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.
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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Crevasse falls aren't as much fun as they are cracked up to be. Ben Ditto screaming for joy after hanging upside down in a crevasse for 30 minutes.

According to the Authorities, you should also carry a few other items, including a pulley.  I carried a pulley for a while, but to get a full-strength one (why carry weak gear?) meant even more clanking gear, plus I did some selective reading and found that the pulleys don’t reduce the friction all that much more than just a biner, so I dropped the pulley.

However, on our last trip across a glacier, Dylan Freed had a DMM Revolver carabiner with an incorperated pulley in it which made a ton of sense.  I think the Revolver was originally intended for sport climbing where you were suppose to clip it to the crux bolt so that it would reduce rope wear and impact forces, but at $30ish bucks, I’d rather just grab the sling and say “TAKE.” Still, having designed carabiners before, I lusted after a Revolver in my heart as it is one of the more obscure, cool biners out there, but I didn’t have a good excuse to buy one.  Until now.

Starting with a hot forged body (pricey), it incorperates a variety of different gate styles, although I like the simple screw gate version the best.  It also has a keylock nose, which is nice as it is less likely to snag on slings and harnesses.  But, the coolest part is the jewel-like pulley barrel which is seated right at the rope bearing surface.  What I like about these biners for crevasse travel is that they can be used as a pulley, but also as a regular biner or even a locker.  The tail area is too small for fitting around a harness or beefy belay loop, but they aren’t really intended for that anyway.

Is this one sexy little beast or what?

When not in use, I plan on clipping it to the Spectra accessory cord on my titanium spork.
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Help support StraightChuter.com and Z-Drag like a mofo with a DMM Revolver Locking Carabiner from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

The "Miracle" on her maiden voyage.

Paddling a PackRaft is a lot like paddling a kayak, which is good as I needed something to do with my pathetic boating skills.  The beauty of these little marvels is that you can carry them with you on a skiing, biking or hiking trip, then inflate them and expand on your adventure.  Try that with a hardshell kayak! Because they are so well made, they can take a beating (so I’m told), and if they do suffer a puncture, they are easy to repair.

So light even a two-year old can carry it. (Note how Mira has already started to steal my toys - damn kids.)

In keeping with the naval tradition of giving a boat a name with seven letters, three of them being vowels (Eclipse, Torpedo, Titanic…), I have christened my new Packraft “Miracle” as in small miracle and also in reference to my eldest daughter.

Packrafts - fun for adults, but kids love them too. Mira on the Miracle.

Packrafts are available through the Alpacka Raft company, which was started in Alaska, but is now in Mancos, Colorado.  The shipping box reminded me of a story I heard from John Bouchard, who was an early adaptor of paragliders – when he got his first one, he opened the box, and there it was.  No instructions, no warning, no manual.  Figure it out, have fun and try not to kill yourself in the process.  In all honesty though, Roman Dial has written a superb book on packrafting, which appropriately enough is titled “Packrafting!” and tells you everything you need to know about the sport and the potential of these cool little critters.

Fishing, biking, skiing, hiking, paddling, crossing open leads in ice... the future is limited only by your imagination. Oh the places you'll go.

The only downside I’ve discovered so far is that I don’t know of any other Utards with Packrafts, so I don’t have anyone to go with.  If you have one, or know of someone who does, hook me up!
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Help support StraightChuter.com and power your PackRaft with a Aqua-Bound StingRay Carbon Paddle on sale now at Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

When I first started StraightChuter.com, I took my gear lists for day backcountry ski trips, ski expeditions and technical ski descents and put them on the Gear & Food tab (located about an inch directly above here).  Over the last year, the links have all become outdated or broken, so since it is still about 487 degrees in Utah, I have updated them.

The lists can be printed out and used as checklists by themselves, or you can click on the actual item to see what I use, or a close approximation.  That said, I’m an “All About the Up” guy, so the gear I like may not have mass appeal.  Take it with a grain of salt.  StraightChuter is a viewer supported blog, so any gear purchases made through these links will be greatly appreciated!

Day Tours

Ski Mountaineering Expeditions

Technical Ski Mountaineering

Let the gear orgy begin... Sorting gear at the TAT bunkhouse, Talkeetna, AK

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After accidentally leaving some of the doily little 6″ aluminum stakes in my tent one time, I discovered that while they don’t work at all when they are pounded in like nails, they work really well when clove or girth hitched and buried as mini deadman.  The stakes are attached to the tent via a loop of thin accessory cord, which unlike buried stuff sacks or fabric deadmen, can take a direct hit with a shovel.  After a few hours of setting up, these little units become VERY solid in the snowpack, especially if they are set when it is warm, and then the temps drop.  Fer’get it – they aren’t going anywhere.  By attaching the accessory cord to the tent with a Trucker’s Hitch, you can keep tensioning the tent as it settles.

Straightchuter.com is 100% viewer supported and this video is an experiment with the “Pause & Buy” program through Backcountry.com.

Part of the reason it took me a month to actually try out the new VIO cam was that I needed the right helmet for it.  My Alpine skiing helmets are too heavy for BC skiing and my climbing helmets don’t work well with goggles, so I needed yet another helmet to add to my collection of ten or so helmets which I own but never use.  I was able to pick up a K2 Edge helmet, which is not only lightweight, but seems pretty comfy.  It looks like it would offer up some nice crash protection, but by the time I’m done misdrilling all of the mounting holes six times over, it is so Swiss Cheesed that protection is now secondary to camera location.

One of the cool things about the VIO system is that it has a very forgiving wide angle lens.  Still, if the angle is off, you end up getting a stiff neck watching the videos as you are constantly craning your neck to try to see the top of the frame, which just isn’t there.  Getting the camera angle just right is a big part of making a helmet cam work, otherwise the results are more annoying than fun.

My first mounting attempt did a good job at capturing “task” details, like getting into bindings, stripping skins, etc., but didn’t look far enough ahead to work well for skiing.  More helmet holes are needed.  But, the aft looking position worked pretty well and I almost like that angle better as it makes plinky-dink skiing look more dramatic.

The above video is my backyard stomping ground and is a run I’ve skied at least 200 times.  It’s not “world class” but it is quick, easy, safe and you can bring your dogs, so it has been getting increasing traffic over the years.  The snow tint looks off, but it is actually from a dust storm which blew in from Moab and made all the snow red.

After trying screws and Velcro, I have now settled on the burly little magnets for attaching the camera to the helmet.  I like this as the camera snaps into position by itself and has a sort of release feature if I crater, which I hope will help save the camera.  And who knows… it might even save my skull.

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Help support StraightChuter.com and get a camera worthy K2 Edge Helmet on sale now from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…