Struggling uphill is an acquired taste that doesn’t come naturally to most people. It’s hard, slow, sweaty, frustrating and at times monotonous, but if you can get over this, it is your ticket to backcountry bliss. The effort involved with earning your turns is the basic barrier that keeps the backcountry, being what it is – uncrowded. With time and practice, it not only gets easier, but often can be even more enjoyable than the downhill. Really.
Ascending is a mindset. When you stop fighting it and learn to love it, everything just starts to flow uphill. For many skiers, including myself, this is the magic moment when you suddenly “get” backcountry skiing, as it becomes much less work and a lot more fun. How soon you reach this point depends on how hard you work at it, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. Before long, the only high speed quads you’ll need will be your thighs, not the chairlift. Embrace the burn, seek purification through perspiration and learn the true meaning behind “that which does not kill you, makes you stronger.” Skinning is fun.
On a more practical note, eighty percent of your time in the backcountry will be spent ascending, so it is worth coming to terms with it. Think of the uphill as the skiing and the downhill as the icing on the cake. When the going gets really grim, remember, the harder it is going up, the better it is going down.
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The Evil Bunny lives/lived halfway up the first icefall on the way up to “The Hump” in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains.
Ben Ditto watching Armond DuBuque and Lorne Glick pass under the gaze of the Evil Bunny.
The icefall was wall-to-wall and had a few options for getting through it, but all of them had some degree of danger, either from snow bridges, open crevasses, ice, avalanche exposure or, in the case of the Bunny, getting crushed by a massive pillar of snow. In the end we chose to cross underneath this leaning tower of Pisa as it had the shortest, but perhaps most graphic, exposure to danger. The actual crossing underneath the strike zone only lasted for about 15 seconds, but it was the type of thing where you hold your breath, skin as gently as possible and try to think positive thoughts. Ben and I called it “The Bunny” as it had a slightly rabbit-like appearance from below and reminded me of the killer bunny in the Monty Python movie. Fortunately, it stayed in place.
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August 8th, 2008 was a momentous day. Not only was it our daughter’s first birthday (which qualifies us as semi-responsible parents), but the Summer Outdoor Retailer show started in Salt Lake City. As if that wasn’t enough… “Heart of Stone” was also released on YouTube.com. This was the practice film we produced at the Serac Adventure Films film school last week and features some stellar acting. As a bonus, this version is the Executive Director Mercy Cut which brings it down to ten minutes.
Keep your expectations low and check it out below…
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In the name of product testing, I took a trip up the Old Reliable of the Wasatch, Main Baldy Chute at Alta yesterday. Main Chute is high, north facing and gets lots of upcanyon windloading, so it is often the first line to fill in and the last to melt out. About the only downside of Main Chute is that it’s within the Alta Ski Area domain so you have to ski it pre-season, post-season, at 2:00am under a full moon, or put up with a muzzle full of Alta snark. Still, it is one of my favorite lines in the Wasatch.
First tracks! The anticipation is killing me.
Skiing Main Baldy in August usually only happens after a big snow season. Years ago, a group of 4-5 skiers were skiing it just for the novelty of skiing in August when one of them slipped, fell and slid head-first into the rocky moat next to the snow. A second skier somehow fell and was soon joined by a third falling skier as well. Bones were broken, skulls were scalped, ribs were cracked and lungs were punctured before they were finally evacuated by AirMed.
The tasty middle apron. Yum yum.
I had forgotten what a rubble pile Alta is in the summer. Even the access road, which is a cruiser in the winter, was loose, dusty and steep on a mountain bike. By far, the most gripping part of the day was down-climbing through the loose talus on a pair of skis with binding which were barely engaged!
A thin layer of metamorphic TG crystals created “Considerable” avalanche danger.
Still, it was a fun outing, although I wasn’t going back for seconds.
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Raw footage is to film as a tube of paint is to a painter – it helps to start with good quality, but the real artistry is how the paint or video is applied to the canvas/screen. In our case, we shot 2.5 hours of film and then spent 16 hours editing it. This seemed like a lot to me until Michael Brown mentioned it was typical to spend months editing a 45 minute film.
The editing process starts with labeling all of your tapes and transferring the individual clips into a computer. We were using Final Cut Pro, but the steps are the same for any software. First the footage is separated into scenes (interview, tree climb, etc) and within those scenes, the different camera are separated out onto different tracks. The end result is a timeline which looks like this: < < < < <. The advantage of this is that you can see all of your related footage at once and break it down into manageable chunks.
Geekin’ out at the Serac Adventure Films headquarters. The modern-day editing room looks a lot like an office with computers in it.
The Additive Process
Filming expeditions or adventures is tough as you never really know what you are going to get. Instead of spending days culling the footage down to eight hours, then four, then two, etc., Serac Adventure Films starts with whatever the best moment on film was and then adds whatever it takes to get to and from that moment. This works for both the overall focus of the film as well as individual sequences.
