The Magic Line

A quick blast down the 'Magic Line' yesterday.

I have been skiing this line for a good few years now and still have yet to see another set of tracks in here (that should jinx it now I've said that...) particularly since my ski buddy and esoterica-explorer-in-chief Will passed away a few years ago, although I have started taking the precaution of skinning 5 minutes to get in rather than taking the gravity-assisted route to avoid 'track-followers'!

Magic Line 28 12 2017 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

This is a perfect line for bad weather days - trees all the way for visibility, far enough away from the main ridges to reduce worry of wind loading at the top, though still steep enough that care is needed - perfect spacing in the clearing as long as no more than 4 or 5 people are skiing it...

It is currently quite cold (-10/-15C) keeping the powder nice and fluffy, and with more snow on the way the next week or two should be great!

A great start to the season!

Merry Christmas to everyone from us here at offpisteskiing!!

The blog has been very quiet for the last month due to a number of reasons, but here we go for another winter of fun.

It has been a busy start to the winter, flat out with work since the lifts opened here in the 3 Valleys. With great early December snowfalls giving one of the best starts to the season for many years (and certainly better than the last 3 pre-New Years) scope has been wide open for some fun skiing.

A few pictures to sum up this December so far:

Mid-December, skiing back to Bozel after a day's work:

18 December, thigh deep powder in the Courchevel trees with Dave S:

Paul P - sunshine and powder above Courchevel:

Friday 22 - a perfect day of 'micro-tours' with Dave S. No more than 30 minutes skinning every time, for 1000m of descent in untracked snow - perfect!

We are currently enjoying a bit of family time and skiing with offpisteskiing Jrs 1 & 2, but coming up in the next few days on the blog:

- thoughts on early season skiing: given a large number of accidents in late November/early December has the culture of 'if its white we will ski' gone too far?

- review of Contour Hybrid Split skins: having always been a Black Diamond Glidelite Mix devotee will these make me defect? Quite possibly given experiences so far...

- a look ahead to winter 2018: coaching courses and ski touring adventures in the Alps, Norway and Iceland...

See you soon!

Early season turns

I should have been in the office this morning, but somehow got side-tracked...

Now its all systems go tying up some loose ends of admin and packing for a work trip back to the UK: Baffin Island slideshow tomorrow night (7pm at The Plough in Hathersage for anyone near the Peak District / Sheffield), then on to the Kendal Mountain Festival for my usual stint on the main presenting team. Looking forward to seeing Jeremie Heitz and lots of other exciting speakers and films!

Baffin Island - line 2

I should be busy sorting out the coming winter, but was sidetracked looking at pictures from Baffin Island in 2016 and realise I hadn't actually posted many here...

Our second line of the trip - a 'mere' 700m.

Heading down Gibbs Fjord from basecamp:

The beauty of Baffin is you never quite know what you will find when you head out exploring... we had set off to recce lines on the other side of the fjord and spotted this beauty that just appeared out of a seemingly blank rock face... it would have been rude not to ski it!

Full wingspan, surfer dude and cheesy rave finger...

The picture above shows why it doesn't really matter whether or not you top out on lines in Baffin (many don't exit easily onto the plateau) - there isn't that much to see, and getting to a summit would involve hours slogging up and down scree covered with faceted snow...

Evan takes flight into the gloomy slot below:

Ross:

Chipie:

Ross on the lower apron:

Ross kiting back up Gibbs Fjord towards basecamp:

Thanks as always to Whitedot Skis and Nordic Life.

More to follow...

Whitedot R.98 review

Last winter those very nice folks at Whitedot Skis sent a pair of shiny R.98 skis in my direction and having spent the best part of the winter on them here (finally) is a review.

First a bit of tester information:

Height: 190cm (6'2"), weight: 83Kg.
Skiing style: reasonably aggressive, 20+ years as a professional ski coach & ski mountaineer.
Testing conditions: the skis were skied in pretty much every snow condition imaginable, from deep cold powder to wet post-rain 'heavy', spring snow, hard-pack (and even the occasional bit of piste...).

