Backcountry ski touring news.
Here in Colorado, this past summer and fall have been dry as the Sahara. A drought as severe as any I remember — yet perhaps short-lived. Last night we got nearly a foot of powder in our yard, and our record sized wildfires received a dosing any ski resort would brag on for days. The Troublesome inferno got nearly two feet in some areas! You’d think dumpage like that would douse the flames. Apparently not, though I’m hearing the cold temps (ten below zero here this morning) and precip will greatly facilitate containment. I wish we could send some of that California’s direction.
As for my own myopic view of matters, a snow dump like this gets me as excited for ski touring as ever. A bout of web browsing stoked the fire. Some of the more compelling things I ran across:
Probably the biggest ski touring news here in the Centennial state is the authorities charging two backcountry snowboarders with reckless endangerment, for triggering an avalanche that buried a road. I’m not keen on these guys being singled out, as they self reported the incident as responsible backcountry users. On the other hand, we might all think about the times we’ve skied avy slopes above open roads, and how that might not be the most caring — nor wise — activity at other than during the most stable times. More here.
Skimo will be big this season. Yeah, I’ve said that before. And I’m always right. It just keeps growing, like the new scraggly grey-haired kitten my wife brought home the other day. His name is Koko, he likes to play get-that-mouse, otherwise known as kitty soccer. Whoops, I digress.
Question is, what influence will the pandemic have on the skimo race scene? I checked out the NE racing website. They have a nice roster of 2020/21 comps, along with what appears to be a comprehensive rules supplement specific to Covid. I’m not an epidemiolgist, but as many of you have I’ve studied Covid until my eyes spun, and my guess is if the general public followed a set of precautionary measures such as NE Rando’s, our tedious pandemic would end overnight. I can dream, can’t I?
Hey, if you ski tour, you probably drive to your tours. I’m loving the latest compact SUVs. We’re not car shopping at the moment, but doing so is on the horizon. This article got me thinking… We’re partial to the Nissan Rogue after using a previous model loaner for a while last year. Apparently it can be had with all-wheel-drive without dunning you for leather seats, “They have a cross stitch pattern!” Though I’d suspect the dealers will play the, “We have to order that, you got four months?” game. Those three of you out there who shop for something other than a Subi, let us know.
For a meager $3,660 you too can know everything there is to know about the ski touring bindings business. Let us know if you bite. This is the same company that brought us the ever incredible study of the parking brake cable market. Geek take: I don’t know what these guys are doing for search engine optimization — they must have some geniuses at the helm — as about a million listings of their report teaser are dominating GoogSearch. Yet another illustration of how Google might be god, but only with a small G.
If you’ve ever alpine skied in the Alps, you know that beer sloshing butt-to-shoulder crowded apres’ ski confabs are part of the fun. Same for ski touring, to one degree or another. I think every cold I’ve ever caught in Europe has been from attending one of those, and perhaps even the time I got the flu. It’s no surprise those types of carnivals won’t be part of Austrian skiing this winter, at least not publicly. More here.
Has it ever occurred to you how weird our sport can be regarding risk? I mean, how many other sports involve smiling fun with friends and loved ones, combined with conversations on how to cheat death? Not all ski touring has to be that way, of course, and we’re getting more and more ways to make 100% safe days happen. Uphilling resorts, skiing hippy pow, you name it. But in my view the designated backcountry skiing resort might be the most viable way to have fun doing human powered skiing, while not devoting your conversations to words such as: “This one felt pretty good, let’s move over to that next couloir, I’ll ski cut it, let’s set up a rope belay, and Jim, you brought that first aid kit with the airways, didn’t you?”
Need gear? It’s going fast. I suggest not procrastinating key items you need to make the coming winter safe and fun. More info here.
If you made it this far in my diatribe, perhaps you’re a ski touring noob looking for ideas. In that regard, I’m throwing in the towel on my efforts to encourage North Americans to ski tour anywhere overseas but the mountains near Chamonix (once Covid is gone). Just go there — sigh. The fried potatoes are expensive, but the high Alps are beautiful and the French do know how to build a salad. A somewhat commercialized but useful take.
Lastly, there is much optimism about how viable human powered skiing will continue to be in times of Covid. I liked this take from ISP0. And here is something from our friends up north.
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Just saw this today: https://www.friflyt.no/skiutstyr/pieps-avviser-kritkken
Never buy the first year of a new generation, there will always be bugs. Two years ago, I did a lot or research and many test drives. Ruled out the RAV4 because it was new that year. Ruled out Subaru and Honda because the CVT transmissions just aren’t enjoyable to drive. Nissan didn’t impress. Ended up with a Mazda CX-5 (no turbo) and still lovin’ it.
We leased a new 2017 Subaru Forester, with the CVT transmission. At first I thought the CVT trany sounded a bit loud. But it worked really well, and the Forester is a great winter car (with 4 Blizzak snow tires) . Good clearance for deep snow, drives like a go cart.
These CVTs must have had some problems, as Subaru sent us a letter later, extending the warranty on the CVT to 100,000 miles. Car was very reliable to the end of the lease.
“I’m not an epidemiologist, but as many of you have I’ve studied Covid until my eyes spun, and my guess is if the general public followed a set of precautionary measures such as NE Rando’s, our tedious pandemic would end overnight.”
