Inspiration - Plake Interview and Salomon movie

Take the time to listen to this great interview with Glen Plake, one of my 'ski heroes' - great job from the guys at Powder!



I am also looking forward to seeing the full version of this:



Meanwhile, if you are in the UK in November I will be giving a couple of talks on this spring's Baffin Island trip, at the British Ski Mountaineering Symposium at Plas y Brenin on Sat 12th, and also in the Lake District on Weds 16th Nov - see the flyer below:

New bindings, old bindings

In the midst of all the hype surrounding the latest binding releases, this piece from Fritz Barthel (inventor of the Dynafit binding) over on Wildsnow is well worth a read!

Courchevel off piste conditions

A quick update on off piste conditions in Courchevel.

In a nutshell - "good, but rapidly getting heavy"

Yesterday we had 30/40cm of light fresh powder all over, but even by lunchtime sunny slopes were feeling the heat of the sun.
Today the foehn wind has gradually been picking up, with 5ºC at 1800m at lunchtime. North facing slopes are still fantastic, but anything that has seen some sun is heavier, with some aspects developing a light crust. The humidification of the snowpack will doubtless continue through the afternoon as well...

The Equinox face was in great shape today (so good I skied it twice) and hardly a soul had been into Les Avals, though it is worth now finding the shady slopes for the best skiing.

Reports also in of the Breche Portetta being skied in good conditions yesterday, with both entries in good shape...

Half term mayhem in Courchevel? Not really...

Touring boots - review of Dynafit Titan

A review of my current touring kit has been promised for some time so here is part 1 (finally!):

I have been skiing on Dynafit's Titan boot for nearly 3 seasons now and have used them for everything from cruising off the lifts through single & multi-day ski touring to reasonably full-on ski mountaineering involving 'proper' climbing (Swiss route on North face of Les Courtes and the like).

While not being the lightest boot (nearly 2Kg per foot) what you lose in extra weight to carry you certainly gain in skiing performance - the performance is not far off that of a '120 flex' alpine boot (although there can be big differences between these!).

The Titan is a 4 buckle design with an overlap shell - great for performance, not so great for getting your feet in after a cold night's bivvy... The boot has 2 cuff angles in downhill mode - 15 and 21º for the tech-heads out there and a walk mode. I have been using a 28.0 shell paired with a Palau hard thermo-formed inner boot and this review is based on approximately 250 days use.

Skiing:   As stated above these boots ski really well for a touring boot, I have been driving some pretty beefy skis - Dynafit Mythic Riders (not big but definitely beefy), Volkl Mantras and Volkl Gotamas. With smooth progressive forward flex, and tight lateral response the Titans can handle a big ski comfortably and give good support even in those 'out of shape' moments.

Dave Searle putting his Titans to good use - Cunningham Couloir on the West face of the Aiguille du Midi:

Skinning/Climbing:  OK, you definitely know you have nearly 2 Kg on each foot, but that is part of the performance/weight trade off and easily mitigated by simply getting fitter... The walk mode is OK, but doesn't give a great rearward angle (compared to a dedicated touring boot) so stride length is slightly restricted (though of course this only really matters on gentler skins - I don't know anyone who takes really long strides forward skinning on middle or top risers...). Climbing-wise these boots are fine on ice up to about grade 3, and OK for easy rock scrambling/climbing but for anything more technical they are definitely heavy and unwieldy

Boot soles have held up fine:

(the soles are interchangeable with DIN-compatible 'flat' soles, though I have never bothered with this).

Some minor negatives: as of this winter the cuff has started to 'buckle' on the outside in the region of the top 2 buckles - not a huge problem but definitely noticeable if you really try to crank the boots up tight.

From new I had to grind down the front edge of the cuff where it meets the moulded stop on the clog - this was preventing the boot from going into the 21º lean mode without some pretty fierce shell manipulation.

The ski/walk mode lock also seems to be wearing out on one boot at least - I have had found myself back in walk mode on one side for no apparent reason

In summary a great boot for skiing hard on big & beefy touring set-ups. It may well be superseded by the next generation of boots (Vulcan etc) offering similar skiing performance with a big weight saving - only time will tell!

Review of Dynafit TLT5 P boot to follow shortly...

*Note  -  I am not sponsored by any brand in particular so this review has no commercial bias - all I am looking for is kit that does what I want it to do... *

Cunningham Couloir & Glacier Rond

With a break in the weather finally due for today the alarm was set for 'early'o'clock' for the drive over to Chamonix. I met Ross & Dave at the Midi in time for first bin, with a lot of the usual suspects also out & about...

First up for the day was the Cunningham or Passerelle couloir which starts, as the name suggests, directly from the bridge linking the 2 halves of the Midi top station with a couple of long abseils to hit skiable snow.



Nice backdrop while waiting for Ross to ab down...



Dave high in the couloir - was the snow good? Oh yes..



Oooooh yes...