The next step is to start cutting different angles together which makes the film much more visually interesting. For instance, in real life if a person points to a mountain, your eyes would follow his gesture to the peak and the scene would change. It’s the same in film making, but it has to be done in a logical way or it seems disjointed. This is where detail and second camera shots come in handy as they provide a logical change of scenery (feet walking, stream crossings, etc.) if you want to denote a long event in a short period of time. A video fade-through-black does the same thing (denotes a passage of time), but as Ryan pointed out, this is cheating and it is far better to cut together scenes. For instance, a long shot of someone reaching for a rock followed by a few seconds of hands-on-rock details, then back to the long shot makes five minute ascent flow naturally in a matter of seconds.
At this point, we were starting to split hairs, or more appropriately, frames. The price of Final Cut Pro’s editing power is that it takes a while to learn, not to mention how long it takes to learn the art of editing itself. In our case, the SAF crew kept things moving along with flying fingers whenever our editing ambitions overcame our technical skills, which was most of the time.
SAF Editor Lam Nguyen’s blinding speed on Final Cut Pro made it look like he was playing Guitar Hero after a six-pack of Red Bull.
Once all of the separate scenes are done, they are assembled into an overall rough cut, which in turn is edited again for length and continuity between scenes. This is a reiterative process where little bits & pieces are trimmed, sound is balanced, over-dubbed voice tracks are added in and titles & credits are added. The finished result should hopefully look a lot like a movie…!
The Serac Adventure Films school is excellent and highly recommended. At times, expeditions can be tedious and boring, but after taking the class, hopefully my films will not be. As much as anything, the class gave me a greater appreciation for the art of film making and I swear I’ll never use a video cross-fade again (maybe).
A cross-fade free clip from the “Heart of Stone” International début…
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Last year, Mountain Hardwear purchased a mini HD DVD camera, wide-angle lens, solar charger and all of the accessories needed to shoot videos on expeditions. I had a chance to take the kit with me on a trip into the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains where I shot a bunch of crappy footage and edited together an even crappier little film which did not do justice to the trip. More than anything, the experience made me realize that a) making a film is hard and b) I knew nothing about the process.
Fortunately, the crew at Serac Adventure Films (SAF) in Boulder, Colorado know a LOT about making mountain movies, and not only that, they offer classes on how to do it. The classes are customized to whatever you want to do. Some people bring their own footage and edit it into a movie, or, as in our case, we spent a day shooting a mountain mockumentary, then two days editing it together just in time for a smashing/smashed début in the Jonny Cop Film Fest at the Amante bar. The buzz on Pearl Street is that “Heart of Stone” is going to go big. Really big. Like, it might even make it on to YouTube.com…
Ryan Ross of Serac Adventure Films explains which end of the camera is forward to Freddie Wilkinson.
The course itself was worthy of a documentary, mainly as there was so much to absorb over three days that it is impossible to remember it all. However, halfway through the class, my most burning question, “Is it just me, or does this process really take a long time?” was answered. Even though the final product may seem effortless and obvious, getting to that point takes a ton of time, effort, inspiration, editing, persistence and experience. Making a good film is fun, but a lot work.
Film the scene, not the shot.
Our first day out in the mountains started at 5:00am with three cameras, tripods, batteries and plenty of tapes. Ryan Ross of SAF had put together a rough outline of our mission for the day; work together to climb trees, cross streams, scale rocks, slide down slopes, resolve confrontations and develop love-affairs all in the name of finding “the perfect rock.” We took turns acting, directing and filming ten different sequences which amounted to a paltry two- and-a- half hours of tape by the end of the day, which was ultimately condensed down to a 15 minute film which could benefit from a mercy cut down to about seven minutes without missing too much.
Michael Brown showing the Rookies how to set up the main camera shot for the first confrontation scene.
Right away, we learned the importance of filming the scene, not just the shot. An exploding stove might be a good shot, but when it takes place in the remote mountains (the scene), it takes on a much greater importance. Along these lines, we also learned to shoot long, medium and detail shots which make scenes visually much more interesting. Michael Brown, the main owner of SAF and a friend from way back, equated long, medium and detail shots to the skiers checklist of skisbootspoleshatsglovesgoogles – you want to make sure to get them every time you go out.
Ryan Ross and David D’Angelo humor Chris Strasser as he sets up the main camera on the dramatic confrontation scene.
The plot unfolded throughout the day as we made it up. After starting with a classic interview, we then had to figure out how to integrate new characters into the scene in a logical (if barely) way and how they were going to interact. We came up with an overall plan of searching for the perfect rock with sub plots of two interns (Freddie & Janet) falling in love while at the same time there was increasing tension between the Professor (me) and the high-speed “rock enthusiast”, Kevin. Tempers flare and love blooms in the midst of a desperate high-altitude alpine search for the elusive “Heart of Stone.” (Don’t get your hopes up – it sounds more exciting than it really is.)
Tomorrow: Turning Rocks into Diamonds – The Editing Process…
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Note: I am in Boulder, CO attending a film class at Serac Adventure Films today and will have limited computer access.
