pete_a
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Posts posted by pete_a
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I was up there too with five friends of mine, second trip to Yodelin in a week...great snow and nice and stable in the trees, the columns I isolated and tap tested just blew apart into a big powder cloud...slabs not much of an issue in the old growth trees. Dave- if your group was the one who set the skin track up, thanks! I had to put it in when I was up there sunday, and it was nice to cruise up pre-established skin track yesterday.
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Just heard about this from a post on teletips...
http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12937
from that post:
"The footbridge at Alpental collpsed last night due to 3" of rain on the current snow load. The sewer and communication lines were part of the structure. This means several weeks of repair before opening. Rob."
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I wouldn't recommend Yodelin as an early season destination...theres a lot of logging slash and brush on the approach, can be a bit of a bushwack, especially if you start up from behind the big cabin just east of top of the pass. At least thats been my experience when heading up there before theres 5-6' of snow at the pass.
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Don't know what other folks do, but I typically skin/climb wearing just a liner sock and bring along a pair of standard ski socks in my pack and toss those on before heading downhill to tighten up the fit.
What I've been told is that you do the fitting using a liner sock, that way if/when the liner packs out a little more you can just move up to a slightly thicker sock instead of having to add shims under your footbeds to take up space or having to use a really thick sock.
Goddamn I need to ski....got a state architecture licensing exam on this wednesday...haven't skied any of the new freshies yet cause I been studyin, but I get to take my new Garmont Megarides on their maiden voyage at Rainier over the long weekend!
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most folks cook their liners just wearing a thin polypro liner sock...anything thicker and you risk over compressing the foam and having a really loose fit.
Marylou- if you had the initial fitting done at ProSki I bet they'd be fine with recooking your liners if you don't want to take a shot with the at-home method.
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I've cooked liners in my oven...its pretty straightforward but I suppose it is possible to screw up and have some bad wrinkles cooked into the liners. Big issues are to keep track of the cooking time and carefully get the liner into the boot and your foot into the boot without creasing any of the soft foam and baking in some wrinkles.
One thing I did was lay the liners on a wire rack (for cooling a cake) on top of a cookie sheet...this way the liner is resting on cool metal when it goes into the oven rather than the hot metal of your oven's rack...probably helps to prevent any scorching on the liners..
Here's the instruction straight from telemark-pyrenees:
Fitting Thermofit Liners
Our shop is fully equipped with Raichle ovens for customizing thermoflex liners. Please visit us so that we can fit the liners to your boots.
If you've bought liners by mail order, we hope that the following guide helps at-home fitting. These instructions are based upon a discussion on the www.telemarktips.com "Telemark Talk" forum. Thanks to Mitch, and all contributors, for the details. With a bit of care, it is easy to fit liners yourself at home.
The best way to heat up the liners is with an oven, not a hairdryer, which usually results in uneven heating for the liners. Thermofit liners can be moulded using a regular oven or a convection oven, the latter being better since the air and heat circulate faster resulting in more even heating. Make sure that the oven is large enough to accept the liners without them touching the side or the elements - the liners will swell with heating.
Heating. If using a regular oven it's important to preheat to 135-175° C (275-350° F) then slip the liners in and turn the temperature down 20° C (to minimize radiant scorching from the heating elements, if it's an electric.) In 6 -10 minutes they'll be pretty soft to the touch- if you smell stinkin' plastic then the liners are probably ready. Check 'em every minute after 5 min. so you don't toast 'em.
If you're using a convection oven, just set it at 135° C (275° F) and keep checking, not much worry about scorching the surface. It'll take about 10 minutes.
Fitting and Cooling. Slip the liners into the shells. A couple of piece of cardboard can be used as shoe-horns to make this easier and minimize manhandling the liner before it's set. Insert any orthotics or footbeds that you'll be using with them. Using only thin sock liners, (no thick socks or you'll be swimming in them) put your foot in and cinch the buckles just snug, not super tight. Stand in the boots and let them cool down. By the time your toes are completely roasted (12-15 min.) they should have cooled off enough.
Toe Room. It's important to have enough"wiggle room" for your toes. The Raichle ovens come with 'toe caps' of different sizes, but the toe part of a heavy hiking sock cut off just ahead of the metatarsals works equally well. Put the toe cap on your foot first, then the very thin sock on top to hold it in place. You can also increase space for the toes by putting a slice of medium density foam or something similar in between your big and second toes, to make a 3 mm gap between the two toes. This helps make just a bit more width inside the liner to prevent the small toes being pushed in sidewards once the liner has cooled.