Skis:
Dimensions/stats: length: 185cm, width: 128 - 98 - 109, nominal radius: 27m, weight: 1990g per ski.
Shape/camber/rocker: minimal camber, gentle tip rocker.
Mounting: the skis were mounted with Marker Kingpins on the manufacturer recommended boot centre.

Skiing to the sea in Lofoten

I was very much looking forward to getting onto the R.98s as the Ranger Carbonlite (precursor to the R.98s big brother the R.108) has for several years been my 'go-to' touring ski, but is definitely a little on the wide side for some conditions.
On an aesthetic side the R.98s have the classic 'Whitedot' look - instantly recognisable with the squared tip, 'dotty' top sheet and the aluminium tail piece. Mounted with Marker Kingpin bindings the single ski + binding combination came out at 2.5Kg, a perfectly acceptable weight for all but the biggest of days ski mountaineering.

Taking the R.98s for a quick blast down the 'Svolvaer Mallory" (Blåtindrenna) on Lofoten

Uphill the ski has great torsional rigidity and edge hold even on steep firm skin tracks and (combined with a well-cut skin) felt very secure. The gentle sidecut profile definitely has a part to play in this as it ensures edge contact along the full length of the ski, even while skinning concave gullies. The tail profile (concave) is great for providing a really secure attachment point for tail clips (although many people do without these I am a big fan). One point to be aware of is the squared off profile of the tip - most skin attachments will work with this (I mostly use Black Diamond Glidelite Mix or Ultralight skins and the tip loops are fine) but worth checking before cutting skins...

Downhill the ski was everything I had hoped for: the combination of a 98mm waist and a gentle sidecut profile/long turn radius is the perfect combination providing a stable ski that will float well in all but the very deepest/heaviest of snows, yet still have loads of grip and great edge hold when you want to go fast or when things are getting steep and firm. The long radius also stops the tip from being hooky or feeling 'twitchy', an all too common problem with todays carvy skis, and the skis are very easy to skid through the end of a turn - a crucial point to be able to ski steep tight lines with ease and control. Flex along the length is progressive, finding a good balance between damping out the lumps and bumps and pushing back when loaded up for a responsive feel when going for performance.

Heading to a secret line in the Wild West of Lofoten

In summary: as near to the perfect all-rounder for off-piste, touring and ski-mountaineering as you will get. Enough float for deep, soft days, loads of grip for firm snow/high speed/buttock-clenching moments. Enough sidecut to help the turn without making the tip twitchy. If you are really looking to save grams then go for the Carbonlite version and pair with a superlight pin binding, but the 'standard' model has a great feel to it and is worth the extra weight!

The R.98s in their natural environment!

Steep Vanoise 10th anniversary edition - 12-16 March 2018

The blog has been very quiet of late - since returning from Lofoten family and my parallel world of rope access and professional verticality training have swamped my schedule...

Dates are starting to come together for winter 2018 now, and the most important of these is of course the 10th anniversary edition of the legendary Steep Vanoise steep ski coaching and adventure course. This will be running from Monday 12th to Friday 16th March 2018, based once again in Brides-les-Bains - a perfect base for accessing the many options available in the Vanoise area.

I am delighted that once again IFMGA Mountain Guide Dorian Labaeye will be joining me to co-host this course in 2018 - over the last couple of years Dorian has proven to be a firm favourite with the groups and a real asset to the team!

As a reminder here are a few shots from the last couple of years:

The course price will be £560 (coaching only) with accommodation options available on request. Book early as spaces will be limited (target group size is 4).

Lofoten Islands 2017 - week 3

Last week was the third and final 'Lofoten Ski Touring Adventures' week for 2017. Having picked up the team at the airport we were met by a welcoming committee on the drive to our home for the week at Lofoten Ski Lodge:

With a combination of high winds from the previous Friday and it being Easter weekend the challenge on Sunday was to find a spot away from the 'crowds' and where we might find some decent snow. We managed to tick both boxes, with a mix of spring snow and 'blown-in' powder and only met one skier in the whole day... Perfect!