The most unpleasant and dangerous type of cold is that special blend of Pacific Northwest/Patagonian misery where your clothes are damp on the inside from sweat, soaked through from the outside by moist snow, temperatures are just below freezing and there’s some wind chill. This is a classic recipe for hypothermia and deserves extra caution. Envision a wood stove being sprayed with cold water; once the fire goes out, the core temp immediately plummets and it can be hard if not impossible to get it going again. The same thing happens with your body temperature-you can keep toughing it out for a while, but once you go down, you go down very fast and may not recover. Symptoms of hypothermia include uncontrolled shivering, loss of dexterity, slurred speech and sluggish behavior.
Skiin’ in the rain on Anvers Island, Antarctica with Doug Stoup. We were smiling as we were just about to get into the tent after a very wet day.
The solution here is to nip it in the bud early on as the situation doesn’t improve. Stop what you are doing and put on a second shell and/or pants and do everything possible to seal up your clothes against the elements. Once you are battened down, control your sweating by regulating your pace. This can be counter-intuitive at times as if you are sweating, you are probably working too hard and need to slow down, which is the last thing you want to do when it’s this miserable. Even the most tricked out techie miracle breathable fabric can’t keep up with an overheating torso in marginally freezing temperatures when the outer surface is plastered with rain or slush.
Having endured many soggy diaper rash days in the Cascade Mountains, the winning combination is a medium next-to-skin fleece layer covered with two outer layers of shell garments. In other words, save your old pants and shells and then wear new ones on top of those. Rubber fishing gloves work well as your hands don’t sweat and a hat with a wide brim keeps the rain from channeling down your neck.
If you are caught out on an extended tour during conditions like these, set up your tent, find some shelter or shorten the tour while you still have plenty of time and energy.
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Note: I will be in Boulder, CO attending a Serac Advenure Films class until Tuesday and have limited computer access.
You don’t have to love the cold to be a ski mountaineer, but it definitely helps. At the very least, try to fake it. As much as anything, cold is a state of mind and in that regard, you have some control over it. Look at the positive side of being cold; it means you are alive, it means you are probably in the mountains, it means that your nerve endings are working, and it means the snow is also cold, which in turn means it will probably be good skiing. It also means you aren’t sweltering in the heat of a flat, sandy desert. See, there are all sorts of advantages to being cold!
Ben Ditto enjoying a brisk, early morning start.
Fighting cold is counterproductive and it is far better to accept it (even love it if you can) and realize that this is a small price to pay for ski mountaineering. The state of being cold is a mindset that can toyed with – convince yourself that that burning feeling is actually heat, not frostbite. This usually works for about ten seconds, but by doing it multiple times and continually moving, you will gradually warm up to operating temperature and lose the cold anxiety.
Your main source of heat is your body, so make sure it has plenty of fuel to burn in the form of calories. Cold is an excellent appetite suppressor, which can make it hard to eat. The last thing you want to do when you are freezing is to stop, get even colder and then chow down a big cold lunch. Instead, keep the inner fires going with constant grazing on pocket food, like bars, GORP, jerky or cheese. Think of it as burning kindling, and save the big logs/calories for breakfast and dinner when you are nice and warm.
Tomorrow: drenching cold
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Setting up a Tyrolean Traverse (as pictured below) is often logistically harder than the actual climbing involved to get there.
In this case, Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite Valley, Rick Lovelace and I hiked to the valley’s rim, rappelled from the fixed anchors on the right-hand side of the photo down into the notch between the wall and the spire, then climbed the spire while trailing a rope which was still fixed to the anchors. Once we got to the top of the spire (5.9 A2) we pulled the rope tight, anchored it off, then Rick used rope ascenders to climb back over to the rim while trailing a second rope. Once he got there, we rerigged the ropes so I could follow and then we could pull the ropes clean. It is a convoluted process, but well worth it in this case as it puts you in a spectacular location thousands of feet above the valley floor.
The group pictured above did the traverse after us, and just about when this photo was taken I called over to the guy in the middle of the rope and said “Hey, you might try to go easy on your rope – it looks like it is fraying.” He totally stopped and put his head down for a while until I realized that he didn’t know I was joking, so I called over again “Just kidding!” to which he called back “Don’t f*ck with me right now. I’m feeling very fragile.”
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Note: I’ll be in Boulder, CO until Tuesday attending a Serac Adventure Films class and will have limited computer access.
A major part of surviving adversity is anticipating it and being prepared. Spending a day out touring in the maw of nature’s fury as it is dumping snow, blowing, avalanching, and going off the charts can be exhilarating if you are warm, dry and safe, or lethal if you are not. Overcoming adversity is a mix having the right gear and knowledge, as well as knowing how and when to use it.
The silver lining on a very cooooold cake – seeing Mt. Foraker at sunrise after climbing through the night on Mt. Hunter in -25 degree temps. Alaska
Part of overcoming adversities is to embrace the hardships. As George W. Bush said “It’s hard work. We’re workin’ hard.” Stay positive and turn it into a fun challenge. Convince yourself that you are getting what you came for and enjoy the struggle. Remember, it doesn’t have to be fun to be fun!
Try not to over-think adversity. When it comes to dealing with storms, steep slopes or any other challenges, think about it, make a decision (retreat or go) and then get on with it. Continual second guessing makes it much worse. Boldness has genius.
Monday – Meeting Mr. Cold
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