telemark skiing

I've recently had a few things occur that have rekindled my love of telemark skiing.  Tele turns are just so soothing to the soul, it's hard to describe it.

But my gear was dated, even if only 5 years old.  The world has changed in ski technology.  What once looked fat and able to carve turns now feels like a pencil, and carves about as well.  If I didn't know better, that'd be fine, as we all survived those days.  But coming off my alpine equipment onto that is just not fun.  Upgrades are good when they deliver a real, material difference, not just for color or show.

I'm not a tourer, my aerobic capacity is used on wheels not really on skis.  And in powder I'll likely board or alpine ski.  Tele I like to carve turns.  Carvey front side ski that can venture a little if needed?

Rossignol Experience 88.  Last time I checked, only Shakira had more waist curvature.



But it takes more to control and power skis that are able to you carve like this.  Hence my old boots were mushy in comparison.  Real torque applicators right here: Scarpa Terminator Pro (TX Pro).



Now the junction between these two is important if everything is to work out ok.  Enter the NTN system or the "new telemark norm" releasable binding.  instead of a heel strap, the binding grabs the toe and back of the ball of the foot before the arch.  It's rotationally releasable, which is good insurance for my as of yet in life not wrecked knees.  And I skipped all the light touring stuff in favour of the freeride model - spending $100 a day to access a hundred million dollars of lifts and infrasctructure at a ski area is an amazingly good economic tradeoff in my mind.

In simplistic terms, the front of the binding clicks up like a XC binding, then you push it back down to lock in.  Rotationally it can release.  It allows a release ski brake to be used.  There are various "power tubes" to provide the resistance for heel movement depending on your preference for that.

As it turns out, the boots were on sale at MEC as the ones in my size, someone had skiied on a day and found they didn't fit.  Great cost saving there.  The skis were end of season sale.  The bindings were normal price.

The combination?  Priceless.  The experience these three provide are so different from what I had before it's not even the same sport.  Despite a sore back, I skied today with Mike Schragge, who is an accomplished telemark skier, and instructor.  New equipment opened a new door, Mike's tips and sky is the limit vision opened many more in my mind.  Talk about a fantastic day - and thank god for heated seats and Robax Platinum.

Highs and Lows

This weekend had both highs and lows.  Yesterday's ride was just a smidge over 105k door to door on  my mountain bike - Yak Attack shakedown - which is a good distance for a mountain bike ride.  We hit up the sweet conditions of Tuscany coulee and put down respectable climb times despite walking two ice sections, then made our way west along the river.  I felt decent on the climbs.  Great lunch in Cochrane, then it was time to hit the pedalling non-stop on Tower Trail.  Felt good the whole way, even when Shawn did some burnouts near Lower Springbank road.  Good times, body felt good.

Today was another story.  As it turns out, both Cindy and I had knotted stomachs last night.  Likely the ground beef from our dinner.  Then my back froze this morning, haven't had that in years.  I had to just lie down in temporary paralysis on my bathroom floor.  Ended up putting my socks and shoes on lying down on my back.  It's only one position that's so bad, so I went to Bow to drop off the Flash for some race season work, and had to drop off the Moots regardless for recalled brakes and was just going to leave it there while in Nepal.

I felt ok once at Cadence, the jiggly ride of the Defender actually helped.  Off we go, and I felt best in the bike position, so that was fine.  I haven't lifted anything heavy, or fallen, or anything.  I've been doing lots of stretching and strength for last 2 months.  Best I can figure is my saddle was a bit high yesterday and my lower back rolled around just a bit and loosed up that area.

Had fun up on Tuscany ravine, felt fast on the 'cross bike but in reality with yesterday's fatigue it wasn't that fast.  Up and out of town to the north in the big winds… until I was dogging it behind everyone, drafting Shawn and Kate up a headwind climb.  No shifting, no nothing - just derailleur spontaneously wraps around cassette.  

Shawn and Kate helped pull it out, I called Cindy, and miraculously she answered (thought she might be at yoga).  Shawn and Kate headed off, and I put on everything I had and started walking back.  The 50km/h gusts weren't fun to walk in.  I did around 5km I think before Cindy got me.  That was enough.

So one day you can go from feeling the best in years, to absolutely feeling the worst a day later.

Ride to Conquer Cancer, Road Rockets, Lynne Marshall

Lynne was a friend of all of us, a friend of the firm, our focus for the Road Rockets, a client of Cindy's, and basically just a good example of how to live life.

Very eloquent family that can bring feelings to a crowded room and a microphone with ease.  It reminded me of how I was asked recently about the upcoming Yak Attack - but it looks so hard, is that fun for you?

As my friends know, and others who I've cajoled into various things - judging difficulty and one's abilities in advance isn't the approach.  I signed up - and to this day I haven't particularly thought about the feelings I'll get from it "being hard".

Instead I think about blue sky optimism, adventures with a little grit, all spent with great friends - making memories that'll last a lifetime.  Think of that, not if something is "hard".

Norco Indie IGH Commuter

After last year's bike shuffle and modernization, I ended up in a situation where I was riding quite nice race bikes to work each day.  I'm fine with that - our building security is as good as one could expect, and in fair weather that's fine.  However strapping on fenders and dragging nice components through grey muck slush at times of year isn't that smart.  So I talked to Bow about the Norco Indie IGH commuter bike as I'm a fan of internal hubs, lower cost options.

Its beautiful in a sublte way.  The Alfine 11 hub is excellent.  I've got it with a 39t chainring and a 18t cog - for hills a larger cog would be better (especially with winter clothes and a backpack probably amounting to well over 10lbs).  I can do Edworthy hill with a backpack, but it's not at a "commuting" effort.  They offer cogs up to 23t, and with a different crank you could do what you wanted with the chainring.

