Starting with a fresh set (yessssss!), I give them what is called a “technical pick grind” which is what pre-lobotomy  ice climbers use. The idea is to put a serious bevel on all of the bottom teeth EXCEPT THE FIRST ONE.  This helps it hook. I also round off the first two teeth (from viewers left) to keep them from tearing up gloves.

A view from the bottom.  Now Whippet.  Whippet good.

If you like your $150 leather gloves, it is a good idea to round off the upper and lower edges of the canard wing as much as possible.

How sharp a front point?  As sharp as you can stand.  My personal philosophy is that if I’m going to get disemboweled, (which hasn’t happened yet), I’d rather have it done with a scalpel than a blunt machete.  Your disembowelment may vary. On a more practical note, a super sharp point is easier to ram into ice.

Discard the tip protectors that come with the new Whippets, ski fast and take chances.
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and pack your bowels with Watermelon GU Chomps Energy Chews 16-Pack from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

As mentioned in the last post, I am keeping my heavier Safety Pack and assembling a light one as well.

Things that got the outright chop:

1. Goggles – I use wide sun glasses instead.
2. Probe – I’ve used a ski pole as a probe before and it worked.
3. Avalanche Airbag – I love this thing (BCA Float 30) but there’s no denying it is heavy.

Substitutions:

1. Down jacket (MHW Phantom) replaces synthetic (MHW Hooded Compressor).
2. Old skool water bladder replaces fancy-ass CamelBak with huge screw-on lid.

Downsizing:

My trusty old beacon chest pack (right) was replaced by the standard issue beacon holder (left). I started using a chest harness years ago and like it for "work" (Avalanche Forecasting, race organizing, writing, etc.) but it tends to collect stuff that I don't use all that often and was kind of hot.

I did keep my little sunglasses/camera lens cleaner, which is a small piece of chamois with a keeper loop sewn on. I keep this stuffed in my beacon holder and like it as it works even when it is wet.

A new K2 Backside shovel (very sexy) replaces the trusty old G3 AviTech. I like the AviTech, but the K2 is pretty much the same size and lighter.

Old First Aid Kit (right) and the new one (left). It's the Wasatch - if you get a paper cut you go home or wait 10 minutes for the group following your skin track to catch you, so you don't need a big 1st Aid kit.

MHW Spearhead Mittens (left) replace a light pair of gloves (for skinning) and a heavier pair of gloves on the right. The Spearheads have a removable trigger-finger liner which acts as a glove on its own.

Dynafit RC 20 Pack (left) replaces the BCA Float 30 pack (right). The Float 30 is an airbag pack, so the actual weight difference is well offset by the increased safety, but for light touring, the Dynafit pack is roughly 1/10 the weight.

Boot bag. I don't actually bring this touring with me, but I often bring crap with me as I don't want to leave a random tube of sunscreen, spare batteries or an extra hat in the car, especially if I'm car-pooling and think that I'll forget it afterward (very good chance). I think this boot bag is actually a rope bag, but close enough...

Total pack weight with food, water, shovel, camera, 1st kit and jacket is 8.5 lbs.

I’m going to celebrate all of this weight savings by bringing out my 191cm Darkside skis tomorrow.  Stand back.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and mach schnell like you mean it with a pair of K2 DarkSide Alpine Skis from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Rather than constantly shuffling gear between packs, I’m putting together two completely separate and different packs – a light one and a heavy one.  May the best pack win.  ;)  The light pack will have a minimal amount of gear, water and food, and will be outfitted for a day of backcountry skiing in the Wasatch, where if you get cold or hurt, you ski ten minutes back to your car and go home.

In the name of weight savings I’m willing to sacrifice a degree of safety (down jacket vs. synthetic, no extra gloves, minimal 1st Aid Kit, etc.,) but there are a few items that are sacrosanct, namely a large shovel and pair of Whippets. I learned the value of a large shovel (G3 AviTech, Voile Telepro, etc) in 1993 when I tried to dig a buried friend out with a tiny mountaineering shovel, which was tragically frustrating.   As for the Whippets, if I could have them surgically implanted in my hands, I’d do it as I use them so often and in so many different ways.  For long mellow tours, I’ll occasionally use skinny little carbon-fiber pencil shaft poles with Nordic grips on them, but not that often.  Give me Whippets or give me death.

Whippets putting a smile on Dylan Freed's face.

Next up: the birth of the light pack.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and put a smile on your face with a Black Diamond Whippet Self-Arrest Ski Pole from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

A-Frame Fred fiddling on Foraker.

I’m solidly in the A-Frame camp, but will occasionally go diagonal, especially if that’s the only option a pack has.  I like A-Framing as it keeps the ski tails high, away from your calves, ties the whole ski & pack combo together in a tight bundle and most importantly, keeps the weight of your skis/binders/skins close to your center of gravity instead of yawing off of the back of your pack.

A-Framing keeps the weight close to your center of gravity and the tails away from your calves.