Somewhat more technically, it would end in a fortnight, since two weeks seems to be the max infectiousness period for transmission. So if we were all really careful for two weeks, this whole thing would indeed be over (as the zoonotic jump appears to have been a one-shot deal). But since we continue to have enough people who continue to be insufficiently careful…
Fortunately our MA venues should be good, as I drafted the state guidelines for skiing competitions (skimo is structured as just a variation on nordic), and the higher-up review process is proceeding well.
But for our venues in VT, 56% of the entire population now live in counties that do not meet the VT requirements for quarantine-free travel to VT. That would be 56% of the entire population of … Vermont. So if Vermont applied its own standard to itself, the majority of Vermont residents could not travel to … themselves? Across NH, MA, RI, CT, and NY, only a few counties in NY are in the Green, representing less than one percent of the total population of those five states. Furthermore, the revised VT sports regs that came out this week are rather lax overall except in their focus on prohibiting out-of-state athletes.
For all you residents of those geographically large Western states, you’d get even more of a chuckle out of the add’l and ever-changing retaliatory travel restrictions among our other postage stamp-sized states. The only consistency is that everyone dumps on poor little Rhode Island, although some appropriate karma there, as RI kicked it off early in the pandemic with a restriction against NY license plates that must have had the founding fathers screaming out from their graves against the unreasonable search and seizure of King George. (I would have thought someone in RI state gov’t had a copy handy of the U.S. Constitution?)
In case you’re wondering what VT ski resorts (and other tourist attractions this summer and fall) are doing about these restrictions, the answer is of course exactly nothing. The only enforcement mechanism is that overnight lodging establishments have to incorporate a checkbox in their online reservations for the following statement: “I certify that I have reviewed the State of Vermont out-of-state traveler guidelines and travel map and comply with current health and safety requirements for traveling to, from, and within the State of Vermont.” (Longer version is required for state park visits.) Poor Jay Peak in Northern VT though will be deserted, since about half their business is from Canada, and their border restriction is for real.
Well the ski area you mentioned in Northern Vermont doesn’t have any information on their ticket/pass purchase pages about State quarantine regs for out-of-state visitors. Which is pretty irresponsible IMHO. So out of State skiers can just show up, ski for a day and never be any wiser; they won’t even know they violated the quarantine regulations.
Vermonters, who travel out of State are also required to quarantine for 14 days on their return to VT. Or quarantine for 7 days, then take a PCR Covid test. If they are negative , their quarantine ends.
Upon reviewing that resort’s website, the letter from September is rather vague on that, but let’s see what they come up with in the next round of operational updates, given that the September letter did have all sorts of preliminary caveats. The day ticket purchase page though doesn’t seem to work? Agreed that the season pass purchase page doesn’t seem to have any references at all to travel restrictions, even when I proceed to the checkout screen. But the lodging reservation page has it (although of course that’s a state requirement).
However, every VT ski resort I’ve seen is pretty much “nudge nudge wink wink” in references to the VT travel restrictions. If I’m missing one, I’d like to see it. (But don’t post a specific url here, as that often gets a comment hung up in automated moderation.)
And yes, I’m aware of the restrictions for Vermonters who travel out-of-state to Yellow or Red counties. However, by Vermont’s own criteria, the majority of Vermont’s population should not be allowed to engage in quarantine-free travel to … Vermont.
“In that regard, I’m throwing in the towel on my efforts to encourage North Americans to ski tour anywhere overseas but the mountains near Chamonix (once Covid is gone).” – Heh, that’s the *only* place I’ve ever ski toured in Europe! Although we had a free place to stay there for our honeymoon. (Followed by a more traditional honeymoon stay in Paris.)
Firstly the car. Any of those four are good quality and will last. The Nissan is known as an Xtrail here in Australia and they’re renowned for durability. A mate has one and he followed me in my Nissan Navara 4×4 all over Moreton Island (sand island, beach, hills, ruttered tracks) no worries. Ground clearance was his only issue on the odd occasion but provided he drove smart no problemo.
Oops forgot about the Covid skiing. In the past Australian season, our touring gear sales went crazy. I distribute Contour Skins among other things and I could have sold double / triple what stock I had.
So if you know any ski retailers who specialise in touring gear. Get ’em to stock up.
We had resort closures, some resorts never even opened and every man and his dog wanted to start touring. Many retailers cancelled their orders prior to the season fearing the worst, others took a gamble and in some instances it paid off. Unfortunately in some areas where they’re 100% reliant on the local ski hill for annual income and they took their stock, they will go to the wall because the local hill didn’t open.
I don’t see the same urgency to protect the people in the US, so I would imagine you’ll have ski resorts full of Covid infected people. In Australia for those resorts who were able to open did reasonably well, considering the challenges.
looking like Colorado has a pretty dry next few weeks…
I’m all in when choosing a suitable SUV. I look for reliability, cargo space, comfort, and of course AWD.
During the Covid months, I did lots of on-line research. I focussed on Toyota RAV4 and Highlander, Honda CRV and Element, and the Lexus RX series. All deemed mid-sized.
Then I shopped, looking for a middle-aged candidate in good condition. In July, I bought a 2004 Lexus RX 330.
I’m confident it will take care of my snow driving and road-trips, for the next 10 years. Fortunately, two previous owners covered off 90% of the car’s depreciation and kept the car in good condition. With one exception (our city car Leaf), I’ve purchased famously reliable cars when they’re 10-15 years young and driven them for another 10 years.
During 50+ years of driving, I’ve saved a lot of money by driving reliable old-ish vehicles. A bit of Voluntary Simplicity.
Next year will be another competitive game in ski touring. October 2020 is not the time for this race.