Winning the Uphill Battle – Part III

| August 13, 2008

Efficient ascents are a blend of pacing, route finding, technique and equipment.  Like rolling a ball uphill, your approach to skinning should vary according to conditions and terrain, but the underlying idea is to find the most expedient way possible, while not losing any ground. 

Skinning isn't always about mellow 12 degree shuffling.  The fastest way to the top is to use whatever method works best.
Skinning isn’t always about mellow 12 degree shuffling. The fastest way to the top is to use whatever method works best.

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.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get 15% off on the vertical tracking Suunto Altimax Altimeter Watch from Backcountry.com! Click the photo below…

Tags: ,

Category: 05 Uphill

About the Author ()

Andrew McLean lives in Park City, Utah and is a gear designer, writer, photographer, ski mountaineer, climber, Mountain Unicycle rider and father of two very loud little girls.

Comments (2)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Polly says:

    Any hints on how to do a kick turn on a tree?

  2. Andrew says:

    That’s a whole new topic which will be covered in the winter. :)

%d bloggers like this: