Skiing fat tire bike trails

This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web. We have fun here, come on in and be a part of it.
User avatar
LazyTelemarker
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2023 10:27 pm

Re: Skiing fat tire bike trails

Post by LazyTelemarker » Sun Dec 01, 2024 10:40 am

Yes, when conditions are decent with soft snow over the fatbike grooming, I enjoy skiing the multi-use trails at West Bragg on light touring gear (Asnes Vikafjell with xc boots, or Madshus Glittertinds and NNN-BC). It pays to know the trails from summer riding so you have an idea of what's around the next corner! A favourite is up Reconnect from west Telephone, north to the end of Long Distance, and either return on LD to descend Disconnect or Demi-Tel, or simply go back on all of east Telephone. While skiing Moose loop yesterday, I noticed that BCT 's new electric utility vehicle/groomer had been out on Moose Singletrack and Tom Snow north, so I detoured onto those for a bit. If they use that machine to groom for fatbikes, the wider and more compacted base will make for much better skiing! What would be really great is if they packed Tom Snow all the way north to Hwy 68, but that seems unlikely. Best guess is that they went north 4km to the junction with Kestrel. Kestrel would need a LOT more snow to make it skiable.
Tom Snow just north of Moose Loop, yesterday:
Image

User avatar
Lhartley
Posts: 662
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:16 am
Location: Berta
Ski style: Chillin
Favorite Skis: All of them
Favorite boots: All of them
Occupation: Space

Re: Skiing fat tire bike trails

Post by Lhartley » Sun Dec 01, 2024 1:27 pm

Thanks for the beta, I'm going to hit WBC for some night skiing sometime this week. Hopefully this ncoming Chinook won't be too hard on things
The REAL Albertatele



User avatar
Capercaillie
Posts: 243
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2022 1:35 pm
Location: western Canada
Ski style: trying not to fall too much
Favorite Skis: Alpina 1500T, Kazama Telemark Comp
Favorite boots: Alfa Horizon, Crispi Nordland, Scarpa T4

Re: Skiing fat tire bike trails

Post by Capercaillie » Wed Dec 04, 2024 1:35 pm

Inspiredcapers wrote:
Thu Nov 28, 2024 4:31 pm
Manny mentioned Sverdrup and J.S.K is digging his Objectives. I’ve used Hoks (slooowww), Gammes (keep the skins on for descents, hairpins are scary as f*^k), Nansens (see previous), Ingstad (see previous), and Rossignol BC120’s (tried out both skin and kickwax for climbing) which were slightly more controllable on hairpins, etc. with plastic boots. Plan on trying the Koms with TTS pretty soon. Contemplating the Rossi with Xplore and Alpha (not so) Frees as well.

Inquiring minds want to know what works you?
I really like Ingstads. My favorite is late-season, when the fat bike ruts have widened out a lot and are icing over. It's like a luge track, put the Ingstads into a shallow telemark and use the sides of the rut as banks for turning.

For downhill switchbacks, skiing uphill into the bushes to stop and then kick-turning to turn around has worked for me.

Also, looks like Lhartley's account got hacked by that horrible Rontele troll.



Post Reply