Ross gets stuck in:



There is a bit of angle in here!





A good few turns left before we join the crowds on the Glacier Rond:



Cunningham couloir viewed from the top of the Rond exit couloir:



The Rond exit couloir was in great condition despite a fair number of previous passages - more good powder turns on the way down:




We got back around to the mid station at 1130 and headed back up for more - with a cloud layer moving up the mountain slightly we opted to play it safe with a lap of the Glacier Rond - the entry to this is getting quite scraped off now - best have sharp edges if you are heading in there in the next day or two!

Kyrgyzstan part 1

So I have finally caught up with the European time zone despite being back at work in the 3 Valleys approximately 28 hours after landing from the long trip home....

Having spent 2 years listening to Will telling me how great Kyrgyzstan was I finally got a team together to go & have a look. We flew into Bishkek where a minibus was waiting to transfer us straight to Karakol, on the South East corner of lake Issyk-Kul.

The hazards of driving in Kyrgyzstan - North shore of lake Issyk-Kul



Karakol Mal Bazaar (animal market)



Locals




How do you take your cows home from the market?



Having spent a few hours in Karakol we then moved on to Ichke Jergez where a 'home stay' had been arranged with a local family for the night.
Loading up the 'Waz' (ex-USSR ambulance) for the drive to Ichke Jergez - our driver Schumacher starts the engine by touching 2 wires together!





Dinner at our host family's home



New team member!



Starting the 2 1/2 hour skin up to our yurt from Ichke Jergez - the local name for the main summit behind the yurt translates as : "Mountain of the gentle slopes"



Kas, our local guide



Horses taking the strain of our heavy packs





First taste of yurt life - lunch!



After a quick sorting of kit we headed for a reconnaisance run up the main shoulder behind the yurt to a bump on the ridge known as the 'Lunch Spot'.



First turns in Kyrgyzstan powder - tricky on first acquaintance as the snowpack consisted of powder over a loose sugar base - press too hard on one (or both) skis & they dissappear off looking for Australia!





A mellow run through the trees to finish Day 1



Back at base

Scarpa Maestrale problems

After multiple sessions on skis and several visits to Jules at The Boot Room in Chamonix I have finished by trading in my Scarpa Maestrales and moving to a Dynafit TLT5.

The reason?

As soon as I got on the Maestrales I felt like I was on a 5º outside edge on both skis - this meant I had to internally rotate both legs (ie ski with a major A-frame) just to get the skis flat let alone find any edge on the outside ski...
As well as feeling all wrong this also caused considerable hip & knee pain after 2 days skiing - not ideal!

On closer inspection it would appear that the front Dynafit inserts in the Maestrales are not set horizontally - the inside insert is higher than the outside insert. This appears to be an integral part of the boot design (though why is beyond me when the boot is designed to clip into a horizontal set of pins on a horizontal ski).

Interestingly I tried several Maestrale shells with Jules at The Boot Room in Chamonix yesterday and there was variation between all of them in the amount of offset!
As a simple test - in touring mode flex forward until your knee touches the ski - with my Titans it is completely central as you'd expect, with the Maestrale it is offset over the inside edge...

(Thanks to Will for the idea for this test - funnily enough when I mentioned this to him he said "hey, maybe that is why I have had sore knees this winter!")

I can't believe that no one else has had this problem, though an internet search only reveals one result with a similar issue... to me it was blindingly obvious from the moment I first clipped in and slid along a gentle path that something was not right!

Off to test run the TLT5s this afternoon, shoping for better 'feel' there.


While I'm in gear mode I do need to say a big 'MERCI' to Jean-Pierre at Dynastar in Sallanches who not only replaced my blistered Mythic Riders free of charge for some Mythic Lights but also mounted them then & there (and understood my request for the binding to fit a 307 and 322mm bsl, something Sport Conrad failed to do earlier this winter...). Now that is customer service for you!

An early morning speed hit.

After Sunday's trip through the clouds I was motivated to get back out in the good weather this week and ski one of the other couloir lines in the same area. With a 10a.m. babysitting call a short day was in order - Will had been out on Monday skiing the 'twin sister' of Sunday's line - perfect! An early start was needed so at 7.30 I was leaving the car in Pralognan at the start of the skin up to the summit 'du jour'.

A sweaty hour & a quarter later I was 750m up enjoying the views:



Great snow on the access slope compared to Sunday's crust!:



A bit of bushwhacking required on the abseil in:



First turns - Will's tracks from yesterday still visible though after 2 turns these quickly filled in with sluff:



Great scenery:



Mmmmmm, yes please:



Rogues gallery:



Plenty more still to come - still great powder:



Looking up from the final apron - still good powder to be found by sticking to the shadier aspects all the way back to the car :-)



By 9.15 I was back at the car - not bad for a 750 D+/- session with an abseil involved... coffee & baby-bouncing on the programme for the rest of the day!