marylou

Hey, you sure about the weight thing? I bet that setup weighs less than that. I just got curious and weighed my setup, Lasers, Freerides, and alpine skis, and my stuff's only 18#6. I pulled my bf's Shuksan/Dynafit setup out of the roof box several times this w/e and I swear that even with the extra 10cm of ski, his setup is a bunch lighter than mine. Sorry about the thread drift, I was just curious about the weight. Pax, you might try Evogear for used skis. They do mainly alpine ski gear, but a lot of people mount AT or tele on alpine skis these days. I got a pair of K2 T:nine Xs from them, very lightly used, one set of binding holes, for $160. I would definitely buy skis from them again. You get way more options if you are willing to set up on alpine gear, the main diff seems to be the weight, and there are a lot of pretty light alpine skis out there nowadays. Somebody correct me if there is more to it than that. They are currently having a "tent sale" in the old PCC space in Fremont, 34th just W of Fremont Ave. Ask for Bryce if you need some advice, he set me up good after I told him what I was planning to do with the gear.

Well maybe we went in the wrong way, it wasn't all that flat, but keep in mind I am a total newbie with the skins and the kick turns, so it's only going to get easier. My kick turns are shameful 8-point things. Looking at the map, if we'd had just a little more time, getting to the head of the valley would have been no problem. From where we skied up to those bowls looks pretty simple.

You guys are silly!

The road is gated just past the creek. No snow visible as far as you can see on the roadway, though reoprts from mtn bikers indicate the road is cleared all the way to the hairpins, and not at all after that. We were not carrying an alti, but looking at the map, that's a pretty good guess. I don't think we were all that close though, we were not at the head of the valley. Looked to us like we had another maybe couple of hours of thrashing to get there. There were some fresh tracks coming down from the saddle near the summit of SS....and man oh man...someday I'm coming back to ski that. Awesome.

Ski Date of Ski: 3/20-22/2004 Trip Report: Climb: Silver Star, sorta, and Mission Peak not at all-the regular way in Date(s) of Ski: 3/22/2004 Trip Report: We'd hoped to do this thing and that thing this weekend. As it turned out, most all plans went south as the weather did what it does in spring. Plans to climb in the Icicle Friday turned into plans to ski at Stevens instead. Friday: Stevens Freshies We had no trouble hunting down the in-bounds freshies, though there was a bit of ice under the 8 or so inches of fresh and fluffy. We had a pretty good day skiing out run after run in a few choice spots until we'd gobbled all of the good turns we could find. Then it was off to Gustav's for dinner. It was decidedly c-c-cold in 11worth, and we were glad to have not been climbing that day. After dinner we headed over to Wenatchee, where lodging was uncommonly tight. Got a room at the Beast Western, where we were sharing with the Moose Lodge Convention, a bunch of high school basketball teams, and the Ultimate Fighting people. It was a long and noisy night. Those people need to sleep more, and slam doors less. Saturday: Mission Peak? Woke up feeling not-so-refreshed, and headed to Mission Ridge with the intention of riding the lifts to the top and touring away to the north. Can I just say now how much it sucks to have a pack on the lift? Upon reaching the top of the ski hill, we were dismayed to find it mighty wind-scoured and ICY. Really goldarn icy. Oh, and not a lot of snow. Like Mission Ridge is a lot, apparently. So, we headed back down to the car and lost the packs, and proceeded to spend a sunny day going about 600 miles an hour on icy groomed slopes on AT gear. It was exciting, to say the least. The ice would have made me long for the good old days of skiing back East, if in fact I had ever skiied back East. As we were leaving the Mission Parking lot, I commented that my partner had left his apple on the roof of the car. We laughed a lot as the apple rolled around on the roof as we drove back to Wenatchee, and when it stopped, we figured the apple had fallen off. We promptly then forgot about it. Then we made the long journey to Winthrop, still with no firm plans for Sunday. The avy report seemed to make it sound like things had calmed down enough for us to go in the BC, but where? A chat with a couple of nice fellows in the Winthrop Brewery got us focused on the Silver Star area. After dinner, we noted that the apple from earlier that day was still on the roof of the car. Nutty. Sunday: Backcountry, finally After a long peaceful evening of relaxing to the sweet burble of Knob Creek, we slept like the dead until.... OH SHIT! 8:45. Oops. Still planning to go somewhere by Silver Star, we trundled out to the end of the road and geared up. Everyone there was riding bikes and not skiing. The apple was still on the roof, BTW. We crashed up into the thick trees at around 10:30. My partner reminded me that this was a shakedown trip, as it was only my second time on skins. Good plan, keep expectations low. Snow coverage was thin, and the tree wells were wide. We worked our asses off for two hours before stopping to admire Silver Star.....way....up....the....valley. Fortunately we found a nice little ski hill on the left side of the valley. I thought the snow "looked fine", but my partner dug a little pit and had me stick my paws in it. We were both surprised to find a weak layer in there about a foot down from the top. The weak layer, and the plan, were discussed just long enough for me to get good and worked up about it. Then I went first.....and it was.....SO....much fun! As I waited in the trees for my partner to ski, I realized that I was sort of walking on rocks and stuff. Note to self: okay to walk on rocks in skins, but not okay when skins are not on skis. I was sorry that we then had to get back to the car. The ski/slide/fall down/laugh asses off through the trees was a load of fun and hardly took much time at all. We hiked down the last little bit with our skis on our back. When we arrived at the car, the apple had mysteriously vanished from the roof, but memories of the super great fun weekend we had ought to stay with me for a long time. Approach Notes: Snow is melting fast down low. Dug pit all the way to the ground in 5 mins at appx 5400, west facing slope. 30" of glop....ski it while it lasts. Delancy Ridge on N side of hwy almost dry.

