As I mentioned previously, these boots show up on many a challenging hard tour. The enclosed picture of the Waterfall Pitch on the Trap Dike was taken Monday.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Dynafit TLT 5 ... Skiing the Trap Dike
As I mentioned previously, these boots show up on many a challenging hard tour. The enclosed picture of the Waterfall Pitch on the Trap Dike was taken Monday.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Dynafit TLT Boot review
After a week of use, I am a true believer!
Last year before I headed to the Alps, Jan in the Mountaineer told me that these were killer boots. (He had two stipulations, first could you get a good fit, and second could you afford the $1,400 price tag.) Well, when I was in Chamonix I started noticing that a bunch of the hard-core types were outfitted with these white and red boots. Then on my return home last Spring, I started to see all sorts of trip reports on various blogs, where guys were climbing big north faces in these boots. Then Dane came out with a two part rave review in Cold Thistle ... my desire was unbounded.
Fast forward to this winter, and Dynafit has expanded the line, to include a white and yellow "performance" ($1000) model, and a green and white "mountain" ($750) model. The latter is a tiny bit heavier but the sticker price was still a deal breaker. So, I started trolling eBay and various discount suppliers and final nailed one at $450.
Last Saturday I did a two hour ski tour, Monday I ice climbed with them, Tuesday I did a bit of rock climbing in them, and this afternoon I spent three hours riding the lifts at Whiteface. They are superb.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
I Hurt Therefore I Am
In a take-off on Rene Descartes' famous line, Matt demonstrates his existence by elevating his pain level during and after our 2.5 hour fast paced ski on the Olympic trails.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Last day of ice climbing this winter
Matt made a short visit to the 'dacks to start his training for Peru. We did an afternoon of laps on P-right, which was rotten and sun baked. We kept the belay uphill in case the entire column fell down. (My new dynafit AT boots worked superbly for this moderate ice climbing.) Tuesday we spent the morning in the sugarbush and then 150 minutes (1400') of Nordic skiing. Wednesday morning we did some easy rock climbing on Owl's Head with our double boots.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Adirondack Paintball Race
I spent the morning classic skiing at Dewey Mountain while Lucy was racing ... She hit 14 of 15 targets and skied quite well ... The thaw is on and the good snow conditions will not last long.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Chamonix Trip Report
It continues to be a great season in the Alps, and clearly this was the winter to be over there, and nt stuck here in the Northeast. Oh well, next year will include a winter excursion to the Alps. CLICK HERE TO READ A SMAPLE TRIP REPORT FROM THE PAST MONTH.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
A Nordic racers worst nightmare
Shortly after the start of the semi-final sprint in the Drammen World Cup race, kikkan Randall had a binding break. Needless to say, after she got a quick ski change, she was not able to catch the lead pack, and advance to the finals ... However her 11th finish yielded enough points for her to clinch the 2012 World Cup Sprint Title ... Congratulations Kikkan and way to go USST.
Massive thaw in the north country
Temperatures today hit the mid-fifties and they will stay there tomorrow too. Great for sugaring but not great for the Lake Placid Loppet which was cancelled. However, there is full coverage on the Porter Mountain Loop, and as you can see -from my new app- I had a slow, waxless ski yesterday. Still, skiing in a T-shirt on a sunny day wasn't too shabby.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
What you can learn at the start of a ski rando race
This picture was taken at the start of the 2012 Vail Winter Teva Games. There are at least four key things that a ski mountaineer can learn from this picture, and its depiction of the randonee race scene. (Click on the image to enlarge the photograph.)
1. The white/red boots are Dynafit DyNA which weigh in at under two pounds each and are super stiff. That means you save 3.5 pounds compared to the Black Diamond Prime boots.
2. Notice that nobody uses fritschi style bindings, but instead use the much lighter tech bindings, as in Dynafit low tech rave bindings; weight savings are another couple of pounds, that you do not have to carry up the hill when you are skinning.
3. If you look closely they all have Nordic racing poles, and a pair of "smallish" classical aluminum Nordic racing poles cuts another half pound off the weight you are carrying.
