Day 31.
Nope. I couldn't have been more wrong. The flouro-infused hot wax I used was rated for +15F to -5F, the coldest that I could find at 7:30pm last night, and by the time the lifts started loading the temperature was -13F at the base and -16F at the top. I'd imagine that the snow temperature was even lower. Those skis stuck like glue. It was like skiing with climbing skins on, except that even on gentle downhills I'd come to a grinding halt. On flats or traverses, forget about it. My scrawny upper body got a real workout.
This was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong. At the bottom of Collins Face I pointed 'em straight downhill and relaxed, like I always do. Too relaxed, in fact, to respond to catching an outside edge, and before I knew it I was sliding on my back at 30 mph straight toward a large red pine. I slid into the tree well and came to a stop no more than 6" from the sizable trunk. I didn't realize that the tree was even there until I stopped sliding, and that's probably a good thing or I would've needed a change of underwear. Telejon was behind me, and he got a real scare as he saw me disappear in a cloud of snow and once that dissipated, the next thing he saw was me laying on the ground up against the tree. I'm sure that I gave those riding Wildcat quite a show.
As I began the hike to High Notch on the next run my right ski kept popping off, undoubtedly frustrating those stuck behind me. I eventually concluded that it was due to a buildup of ice in the tech fittings on the boots, so I sideslipped on one ski back down to the Germania Pass patrol building and headed inside to borrow an awl to clean them out as the others went on ahead. I went back outside to step back into my skis and the mechanism that controls the ski/walk mode on my left boot dropped right off the boot and onto the snow. I stared at it, perplexed for a few moments before tossing the loose apparatus into an open pocket.
It took me so long to start sidestepping up to High Notch again that the others concluded that I wasn't coming. I saw them 50 yards or so ahead of me but I couldn't catch them until we reached Susie's Trees, and I got to ski a full length Backside with one boot in ski mode and the other in permanent walk mode. At the end I got to walk out for an eighth of a mile where I'd usually glide out with gravity.
Yeah, it was that kind of day.
On the plus side, I was fourth out the Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder traverse when it opened today for the first time since the start of the 16" storm, but the slow untracked snow was incredibly tricky to ski. A visitor from Colorado overheard my whining at the bottom of the run and yelled over that we're spoiled in Utah. OK, that's true, I'll give him that. He thought that the run was great, so I figure that he's used to Breckenridge temperatures or something. After two exhausting trips of literally walking out the traverse for untracked (the first at the Harold's ropeline, the second adjacent to Bad News) I was sufficiently dissuaded from joining the others for a third trip out the traverse to Harold's and skied a Main Street groomer instead.
Despite the temperatures I managed to stay comfortably warm, at least once I added chemical heaters to both toes and fingers. In fact, the High Notch hike left me literally sweaty. However, I just wasn't feeling the love and opted to quit at noon, go get my boot fixed (thanks Mike Triolli at Motherlode!) and head home. The Seattle/Atlanta game on TV right now is infinitely more interesting to me than the skiing was this morning.
No pictures today -- it was too damned cold to take any.
Admin":30w8yp9x said:
Nope. I couldn't have been more wrong. The flouro-infused hot wax I used was rated for +15F to -5F, the coldest that I could find at 7:30pm last night, and by the time the lifts started loading the temperature was -13F at the base and -16F at the top. I'd imagine that the snow temperature was even lower. Those skis stuck like glue. It was like skiing with climbing skins on, except that even on gentle downhills I'd come to a grinding halt. On flats or traverses, forget about it. My scrawny upper body got a real workout.
This was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong. At the bottom of Collins Face I pointed 'em straight downhill and relaxed, like I always do. Too relaxed, in fact, to respond to catching an outside edge, and before I knew it I was sliding on my back at 30 mph straight toward a large red pine. I slid into the tree well and came to a stop no more than 6" from the sizable trunk. I didn't realize that the tree was even there until I stopped sliding, and that's probably a good thing or I would've needed a change of underwear. Telejon was behind me, and he got a real scare as he saw me disappear in a cloud of snow and once that dissipated, the next thing he saw was me laying on the ground up against the tree. I'm sure that I gave those riding Wildcat quite a show.
As I began the hike to High Notch on the next run my right ski kept popping off, undoubtedly frustrating those stuck behind me. I eventually concluded that it was due to a buildup of ice in the tech fittings on the boots, so I sideslipped on one ski back down to the Germania Pass patrol building and headed inside to borrow an awl to clean them out as the others went on ahead. I went back outside to step back into my skis and the mechanism that controls the ski/walk mode on my left boot dropped right off the boot and onto the snow. I stared at it, perplexed for a few moments before tossing the loose apparatus into an open pocket.
It took me so long to start sidestepping up to High Notch again that the others concluded that I wasn't coming. I saw them 50 yards or so ahead of me but I couldn't catch them until we reached Susie's Trees, and I got to ski a full length Backside with one boot in ski mode and the other in permanent walk mode. At the end I got to walk out for an eighth of a mile where I'd usually glide out with gravity.
Yeah, it was that kind of day.
On the plus side, I was fourth out the Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder traverse when it opened today for the first time since the start of the 16" storm, but the slow untracked snow was incredibly tricky to ski. A visitor from Colorado overheard my whining at the bottom of the run and yelled over that we're spoiled in Utah. OK, that's true, I'll give him that. He thought that the run was great, so I figure that he's used to Breckenridge temperatures or something. After two exhausting trips of literally walking out the traverse for untracked (the first at the Harold's ropeline, the second adjacent to Bad News) I was sufficiently dissuaded from joining the others for a third trip out the traverse to Harold's and skied a Main Street groomer instead.
Despite the temperatures I managed to stay comfortably warm, at least once I added chemical heaters to both toes and fingers. In fact, the High Notch hike left me literally sweaty. However, I just wasn't feeling the love and opted to quit at noon, go get my boot fixed (thanks Mike Triolli at Motherlode!) and head home. The Seattle/Atlanta game on TV right now is infinitely more interesting to me than the skiing was this morning.
No pictures today -- it was too damned cold to take any.