I hate to be a party pooper, but I was just at the east end of the road a few hours ago and chatted with a couple of locals. Besides a small washout at Varden Ck (driveable, but needs to be fixed), the road is solid snow from the hairpins looking east, according to their bike ride TR. Also apparently the stuff near Diablo that happened last fall is pretty bad, they said the DOT is anticipating 30 minute waits to get through whatever they have in place. On the east side at least the snow's getting pretty thin pretty fast. If Jordo is around, maybe he can shed more light on the spring road construction stituation vis a vis the westside stuff. I'm having surgery on April 1 but still hope to come to the Spring Ski in, I'll have to just be the drunk Den Mother/housefrau. I will need a ride because I doubt I'll have it in me to drive that far!

Calm down, child. They are bored. The silly flame war BS happens to the best and the worst of us. Careful out there now, ya hear!

Actually, the weather of the past few hours has conspired aggin' us. Currenly looking too cold for 11W tomorrow, and too slidey on the snow side of things....currently looking at a huge pile of gear in the middle of my living room, have no idea what will be used.

It's pray tell. Her glamourous good looks! I look like I forgot to pretty up before leaving the house....which of course I did forget...

I would like to point out that I am actually making a one-fingered salute in the second photo I am in. Remind me not to pose for pictures with IG any more!

I'm planning on attending the thing at the VW, but need to make sure I'm not working that night.

I have to agree with Ken on this one. Conditions are going to be far too treacherous out there, so stay home! Starting tomorrow, continuing through Sunday!

Why not just ignore it and get on with your life?

I don't really see any easy resolution to the situation Iraq is faced with today. Like it or not, it's a huge mess. We changed the landscape by overthrowing the regime/gov't, but the new landscape doesn't hold a lot of promise for a workable solution. Paul, perhaps others share my position on this...which might explain why you aren't hearing a lot of solutions from people who didn't support the invasion in the first place.

Uh, why on earth would the Iraqui people see us as anything OTHER than the enemy? Sure, Saddam was/is a bad man, but we INVADED their country. Now we are occupying it. Sure as shit they see us as the enemy, and with good reason.

No, she's not. Toast made her up.

And I would say to Scott, who is trying to make a living off of doing something that he likes doing, that if you live in glass house, don't throw stones. Seems like only yesterday he was making fun of me in the exact same way, only it wasn't in Spray. Wait, it was yesterday. Scott laughs at someone doing what they love to do

I think we are going to head over there for a little spring skiing this weekend. If we decide to sleep indoors, anyone have any suggestions for a place they like to stay over there?

I'm not as concerned with high performance as I am with comfort at this point. I simply don't and can't ski as aggressively as I used to. Just looking for a more comfortable option for the inbounds stuff. What I'm seeing in this discussion makes me think it might not be all that safe. I do use my full AT setup inbounds sometimes, but it's a little too noodly if there is any ice at all. And yes, I do do the gear thing, but it's not ski gear.

In my never-ending quest to keep my feet happy, I am wondering about using my AT boots (Scarpa Laser) with my downhill ski/binding setup. The Lasers are the most comfortable ski boot I've ever owned. Trying this at home on the carpet, it's a little weird to get the boots to lock into the binding. Not sure if this setup is a bad idea or not. Thoughts? Experiences?

You go Squid!

It is time to chat, people.

Dude, where'd you hear those stupid sayings?

it's like putting a hat on a pig I had to ask too....

Sure. I have, and I'm sure lots of others here have too. Can you be a little more specific?