On day 2, with sunny conditions forecast we set course for the West and a 'double'header' starting at one of my secret spots. Unfortunately we met much warmer conditions than the previous day and the couloir was already quite heavily transformed by the time we topped out, so we had to pass on the summit (no 3rd time lucky for me!) and ski the line before it got any heavier:

We even managed to sneak in some bonus cold snow turns on our way out to reset for objective number 2:

With round one complete we headed further West to the magical Stornappstind. Given snow conditions on our first line I was intending to ski the classic West face, but a chill wind met us in the car park, and on the way up the West face was far from softening so a tentative look into the South face revsulted in a great run on good spring snow:

The forecast for the rest of the week was quite mixed and on Tuesday it looked to be a classic Lofoten day of mixed snow flurries and sunnier spells, with a strong wind picking up from the West. Once again it was time to think laterally and we headed to the 'Wild North' into a bowl I had looked at many times from the road but had not had the opportunity to explore. As it turned out it was quite good!

We put in 3 good laps in here on different lines and I left with it very high on my list for a return visit.


Wednesday continued in a similar vein with pulses of weather and very strong winds ripping over the summit ridges. Fortunately I am starting to put together a good selection of bad weather tree skiing options and we even managed to get our timing about right to match the clear spells with a series of great laps for 1600m vertical of good powder snow:

Thursday was a day of wild winds and lots of precipitation with varying temperatures (sometimes white, sometimes translucent...).
Friday was our last day, and with a weather window predicted for the middle of the day, but high avalanche risk and heavy snow low down, we set off putting a skintrack in to heavy snow with expectations set rather low. Once again though the Norse gods and Lofoten's maritime snowpack worked their magic and we snuck in 4 great laps on cold snow before braving the wet stuff low down and retreating for a well earned waffle!

And so another Lofoten spring draws to a close for me... On Friday night the wind was so strong that the lodge was physically shaking and it was hard to walk over to the fisherman's huts! Wild weather does of course mean stunning views and I was treated to a 'leaving present' on my early morning drive back to the airport:

A massive thank you to Rich, Dave, Chris and Sandy for a great week, and also to Seth, Maren and all the crew at Lofoten Ski Lodge, as well as the Northern Alpine Guides Team (Sjur, Chris, Mark, Erica, Sami, Tim...) - see you next year...

Lofoten Islands 2017 - week 2

Week 2 of this year's Lofoten trip was with a completely new team. Dave & Iain were at a slideshow I gave on the 2016 Baffin Island trip at the Fort William Mountain Festival and got in touch shortly afterwards. Rob, Lewis and Eliott joined them for the trip. With a mixed forecast for the first couple of days we concentrated on the local classics around Rundfjellet, with some heavy new snow and some transformed spring giving surprisingly good skiing!

Forget ski & sail, ski & row is where it's at these days!

On Tuesday, with a mixed forecast we again stayed in our backyard, with 3 great laps around the Blatind/Tuva area:

"Sun's out, guns out"!

Perfect spring snow!

With overnight snow and a good forecast there was only one pace to go on Wednesday for Lofoten 'first timers' - Geitgaljern.

Obviously a lot of other people had the same idea, but everyone headed straight for the main summit, leaving us with a perfect first lap down 400m vertical of untouched bowl...

Havng braved the Easter crowds on Wednesday it was time to search for some solitude by heading out West to one of Lofoten's great classic couloirs:

Thursday was so good that for our last day, with a clear but windy forecast we set course for the West again for one of my secret lines - a stunning traverse to a beautiful West-facing couloir:

A perfect way to finish the week. Thanks to Dave, Iain, Eliott, Rob and Lewis for willingly going with my madcap schemes and having faith that, despite common belief to the contrary, there is actually snow in the West!