The main objection to A-Framing is that it takes longer and requires a ski strap to tie your tips together.  In regards to taking longer, practice makes perfect.  Before I saw my first Calf Roping at a rodeo, I was guessing a fast time would be somewhere around 60 seconds (it would take me a matter of hours), and was blown away that the top riders can do it in way under 10 seconds, which is about how long it take me to set up an A-Frame carry. Thunk, thunk – tails in the loops, clip, clip – secure the top straps, zip – on goes the ski strap and you are off.  For any booting session over about five minutes  the lost time is more than made up for in increased uphill speed.

The advantage of diagonaling is that it is quicker to set up. Skis together, drop the tails in the loop, clip the top strap and off you go.  To me, the disadvantage is that the skis tend to flop around more and the center of weight is further off your back, especially if you have a big, full pack.

Ian "Akkabar" Reid using a quick-load diagonal backpack.

Yes, all of the Ski Mountaineering Racers use the diagonal set-up, but their packs are almost empty and the tricked-out race packs have a system where you can get your skis on/off of the pack without ever taking it off, or even stopping.  In the case of racing, every second counts, but for general touring, if you have to take your pack off, you just negated 99% of the diagonal carry advantage.

The second worst way to carry skis - vertical on the back of a pack. This is only topped by horizontal on the back of a pack - pure misery.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get yer diagonal carry on with a Dynafit RC 20 Backpack from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Here’s the not-so secrets to my blister free success…

1) Go with boots that fit your feet.  I’ve been skiing in Scarpa’s for years and am not sure if they fit my feet or at this point my feet have conformed to the boots, but whatever the case, Scarpa’s are a known and consistent entity for me.   When I was into Alpine racing I wore a size 7 Lange, but for touring have gone up two full sizes to a size 9.

2) Use a thick, high quality sock like a Bridgedale, Smartwool or one of the new BC.com merino wool versions.  They are pricey ($25ish a pair), but they last forever, or seven years – which ever comes first.

3) Find an insole that fits your foot.  Some of the new boots come with substantial insoles (like the BD line), but I’ve found that SuperFeet fit my foot and are comfy.  I have been rolling them over for about five years and take them out of my old boots, then use them again for my new ones.

4) Use a good boot fitter who knows how to fit backcountry/touring boots, as a BC fit is different than an Alpine fit.  I’ve been going to Dennis Maw at Black Diamond in Salt Lake City who is a Liner Magician.

Dennis Maw at Black Diamond Retail and his box full of toe caps. These are made by Intuition and I credit them with saving my toes from freezing.

The key to warmth is to be able to wiggle your toes and have good circulation. For touring boots, I like a lot of extra toe room so if it does get really cold I can put in some of those Warmer Grabber toe warmers. I never wear overboots. In this photo I have neoprene toe liners, the Intution caps with extra toe padding and a pair of SuperFeet ski insoles.

Next up, the entire package is held together with some sexy, thin, black socks. These are not the socks I use for skiing - I usually use just a single pair of high-quality, thick wools socks.

Dennis heats the boots up to a bare minimum (four minutes in the oven?) which still gives a nice custom fit, but doesn't smush-out the liner too much. After heating them up, he inserts the toasty lines into a plastic shopping bag and inserts the whole gooey package into the shells.

After making sure the heel is deeply seated, the boots are buckled up moderately tight and locked into ski mode. After a few deep flexes, you then sit back and wait for about five minutes. Voila - a perfect fit.

For a more skiing performance fit, I just use the toe caps with no neoprene liners. The liners felt pretty good right out of the box, so Dennis just barely heated them up for the fitting. The sexy black sock, shopping bag and flexing are all the same as the touring boot.

Stokage! Good to go for another year. This would be an interesting way to tour - a Maestrale on one foot and a Mobe on the other - I'd climb in circles one way and then ski reverse circles on the way back down. :)

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and ooze into a form-fitting pair of Scarpa Maestrale Boots from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Before: One manky piton and one manky bolt connected by three manky slings clipped into two carabiners, attached to another manky half sling with a random carabiner which was connected to a weathered piece of accessory cord which was frozen into the snow and unusable. Generally, an unsafe eyesore on a great line.

Bolts are a contentious issue in rock climbing, but when it comes to ski mountaineering rap anchors, I’m in favor of them.  Nuts and pitons work well for a few years, but in an alpine environment where cracks expand and contract with freezing and  thawing, they have a tendency to loosen after a few years.  A case in point would be the original anchors on the NW Couloir of the Pfiefferhorn, which after ten years could be removed my hand.  Bolts can be placed in the optimum location, are incredibly strong, don’t require any additional slings, and are less of an eyesore.  The downside of them is that they require a permanent drilled hole which scars the rock.

A drilled anchor has two components – the bolt and the hanger.  Within the hanger world, there are two main types, those for clipping carabiners into and those designed for rappel anchors.