Forward Lean. For better downhill control, lean on the cuff while the liners cool, or preferably stand upright, relaxed, in balance, with feet at shoulder width, with boots on a 10 or 15 degree upsloped ramp. This not only presets just a little ankle flex, it also makes double-sure that your foot is well back in the heel of the boot. It's important when fitting liners that the foot is back in the liner. If making a ramp is too much bother, make sure to knock the boot heel backwards against a sturdy object or wall right as soon as the buckles are closed, to get the foot back in the boot. If you're looking for maximum shim cushioning, stand straight.
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Here's some ski porn for ya...
A few minutes of the footage a buddy of mine shot while we were at the Fairy Meadows Hut in the Selkirks last March...
Its a 200 kbps .wmv file. It is in wm8 encoding, so it should be playable on Macs -- with Windows Media Player installed.
mms://media.wce.wwu.edu/video/test/fairies/oc2.wmv
Cut and paste the above URL in your browser for the streaming version (broadband). If you cannot stream this on your bandwidth, you should be able to download the file to play off your local computer (15 MB) by browsing the following URL, right-clicking on "oc2.wmv", and choosing to "save target as" to your hard disk.
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new boot this year- Four buckle AT boot-Dynafit compatible- G fit liner
Boots never used just bought a few days ago, liners cooked once but I've come to the conclusion that they are still too short for my feet, need to go up a shell size.
Retail for the boots $500+ will sell $400 obo.
email me at peter_alderson@hotmail.com
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For those who missed the program, I heard that its going to be on again on sunday nov 9th, don't know what time though.
good show...was a real kick to see video footage that was shot this past season. Did think some of the commentary was a little overly dramatic..refering to an accident by saying 'And the body count continues to rise' yet no one had died in any of the accidents.
That screwball that left his son at basecamp, couldn't believe it but I met him and his son before they flew to the mountain. Norm and I had just arrived back in Talkeetna and were getting our 'first meal' of bacon cheeseburgers and sat right next to those two....I had just assumed that they were climbing guided because of what little experience they had, guess not. Glad to know that the kid didn't get hurt.
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2001 model, some chips around edges of topsheets, bases in good condition, no coreshots. Skied approx 60 days over 1-1/2 seasons.
$200 buyer pays for shipping or might be willing to work out in-person delivery if you live near seattle/portland.
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Yeah, a GPS probably goes in the catagory of luxury items that you really don't have to have, but they sure come in handy when the weather craps out. I logged in waypoints on the way out of basecamp all the way up to 11,000ft camp and marked all the caches too. I was glad to have it on the ski back down the Kahiltna, we hit some ugly weather and there were times when I couldn't see a damn thing and could barely see the sled path
PS- my team put together a pretty decent excel spreadsheet with fuel calculation charts, gear lists, and meal planning sheets...I'd be happy to pass it along to anyone who wants a copy.
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I'd still take a look at a Dynafit setup before you opt for koflachs and silvrettas. I used Dynafit bindings and their TLT4 boot on my trip up Denali this past summer and I thought it was a great combo, pounds lighter than using silvretta bindings and I could still actually ski with the setup and not just snowplow down the hill. The only tradeoffs were that the TLT4 is a little heavier than a koflach boot (only by a couple ounces) and I had to buy the boots about a size larger than I'd usually buy ski boots to have enough room for foot swelling and extra socks.
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Knowing exactly what you want to use the boot for would help with the advice you'll get.
There is a some middle ground between the Scarpa Denali and a pair of plastic climbing boots....you might want to take a look at some of the lower cuffed Scarpa AT boots, they can be found for pretty cheap at sales and on ebay. Theres also the Dynafit boot and binding combo...bindings are considerably lighter than silvrettas and the MLT and TLT boots will hike better and are lighter than a pair of Scarapas and still ski better than a pair of Koflachs.
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You may also be able to find some boarding/skiing partners here:
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just my two cents from my own experience on Jeff...wait till the spring to do this one...I think Jeff has even worse rock than North Sister, the last time I was on Jeff was in '97...my climbing partner dislodged a car-size boulder which rolled down to the whitewater glacier, slid the length of the glacier, and exploded when it hit the moraine...nasty...
At least in the spring/early summer most of the rock around the pinnacle will be covered in snow.
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I went to the meeting last night and it was very informative. The park staff that was at the meeting definitely deserves praise for having these meetings to get the public's input.
I'd really recommend that anyone who has strong feelings about the future of guiding on Rainier send in written comments on the commercial services plan. The plan can be found here (I don't think the link in the previous thread works): http://www.nps.gov/mora/current/park_mgt.htm#CSP
I think it would be good if more independent climbers chimed in on the issues....there were a lot of folks at the meeting last night that were pro-guiding; owners of services, clients, and guides, and their comments seemed to outweigh those who felt that most independent climbers would probably prefer that there are non-commerical zones (like Liberty Ridge to name just one) and non-commercial days at high camps for the Kautz and Emmons (friday and saturday nights).
