of Darkness and clear blue skies.  This is framed with Nigerian goatskin with goat skin overlays, alum (?) tanned sheepskin overlays and reverse quilted calf vellum overlays.  OMG!  The spine has the book title, and a lovely set of tracks  grace the exit of the cover couloir.

The interior is has been perfectly sized to fit a copy of The Chuting Gallery and is lined with topo map imagery from upper Little & Big Cottonwood Canyons.  The black fabric is Japanese silk and it has a leather pull tab to help extract the book.

I wrote and self published The Chuting Gallery in 1998 and expected the local land fill would be my biggest customer. The book was originally intended to be a pamphlet printed on 8.5″ x 11″ copy  paper and then folded and stapled together with a card stock cover. However, I accidentally worked on it too long and when I went to print it, I discovered that I would have to have it “perfect” bound, which meant printing thousands instead of one hundred.  By then I had too much time and energy into it to drop it, so I wrote the check and a few weeks later picked up a pallet of Chuting Gallery’s from amidst a warehouse full of the Book of Mormon.

The book has taken on a life of its own, which is due in large part to the rise in popularity of backcountry skiing during the same time span.  Most of the flak I’ve gotten over it comes from skiers who are upset that I gave away such “secrets” as the South Face of Superior or the Y-Couloir, although the only thing that is secret about those obvious roadside attractions is that they are not nearly as steep and nasty as they look.  Soon after printing it, a local avalanche forecaster told me I was going to “have the blood of dead 16 year-olds on my hands” from all of the adolescents who rushed out to ski these lines and died in avalanches.  So far this hasn’t happened, mostly because there is a lot of sweat and effort involved in skiing most of these lines, which is inherently self limiting.

One of my favorite TCG experiences happened about halfway up the Y-couloir when I came across a guy who had been hiking it for about two hours at that point.  When we caught up to him, he was completely ecstatic about the size and aesthetics of The Y and was explaining all of the stats and virtues of it to us, all of which he had learned from his roommates copy of the Chuting Gallery.  It was obvious he was having some sort of backcountry revelation, and he hadn’t even skied it yet.  Between encounters like this and unexpected gifts like Andrew Thompson’s cover, it has been a fun journey.

Alas, almost none of the lines in The Chuting Gallery are skiable yet this season, but if you are interested in getting a copy anyway, they are available through Amazon.com under the “Buy it New or Used” tab for the book, or, there’s a Chuting Gallery tab in the header at the top of this page.

On This Day Last Year…

Published on December 29, 2011 in Random. 5 Comments

… there was actually snow. Continue reading ‘On This Day Last Year…’

New Use for the Old Hole

Published on December 21, 2011 in Repair. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

Traditionally, the main distinctions between alpine skis and backcountry skis have been that backcountry skis were lighter, may have have been reinforced for tele binding mounting and had holes in the tips & tails. The first two distinctions don’t seem to be as common nowadays, but the third, holes in the tips/tails, is still a desirable trait for a backcountry ski. This often brings up the immediate question “So, what are the holes used for?” The main reason for tip/tail holes is that it allows you to build a sturdy rescue sled, but the holes can also be used for rigging up your ski as a tent pole or setting up a self-cleaning belay anchor. Some people prefer to drag their skis by the tip holes instead of carrying them on their packs when booting. I’m not a big fan of this technique, but clipping your tips to your waist belt when bushwhacking works really well.

Last Tuesday I was out skiing (translation: hitting rocks and wallowing in 20″ of sugar) and found a new use for tail holes. One of our group lost a BD tail clip off of his skins, but by cramming the polymer strap through the tail hole, it hardly mattered. The ribbing kept the skin nice and tight, and aside from the hassle of threading and stripping it, it worked as well as a tail clip. Continue reading ‘New Use for the Old Hole’

Glacier Rope Set-up

Published on December 16, 2011 in Gear Reviews. 10 Comments

Because ski mountaineering is so varied, there is no one single “best rope” out there that covers all the bases.  Sometimes you want a short, light, skinny rope just in case, and other times you need a full length, beefy multi-fall lead line.  In the past I’ve carried a variety of 60m ropes  based on what I thought the worst case scenario might be.  If there was a chance of having to lead vertical water ice, I’d bring a 9.8mm lead line.  If it was mainly a glacier trip, I’d bring a skinny 7.8mm rope.  There were two problems with this set-up; the first was that if you misjudged the terrain, you were lead climbing on a skinny rope (yikes!) or dragging a huge rope on mellow terrain.  The second was that you were always coiling/uncoiling and carrying generally more rope than you needed.  30m ropes are great for ski mountaineering, except when you need 50m.

On our recent trip to Antarctica I ended up bringing two 30m ropes of different diameters and was very psyched on the flexibility of the system.  Glacier travel with 4-5 people on a 30m rope makes for some tight spacing, but then again, it depends on the terrain. Antarctica had lots of crevasses, but they weren’t the Mack Truck swallowing monsters that you can get up in Alaska, so the tighter spacing meant better communications and less rope work.  We used the Sterling 9.2mm Fusion Nano most of the time and swapped out carrying the lighter 7.8mm Sterling Fusion Photon as needed. Continue reading ‘Glacier Rope Set-up’

Ski Magazines Worth Buying

Published on December 8, 2011 in Random. 1 Comment

I was perusing the magazine stand the other day and ended up buying not only one, but two skiing magazines, which doubles my combined retail purchase of ski mags for the last two years.  The first one was the 2012 Skiing Adventure Issue which I bought mainly for the Grant Gunderson double fold-out cover photo.  It captures everything that is great about skiing in general and backcountry skiing in particular.  The magazine also has a nice profile on Bill Briggs, some good trip reports and a concise backcountry gear guide. Continue reading ‘Ski Magazines Worth Buying’