Thunder Ridge with Montgomery (far left couloir), The Sliver (second from left) and the Hypodermic Needle (right). Photo taken on a nice day, much unlike last Saturday.

Once we arrived on the apron of The Sliver, it was obvious that the skiing was going to suck, but at least the light was flat and it was snowing lightly, although it was almost warm enough to rain.  It is times like this that it is all about the up, so after skinning 90% of The Sliver, the last 10% became a matter of pride and principle.  Besides, we were in no rush to start skiing.

Courtney getting to the crux of the skinning ascent. At this point the chute is about 45 degrees, the snow around the trees is rotten and it is a major avalanche starting zone. STOKED!

So bad it's good. Court doing battle with the crux. The green/grey holds are part of the route.

Whippet use #218 - hooking trees on steep skin tracks.

The skiing in this normally amazing run was completely forgetable.

Breaking trail across the Little Cottonwood stream.

Sometimes when the skiing is bad you have to make your own fun.  ;)  The skin track should be even sportier now with a trace of new on it.
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The $64k kick turn. Steep, rocky, big exposure and fun. Definite first date material.

High heel-lifters are a must for steep skinning and I also like to shorten my poles down so I can get on top of them and push.  But, more than anything, steep skinning requires a developed feel for what your skins can stick to, and equally important, being able to relax while doing it.  Avoid breaking at the waist, keep your back straight and push through your heels.  It’s not that hard.

This one is only worth $32k. Still steep with a good dose of "don't blow it" exposure, but no rocks. Disappointing.

I’m hardly the first Wasatch skier to put in steep skin tracks.  I learned how to skin from Alex Lowe who went straight up everything and seldom booted.  Part of the Wasatch steep skinning ethic comes from the fact that we get a lot of deep snow and if you are going to be ground to a crawl breaking trail, you want to do it in the shortest distance possible, not cutting long zig-zags all over the hill.  The terrain here also favors steep skiing – the approaches are minimal and most of the ascents are up gentle ridgelines which force the choice between lots of switchbacks, traversing out into exposed slopes, or, steeper skin tracks.  Another factor is that synthetic skins work well in our dry snow and they also favor grip over glide, so you can push steep angles with them much easier than mohair.

Aid Skinning. The dead tree was technically a point of aid, but still on route.

But, getting back to the fun factor of it, if I am going to be breaking trail for 2-4 hours a day, it has to be interesting to me and I seem to ski with many like-minded people.  A lot of time a steep skin track will be a greasy, unclimbable mess a few hours or days after it has been set, but you can usually still use 80% of it and throw in a few extra switchbacks to get around the slick parts.  I don’t mind occasionally getting ejected off of a steep skin track.  Breaking trail may be a kind of public service, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be done to the lowest common denominator. If it is too blown out and slick, but put in a new one.

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Attacking timber head-on is an exercise in frustration as your skins will grease off of it and your edges won’t bite, so you end up turfing face first into some wet wood.  Not so fun.  It only took me about ten years to figure this out, but patience and setting up for a log crossing is almost always faster than a direct assault.

Step 1

Approach the log and introduce yourself, explaining the you are going to cross it whether it likes it or not, and the log can either make it easy on itself, or get debarked.  Your choice buddy.  Turn parallel to the log and scrunch up as close as possible, then lift your uphill ski over it, using your hand to help position the ski if need be.

Step 2

When establishing your uphill ski, MAKE SURE AND LEAVE PLENTY OF ROOM FOR YOUR DOWNHILL SKI BELOW IT.  This is the crux, as if you crowd it too much, you will be stepping up onto the log instead of snow and will inevitably grease-off again and curse a blue streak.

Step 3

Stand up, regain your composure, and continue on.  Repeat as often as necessary.

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Another little trick is to be calm a subtle with your footwork and try to milk every little irregularity you can.  Put your ski/skin down once, pressure it firmly and stand up on it smoothly.  Stomping rarely helps and more often than not destroys any grip the snow might have.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like steep skinning is that I also like friction climbing (moderate angle, smooth slabs, minimal handholds).  I was a little insulted when a friend once said “Oh yeah, friction climbing – whatever.  Once you get the hang of that you can hike routes all day long.” which is kind of true.  More than anything it is about developing a feel for the rock or snow, trusting your feet and relaxing.  Once you get comfortable with these elements, you can hike steep skin tracks all day long.

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Chris Figenshau skinning up a 34-degree icy slope in New Zealand with textbook perfect style. Not bad for a photo dude from J-Hole. Good job Figs.

