The Ahlers

Well, my prediction didn't come through -- I did go skiing over last weekend. And what skiing it was...

All of the other usual suspects (a.k.a. the Stew Crew) were busy or otherwise committed, but my skins finally became arrived down at Feathered Friends, and I was dying to give them a try. (FF was the only shop in town with the Black Diamond Ascension Nylon STS 110mm -- other people had other sizes, but nobody had the 110s.) I made the final call to go to the cabin late Friday afternoon, after realizing it'd be a heck of a week at work and I really needed to get out of town for awhile. I raced home after work (if you can call leaving work at 7 pm *racing* home) and trimmed my skins. I was surprised to not find much information about the cutting of the skins process on the TGR Forums. Sure, plenty of info about *which* size to get for what skis, but nothing I could find about cutting them once you've made the purchase decision. No matter, I found plenty of resources elsewhere online. I put myself under some amount of time pressure, because I wanted to get up to the cabin to do some stuff I wanted to get done Friday night before going to bed. Anyway, I ended up following the instructions and took some notes while doing it.

Skipping the rest of the boring details (unlike above), Dawn, John, and I decided to hike Mt. Herman Saturday. We chatted the night before and decided to leave Snowline around 10 am with the thought that we wouldn't want to be coming down until at least 12 - 1 pm (to give the snow enough time to soften up to make riding enjoyable).

Lesson #1: yes, skiers with skins really *are* that much faster when compared to snowboarders on snowshoes on the flats. We left the parking lot at roughly the same time, but because I knew I'd be way faster through the first section on skis than they would be on snowshoes, I actually skied down to chair 1, rode it to the top, took a leisurely trip down Austin and Blueberry to Grandma's House where I ducked the ski area boundary rope and skied down to the main hiking trail to the south side of Herman. Even with all of that, I still beat them by 10-15 minutes -- more than enough time to put my skins on, make some clothing adjustments, eat some food, etc. They showed up, and we continued hiking slowly up hill but mostly contouring Herman up the valley. Then we hit the base of the slope we were to ascend.

Lesson #2: yes, skiers with skins really *are* faster when compared to snowboarders on snowshoes going uphill. Well, maybe not faster, but I'm pretty sure it's less effort overall. :) Dawn had problems with her snowshoes, so that explains why she was a bit slower. I was continually amazed at how I was able to ascend straight up some pretty steep slopes, and even when it got too steep, traversing and switch-backing wasn't hard at all. John and I arrived at what we considered to be the top of Herman about 2 hours after leaving the parking lot. (Turns out that the top of Herman is shaped somewhat like a horseshoe, and we were on one end of the horseshoe; there were other parts of the horseshoe that were *definitely* higher than we were.) Checking Topozone.com later, we reached about 5680 feet, 1410 feet above the 4270-foot parking lot.

The top was really nice. A couple of really bit flat areas, some really interesting trees, incredible views, etc. The craziest part was that it was probably 50 degrees, and just the tiniest bit of breeze up there -- warm enough for lightweight shirts and wind breakers. John and I ate some lunch in a little saddle between a couple of the high points on this end of the horseshoe and waited for Dawn to show up. After awhile, I peeked over the edge and realized she had gotten stuck trying to get up the last steep pitch. John and I rode down to her, we finished eating, and then we all saddled up (yes, continuing with the horse imagery :) and headed back down the route we came up. I hadn't ever been anywhere else on Herman, so I was most comfortable with the terrain we had just ascended.

Lesson #3: AT skier vs. snowboarders on snowshoes on the hike out -- unanimous decision to AT skier. Since we descended where we did, John and Dawn had a pretty long hike out, again contouring (but slightly downhill this time) around Herman. I was actually able to ski, pole, and skate all the way to the last hill to get back to the parking lot. And I hiked up it, walked over to the run to take me to chair 1, rode back up to the top, and skied down Pan Face and back out to the car. John and Dawn said they had only been there about 5 minutes. :)

Labels: Backcountry skiing, Mt. Baker, Skiing

I'm mainly taking notes for myself to help remember how I did it this time for next time I have to do it...

Black Diamond PDF guide to cutting skins
Black Diamond video for trimming skins (click Tech Video, then find the video link on the page that comes up)
Black Diamond tech tips for skins (click Tech Tips)

My Volkl Gotama 190s are 133-105-124 (2006-2007 dimensions), so I ended up getting the Black Diamond Ascension STS skins in 110mm.

First, I laid them out on the floor next to the base-side up skis. I thought I was going to have a problem with the brakes being down the whole time (like you have problems tuning skis with brakes down), but that ended up not mattering at all. I also was lucky that my skis balanced well on the bindings -- I've had bindings before where the ski would just tip over when placed upside down like that.

Second, I fiddled around with the skins a bit, trying to leave the paper on them as long as possible. The skins kept falling off the skis, even when I removed a small amount of paper by the tail (to try to get them to stick to the skis a bit), so I ended up removing the paper entirely. In hindsight, I suppose I probably could have left the paper on longer, but it ended up not making a difference.

