Year in review: What did you learn?

[MikeK]

Took my first hike a Hollister yesterday and it was completely bare, pretty dry too. Not quite enough for biking but close. Got the bike out yesterday and rode miles of tractor roads along some boring cornfields. Such is mud season.

Really beating around the bush to the point. Skiing is long dead here. A couple resorts still have a little base but I just got a report from a friend and they are down to bare spots already.

Really though, even though skiing was brief I had a lot of good skis this year and learned a lot of new things. Most of which was more advanced skiing with NNN-BC. I skied once with pins and fat skis all year and in comparison to the skis, boots and bindings I had been using it felt really easy. That tells me something. Tells me that I've been learning something by skiing how I had been.

One big takeaway this year was just shooting steep stuff with skinny skis. Make big turns, head for the gaps. It's scary, it's wild, it's fun. For some reason it's hard to get your brain to accept that you can stay up on the skis and ride them through the trees at that speed, but you can. Pick your line, use the Telemark to keep balance, stay on your edges and you're always ready to maneuver. Best way I found to build confidence in this is find areas where you have some runout at the bottom where you can bail if you get out of control.

Second big takeaway was really feeling the rear ski on the long, cambered boards. When you feel it, and feel it bending, it's great.

Third thing is, and it's obvious: use the right skis for the snow. Skied a few days where I forcing a particular ski to get some time on them and feel their limits. You don't really know those limits as well until you try them, but when you find them, you appreciate your quiver. It's also made me realize a really wide, short ski with some rocker would be advantageous for the lake snow. The wider S Bound does well, but it's doesn't have the float to keep you up and going fast downhill when it's the really deep fluff.

[STG]

Mike:

Nice post! For me, the season was great because I got to ski really nice powder (not too deep) on my XCD gear (pins and Eons) in YNP. Grizzly bears are out so I am done skiing in the park for the season. Last season I skied YNP at the end of March and encountered huge, fresh Grizzly track. I also had a few powder turns on my Madshus Rondane skis/nnn touring bindings (60mm at the tip) which have a soft shovel and double camber. I am down to three pairs of skis and have unloaded a lot of gear to simplify my life. I have been a gear-head for too long. I don't miss the fatter skis I sold. I am content skiing on traditional telemark/ XCD and XC skis.

[MikeK]

Man, grizzlies... that's so foreign to me.

I'm always creepin' around hoping to see bears. But blacks in the east are much, much different. They could hurt you, but most are quite scared of humans.

I wish I could post the video but a friend of mine in Connecticut has a bear that visits his house quite often. He also has a couple dogs and he posted some videos on facebook the other day of the bear 'playing' with the dogs. One was of the bear looking kind of confused on his porch and the dogs running around, and eventually spooking him off. The other was a video his neighbor took and the dogs, and the bear, were tearing around the house (in a pack). The smaller dog was running right along side the bear! It looked like they were playing. Not sure what the bear thought about that...

[athabascae]

Grizzly bears are out so I am done skiing in the park for the season. Last season I skied YNP at the end of March and encountered huge, fresh Grizzly track.

Yeap. Sightings of grizzlies poking about around my parts too. A bit early. Best time of the year for skiing here is now, and after alot of dark months the aim is to get outside and tour around, so no one really bothers too much about the bears - most folks here are used to them as a fact of life.

Been skiing the last 4 of 4 days. Lots of coyote, fox, lynx and a few wolf tracks, but no bears personally yet.

[athabascae]

And... back on topic:

The main things I (re-)learned this year is that:

1) I love to BC/XCD ski (after a long hiatus)
2) Alot of the new gear is great
3) Old gear can be great too
4) I live in an awesome place to BC/XCD ski

Tom

[lowangle al]

I've seen grizzly tracks while skiing early in the season around November but not lately. I had a life changing experience when a bear stared me down at about 20 feet away 25 years ago.

What I learned is that skiing is self perpetuating. The more you turn the better you get, the better you get the better it feels, the better it feels the more you turn...........

[MikeK]

Glad to have you back Tom!

What I learned is that skiing is self perpetuating. The more you turn the better you get, the better you get the better it feels, the better it feels the more you turn...........

This is true.

[STG]

athabascae:

I am interested in wildlife biology. What's the grizzly population in the Yukon? I live in Montana (Yellowstone ecosystem)--estimated grizz population around 700. Recently the USFW proposed delisting them. Do you ever carry bear spray? I had my canister with me the last time I skied YNP (Big Horn area)--prime grizzly habitat. I didn't see any tracks but the ones I saw last year were massive! Scared the hell of me! Lowangle al's experience with a grizz was similar to one I had with a mountain lion. The bc skiing in your area must be a true wilderness experience? That's my image of the Yukon, but I might wrong? During those dark winter days do you ski with a headlamp?

[lowangle al]

Tom, that close encounter I had with the griz was while paddling. After the experience I got some bear spray and also carried a shot gun. I never took the spray skiing but if I felt I may encounter a bear I would take it. Most of my spring skiing is above treeline where it would be unlikely to surprise a bear.

[connyro]

Learned: 1. Kick wax and stiff camber is an awful lot of fun in the BC and right context/snow. 2. I like NNN-BC. Great for K+G and good enough for a little DH.