The annual SIA Snow Show is wrapping up today, a quick blur of a weekend full of fancy new gear, networking, strategerizing, and more gear. Today’s post is just the three most noteworthy stops for me – Pieps, Dynafit, and Hestra. I’ll have another post tomorrow with lots more. My first stop was at Pieps, to check out their new GPS beacon, the Vector. Continue reading
Skiing
A weekend in Crested Butte
Lauren and I took a long weekend to go see friends Frank and Brittany in Crested Butte. We got an early start, leaving Denver at the crack of 9:30 and made it to Monarch ready to ski at 12:30. We didn’t check the snow report, but there was some fresh; combined with the winds, it skied rather well.
A windy pow day at Loveland
The three-day skikend came to a close today (though I’m certainly tempted to ski tomorrow) with an incredibly windy day at Loveland. The Basin (where all the good terrain is) was closed first thing due to winds (reports of 99mph winds on the pass came in), and the whole crew came down and skied chair 3 for a few laps before Charles’ intuition told him that 1 was spinning. We hopped on the shuttle and, sure enough, it was. The skiing was fast-paced and high-energy today, despite the brutal winds. At points in the day, our group was huge.
Another day at Berthoud
The three-day skikend continues! I made it back up to Berthoud Pass with Gary, YC, Cody, and Lauren. Today’s plan was a hair more aggressive than yesterday’s – heading from the top of the pass down to First Creek. Not a huge day by any means, but a very solid tour crossing three drainages. We started with the standard skin up the west side of the pass.
It was about 10 degrees warmer than forecasted, and the winds were gentler than expected – nothing to complain about. Continue reading
A few quick shots from Berthoud Pass
I finally made it up to Berthoud Pass today, and took a couple mellow-ish laps in Floral Park – laps that had a lot more down than up. The snow was decent, but nothing to write home about. Some photos, starting with the skin up:
We stopped and dug around, finding pretty cohesiveless snow. Continue reading
A Great 2″ Day at Loveland
It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve made it to Loveland. The hustle and bustle of the holidays, some mild illnesses, and an arctic blast with highs around 0F kept me at home for a couple weeks. Besides, I always need a mid-season break before I start hitting it hard again. Yesterday was a great ski day, and Loveland’s snow report was, as usual, deceptively low. After a quick warmup, we hit some trees as training before we go back to Panic Attack Trees in a week or two. Continue reading
Skiing Mt. Yale
I’d been wanting to get out for a while. 18 ski days for the season before the end of December, and only 3 of them backcountry – and all on the hut trip. When I saw a vague photo from a condition report on 14ers.com that made it look like Yale went from the top, I started planning. The east face would no doubt have better snow, but from scaling a topo I immediately called it a no-go due to steepness. I decided to take my chances on the standard route up Denny Creek. Hans was going to come along, but couldn’t make it; fortunately, a sizable group from 14ers.com was going the same day. Continue reading
Eiseman Hut WAGS Trip – Part 2
This is part 2 to yesterday’s part 1. We decided to do another lap (how could we not?), and things just kept getting better.
The snow couldn’t possibly have been better. Continue reading
Eiseman Hut WAGS Trip – Part 1
Let me start by saying that this is one of the best trips to the mountains I’ve ever had. Outstanding times with friends, beautiful scenery, amazing snow, great photos, and countless stories to tell. I organized this trip in August, after a few of us decided that last April’s trip was too much fun to not do again – only this time, it was to be a WAGS (wives and girlfriends) trip.
We got an early start on Friday, heading out from the Spraddle Creek trailhead about 8am with big, heavy packs on our backs.
Quiver Dilemma
I’ve talked to a few friends about this, but time is getting to be of the essence and so I’m going ahead and casting a wide net and turning to you. I’ve got some skis that I don’t know which bindings I should mount them with, and need help. Here’s the list:
- 179 Public Enemy with alpine bindings (rock skis, this setup isn’t changing)
- 175 Black Diamond Kilowatt with Dynafits (ski mountaineering, this isn’t changing without a good argument)
- 186 Rossignol SC97, unmounted but getting alpine bindings
- 186 ON3P Billy Goat, mounted with Dynafits but will need a remount
- 186 Rossignol S3, don’t actually have these yet but should in a few days
What would you do, and why? Nothing is out of the question, including buying/selling things.
Through Polarized Eyes 
