Beijing Trip Report

Published on March 11, 2010 in Trip Reports. 1 Comment Tags: .

This trip to Beijing reminded me of my first “business trip” in the outdoor industry about 18 years ago.  We were going on a ski testing outing to Mammoth, and since we were staying in a hotel, I didn’t bring anything but clothes.  Once we got there and all six of us moved into the room with a single bed, it became apparent why almost everyone else brought pads and sleeping bag – so they didn’t have to share a bed with Mike, Jordy or Stan.  At breakfast the next day, I had a bagel with cream cheese that was so stale I could only take one bite out of it before setting it down to be thrown away.  About an hour later, I was surprised to see the CEO of the company pull a very familiar looking bagel out of his pocket which had a single distinct bite taken out of it and proceed to mack it down.  It was corporate dirtbaggery at its finest.

The outdoor industry has grown up quite a bit since then, but I’m still in a pleasant state of shock after spending three nights in a corner suite at the Beijing Hilton.  The room was almost bigger than my house and featured a free-standing sculpted tub with a waterproof TV, a suite “control panel” next to the bed, complimentary rubber duckies, a meeting lounge, work desk, assortment of beauty supplies, monogrammed robes and of course, 30-40 pillows on the bed.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to spend the night in a tent again.  ;)

The trip involved one day of work and two days of sightseeing.  Beijing is not known as a ski town so I knew almost nothing about it.  It turned out to be quite a bit colder than I imagined (Beijing is about the same latitude as Salt Lake City) and the cultural aspects were beyond anything I had ever seen before.  Of all the historic places we visited, The Great Wall and the Forbidden City gave the most impressive account of what China was like during the Ming Dynasties.

The Great Wall was erected as a northern boundary to China as a defense against the Mongols who were invading across the plains to the north.  Any one-mile section of it is overwhelmingly impressive, but when you see it stretching out in both directions, as far as the eye can see, over ridgetops, valleys and rugged mountain terrain, it really brings home how powerful and frightening the invading armies must have been. It is some serious defense.

The Forbidden City was on the same scale of impressiveness, but different.  It is located at the heart of Beijing and was the home of the various emperors and their thousands of servants and concubines.  The “Forbidden” part comes from it being forbidden to the average citizen and it was essentially a city within a city. Just outside the main gate is a massive courtyard “where they cut peoples head’s off.”  When I asked Spencer Lee how many had lost their noggin there, he answered “It depended how naughty the people were.”

After walking through the front gate, there is a massive pavilion that rivals any public square in Europe, which is capped by another towering gate.  Beyond that is yet another pavilion of equal size.  Beyond that, it gets down to hundreds of rooms for everything from contemplating serenity to appreciating nature or viewing timepieces.  Even in its current stripped down state, the scope and ornamentation of it boggles the mind.

Beijing was also much more affluent than I imagined, with some beautiful modern architecture, lots of fancy cars (including a Bentley dealership) and incredible restaurants.  There didn’t seem to be much skiing, but I’d still love to get back there.

I’ve put up a photo gallery here.

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Low Angle Circuits

Published on March 3, 2010 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 7 Comments

Due to the strange snowpack we have this year in the Wasatch, I’ve been skiing new, although not necessarily exciting, terrain.  I have yet to dig a pit as almost every time I go out I’ve felt collapsing, seen natural slides, triggered avalanches with ski cuts or dropped cornices, and/or seen shooting cracks.  Between that and reading the UAC report, it is obvious that the unusual storm patterns have created unusual avalanche conditions and it is best to be patient.  People have been getting away with skiing some steep, north-facing lines (generally The Goods in the Wasatch), but I’m still leery of them.

Doc Brock rockin' the 25 degree Muff Mower.

Instead, I’ve been collecting some obscure crusty lines and piecing together long, low angle skiing circuits.  At first this doesn’t seem like that much fun, but it is a perverse challenge to put together an 8,000′ tour that never gets over 30 degrees and doesn’t involve repetitive laps.  More than anything, these tours are good to have in your repertoire for future high avalanche danger days. So far the skiing has always been better than expected and the snow quality itself is good, although shallow and sensitive.

