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From: Kurt Ries on 04/01/98 01:32 PM To: fred@valvetech.net cc: Subject: The Last Ski Hurrah of 1998? The Last Ski Hurrah of 1998? Saturday 3/28/98 -- Back Country Skiing -------------------------------------------------- State Truck Trail - Marcy Dam - Avalanche Pass 1.5 plus feet of cover to Marcy Dam 2 to 3 feet plus up to Avalanche pass Good snow condtions, a few thin spots to the approach of Marcy Dam Sunday 3/29/98 -- Telemark Skiing -------------------------------------------- State Truck Trail - Klondike trail shelter Rained most of Saturday night and the snow Sunday was spotty below 2500' and water saturated soup above. Unless the High Peaks gets additional snow the skiing will involve some walking below 2500'. Thanks to everyone for the fabulous memories of the 97/98 ski season! See ya on the 2 wheel steeds -Kurt Kurt Ries Canandagua, NY Kries@viesystems.com PS/BS Still have this recurring dream of mounting the Tele boards to the mountain bike to find snow ...could be a new sport Tele-cycling! ============================ Directors Cut: ------------------- Cruising down the ski trail onto Avalanche Lake, I caught a glimpse of a couple in swimsuits basking in the 74-degree temps. Attempting a couple of flailing telmarks to slow down for a chat, hydroplaned to a stop in 2" water. After this stunt figured I should keep moving before I broke though the ice. Once back on solid ground stop to take a look around. The intense sun was shinning down the throat of the long and narrow Avalanche Lake making it appear superimposed with a virtual reality scene from some sci-fi flick. Hundreds of waterfalls cascading down the sheer 3600-foot cliffs on either side created rainbows that arched across the lake. Avalanche Lake is one of the more popular destinations in the Adirondacks High Peaks region of New York State and only accessible by trail. It has been several years since I have had the opportunity to visited and today saw the lake and its beauty, anew. Taking advice from Brian at High Peaks Cyclery in what could be the last ski of the season, opted for the 4.2 K State Truck Trail (South Meadows) to Marcy Dam and another 3.8 K to Avalanche Lake. The route has well maintained bridges that spanned the overflowing streams for a whitewater spectacle of ice mushroomed rocks. Showing once again that Klister, Knobby tires and Paddles can coexist in this parallel universe (Tele universe?) The attire of the day was shorts and a tie-dye T-shirt and judging from the abrasion on my forearms also discovered why the klister works so well on the corn snow. The slight wind was strange in the way it would change direction from a hot tropical to a cooler breeze. Most of our rest stops were in the shade, more like cycling than skiing. **Warning:** The following excerpt has been pronounced a "Technical Foul" by the Retrograde Skiers Association of Vermont (RSAOV) DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOUR CREDIT CARD IS PAID OFF OR AT ITS' LIMIT! Afterwards Joe from Cascade Touring Center discussed equipment as we sat on their porch absorbing some rays and Sarnac Black Forest beer. The single-track descents have been my Back Country (BC) nemesis since attempting to use Tele/parallels verses a snowplow. Even with the wider 6 '+ ski trails of the High Peaks without a good technique to check speed on the descents you'll hit mach 1 in a split second. My Tele turns are mainly OF (long arching Old Fart turns) and to check speed on the steep and narrows requires quick feet. A narrow BC ski is quicker to shuffle, while a wider (Tele) ski is easier to control and snow plow they can actually hamper a quick foot change. Many of ADK Tele folks are using a narrower metal edge BC ski with a 3-pin binding and welt style leather boots . This setup gives best performance for kick and glide needed 80-90% of the time on the flats and climbs. The lighter weight and the narrower metal edge profile enhances the carve from the fast foot work with less effort in the off weighting of the skis. This setup still retains good performance off trail in most snow conditions. - Did I mention it slices, dices and makes Julian fries also! The thought of including a heel cable to this BC setup in an attempt to enhance their turning capabilities, lead to a discussion of the fine line between BC and Tele skiing. My definition of BC is kicking around the woods looking for hills and Telemarking is more of a skin on skin off approach, both revolve around turns. The Telemark equipment gets you to the deep powder glades, just not as fast. ...that's what got me in this quandary to start with. Part of the problem is many times the BC folks I am skiing with are kick and glide only. Keep up with the Tele gear is close to impossible on a longer trek. We Tele types are still somewhat of a novelty to many of the recreation skiers. However, I have notice after they skied with us they are looking at the shiny new Tele stuff on the show room floor. I decided to retain an unhampered kick and glide and not add a cable to my 75mm BC setup. Also decided next season to do more Telemark specific treks for the downhill action. On a trip earlier in the season over the Klondike pass spotted many open Birch glades in the area around the Klondike shelter to introduce my Telemarks to. Tested the shuffle theory on Sunday behind the Klondike shelter in the rain-saturated soup. While the off trail tree skiing was enhanced by the flotation and side cut of the Telemark ski, I felt more comfortable on the 4-6 ' packed trail descents with the E99 BC skis and some fast Parallel/Tele shuffles to check speed and avoid the glide arresters. Just when you start getting the hang of something the snow goes away ...Bad, Bad el~nino! -Any comments/suggestions? Funny, Fred and I have often discussed how the ski disciplines are more the same than they are different. To better my race times I have been working on a faster turnover of my skating cadence; now discovered I need to do the same in my turns. -Go figure! ============================= To: Kurt Ries/VIESystems cc: fred@valvetech.net Subject: Re: The Last Ski Hurrah of 1998? Hi, Kurt. Thanks for the fun reading. > The Last Ski Hurrah of 1998? No way! ... > Many of ADK Tele folks are using a narrower metal edge BC ski with a 3-pin > binding and leather boots . This setup gives best performance for kick and > glide needed 80-90% of the time on the flats and climbs. The lighter > weight and the narrower metal edge profile enhances the carve from the fast > foot work with less effort