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Four out of the five past years (last year being the one exception) there's been enough new snow on the muir snowfield by mid-late October to cover up all the dirt and suncups. I don't want to jinx it but I bet that by late October the glaciated terrain up around Hadley Peak, the muir snowfield, and the lower glaciers on Baker will be smooth and white.
Its gonna take a couple good storms to fill in the cracks on the muir snowfield though...damn hot dry summer.
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Gotta say that my experience with G3 bindings have been good, used them for three seasons now on multiple pairs of skis and never broken a single part, although I have seen a broken G3 toe bar before on a friend's ski.
I've used G3 skins for two seasons, no real complaints by me, I definitely think that Ascensions have better grip and glide ( I have some Ascensions for my skinnier boards) but not by much...and my G3 skins are 90mm wide at the waist so with that much coverage even a crappy skin is going to climb like a 4x4. Regarding the glue, after one spring of touring my G3 skins were so covered in pine needles and grime that I cooked and scraped off all the original glue and replaced it with Ascension glue.
...At least the G3 binding doesn't consistently self destruct like Black Diamond's Pitbull, Skyhoy, and O2 binders... just my two cents.
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I've skied on K2 AK Launchers (180cm) with tele bindings for the past three seasons and I really like 'em. Next pair of boards will likely be some Atomic REX's though.
I have a pair of Dynafit Tourlite Carve Lite boards also 180cm, wider and a bit heavier than the Rally and even these boards get tossed around in junky snow, they are fun in powder and corn though and they are light, I think the Rallys really are only good for ultralight ski mountaineering races and perfect snow, otherwise you're in for a tough time IMHO.
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don't skimp on boots, boots are probably more important than the skis or bindings that you go with. Scarpa Lazers would be a good choice because you'd then have the option of using either Fritschi bindings or Dynafit bindings in the future. As a general rule, Scarpa boots fit a narrower foot, Garmonts fit a wider foot and just about all boots this season come with a thermo-moldable liner which is warmer, lighter, and more comfy than the old stock liners.
You'll probably be wanting to do some resort skiing just to get your downhill skiing skills some practice, depending on how much you weigh, you might want to think about the Fritschi Freeride binding, its built burly enough to supposedly handle the abuse of resort skiing. Personally I like the Dynafit binding system, but it may be a bit too user unfriendly for someone whos just learning to ski.
Look for some used alpine boards or some from last season, short and fat is generally a good way to go, I'd stay away from any skis with a waist narrower than 70mm, and a waist of 75 might be the best bet for an all-around set of skis.
Definitely get cheap poles, go to Goodwill and pick up a $2 pair. Might wanna think about picking up a helmet too, I've been ran down by out of control skiers several times at resorts.
Have fun!
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Silverton Mountain, Colorado got nailed by a storm on Tuesday...they're already skiing...arg...when is it gonna get just a little bit colder around here?
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cool. I kinda figured that RMI would snoop around and find something better...so there ya go, no need to set up a rope to walk across the chunk of snow that looks like swiss cheese.
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...Guess I should clarify my ramblings.
Attitude explained what I was trying to say (thanks!), thats basically the strategy I've used before when on a glacier alone, its time consuming but for a safety freak like me it seems like a good way to go.
On the DC route right now crossing the schrund is the maybe the only spot where one might want to think about roping up to an anchored rope if travelling solo (just my opinion). The uphill side of the crevasse is significantly higher than the downhill side, you have to step on the snowbridge, then take a couple steep steps up to get past the schrund...piece of cake...but the snowbridge already has several holes punched in it where it has failed on some unlucky climbers. If you only wanted to protect the schrund you could put in an anchor on the downhill side and go across the schrund tied in using a prussik to your rope, then just leave your rope tied to the uphill side so you can use it on the way down. You can leave your rope there as-is to use when you are on your way down because you are past the final crevasse hazard and don't need to carry your pickets or rope with you beyond this point. You wouldn't need to carry an entire rope, 30' would be enough to cross it.
Please feel free to disagree with me or tell me I'm smoking crack...this setup has worked well for me on other trips. Just trying to give some advice to someone who was thinking about heading up there solo.
...Its also possible that if/when the snowbridge on the scrund fails, that RMI will scout out another route which may be easier.
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...maybe....but this was kind of my one weekend break in between studying for my state architecture licensing exams...
Last week's secret bivy
in Climber's Board
Posted
the piedra grande hut at 14,000ft on Orizaba