Yawn. When life gives you dangerous, low angle conditions... go straight down them.

One of the keys to doing low angle tours is finding partners who are into it as well.  Finding partners for steep, exposed, fall-to-your-death terrain is easy, but finding people who are patient and willing to slog can be tough.  It is also hard to sleuth-out terrain in that coveted north-facing, mid elevation, moderate angle, sheltered realm that is new and therefore uncrowded.  The South Face of Superior is big and obvious, but The Eyebrow, Slimy Ridge and Freebird Trees are carefully guarded secrets because they can only handle a few sets of tracks.  Most of the time this type of skiing is just table scraps, but this season it has been the main course.

I am heading over to Beijing, China to present the “Golden Rhino Award for Best Climbing Spirit” on behalf of Mountain Hardwear and will be back on March 8th.  Until then, pray for snow.

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The Hash Pipe Couloir

Published on March 1, 2010 in Trip Reports. 7 Comments

It’s short, harsh, dangerous, leaves you dazed, your bases stoned, you’re likely to get burned, it smells like shit (mountain goat shit in this case) and is unrecommended, but it is also fun.

I’ve stood at the top of this couloir roughly five times over the last ten years and yesterday Courtney Phillips and I finally skied it, to use the term loosely.  From the top, it looks like it could be either a hidden gem… or a fiasco.  We brought a rope just in case. Continue reading ‘The Hash Pipe Couloir’

Creek Crossings

Published on February 16, 2010 in 05 Uphill. 21 Comments

I first got into crossing streams with my skis on by accident when I was trying to cross over a slender snowbridge which collapsed and dumped me in the stream.  I was mainly worried about scrapping up my bases and edges, but on the other-hand, my feet stayed dry and it was fairly secure, so now I do it intentionally.  The rocks tend to have some river slime on them, so they are pretty easy on your edges and bases, especially if you just step and don’t slide on them. Continue reading ‘Creek Crossings’

The Big LePowSki ~ Feb 25-27, Brighton

Published on February 12, 2010 in Announcements. 2 Comments

Mai oui, The Big LePowSki is rolling into Salt Lake City Feb 25-27 to set up pins and knock’em down until they go click at Brighton.  This is the second annual gathering of TBLP, and last year was a blast.  The format is pretty simple – ski/ride & party, but not necessarily in that order.  Starting on Thursday night with a Backcountry Film Festival, it then rolls on to a Friday night pre-registration at the BD retail store where you can mingle with the athletes/instructors.  Noah Howell will be signing left buttock cheeks, Forrest Shearer gets the right and Julian Carr will be sticking back layouts off of the BD clocktower onto a flat cement landing.

The actual skiing action takes place on Saturday from 9am – 4pm at Brighton and features morning and afternoon clinics on just about anything to do with skiing, riding and the backcountry.  I’ll be teaching clinics on steep skiing and backcountry terrain assessment, but if I wasn’t, I’d love to take a clinic on filming or park riding. The cost is $75 which includes a lift ticket, the clinics, lunch and a ticket to the Shoot Out Party that night at Club Elevate. Continue reading ‘The Big LePowSki ~ Feb 25-27, Brighton’

150lb Crusts & The Alpine Crawl

Published on February 11, 2010 in 05 Uphill. 11 Comments Tags: .

One of the more frustrating booting scenarios is when you encounter crusts which are almost supportable… but not quite.  Since I weigh in at about 165lbs with all of my ski gear, I think refer to these crusts by the amount of weight they will support. One-hundred and fifty pound crust is my nemesis as it is just enough to allow me to commit to a step and push up on it before it collapses and I sink in to my groin.  Hateful.  I’ve been out on many occasions where I’ve been able to boot up something, but my heavier partners are wallowing in misery behind me as they punch through every step.  This is usually only funny when it is happening to someone else.