in the off weighting of the skis. This setup > still retains good performance off trail in most snow conditions. > - Did I mention it slices, dices and makes Julian fries also! Leather? That ranges from Snowfields to Supercomps. I've now done a fair amount of horizontal skiing on my T2s and they work. My Snowfield copies blister my heels unless I wear a full NFL-style foot tape job and even so, they let the skis have way too much of a mind of their own. I have some skis with the Voile three-pin cable arrangement. I'm really coming to the view that this too is not the way to go. I find that I can tour quite well with my Rotefella 412's and they're a hell of a lot easier to get into and out of. And, if there's going to be any chance at all to do some turns, I'm going to take a ski that can turn. Not an E99, thank you. Summary, use comfortable tele gear for BC skiing and you're all set for horizontal AND vertical. My opinion, mind you. There are undoubtedly godlike personages out there that can do anything in floppy leather boots and E99s. But I'm a very limited and humble mortal. ... > powder glades, just not as fast. I decided to retain an unhampered kick and > glide and not add a cable to my 75mm BC setup. Also decided next season to > do more Telemark specific treks for the downhill action. On a trip earlier > in the season over the Klondike pass spotted many open Birch glades in the > area around the Klondike shelter to introduce my Telemarks to. > -Any comments/suggestions? Begin getting ready for all that upcoming tele stuff by putting in a lot of miles at the resorts ... now. I'm a slow learner and not much of an athlete, but I get orders of magnitude more downhill practice using the lifts. I remember how frustrating it was trying to learn step teles from Gene at Camel's Hump. But I was able to get the hang of it within a couple of runs at Gore the next weekend. One 8000 foot area run equalled probably my total for three days down hill skiing at Camel's Hump. But now that I have that turn in my bag of tricks, I'm looking forward to using it in the backcountry, and, in fact, already have. My current challenge is to learn to some form of jump turn. And then to do it with a good rhythm. And then fast. And finally with style. So much to learn! Fortunately the season's not over. There are even advantages at this point. Crowds are gone and prices are coming down. With an Empire Card I think it's going to be $19 a day weekends at Gore/Whiteface. I relate to your remarks on how challenging narrow trails can be. I'll be the first to snowplow them. Oh, maybe wedge turns which is a bit more respectable. I think you've just got to be a damn good skier to get down some of those trails. You know, the ones that are so narrow that you can't really even snowplow them. Your tails get hung up on the trail sides. And what do you do when you've got to come down a trail that has only been tracked in new powder by skiers going up? Just two deep slots. Drag your poles? I'm stumped by this situation. My short term solution is to get into the snowfields above the treeline. Going to Alaska from the 20th to the 30th. Hatcher Pass and Denali Park. Not bringing my E99s! :-) -- al =======================To: Kurt Ries/VIESystems cc: Subject: Re: The Last Ski Hurrah of 1998? > See if I can wet your curiosity. From our discussions I know you are track > skier also; you know that feeling you get when you have been in the Tele Absolutely. That's where I started. And I absolutely love skating. But I sacrificed that stuff this year to try to build up my tele skills. I'm approaching sixty ski days (ten off piste) and have made major strides, and I'm STILL a hell of a long way from being a good skier. > equipment for a while and now how effortless the track skis feel. For a > style of skiing common for myself in the ADK where you need to get from > point A to Point B and trying to find a few turns in-between, but for the > most part are restricted to the trail - is there a comprise on the > equipment? You seek the Holy Grail. Possibly the compromise becomes possible when a certain rather advanced level of skill is attained. Perhaps we'll see one day. > Certainly hear your comments about having the right equipment for the turns > ...that's what got me in this quandary to start with. Part of the problem > is many times the BC folks I am skiing with are kick and glide only. Keep > up with the Tele gear is close to impossible on a longer trek. We tele > types are still somewhat of a novelty to many of the recreation skiers. > However I have notice after they skied with us they are looking at the > shiny new tele stuff on the show room floor. Different strokes for different folks. Kick and glide only is a nice way to get some exercise out in the woods. We know about that already. What we're working at is a level of skill and a collection of equipment that lets us be comfortable and enjoy a greater variety of terrain. I believe that I can cover really significant horizontal and uphill distances in my tele gear. And you need to, as many nice hills have a significant approach to get through. I can't necessarily go as fast as someone with really light gear, but so what? One of the things I learned in a week of skiing in Quebec that I mislearned at Camels Hump is that BC skiing is vastly different than touring center skiing in one respect. That is, you just can't affort to get yourself drenched in sweat. I did this my first day in the Chic Chocs on a long approach to the bowl at Mont Albert and when I got to the top of the mountain and the wind found me, I was instantly hypothermic and could do very little about it. > Tell me more about this Empire Card, you got my attention! For fourty dollars you get the following: Ten dollars off your lift ticket every day with the exception of a few holiday periods. And you get one free day as well, with the same exceptions. This free day nearly pays for the card. And it's good at both Gore and Whiteface. You really need to buy the thing on your first day of lift-served skiing next season. Anyway, we've now entered off peak season when weekend rates at Gore/Whiteface are $29. Use your Empire Card and that becomes $19. I think you're down to $14 on weekdays. -- al ================================ "maintained bridges that spanned the overflowing streams for a whitewater spectacle of ice mushroomed rocks" " The intense sun was shinning down the throat of the long and narrow Avalanche Lake making it appear superimposed with a virtual reality scene" English major ??? I thought you were an Engineer ??? --Dick