Kyrgyzstan part 3

Day 4 - Sunshine, Powder



Yesterday's summit:




Todays goal:




Great snow:




But care needed - up high NE slopes had all released spontaneously along with som cross-loaded NW aspects, but care was needed everywhere in the trees!



2 x 30-40 cm layers releasing...



But great skiing to be had with careful slope selection:



Me:




Paul



Tom



On day 5 we went questing into the trees to try and find a low route into the next valley East - loads of potential here, but the higher routes in all involved skiing dodgy potentially loaded slopes. Unfortunately after some hardcore tree-bashing we had t admit defeat, and nipped back up for a lap on the West face from the 'Lunch Spot' at 3200m on the main ridge. 500m of nice (if heavy) powder, then homeward-bound for the yurt..

Kyrgyzstan part 2

Day 2 dawned cloudy & snowy - time for some laps in the trees lower down...






On Day 3 the skies were clearer so we set off for the main summit behind the yurt - 900m vertical with a bit of easy scrambling to get right on top followed by a great run down a subsidiary ridge to the NNE.






Summit of Pt 3450m ("Mountain of the Gentle Slopes")





Once off the main ridge the snow was pretty good.



And just got better. Paul shredding:



And testing the boundaries...








The 2 Mikes relax with a beer while Azamat prepares dinner:

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

Kyrgyzstan teaser

Just back from 10 great days in Kyrgyzstan - just to whet your appetite here is a shot from the trip (with many more to follow):

Haute Maurienne Off Piste Adventures

I am in the Haute Maurienne this week running a course for a group from the Eagles Ski Club. We are exploring the many resorts in this valley with a mix of coaching, off-piste & touring along the way...

Sunday saw us in Val Cenis mostly in the cloud despite a good forecast (seemed to be the same everywhere!) but this gave us lots of coaching time, and we still managed to fit in a good 800m off-piste run in the afternoon in a brief clear spell.

On Monday I took the guys up to Bonneval at the head of the valley. Generally crunchy snow, but a good place to work on steeper slope technique (there are some reds here which would make some 3 Valleys blacks look easy!). In the afternoon we managed to find some good spring snow on the way down to Andagne for some transceiver training.







Today we went to Aussois in search of more spring snow. The upper Maurienne seems to have suffered a lot from the windy spells earlier in the winter, and Aussois was no exception, with alot of the close-in off-piste round the lifts being grass! We had a plan however and found some great spring snow doing lift- and skin-assisted laps of the Grand Chatelard.

Backdrop of Rateau D'Aussois & Pointe de L'Echelle:



Lunch with a view!



Great spring snow:



Pointe de la Fournache:



Ric:



Paul:



Big wide slopes of perfectly cooked spring snow!

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!

Course availability - Spring 2012.

There are still some spaces left on the offpisteskiing.com & Jagged Globe Freeride course running April 1 - 7 in Chamonix.
Over 6 days we will explore the off-piste around the different Chamonix ski areas with coaching input along the way. This week is aimed at strong off-piste skiers looking to develop their all-mountain skiing.

Contact us for more information