4. Look closely and see the bungee cord sticking off the tip of the ski, cut a notch and bungee cord your skins so you can remove them without taking your skins off ... On a all day tour it probably saves 20-30 minutes.
Finally, I have not even gotten around to mentioning the occasional green (CAMP) helmet that you see which weighs in at 7 ounces, the lightweight rando racing skis that weigh in under 5 pounds per pair, and then there is the super lightweight soft goods (my 3 ounce windbreaker, or my 11 ounce) pack ... THE POINT IS, IF YOU WERE GOING TO DO A REALLY LONG BIKE TOUR OR A MULTI-DAY CLIMB WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO TRIM TEN POUNDS OFF THE LOAD YOU WERE CARRYING?
Monday, March 5, 2012
Wet Snow Slab Avalanche
While in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest the avalanches have been due to underlying layers of depth hoar, in Europe the intense warm, sunny weather has released a spate of wet snow avalanches. Watch this video of a deep slow moving avalanche that crossed , and demolished a series of lift towers.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Ski Track-GPS Recorder ... Fantastic iPhone app
I read about this amazing free iPhone app, and tried it out today on one of my laps on the Ladies 5K course. Seemingly very accurate, as it logged the distance as 4.9k, it was almost spot on for the total accumulated climbing, the altimeter correctly logged the high and low points of the course, and the graphs are awesome. For a bean counting, fossil geek, this is the cat's meow.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sunset Ski Tour
Hock and Lucy with skins and ski mo gear doing the 3k, 300' loop around our ski hill ... Great for practice laps and training.
Blast from the past ... was he the greatest alpinist ever?
A must watch video, Werner Herzog's documentary about Messner and his traverse of Gasherbrum I & II. This was from back in the day, when he was nailing the fourteen 8,000 meter peaks, and doing fast, light, solo ascents everywhere.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Stellar dendrites, snow physics, and avalanche dynamics
Lucy has just finished up her 8the grade earth science unit on the mechanics of snow. This course taught by Larry is equivalent to a Level 1 or 2 avalanche course. Along with significant reading and lectures, there is much practical work analyzing snow pits, and running search patterns with beacons. The culminating project is a research presentation on a significant avalanche event, reviewing everything from meteorological history to neglected warning signs and human error. Lucy's presentation was on the Hatch Peak avalanche in the Talkeetna range during March 2011. She took this picture while observing snowflakes through her microscope.
Dawn Patrol
I took out the ski mountaineering gear to get first tracks on our ski hill ... Conditions were perfect as it snowed all night. Later in the day I managed another hour of skiing while Lucy was racing at the Dewey Mountain Nordic Center.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Yahoo it's snowing!
It snowed most of the day, so after work I spent an hour skiing laps up and down our ski hill. Tomorrow we have another 6-10 inches expected.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Pitchoff Right
Gary was up to do some work on his cabin, so I left work earlier, and we did laps for a couple of hours ... No wind, warm, and soft plastic ice ... a great little outing. Oh, and I test drove the used tools - first generation quarks - that I just bought, and they are awesome.
Skiing in Kashmir ... Unusual coincidence
Last night I just finished reading a early 1950s murder mystery/spy thriller. Many of you may know M.M. Kaye and her delightful novel Far Pavilions. I have always been interested in novels about climbing and skiing, or novels set in mountain towns and regions. Moreover, the Gulmarg region has always been a place I have wanted to climb and trek in. Hours after I put the "whom-done-it" down, I came across this short video about the burgeoning ski culture and business in Gulmarg.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Hard winter route on Ben Nevis
State of the art mixed climbing on the Ben.
Don't Die Of Ignorance, Ben Nevis, Greg Boswell on the second ascent from James Dunn Visuals on Vimeo.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Avalanche Air Bags
Given that these are the worst avalanche conditions in the Rockies in over 30 years, there has been a significant amount of journalism devoted to the subject. The enclosed diagrams are from a recent article in the Denver Post. (CLICK TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.)
Saturday, February 18, 2012
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