Every year the seasons change, and though the calendar says they begin at the same time, we know when they start and end are as predictable as the numbers on a roulette wheel. Sure there is a range of when it will occur, but the exact day, just as the exact number to bet on, changes all the time.
Archive for the ‘Couloir’ Category
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Rerun: Rainey Design’s Hammerhead (v1)
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As a first year binding it is tough to rationalize awarding the Hammerhead an Editor’s Choice for telemark bindings. However, we couldn’t ignore the improvements either. When the beta version arrived it was clear that a new standard in control had been set, and for some that is reason enough. However, lots of folks [...]
TR: Skiing the Wickersham Wall – Pt. V
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© 1994 May 24, Summit Day Departing the all–too–familiar fester dome at 12:30 p.m. we were stalled by howling winds and an upper peak lenticular. Three hours later we loaded up and set off in calm winds with the lightest packs we’d carried. Cramponing up the final 2900 feet unroped on firm saastrugi was a [...]
Skiing the Wickersham Wall – Pt. IV
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© 1994 1994, May 17, Day V on the Wall One more perfect day followed before a cloud bank appeared and we narrowly escaped a whiteout on the descent from 14,500′ to the serac camp at 11,000′. Skins worked well on the ascent to 12,800′, where the Canadian Route becomes a knife–edge ridge dropping away [...]
TR: Skiing the Wickersham Wall – Pt. III
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© 1994 1994: May 11, Day VII of the approach In clear weather we skinned across the Peters Glacier, trying to focus on the views rather than contemplate its hidden dangers. With only two of us on this checkerboard of crevasses we were nervous, the saga of Jim Wickwire and Chris Kerebrock always at [...]
TR: Skiing the Wickersham Wall – Pt. II
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1994: May 4-5, The adventure begins… A storm kept our photographer Bill Stevenson, John, and I from departing on May fourth, but we hit a good send-off party with halibut, moose, and beer instead. We finalized gear the next morning, and taxied across the runway in John’s sleek white ’76 Caddy. Motivation was high. [...]
TR (’94): Skiing the Wickersham Wall – Part I
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A slide now, while skiing in the center of the upper face, would carry me over 10,000-feet over cliffs and icefalls to a frozen, broken death. But we were confident in the results of our snow stability tests and I was having the run of my life, the culmination of every moment I’ve ever spent in the mountains. The higher power, grinning from ear-to-ear, had given us the nod. We got away with it!
Rerun: The Backside of Beyond
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Edward Abbey referred to the urban scene as “syphilization.” We read between the lines and suspect a cure for the most subtle of modern maladies, the condition caused by the strained nervous sense of urgency that seems to define life in the city.
Rerun: Touring with Luddites
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© 2002 “Bet the person who skied that face soiled his shorts.” Nils Larsen, telemark videographer, telemark instructor, telemark equipment consultant, and all around zealot of this subspecies of skiing, is standing beside me studying the face of Excelsior Mountain, a 12,446 foot peak near the northeastern border of Yosemite National Park and the tracks [...]
Rerun: Lone Rangers
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Now when you consider that the main reason people don’t ski more is because they don’t have partners you have to wonder what is up with the hard core earn your turns types, like you and me. Does that mean we’re the friendliest skiers out there and we log that many days ‘cuz we exude a je ne sais quoi magnetism that attracts others to us all the time?
