Pictures From the Skintrack

[Wendy]

We got some 40cm fresh snow 2 days ago, so yesterday, I finally went for some ski touring in snow that didn't look like 50 degree ice ring. Snow started with some rain, so bonding to old pack was pretty good, so I could actually have fun on some steep stuff in 50cm of pretty good powder. But after 3 climbs and 4 hours out there yesterday, it was time to get back on classic xc skis today. It was super slow snow, and being dead tired from yesterday didn't help either, but it was simply too beautiful not to go.

View attachment 154227

And when you started to go slower and feeling more and more tired, you get some extra motivation
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There's pack of 6 or 7 wolves there, and you can almost daily see rests of their meals (fur, bones and blood of killed deers) on track. Well their footprints are pretty scarry big, so I was rested and fast right away after that

That’s a gorgeous track. I need new classic XC skis.

 

[Wendy]

Not really a “skin track” but quiet and wonderful nonetheless.
For fun we tried Black Diamond Trekkers, a pseudo-ski with skins on the kick zone. Nice glide for what they were. Did quite a bit of bushwhacking with them off trail and for that they were great.

 

[Primoz]

We finally decided that it's time for first tour and climb of this season, to one of most famous coloirs in Slovenia, and of course that also means the most popular one. It's nothing really hard or extreme with it's 500 height meters and 45 degrees, which makes it also "goal of ski touring career" for many people, who should still rather stick with slightly less demanding lines. And as conditions were suppose to be good, there was really lot of people expected, and to avoid all sort of possible ski "experts" who tumble down uncontrollably, we decided to start a bit earlier. And we were lucky enough to avoid real crowd. Waking up at 5am or even earlier is painful for me, but with 7km approach, there was no other chance.

It's photos from skiing down already, so bottom part is full of little dots (half of Slovenia and a bit less of southern Austria, decided it's time to try their luck)

Once you get close to coloir, it gets to steep to stay on skis, so last 500 height meters needs to be done on foot.

About half way through coloir, with valley below, on which beginning we started today's trip.

After almost 3h in shadow we finally made it up to the sun. About 100 more meters and we were on top.

Conditions today were so good, that top part to coloir entrance you could actually make proper GS turns at 50+km/h, even if this is actually steepest part of the whole coloir at almost 50 degrees
Terrain around here is awesome, but 7km approach, and then another 7km on pretty flat terrain back to car is too much for my taste, so most of less fun lines in mountains around this valley end are normally off my list. But this coloir, even if nothing really demanding is worth this trip when conditions are like this, as it's super fun to ski a bit steeper stuff super fast And what's more important, I finally got confidence back in my new bindings, that had few super weird releases on first ride.

 

[Noodler]

@Primoz - you just continue to impress... keep 'em coming...

 

[Wendy]

@Primoz - you just continue to impress... keep 'em coming...

@Primoz Yes I was going to say, these could be magazine shots. Stunning.

 

[4ster]

@Primoz , big day!!! Nicely done

 

[Daniel]

@Slim Our XC outing today got derailed by a check engine light, but I did capture this today in a location you’re familiar with!
View attachment 154174

That's the north pier lighthouse jutting out into Lake Superior and, combined with the south pier, forms the entrance to Duluth Harbor. It looks like the photographer is on or in very close proximity to the Lakewalk Trail, with the aerial lift bridge behind and to the right. Have sailed in and out of Duluth Harbor as a crew member aboard large ships dozens and dozens of times and at all times of year, including the three-year period when the U.S. and Canadian governments jointly heavily subsidized year-round navigation on the Great Lakes. The local fleets of icebreakers were supplemented by those the U.S. government brought in from Alaska and Antarctica and the Canadian government brought in from the Arctic. This fiasco cost the taxpayers of the two nations a fortune and was discontinued.

Very surprised to see this image on Ski Talk!

 

[Doug Briggs]

@Primoz, do you have a spare room to let?

 

[Primoz]

@Doug Briggs you wouldn't believe it but yes We have apartment that we rent, and at the moment it's empty so welcome

 

[Wendy]

That's the north pier lighthouse jutting out into Lake Superior and, combined with the south pier, forms the entrance to Duluth Harbor. It looks like the photographer is on or in very close proximity to the Lakewalk Trail, with the aerial lift bridge behind and to the right. Have sailed in and out of Duluth Harbor as a crew member aboard large ships dozens and dozens of times and at all times of year, including the three-year period when the U.S. and Canadian governments jointly heavily subsidized year-round navigation on the Great Lakes. The local fleets of icebreakers were supplemented by those the U.S. government brought in from Alaska and Antarctica and the Canadian government brought in from the Arctic. This fiasco cost the taxpayers of the two nations a fortune and was discontinued.

Very surprised to see this image on Ski Talk!

We were visiting Duluth. Yep, that was me taking the photo by the lake walk. Your sailing history isi super interesting. I’m interested in the maritime history of the Great Lakes.

 

[Nobody]

We finally decided that it's time for first tour and climb of this season, to one of most famous coloirs in Slovenia, and of course that also means the most popular one. It's nothing really hard or extreme with it's 500 height meters and 45 degrees, which makes it also "goal of ski touring career" for many people, who should still rather stick with slightly less demanding lines. And as conditions were suppose to be good, there was really lot of people expected, and to avoid all sort of possible ski "experts" who tumble down uncontrollably, we decided to start a bit earlier. And we were lucky enough to avoid real crowd. Waking up at 5am or even earlier is painful for me, but with 7km approach, there was no other chance.

View attachment 155252
It's photos from skiing down already, so bottom part is full of little dots (half of Slovenia and a bit less of southern Austria, decided it's time to try their luck)

View attachment 155253
Once you get close to coloir, it gets to steep to stay on skis, so last 500 height meters needs to be done on foot.