The cure for crust is the Alpine Crawl, which is preformed just like you might imagine, by crawling up a slope on your hands and knees.  There is some booting involved, but the idea is to spread your weight out over your hands and shins so you get a little bit of extra flotation.

You can motor right along with an Alpine Crawl, but it gets tiring.  Fortunately, that perfectly awful zone never seems to last too long – it either tightens up and become supportable 200lb crust, or softens up to the point where it might be easier to switch back to skins. In the meantime, get on your knees and crawl. Continue reading ‘150lb Crusts & The Alpine Crawl’

Scotties Bowl – Topo

Published on February 5, 2010 in Trip Reports. 0 Comments Tags: .

Scotties is a classic little Wasatch one-hitter.  It is in danger of being over-run by Snowbird as it borders the resort, but if you time it right, it can serve up a nice powder run. Continue reading ‘Scotties Bowl – Topo’

Tuning Bench Tie-Down

Published on February 4, 2010 in 02 Gear. 2 Comments Tags: .

Trying to clamp down the latest generation of wide skis for a tune-up is like wrestling an eel in a vat of Crisco.  Forget it.  Because they are so wide, yet have a thin cross section and rounded topsheets, traditional tuning clamps will hold skis only long enough to look secure, yet the first time you lay into your bases with a file, the ski pops loose and you drive the back of your knuckles directly into the steel edges, slicing your hand open and gushing blood.  It’s enough to make you not want to tune your phatties.

To help hold skis in place, a few companies (like Swix) make rubber devices that wrap around your bindings and pull the ski to your bench. Click here for details on my bench setup. I was tempted to buy one of these, but thought I’d try a piece of accessory cord and a hardware store cleat first. Much to my wallet’s relief, it works really well and the total cost was $1.19.

Start with a piece of accessory cord about 24″ long.  Tie a small knot in one end and use that to make a loop, which is then wrapped around the binding (this works with almost any style of binding). Continue reading ‘Tuning Bench Tie-Down’

Arches and Avalanches

Published on February 3, 2010 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 11 Comments Tags: .

One of the cruelest avalanche tricks out there is the old “I was just minding my own business skinning up a nice valley when suddenly both sides collapsed thousands of feet above me and I was buried 20′ deep.”  It is a mean spirited trick as the skier may be on flat ground far away from the starting zone, and to add insult to injury, it is often fatal.  This particular type of avalanche is different from the “wrong place, wrong time” slide where a skier happens to be below a slope when it decides to cut loose, because in this case, the skier is actually triggering the slide remotely from hundreds/thousands of feet away.

From studying Architecture, this phenomena reminds of an architectural arch, where all of the compression forces are balanced and held in place by a keystone at the top.  Exhibit A below:

A collapsing valley is basically the same thing, except the arch it turned upside down, and instead of carved stones, you have a cohesive slab of snow.  When an unsuspecting skier walks along the base of the valley, he is essentially knocking out the keystone that holds the valley walls up, as illustrated below:

This type of avalanche is very difficult to accurately predict, but not that hard to avoid.  If the snowpack has pronounced collapsing (like the Wasatch has had this season), it means that keystone is being punched out and it would be better to stick to the high ground.  The chances of getting caught in a slide like this are about a million to one (unless you live in Colorado, where it is more like 50/50) and the best defense is to be forewarned.

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Pink Pine Ski Tour – Topo & Guide

Published on January 31, 2010 in Random and Route Guides. 14 Comments Tags: .

At a recent seminar, a speaker from “Backpacker Magazine” described his reader base as “geo reference oriented” which I think was a nice way of saying “geeks with GPS’s.”  As I am guilty of the same sin, I wanted to see about putting some classic Wasatch tours on-line and see how it works.

The tour below (Pink Pine, an excellent quick outing, or safe first tour) is created in Trimble Outdoors and has all sorts of download options, including sending it to your GPS enabled phone.  Since I don’t have one, I’d be interested in seeing how it works if anyone actually tries this. Continue reading ‘Pink Pine Ski Tour – Topo & Guide’