Back Country Skiing Thread

sm31 said:
Got the bindings installed today & managed to not poke any holes all the way through my skis... 😅

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Really impressed with these "shift" bindings. They weigh about half what my old Marker bindings did but I don't feel like I'm going to give up much performance, if any. And the versatility is just super cool. In this setting, I'm in backcountry "walk" mode:

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There is also a lever on the back that flips up the brakes for "walk" mode. Flip this other lever and now I can use these bindings with regular alpine boots:

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I’ve heard great things about these bindings from a couple friends. Congrats on the setup!
 
Just full of updates today... Lol. I didn't have a good ski touring pack, so I scored this 30L Orotovox pack on sale. Very happy with it so far. It has lots of backcountry friendly features, including a built in RECCO reflector (have one in my pants too but every little bit helps). No-name amazon shovel (1.2 lbs & $22) & carbon fiber probe next to it:

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Cool dedicated pocket for snow tools...

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One of my favorite features is the helmet net on the back. It's a pain to keep the helmet from flopping around and this does it great. Even my old 8-ball looking Giro race helmet fits. It's old & heavy but it's comfortable, warm, and I love it.

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It's been a thin snow year until this week. 19" last Wednesday and another 10 - 16" tomorrow. Finally enough to bury the rocks, etc. so it's time for a shakedown run... hopefully tomorrow. Finally got around to trimming up the skins today.

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Jsouder53 said:
I sure hope it goes well! Sorry to hear of the thin snow fall so far.
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Thank you sir! A rather lame excuse on my part, honestly.

This place is strange in so many ways... one of them is that micro-climates are way more significant than I was used to in the Rockies. I'm about 25 miles (as the crow flies) from Girdwood (home of Alyeska resort) which is a temperate rain forest. They can get so much snow that it tends to cover up all the interesting features and turn the whole area into a big sled run. But around Anchorage, under 20" of precip annually is normal. There are other strong micro-climates around, so if I was willing to drive an hour or 2 I'd probably be into some good conditions. Lol...
 
No pics this time, sorry... snowing sideways makes for bad photo-ops but this was just a test run anyway. All the equipment worked amazingly well. The boots were so good that I'm going to do some "resort" skiing on them to better compare. I was worried about the transition from skinning up the mountain to making turns in powder but 6 ft into the downhill run and it all felt completely familiar again.

Now I'm more excited than ever to get into some serious backcountry! Anyone on the fence about trying it should really just take the plunge. I can see how this might make resort experiences feel confining, and even stodgy.

Pics to come soon since I'm going to hit it again by next weekend for sure!
 
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