New gear

It is hard not to get caught up in the gram counting, whether it be through the suspect manufacturer's weight ratings compared on skintrack.com , or the even more obsessive compulsive postage scale weighing and confirmation of every component.

My Elan Everest setup is LIGHT. 800gram skis, 175 gram bindings, and the 1100gram versatile TLT 5 boot. But I'm spending all of this time and money training for Europe, might as well splurge on some lighter gear with the side effect of having a backup setup for when something breaks.

New Dynafit Low-techs. Beautiful machining and elegant design

New Dynafit DyNA world cup skis. The design seems to have changed incrementally over the past couple of years.  Fatter up front (a la Trab) than the Elans, as well as being lighter, I'm just itching to get these out to see how they perform.

Dynafit PDG boots. The 2nd tier race boot from Dynafit, only 100g heavier than the DyNA, which is double the price.  Significantly lighter than my current all round touring boot, the TLT5. 

So overall, I'm estimating about 400gram weight savings per foot.

A big thank-you to Jeff Colvin for organizing the group buy, and to Dynafit for giving us Canucks such a great deal. I can hardly wait to get this setup mounted and to run up some hills.

Switching Gears

The Pass is now closed, and with it goes road access to 2200m. It was a great early season but now I must look for other places to ski. I tried to make the most of the last week of it being open, well at least until the winds had taken their toll.

Squeezing the last bit of radness into the day...and the season.

And just like that, the gate went down. After the Vert180, The Canadian Skimountaineering Team had their training camp planned at the Asulkan Cabin near Rogers Pass. Setting out with big, heavy packs (okay, maybe that was just mine), we made our way up to the treeline where the cabin was situated.

It was fun to catch up with the other team members: Stano, Brad, Carla, Steve, and Reiner. The wind howled hard during the nights, and it snowed the whole time, forcing us to skiing powder laps in the tree triangle below the hut. Hard life. I set my all time vertical record on the second day, then broke it again on the third day. We lapped the hell out of the slope, but it kept getting refilled. I had my birthday up there, and even brought up a flask of Royal Reserve to commemorate the occassion.

We skied out on the 4th day, after enjoying a couple of laps of the most volatile blower powder yet that week with snow regularly hitting the face(still not as deep as Field last year :P ). Amazing couple of days with good people, good food, and good times. I really enjoyed the cozy cabin. Thanks to the ACC for hooking us up with the cabin, and to Dynafit got hooking us up with inexpensive, light gear!

Manaslu Performance team. Light but stiff boots (TLT5's) and light but wide skis (Manaslus) were the key to maximum powder enjoyment.

"Why do they call it a Sidekick? They should call it a front kick"

Birthday...pudding. The cake is a lie.

"I guess I'm not in Kananaskis anymore".

Vert 180 or Hurt 180?

3rd year for this wonderful event that brings the ski mountaineering competition to the masses. There was a great turnout of people ready to challenge themselves to see how fast they could go, or how much they could climb. I had a great time being encouraged/encouranging skiers as I passed them/they passed me.

Without the bootpack section, the race was a straight up drag race then a straightline descent

With the great early season that we have been having out here, I have been able to get out a lot and even get up high with some bootpacking thrown in there. I was feeling strong, and while I think that my change-overs needed a little bit of work, I was happy with my performance, finishing 4th overall. Every year, this race seems less difficult, maybe I am pacing better, though I went really hard on lap 1. 2nd place slipped out of my grasp, so I have something to work on.

Marg was out there moving fast.  MT teamed up with Ryan sending some fast lap times, and MT pushing himself, feeling good the whole time.

A big shout out to the organizers and the sponsors for doing such a good job to help expand the reach of the sport!

and I uploaded my activity to STRAVA cycling, and created a couple of segments:

http://app.strava.com/activities/30592321#