THE BACKCOUNTRY YEARS ...

Almost finished with this delightful and entertaining collection of essays. He certainly can turn a phrase and deliver one-liners. A few examples enclosed below:

- Body Fascists: These guys/gals are fresh off a rando racing season and often sport boots that weigh less than the sandwhich in my pack.

- I'd much rather have two hundred turns on a thirty-degree slope, than fifty butt puckering turns at forty-five degrees.

- I live at 9,700 feet above sea level. Summers up here are as short as Paris Hilton's reading list.

- In talking about the perils of flu season during the ski season BIFF had this to say ... I'm currently taking echinacea, goldenseal, yellow dock root, skullcap flowers, and fo-ti root. They all seem to help, as long as I wash them down with Crown Royal and NyQuil.

Spectacular day skinning up Cannon Mountain

Halfway to Colby College to see my daughter's nordic races, I stopped to stretch my legs with some uphilling with my good buddy Dick. The PDG demo skis were a true delight skiing uphill ... great traction with the Dynafit skins and the lightweight was greatly appreciated. They skied better than expected for a narrow, 161cm ski on the way down.

Sunny, temperatures in the 20s, and spectacular views of the Franconia Range.

Thinking of expanding my ski mo quiver

I love my Mustah Ata (right) set up. It works pretty well on both piste and off piste, and is lighter than many other ski mountaineering set ups. Moreover, my TLT5 boots work quite well for ice climbing.

However, if there is rolling terrain on the approach to your peak or ice climb (say skiing into the Cilley-Barber route on Katahdin), they feel quite heavy, and your full length skins are certainly overkill. Or, if you happen to want to dabble in some rando races, that setup is not going to be competitive. Or, if you top out on the North Face of Tour Ronde in Chamonix, you wouldn't want to carry the Mustaha Ata skis up the route, just so you could ski the Vallée Blanche when you are done.

Thanks to Brian at High Peaks Cyclery I am spending the next few days skiing possible solutions. Both the Voile (middle ski) and the Dynafit PDG (left) are lighter than the Mustah Ata skis, the PDG setup being quite a bit lighter. So, maybe you do carry the PDG skis up the Tour Ronde or closer to home, the Trap Dike so you can enjoy a classic ski out. The Voile skis are fatter and will do better in powder or a day on the piste. However, the Voile skis have fish scales, and so the rolling terrain does not require the full skin, you keep those in your pack until after you reach Marcy Dam, and are heading for the summit. I am told you will also be thankful for those fish scales on the long stretches of rolling terrain on the Grand Traverse race from Crested Butte to Aspen.

I will let you know how my various test drives go.

January 28 ... 67th day on snow

Did a couple of laps to the pass on the north side of Pitchoff. The ice looked nice and fat, but despite moderate temperatures nobody climbing.

UVM College Carnival ...

The carnival was combined with the high level domestic Super Tour series, and an Eastern junior National qualifier.  Functionally what this means, is that most of the best racers in America (not currently racing in Europe) were out at Craftsbury for classic sprints on Friday and an interval start distance skate on Saturday. 

Lucy had two excellent races, just missing the heats on Friday by half a second. Although given the expanded national caliber field (several Olympians) many strong collegians did not make the quarterfinals. For instance, Lucy who finished 31st edged out Middlebury's Sophia Laukli ( Saturday's winner) in the sprint. 

On Saturday's 5k skate,  Lucy was in the top 15, and was 11 seconds closer to the winner than the previous week.  Keeping our fingers crossed, but Lucy is still on track to make the 16 women Eastern squad that will compete in the NCAA Championships in March.  Another interesting note, is that the SLU women finished fourth overall today ... and their season goal is to make it on to the podium this year ...for the first time ever?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK ... from the backcountry years

Quite humorous. Quite irreverent. Quite relevant. Quite inexpensive. 

BIFF (aka Jeffrey Bergeron) is self effacing, and has a seemingly never ending supply of interesting buddies, like Slick, his lawyer friend.  "Slick is a hot tele skier.  But raising three kids and running a law office has left him with little time to get out, and he's been skiing on Tuas and Superloops -  both cared for as well as Lindsay Lohan's liver."

Speaking of which, I am heading out to ski the Whiteface Toll Road on the same setup. 

Is mountain running bleeding into mountaineering?

Interesting article from ROCK AND ICE.

https://rockandice.com/features/speed-will-the-future-of-alpinism-belong-to-runners/?fbclid=IwAR1J8FryQnkLEdoQVNhp1Tz28dDMVpuuayiyoK60s063hkbkbp28p-6vEF8&cn-reloaded=1

Twilight Ski Tour

I spent the morning volunteering to help out with a high school nordic race. As always, I went out skiing on the Olympic Trails late in the day with my dog, knowing that any paw prints get groomed out tomorrow morning. It was a wonderful day ... bright, clear, and cold ... a fantastic day to ski.

First college carnival races

I was up skiing and cheering for my daughter at Craftsbury Vermont. The Harvard college carnival races were relocated because of insufficient snow. Conditions at Craftsbury were awesome, and I had a blast skiing for 2.5 days.

