05 Uphill
Steep Skinning – Gear Adjustment
You don’t need any special gear to lay down a steep skin track, but there are a few adjustments you can make to your existing set-up which will help. 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 […]
Steep Skinning – Part 1
Spring is here and the time is right for skinning in your top pegs. I don’t go out of my way to always pick the steepest skin line possible, but there are times, actually, a lot of times, where a steep skin track angle is much safer, faster and more efficient. Few things in backcountry skiing […]
Skinning in the Sandbox
While skinning up Argenta today I was reminded of the term “skinning in a sandbox.” About the only silver lining on this condition is the apt and funny mental imagery of actually skinning uphill in a sandbox, but aside from that, it is a very frustrating experience. What makes it so annoying is that it […]
Skinning Outside the Box
A common skinning malady is to turf face-first just as you are committing to an uphill kickturn on a steep, greasy switchback. This can be fun the first few times it happens, but gets old quickly and can be easily remedied. Over time, skin tracks get beat-out for a variety of reasons. One of the […]
Death by a Thousand Missteps
I’m always tormented when I see ragged skin tracks as I feel compelled to say something, yet at the same time it’s hard not to come across as being rude. “Excuse me my friend, but do you know your skinning technique is all phucked up?” It’s kind of like seeing someone with an open fly […]
It’s All About the Up
Coming from an alpine skiing background, it took me a few years to warm up to the idea of backcountry skiing. It didn’t help that the guy I learned how to backcountry ski from was wicked-fast, which meant my early outings were exhausting efforts of trying to keep up where all I could think was […]
Skin Set Up – Part Two
Now that the edges have been trimmed back and the nose has been set, I like to tweak my tails a bit (the tails of the skins that is). Although I designed the BD ClipFix and used that system for years, I’ve now gravitated towards the STS system (shown below). I liked the ClipFix, but […]
Skin Set Up – Part One
I’m the first to admit that I’m anal-retentive when it comes to setting up my skins. Why? Because spending an hour or so in the beginning getting your skins just right means you never have to fool with them again and that they seldom fall off or fail in the field. I can’t remember the last […]
Pick Your Poison – Methods of Ascent (part II)
Learning to skin is like learning the alphabet-something you have to do before you start spelling words or linking tours together. It’s a lot like walking, but a bit different. Booting is walking, but unless you are on firm snow, your range will be severely limited as nothing saps your energy like post-holing in deep […]
Pick Your Poison – Methods of Ascent
For ski mountaineering, there are three main methods of traveling over snow; skinning, booting or snowshoeing. Of these three, skinning is by far and away the most efficient and versatile. Booting works well when there is an existing boot track, or when the going gets steep. Snowshoes are better than crawling, but not by much. […]
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