1. Keep your back straight – don’t bend/break at the waist
2. Keep your skis as flat as possible on the snow to maximize the surface area
3. Press through your heels (important)
4. Plant your poles near to your toepieces – not too far forward or off to the side.
5. Stay off of your edges.  If you need to move sideways, “crab” to the left or right by moving your entire ski instead of trying to edge.
6. Look up and forward, not down at your boots.  As the Bloodhound Gang song goes – “Lift your head up high and blow your brains out.”  Steep skinning may be painful until you get the hang of it, but it also gets you places in a hurry.

If you find yourself slipping, try lifting your big toe.  This is hard to do if you are leaning forward, (so lean back) and it will help shift your weight to the aft.  It’s like hitting the brakes.
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Heel lifters are absolutely essential and should be turned to their highest setting.  Don’t be bashful. Certified guides dislike heel lifters for their clients as they are too tippy, but once you get the feel of them, there is no going back.  It’s kind of like walking around on a roof with high-heels – it may not seem like a good idea, but it keeps your foot flat so you can use your thigh muscles instead of your calves.

Lifters up, poles down, feet flat. Go dog go.

Shorten your poles down so you can get on top of them instead of hanging off of them.  Pushing on them instead of pulling allows you to use your arms, chest and back instead of just your arms.  It is the difference between doing push-ups and pull-ups.  I can do little cheater push-ups all day long but am cooked after about ten pull-ups. If you have asymmetrical baskets (and you should), rotate them with the short side forward so they don’t lever out.

Get some good nylon skins.  Nylons are known for their sticky climbing abilities and that’s what we are talkin’ about here. Good glue and a tip & tail kit are also important for steep skinning as you put a lot more sheering force on your skins than when you are just scooting along on the flats.

LG setting a 40 degree track in AK.

Undo your top boot buckles so you have maximum ankle flex.  I usually keep my forefoot buckle fairly tight (as tight as I’d have it for skiing), the ankle buckle semi tight and totally undo the top buckle.  I don’t use the Velcro powerstrap, but if I did, I’d loosen that all the way as well.  Of course, make sure your boots are in tour, not ski, mode. Like friction climbing, steep skinning requires a subtle feel and you want control without restriction from your boots.
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Few things in backcountry skiing piss people off more than a steep skin track, but that is probably because they don’t know how to ascend it properly. Once you get the hang of it (details to follow in this week’s postings), setting a steep track can be way faster than wandering all over the hillside at the prescribed 12-degree perfect angle.

Lorne Glick busting out a steep one on Thunder Mountain, Alaska. This direct line hit 40 degrees in places and kept us out of avalanche starting zones.

A few steep skinning myths:

A lower angle skin track is more efficient.  
Not so.  Walking up a low angle handicap access ramp is technically easier step-by-step, but no more efficient than going straight up a flight of stairs.  It takes a set amount of energy to climb a mountain and the variables are time and distance traveled. 

The fastest racers in world all use lower angle skin tracks.
True, but that has as much to do with using bindings which only have one elevation setting and skins which glide better than they climb.  The top guys/girls are also plenty speedy on steep tracks as well.

Steep tracks are set my macho jerks with something to prove.
Perhaps.  Then again, maybe they are setting a steep track as an ability barrier to keep a powder stash from being overrun once the track is in.  If people can’t get up, they can’t ski down.  See the “no friends on a powder day” rule for further clarification.

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Sometimes this means using brute force and sometimes it requires endless finesse.  There is no one method of ascent which is always the best, instead it is a constantly shifting selection and the fastest skiers are those who adapt to whatever it takes.

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A good way to learn is to follow in the footsteps (or more likely, skin tracks) of more experienced skiers.  Try to match their stride, look where they plant their poles, get a feel for the all day ascent angle, mimic their posture, and generally try to absorb what they are doing, while of course maintaining a safe distance from their tails.  It is kind of like uphill osmosis.  If you don’t have someone to learn from, see if you can pick out clues from a pre-broken trail.  Ascending is only boring if you make it that way.  Instead, be active and involved — think about  improving and getting more efficient, not just plodding along. 

I had the misfortune of learning how to skin from Alex Lowe.  Like most people who went out with him, I was overwhelmed just trying to keep up, let alone do any trail breaking.  Among our small group, we’d try to figure out strategies to keep from getting dusted by Alex, like carrying less weight, starting out with less clothing on, getting plenty of sleep, strapping water bottles to our waistbelts, always climbing with one heel lifter setting and many other futile tricks that never seemed to help.  What finally did help was when Alex won an international alpine speed climbing championship, as it made me realize it was pointless to try and keep up with him, so I slowed down and started developing my own pace, which over time has increased.  Skinning is one of those activities where you get faster by starting out slow, both in the long and short term.  The real (and only) secret to speedy climbing it is to do it a lot.

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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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