Lucy had two good races, but not quite meeting her high expectations. On Friday she skied a 5k skate race, and grabbed NCAA points for 14th place. It was an interval start so she rarely saw anyone on the twisty course; but the results show racers were tightly bunched, and Lucy was just four seconds off a top ten. Yesterday, she skied a 15k mass start classic race and finished in the top twenty, getting NCAA points for 18th. It was perhaps her best classic race ever.

The return of winter

Yahoo. We had six inches of new snow when I took Stash out for an hour long tour at 7 am. Several hours later when I left for Craftsbury, we had another couple of inches. When I was skiing late in the afternoon at Craftsbury it was snowing really hard. Tonight the temperatures will drop well below zero.

I will be snug, sleeping in the back of the Hockmobile. And tomorrow is the first college carnival race of the 2020 season. GO LUCY!

Heading to Zermatt ...

College buddies looking to revisit a winter spent in Saas Fe 45 years ago, talked me into it.  They are going over to lift ski, while I am spending the week touring, uphilling, and doing an occasional off piste (safe) solo adventure. Can I skin up and over the pass to Cervinia, to meet my buddies for lunch, and then drag my 67 year old body up and over again to Zermatt. 

Booking tickets today, and while I am quite fit, next week I will add a weekly double dose of Dawn Patrol skinning up Whiteface. 

Skiing dust on crust again ...

This winter has vacillated between good snow conditions and deep thaws. For probably the third or fourth time, I am back to skiing on a half inch of snow on top of glare ice. It's fast; it's skiing; it's almost fun; but you have to stay off steep downhills.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: from Mountains Of The Mind

Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed, and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms, and order of existence. Mountains correct this amnesia.

50th day on snow this season

Well, like today, not all those days have been glorious!

The picture below says it all, as the Hockmobile was the only car in the nordic center parking lot. Despite the rain, high temps, mud, puddles, and ice, I managed a reasonable 50 minute workout, which was predominantly double poling.

Unfortunately, I will have to take my dog for a run later today.

Shoulder pain, climbing, and what to do about it

I am greatly in need of this article and these exercises.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2407208/shoulder-pain-exercises-rotator-cuff-injury

David Hochschartner (Hock)

Mount Van Hoevenberg a great nordic center with some unusual signage

Rapidly rising temperatures and a drizzle, dampened the spirits a bit yesterday, but the skiing was terrific. (FYI ... no explosive charges set off on the big construction projects for the 2023 World University Games.)

Are you the CEO and want to train for a demanding expedition or ski Mountaineering trip?

Thankfully, I am no longer in that category, as I retired last summer. So, I am now able to optimize workouts, recovery, nutrition, family, friends, and a demanding mountain trip. However, I remember what it was like having a high stress, highly mobile, high volume worklife, and career.  This looks like just the sort of plan I (or you) needed; nice essay on the Uphill Athlete website.

https://www.uphillathlete.com/training-for-the-corporate-athlete/

Steck ... A Mountaineer’s Life

A bit pricey, but a very engaging book. He had so many adventures over his climbing life, and today, probably most climbers know of the Steck-Salathe route.  However, his story of the Hummingbird Ridge on Logan is priceless, and the picture of Camp II on the cornice is mind boggling, not to mention the "Shovel Traverse" which followed it. To be honest, as an old guy on Medicare, I wish he had spent more time telling stories of the annual "Golden Gathering" in Joshua Tree. 

The calm before the storm

It is just a touch below zero, and will warm rapidly to 15 degrees on this sunny day. However, a front moves in around midnight, with winds over 60 mph. Following that we have temperatures rising dramatically, substantial rain for over 24 hours, and then mixed precipitation on Sunday.

Yuck!

Interesting European ski touring survey

Well worth a look at the Wild Snow website ...

https://www.wildsnow.com/27407/skialper-magazine-2020-buyer-guide-reader-survey/

BLAST FROM THE PAST ... silvretta ski traverse

https://vimeo.com/383085788

New snow and great skiing

Whiteface Toll Road ski tour

A couple more humorous Semi-rad charts and graphs ...

There are quite a few gifts - posters, mugs, and T-shirts - that I see on his website shop that will make great presents for some of my Fossil buddies.

The Hockmobile ... for adventures in retirement

As the calendar year drew to an end, early in the new year the Hockmobile will be finished and fully kitted out. The bed frame (converts into a couch), the Thule, the storage bins, the stove, lantern, and cooler are all in place. The foam mattress just arrived, and will be covered with fabric shortly. Last up, are some shelves that Selden will build. 

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Mountain Memories

Everyone in the world probably knows this, but it seems that my iPhone just puts videos together automatically from my photo collection ... Skiing, climbing, hiking, and enjoying the, Green Mountains, the Alps, the Adirondacks, with family, friends, and NCS students. 

https://vimeo.com/382333438

Paul Preuss ... the alex honnold of the early 20th century

I am about to order a copy of the first biography written in English, Paul Preuss: Lord Of The Abyss. He was a seminal figure in climbing and ski mountaineering during the first two decades of the last century. This collection of essays was influential in laying the groundwork for the modern clean climbing ethic, the translation is available at the link below.

https://issuu.com/randisi/docs/mauerhakenstreit_complete_illustrated