A Metolius SS Bolt hanger. These are probably the most common type of bolt hangers in the US and are intended to be clipped with a carabiner.

A Metolius Rap Hanger. These have a large, smooth, rope bearing surface and are designed so you can pass the rope directly through them for rappeling.

An anchor set in good rock with a tight hole using a beefy rap hanger and a 2-3″ stainless steel expansion bolt  is good for thousands of pounds.  Placing a sling, rap ring or quick-link on it might seem like a good idea, but these add-ons are often substantially weaker than the bolt and serve no real purpose.

A Rap Hanger being used as it was designed - by passing the rope directly through it.

A common practice, of which I’ve been guilty of myself many times, is to bring a short or scrap piece of rope to rappel with, and if it is too short to double back, leave it tied-off to the rap anchor.  This seems like a good idea as the next party can theoretically use it, but in reality the dangling rope gets buried in the snow and becomes useless, or weakened from exposure.  Once a rope becomes augured in, the pressure it can exert on the anchor from the snowpack slowly creeping downwards is impressive.  If the rope is an old section of 10mm climbing rope, it can put hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of pressure on the anchor.  A good anchor can withstand this, but if the rope is useless and it is stressing the anchor point, it is better to not do it.  I’ve cut buried ropes off of anchors which were under so much tension that they almost exploded when the knife touched them.  In the case of a small tree or dubious anchor, a buried rope causes more damage any than potential good it might do.

After: Stronger, safer and less clutter. A two bolt rap anchor sans slings and garbage.

Considering the aesthetic and safety consequences, burly rap anchors are an excellent addition for popular rapping descents.
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and rap with confidence on a Sterling Fusion Nano Single Rope – 9.2mm from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

1. 9″ x 9″ cotton cloth for general clean up
2. 6″ x 6″ faux chamois for wiping down tent condensation
3. Scrunge – cut in half
4. MSR XGK stove – the heart of the system
5. Backpackers Pantry Pot Cozy
6. Seasoned Salt
7. Tea/pube strainer
8. MSR windscreen
9. MSR XGK pump
10. MSR Spondonical (pot grabber)
11. Snow Peak titanium Spork
12. Bamboo pot scraper
13. REI 3 liter aluminum pot – black
14. Stove board (wood with aluminum foil)
15. MSR heat exchanger (for anything over 3 days)
16. Pot liner (home made – pack cloth)
17. 33oz/1 liter fuel bottle with cap and stickers covering the word “fuel”
18. Bic lighters (not shown – don’t fly with them in your kit!)

Everything except the fuel bottle and stove board fits inside the pot, which in turn has a little stuff sack to keep it all together.

Notes:

• The heat exchanger needs a wire “extender” to fit around the 3 liter pot
• I’ve heard the Pot Cozies are next to impossible to find nowadays
• I use the pot liner to hold all of the cook kit while the pot is in use – this keeps stuff from getting lost
• The little tea strainer works well as a crude filter when you are melting dirty snow
• My water melting set-up is shown in this previous posting

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and flame-on with a MSR XGK EX Multi-Fuel Stove from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

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).

From here, push the ski down, then wrap the cord around the cleat, as shown in the photo below.

The flex of the ski gives you a little extra holding power, and although the ski isn’t absolutely locked in place, it is close enough to allow you to reef on it for some heavy-metal base filing.  As I already had them, I still use the vises, but more for alignment than clamping power.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get a starting grip on your slippery eels with a Toko Ski Vise World Cup from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Rather than yarding on the brake legs, (which only makes matters worse as they require a certain geometry to retract and deploy well), I use a Dremel tool and grind off the inside of the plastic tabs.

In the above photo, the leg on the left is stock and the leg on the right has been ground down.  This modification probably voids all sorts of warranties and will get you in trouble with the same authorities who come after people who cut warning labels off of mattresses, but if you enjoy dodging The Man, the modification works for me.

I use brakes on most of my skis mainly out of habit as I often drop my skis on the snow to step into them, and like having them stay in place.  On some super phats, my racing skis and some mountaineering skis, I’ll skip the brakes for weight and simplicity.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get your grind on with a set of Dynafit TLT Vertical ST Alpine Touring Bindings from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Separating your skins has gotten even tougher as many of them are getting so wide nowadays.  My usual technique for overly sticky skins was to press them onto our dog-hair infested carpet a few times, which took some of the initial tack off, but last spring I saw an even better technique from Heather Paul Featherman.  Having nearly separated my sternum many times by using the brute force approach, I loved the brains vs. brawn simplicity of this.  As Heather said “Why not use the strongest muscles in your body?”

Starting with your skins stuck together, grab the tops as normal...

... place the skins between your legs and wrap them over your thighs...

... then use your leg muscles to pull them apart in a series of 2-3 segments.

It works great and is so embarrassingly simple I’m amazed I’d never seen it or thought of it before.  Thanks Heather.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and strip some uber-phat Black Diamond Ascension Nylon STS Skins from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…