This past weekend I was fortunate to head out with Crested Butte Mountain Guides for my AAIRE Level 1 class. This was a great refresher for me as my previous classes and reading had put me in a fairly knowledgeable position. The in class sessions truly reminded me of why I do what I do and why I want to hike these mountains.
Field sessions gave me a lot of knowledge and refresher while at the same time allowing me to tune in my gear and double check everything. The days basically went as follows for the field:
Field Day 1: Upon arriving at the trail head, we prepped all of our gear and headed up the road to some small hills in order to work on our companion rescues and fine tuning beacon searches. I could not believe how rusty I had gotten in such a short amount of time. This was one of the most important refreshers I had received. After this refresher, we went on a small tour, maybe about another hour or so out to work on field observations and hasty evaluations. It was the trip back that I was able to see how much I loved the new Atomic Tracker bindings over the Dukes. Being able to strip and put on skins without removing the skis was an amazing feeling and an amazing time saver. After maybe 3.5 hours in the field we headed back to the cars and finished up in the class room for a lot more learning.
Field Day 2: Due to an amazing storm that had come through with roughly another 13" of fresh blower (more in some spots), we re-evaluated our days plan. Being early season and with a pretty bad facet layer on the bottom, we were restricted in safe travel areas. The final decision was to head over to Washington Gulch and tour around the Glades south of Coney's. This tour was an eye opener for me as I had found that my ski/binding set up was pretty cumbersome for this winter's mission. Reaching the top of initial zone for digging pits, my legs were burning pretty bad. This has to change. During our pit digging, I paired up with a girl who had never been in the back country and was obviously not only weary of the conditions, but eager to learn more. In the pit, she would ask questions and want to pick my brain as much as possible. We had a Depth Hoar base which was about 8" thick with the 13-18" blower/storm slab on top of it. The snow pack was so unstable that as soon as a shovel was inserted for the Tilt Test, the Depth Hoar collapsed and was quickly followed by the new storm snow.
Following the pit digging and a quick break for lunch, we had a discussion of the rest of the days plans. Everybody was eager to climb higher with the exception of the girl who was in my pit and myself. After seeing 1. how weak the snow-pack was at this point 2. Feeling that there was no base what so ever and knowing that the conditions would get no better the higher we went, I stated that I saw no benefit in climbing further as I not only didn't see the snow-pack adjusting with further elevation gain, nor had a desire to destroy my skis on an already hollow base. It was here where my pit-partner, one of the guides Ross, and I decided to turn back and head down while the rest of the group climbed higher.
On our descent, my legs felt as though they were not only jello, but as though they had never been in powder before. I was falling through the snow and was able to surf in a few spots. The sub-layers of the snow were so weak, that I even pulled out a core shot, which, fortunate that I work in a ski shop, fixed today with one of the best base-welds that I have seen in a long time.
All in all, this was an amazing weekend and I am looking forward to this season coming up. I will be changing around my quiver again due to the whole weight issue as I feel my touring rig, while an amazing set up for some slack country, heli or snow cat laps, or even just short tours, is not going to be the ideal rig for this winter.
That being said, I am currently looking at several different options for the trips and will be going with a much lighter set up (probably narrower as well.)
As far as the boot set up goes, I really could not ask for much more. The First Degree ST2 boots, while slightly heavier than ideal, gave a downhill performance that I would only expect out of a race boot while having an uphill performance that I would expect out of an AT boot.
The poles that I was using, the Sick Stickz Hunter T collapsible, were amazing. Light, sturdy, and quickly adjustable, were exactly what I was looking for in them and would recommend anybody who is considering a new pair, to give them a shot, disappointment is not even an option with these.
As far as outerwear goes, I can never say enough about my FlyLow gear. On the skin track up my Baker Bibbs and Clyde softshell hoodie kept my body at about the perfect temp the whole way. With the bibs only vented to about the mid-thigh and in the inner leg, the lack of snow in my crotch was amazing. At the dig site, I quickly changed to my BA Puffy and closed all vents. With my Tough Guy Gloves and Oven Mitts alternating hand responsibilities, fingers stayed warm... nuff said there. On our descent, a quick change to the King Hoodie (discontinued but still available via the website), and I was ready to go. My favorite function of the day was my bib pocket where I was able to fit 2 PB&J's and .25lbs of GORP...... delicious.
All this being said, I am in search of a light yet burly ski for the touring this winter. If you have any recommendations, I am open to any input. I am currently leaning towards Ski Grace. Any further beta that people want to shoot me or if you would like to put me in contact with people, I would appreciate it.
JS
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