It had been a long time, too long, since we had all skied together. At least five years. Gilski and I had rendezvoused a few times at Mammoth in the interim but the last time I skied with Lou was at Onion Valley back in ’97 and with Rober’ it had been since ’05 [...]
Archive for the ‘Skinning’ Category
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Technique: Waxing Skins – How & Why
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Waxing skins is an essential part of taking care of your climbing skins which will also improve their performance. While skins are used for their climbing ability, their ability to glide when sliding between grip modes will help you climb faster. It does so two ways. Wax On? Most importantly it can prevent a [...]
Technique: Meanderthal avy assessment
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On a recent local lazyboy tour I hopped Sugar Bowl’s Judah chair for a fast slingshot into the backcountry. The summit chair wasn’t open, but that was fine, it’s only a 20 minute skin to the top and if you set the line right you can experience snow conditions from the northwest all the way [...]
TR: West Shore Lake Tahoe (31dec12)
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Yesterday was a classic Powder Monday. Two old ski buddies were in town and the plan was simple — take a tour somewhere around Lake Tahoe. West Shore beckoned and we took the bait. Russ, Ethan and I rendezvoused at The Back Country then headed south on Hwy. 89. There were three parking pull-outs [...]
Technique: Steep Skinning
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As much as I lobby for people to wake up to the advantages of setting a low angle skin track, the fact of the matter is most people prefer to set and/or follow a steep track. By steep I mean in the neighborhood of 20°. Without actually measuring it, how do you know you’re [...]
BC Technique: Downhill Kick Turns
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…the downhill facing kickturn is one of the first skills taught to a beginner at a Nordic center, thus it may be difficult for those who have no experience in Nordic gear to appreciate this turn. It’s a turn I’ve seen humble some pretty accomplished skiers in their first attempt.
BC Technique: The A-V-A Kick Turn
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There are lots of ways to change direction on the skin track. Ideally you don’t need a lot of uphill skill, and if you are careful, and a bit lucky, you can set an easy to follow skin track that never requires a sharp switchback. In that case, all you need to know is how [...]
BC Techniques: Step-Down Kick Turn
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The uphill snap-kick turn is a super valuable technique to learn, but some folks simply cannot do it because it requires more range of motion in the hips than their body allows. For them let me suggest a move I’m calling the Step-Down kick turn.
Techniques: Kick Turns on Steep Terrain
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One variety, the snap-kick turn is useful in deep snow, and practically essential on steep terrain. Without the snap-kick turn you can be in a rather precarious position when it comes to changing direction on a skin track, especially in glacial terrain where the consequences of a fall might be fatal.
Skin Track Angles – A Classic Debate
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It’s been quite awhile since first publishing the classic debate on what is the best angle of attack to take when skinning up a mountain. A lot of that comes down to terrain and personal preferences, but everyone I know tends to prefer either a low or high angle skin track. The basic tenets of [...]