Third, I attached the STS clip to the rubber rat tail (in the fourth spot from the end of the skin, I believe, just like the instructions said). It took me a minute to figure out how the STS clip went through the rat tail and attached to the ski, but it became obvious after playing around with it.

Fourth, I stretched the skin out, centered on the ski, from the tail to the tip (which is exactly opposite how you do it when you use the skins in the real world). Once that's done, you put the tip loop for the skins over the tips of the skis and jam it down to where it'll rest once the skins are attached. You'll want to get it as straight across the ski as possible. The tip loop is asymmetrical so at first it's not obvious which flat side goes up and which goes down, but again once you play around a bit, it becomes obvious (longer flat side against the base of the ski for most skis, I'm told). Take a Sharpie and mark across the skin right where that tip loop falls on the skin. This will be your fold line.

Fifth, take the provided paper tip cutting diagram and cut it to the proper size for your skin width and ski tip loop width. Then lay it down on top of the skin, fold mark on the stencil lining up with the line you marked on the skin where the tip loop will be. Then take that same Sharpie and trace the outline of the stencil on your skin.

Sixth, finally comes the actual cutting. Before any trimming takes place, I recommend doing this over newspapers or out in the garage or something. (Don't do it in the middle of the living room on the carpet like I did.) I found it easiest to cut the extra length off first. It's probably not a big deal to get it exactly right -- if it's too long, it just gets folded over more. (Too short -- that could be a problem...) Then I carefully cut the rest of the stenciled outline on my skins. Since I'm right handed, cutting what ends up being the left side of the skin (if you're looking at the skis and skins with the bases up and tips up) was definitely easiest. I also tried to cut a little outside the line, figuring that I could always trim more away later, but I could never undo too much trimming. I used regular scissors, but next time I might try a sharp utility knife or something on a cutting board.

Once I was happy with the trimming around the tip of the ski, it's obvious what to do next -- put the tip loop back on the ski, fold the skin over right on the fold line, then attach the skins at the tail to see how they look. Look Ma, new skins!

Since my skins were 110mm and my skis' waist is 105mm, I didn't actually end up trimming the sidecuts yet. They worked okay for my first two skinning trips, but I didn't get much glide out of them. I presume that'll get better once I trim them so the edges are showing plus a tiny bit of base on both sides. I might post later about how that goes...

Labels: Skiing

Okay, it's been awhile. I know that, you know that. Whatever. Things get busy, ya know?

So what's happened? Here's my recollection (and I'm sure I'll forget something).

Christmas: Melissa and I spent it in lovely Oregon with my parents. Pictures are from a family get together in Salem. Great to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins and cousins' kids (who I've just learned are my first cousins, once removed -- thanks wikipedia!).

Emily's birthday party: Tons of fun. Great to meet everyone I've been hearing about for oh so long. What a fantastic group of people. Really. I can't say enough positive things about all of them. Thoroughly entertaining the entire evening.





Skiing: Three days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, all up at Baker. Dec. 28, 29, and 30. Dec. 28 was epic hiking out of bounds, and lots of deep, good mostly fresh snow. Wish I had had my new skis back then... :)








New Year's: Back in Seattle. Went out on Andy's new boat (okay, not so new anymore) to watch the fireworks shoot off the Space Needle, then brunch the next day at Peggy and Doug's.

Skiing: A bunch of us went up to Baker on Thursday, Jan. 4. Friday the 5th was the best ski day I've ever had. Tons of really nice, light new snow, and I happened to be on my new skis. Woo hoo! :) I also skied Saturday then left Saturday night so I could get home in time to leave the next morning for...

CES: Yes, I finally got to attend. Long hours in the booth and on the show floor, but it was a lot of fun too. Funny though, for everything you hear about all the parties and craziness at CES, all things considered, it was a pretty mellow week in Vegas.

Skiing: Jan 13-14. Saturday was fun, and we had a good crowd up there. Not much new snow though. On Sunday, for various reasons, I was the only one who wanted to go skiing, so I went to the mountain by myself and took a ton of pictures. It was cold and sunny, and I had a great time. It made me remember some of the biggest reasons I love to ski -- mainly the opportunity to be outdoors, getting some exercise, fresh air, and taking in the incredible winter scenery.

Skiing: Jan 20-21. On Saturday, they had quite a bit of new snow, so we hiked into chair 5 and were the 4th chair up the mountain. Jay and I wrote like crazy all day (e.g. we had 6 runs before 10 am), and I think we ended up getting nearly 25 runs in. Whew. Sunday wasn't as good, but we still had a fun time hunting for the leftover freshies.

That's about all I can think of. This weekend will be the first time I haven't gone skiing over a weekend in over a month. I'm having withdrawals just thinking about it :)

Picture links are all above, but you can get to all of them via Smugmug.

Labels: Skiing, Vacation