Fenders and lights are in place, and I've converted it over to clipless pedals.  The issue here is the chain stay flares out for the hub, inducing some heel rub.  I've put in eggbeaters with 5mm longer axles which has taken care of this issue.  Also some Bar mitts have helped with the cold.

Alas after a few years, I moved, and had a much longer commute.  I wanted something lighter, smoother, and faster.  This got passed along to the next commuter where it'll do years of service.

Yak Attack 2014 packing

Gerry hosted our second "packing party" with food that approximated Nepal, Olympic viewing, and packing talk.  Good times had by all.  I rush packed my bag, brought my scale, and surprised myself their with it's weight: 20kgs on the dot.  That's the limit. 

I'd say it was about 90% refined.  I removed Marvin to save 8lbs.  But he's keen on the trip, everytime I turn around he's jumping in the bag or inspecting my gear.

I need to make a final call on footwear, and the list of things I didn't have was short, but would amount to a couple pounds, so something needs to come out.

Everytime I open my iPhone weather app it just has "Frigid" below the graphics of current weather, so at the very least, I've had plenty of feeling -20's weather, which is where Thorong La is consistently hitting for day lows (I presume we'll be well exposed to the day lows as we're starting at 4am that day).  I think it'll feel more harsh at Thorong La, partly due to wind, partly due to thin air and slowed pace of movment, and partly psychologically as there's no just going in the warm car or warm house a few feet away.

Kate and Shawn rode outside a bit and said they cooled off quickly.  I dropped Cindy off at SpeedTheory for a spin, then stayed at the back just for the motivation of a group.  Sunday did the rollers for a couple hours before errands.  Good enough base maintenance given the weather.  Aside from that and packing errands, I'm making attempts to de-blubberize myself so there's less to carry up the Himalaya.

Yak Attack 2014 Stage 5

Chame to Manang
29.7km, 1,249m ascent

These are the views that I came for, and I think we just went about 9,500 ft to about 12,500 ft. But riding is about 10 percent of the experience. We're heading to Manang, which for context is not only high and beautiful, it's also two towns down the donkey train supply line for context. Since trucks can't make it, porters took our bags at 6am. That means we wake up, put on kit, make sure we have warm kit, then try to stay warm in a blanket as our sleeping bags are gone. Power was out in town so I got no charge and no pictures. We knew Manang would be cold, so had to carry more gear for post race. Porters were expected to take 12 hours with bags.  I wore shorts, Pearl Izumi winter tights, regular shoes, icebreaker t, Columbia omni heat layer, vest. Carried down pants and jacket, toque, fleece gloves and dirty but dry wool socks for après. All worth their weight in gold. 

I felt amazing riding and despite a bigger pack and Thomas who went impressively minimal, I caught and rode with him, although he cracked me on last climb. Best finish at 10th. So I've achieved now riding a day with another friend that was just a golden memory. Muddy and snowy. I was breathing hard at altitude but it felt like good breathing hard not like the I'm gonna regret this later kind. Beautiful town in the aura of Gangpurna. We're at the Yak Hotel, which has 3 stories and a rooftop patio, no railings though to outside or courtyard. Warm sun cooked us all. Great patio food and stories, incomparable views, and I was glad I brought down gear when the sun finally went down. 

Kate, Jeff and Gerry all smiles. Cory made it today slowly.  Really interesting group here. Adventurers. As Gerry put it, between the Nepalese, Euros, Brits, etc. here that he's just met, you can easily have more in common than your neighbour or coworkers. 

Bags did arrive 12h later after we were huddled and drinking tea in the restaurant. Long day for them. Bags are lighter as we really pared down to minimum. Dark room, baby wipe "shower" key is start at top and work down. We have charging but no cell service. I brought a 7 port USB charger which I anticipated being popular in these little places with no plugs and was right. Will be able to catch up with photos on tomorrow's rest day.  Everyone works and eats dinner in North Face jackets, knockoffs, or equivalents. Makes perfect sense here. 

I feel 100%. Riding and expending energy is a treat, not torture. Cory and I were chatting on the patio - this is the most diverse, adventurous, amazing journey we've been on. The scenery is worth every ounce of effort to see it, and we've both paid our dues. 

Montbell Plasma 1000 jacket

I was in the market for a lightweight jacket, and stumbled across this model.  This post even showed detail and comps relative to others, and this is by far not the most expensive of its class.  I ordered.

Roll forward a week and it arrives, my first trip is to walk 5 blocks to a restaurant to meet Cindy and friends for dinner.  I'm wearing an undershirt, cotton button up shirt that's thin, and this jacket.  As I exit my building, I feel the temperature that declined through the day - it's around -10 to -11C.  My face feels it, I put my hands in my pockets right away, and think to myself how many blocks it'll be before I feel the chill go through to my chest.

As it turns out, it didn't.  This thing is ethereally light and surprisingly warm.  I thought it would be "ok warm" as in "gee it's so light, I'm surprised it provides even enough warmth to keep the chill out for a few blocks" and that it'd be a better -5C jacket.  I was surprised.  And impressed.

A week later I did similar walks downtown of 6-7 blocks in -16C.  If my hands were out to answer my phone, they'd be cold in 60 seconds.  I was warm when walking with the wind, and just got the slight chill walking into the wind.  That well exceeds my warmth expectation for something this light, and that again was dressed in just an undershirt and a cotton mens dress shirt, not really purposeful heat retaining layers.

It's 135g, or a quarter the weight of my MEC Uplink Hoodie.  It doesn't have hood or pockets, and it's not really a weight thing per se, what it really means is it can pack to virtually nothing as there's very little mass present.  With a water proof case I could very easily put this in a bike jersey pocket if we think we'll finish ahead of luggage arrival on the cooler days at the Yak Attack.

Nice piece of textile work Montbell!