View attachment 155254
About half way through coloir, with valley below, on which beginning we started today's trip.

View attachment 155255

After almost 3h in shadow we finally made it up to the sun. About 100 more meters and we were on top.

View attachment 155256

View attachment 155257
Conditions today were so good, that top part to coloir entrance you could actually make proper GS turns at 50+km/h, even if this is actually steepest part of the whole coloir at almost 50 degrees
Terrain around here is awesome, but 7km approach, and then another 7km on pretty flat terrain back to car is too much for my taste, so most of less fun lines in mountains around this valley end are normally off my list. But this coloir, even if nothing really demanding is worth this trip when conditions are like this, as it's super fun to ski a bit steeper stuff super fast And what's more important, I finally got confidence back in my new bindings, that had few super weird releases on first ride.

Which type and make of bindings, out of curiosity?

 

[4ster]

Inspired by @Primoz l thought I would be adventurous today & go for a ski tour. I wasn’t expecting much for quality snow but hoped I may find the sun facing slopes corning up or some supportable wind slab or whatever, it couldn’t be all bad ?

Pluses:
Easy parking
A picture perfect weather day
Nice temperatures
No wind
Clear skies
Groomed XC trail for the initial approach
A well used & constructed skin track
Low avalanche danger
Not crowded

Minuses:
Ice crust
Wind crust
Sun crust
Frozen crust
Rain crust
Zipper crust
Breakable crust
It was a crust fest!

Photo dump…

The groomed approach. Little did I know that it would be some of the best skiing on my way out.

Short break as l got above the valley

Willard Peak. I’ve been eyeing the line on the right for almost 20 years. Glad I didn’t go there today.

Lunch break under Ben Lomond Peak

On some of the upper slopes the sun had melted the crust enough for a few pitches of decent turns

I got a little low on the final good pitch and had to skin back up to avoid getting cliffed out or bushwhacking down lower. The rest of the way back down was some of the worst backcountry crust conditions I have ever encountered.

Glad to make it back to the car in one piece. Brings to mind the saying “ whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”!

Parting shot.
The X marks my high point. There was no point in going any higher as it looked even worse!

it took me an hour to get back to the car, much longer than I anticipated but I wanted to survive. Ended up taking the Luge style skin track for the bottom third.

EDIT: I forgot to mention rime crust

 

[Primoz]

Which type and make of bindings, out of curiosity?

ATK Freerider 14. It was mounted and set the way it should be according to manufacturer (it's my first ATK binding though). I also know with pin bindings DIN is not really DIN, but I would still think it's sort of consistent. Well I don't know, maybe it was bad luck, or maybe manufacturer's manual and values are not how it should really be set, but on first run, I got two not so pleasant releases on pretty easy terrain. It was a bit icy yes, and it was a bit bumpy, and yes, I had some 60km/h at time of release, and sure, current "spring, ice and steep skis" are way more of a ski, then old ones (with Rossi version of Dynafit Speed Turn 2) were, which means I can push them harder, but still. Two releases in single easy run? And it was first run on this bindings (and skis) so not all that much of a confidence booster. So next 6 or 7 tours, I was going really easy ones, where I could afford to lose ski and crash, and stay away from some steep coloirs where losing ski wouldn't be all too wise (locking toes wouldn't make much difference, as both releases were on heel).
After those first releases (and before second try), I got some insider information (from friend sponsored by ATK who got this info from ATK guys), how to really set bindings. So instead of what I though should be enough for my skiing on touring skis, I have my bindings now set to almost my GS skis DIN values (13 instead of 11), and heel gap is set to 1mm instead of in manual suggested 4.5mm. After this change it seems like it's working ok, and I didn't have single release yet, even though I was skiing faster, harder and skis got way more hits from all directions then on first run, where I had problems. So hopefully it will stay this way, as skiing with that in mind, when you think every single turn if ski is still there or gone, is not too nice.

 

[Primoz]

@4ster just a question... was there any crust? Looks like we have similar conditions everywhere on world at the moment. At least some sort of crust and no powder.

 

[pais alto]

Full moon skinning last night.

Kind of amazing what iPhone cameras can do now.

 

[chris_the_wrench]

Terrain around here is awesome, but 7km approach, and then another 7km on pretty flat terrain back to car is too much for my taste,

Very jealous of you if 7km is a 'long' approach. We've got some amazing BC terrain here in Montana, but 'most' of the approaches are mega long(most is accessed with snow machine).

Curious how ya'll manage skiing that coloir with all that traffic without skiers running over the ascenders? Looks pretty tight and is the entrance blind or good visibility through the whole shoot?

 

[Primoz]

@chris_the_wrench well keep in mind, my whole country is a bit more then 250km across longest side (I know I know it's ridiculous as it's probably smaller then LA with suburb or two, and definitely less people then just downtown of one of your slightly bigger cities), so 7km is huge distance for us. It's so long we can talk about full percentage of country size.
Otherwise it's not really all that narrow. Most narrow part is about 3 or 4m, but everything else is 5+m so it goes fine if you are there earlier. We were, but honestly I don't know how it was for all those hoards of people coming up when we were under the wall already, as there it would really be everyone over each other with all the snow going down etc.. Entrance is a bit blind on beginning, and in my case it was empty, but I stayed a bit more on skier's left, as "path" for up was made on skiers right, so if I would need too I would just point skis straight down for first few meters to get by someone possibly going up in that top narrow part. For rest of coloir you just ski a bit more on left side so that all the sluff is not going all over those climbing up on your right side.

 

[SBrown]

 

[SBrown]

^^ no gnar, but no crust, either! (although by now it probably is, that was a few days ago)

 

[Wendy]

^^ no gnar, but no crust, either! (although by now it probably is, that was a few days ago)

Is that Ollie?