Tales from the Hinterland: 2016/2017 edition

PeeTex wrote

From reading all this I think I will mask off the scales, wax as normal the glide area and then put some swix rub on for the scales.

Sure. All good and all fair game. There's no right and wrong, black or white, democrat or republican, etc, etc, etc.  when you ski the Hinterlandian way.  

Telemark Dave wrote

PeeTex wrote

From reading all this I think I will mask off the scales, wax as normal the glide area and then put some swix rub on for the scales.

Sure. All good and all fair game. There's no right and wrong, black or white, democrat or republican, etc, etc, etc.  when you ski the Hinterlandian way.  

Low angle love - no worries, just fun. Count me in!

Today was a beautiful day for forest management in the Hinterlands. Inspired by the folks over in VT, TD and I took a hike into the backbush armed with saws, axes and other implements of destruction. With great care and a fair bit of effort, we realigned our access route, created a new LZ for Bonk Hill and developed a new trail pod at Bonk that we are calling The South Bowl (until a better name comes up). Skiing this area will have to wait for some significant snowfall as there are few strategically placed lumps of granite to cover up. Following that effort, we opened up a new connector trail over to the Jackrabbit Trail and the bottom of Secret Hill, featuring a number of old-school blazes made with an axe. We like to think that Jackrabbit would have been pleased. We didn't do too much work at Secret Hill, but I did chop down one offending tree and we developed our master plan for the future development of Skier's Left.

Maybe Dave will post the one picture he took, I forgot to bring a camera.

Here ya go. SBR, earning  his season pass.  

Ironically, this image shows me dragging brush that we cut several years ago and stashed in a place that we now realized was a nice little chute.

Note rocks on looker's left. This zone needs snow. Bring on the lake effect.

How much vertical do these runs have. Like Bonk Hill or Secret Hill what kind of vertical are you guys talking about approximately ? I’m working on some friends backyard glades tomorrow and the ascent out of the valley. We’re looking at a ridge of about 200 feet on a nice northeast slope to an old logging road. Seems small but we’ve had fun in years of snow. We’re hoping to make the up easier tomorrow. Also hoping for snow this season. We seem to have some of those same kind of granite things.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

 This zone needs snow. Bring on the lake effect.

You're on !

Hudsonhiker wrote

How much vertical do these runs have. Like Bonk Hill or Secret Hill what kind of vertical are you guys talking about approximately ? I’m working on some friends backyard glades tomorrow and the ascent out of the valley. We’re looking at a ridge of about 200 feet on a nice northeast slope to an old logging road. Seems small but we’ve had fun in years of snow. We’re hoping to make the up easier tomorrow. Also hoping for snow this season. We seem to have some of those same kind of granite things.

Bonk Hill is a little over 100 feet of consistent vertical. The new entrance will give a little more. Really, it is 10 turns of joy, 10 minutes from my house. Secret Hill is a little longer and we ski other zones that approach (gasp!) 300 feet or more. Make the most from what you have. Making the up easier is key.

This is Bonk Hill:

you get really good at transitions, skiing around these parts!

Chuuurles wrote

you get really good at transitions, skiing around these parts!

Very true. I am sure that you will get way faster at it now that you have left the Alpine Trekkers behind.

Chuuurles!  Welcome back brother!

Thanks Harvey, i always creep :)

Any interest in some trail work this Saturday?

Fat David and I spent a day with Jeff The Chef as our guide/boss, on a trail maintenance mission.

 
Heavens Gate (its much lower in the winter..can't find my pictures from January)


The boys firing up the hand saws and axes.


A new line, this is around mid station, on the main pitch.


This is a fall line run, I cut down the main pitch of Turning Japanese. Only the bowl is above this and the new line i just mentioned is directly below. I cleared this line to a pretty high standard. No surprises except for obvious rocks and trees  

 


The next lines were cut off the western ridge (?) sorry dont know how to describe the area.
Here is David toiling away

This line is more Xtreme than it looks :P

can u see it?                                                                                                                ^

This leads into Lebowski, excited for the multiple options at the top around the big cedar tree!

Finally a nice reward for the work!


Thanks again The Chef !

Solid effort, gentlemen! When are you putting up the rope tow?

For you non-Hinterlandians, these lines are way in the back of beyond. Same general area described in this TR from 2015.

It hadn't snowed for so long, once it did I forgot to take picture of the snow chair. You'll just have to settle for this stunning image of my neighbour's woodland automobile collection:



The night before last, both Blue Toes and I heard wolves howling at different times of the night (to be technically correct, these are most likely wolf/coyote hybrids but it is easier to call them wolves). Yesterday afternoon, I decided to go for a wolf-tracking hike to see what I could find. I left my wolf-bait dog in the house, and set off on foot.

I found some good prints, and followed then over hill and dale for two hours. Men's large glove for reference.



There appeared to be a group of wolves tracking some deer. No kills that I could find.



This wolf sat down for a rest:



Of course, they went through the impenetrable swamp:



Snow fleas were out in abundance:



Those critters cover a lot of ground in a nightly prowl. I hiked down into the valley, looped back out of the valley, back down the hill again and eventually over to the base of Bonk Hill, one of our favourite glade runs. Bastards went straight up the fall line, huff puff.



Halfway up the hill, one of the wolves took a leak. Just thought you'd like to know!



Then they stopped to check out a deer bed:



Towards the end, it was clear that I was following a gang of four. It was very interesting to observe how they would come together, walk single file for a while, spread out and then come back to walk in a group. Research done in our area shows that packs of eastern wolves tend to stick together more in the winter, hunting in small groups.

nice, tracks are covered now i bet :)

That is some awesome critter tracking SBR. Love it

Thanks, Brownski, it is fun to do. You can learn a lot about animals by following them around.

In other news, LeChef and I took a break from waiting for the snow to pile up in the woods and did a little WROD skiing yesterday. Long time friends of ours run have been running a mobile telemark school called Ski Telemark for over 30 years. They deserve a Nobel prize for their dedication, promotion and love of tele skiing. This was the 31st annual Warm-Up Day, traditionally held at Mount St. Louis - Moonstone Resort once again. Holy smokes, that place has some impressive snowmaking power. They went from fast grass to three lifts and eight runs in a 72 hour period. As the owner said to our group at dinner, "we put the hammer down."

Holly is the director and co-owner of Ski Telemark. Here she is in her element, cheerleading, organizing and spreading the gospel of telemark.



Yes, that is the summit you can see in the distance. There is 550' vertical, with 36 runs spread along a ridge. They piled up fill to add vertical some years ago.



How often do you get six tele skiers together on a six-pack, or 40 in one place at one time? I could only get three in the frame but  trust me, they were there.



This crew of of 70-somethings took a lesson from Ski Telemark when they were in there 50s and got hooked. One guy got so into it that he invented a step-in binding compatible with duckbill boots. Though several prototype versions were built, he couldn't convince any binding manufacturers to take it on, due to high production costs.



Close-up of the binding, it is a work of art.

Snowmageddon in the Hinterlands! Full report later with chair pics.

The chair tells the story. This taken around noon today, when the snow bomb exploded over my house. Two-thirds of the accumulation has been over the last 48 hours. It is still snowing.



TD decided that getting home safely was more important than skiing, so I was just heading out on my own when my cell phone started vibrating n my pocket. Nobody calls my cell, WTF? It was our new recruit Karl, off work early and at home just down the road. "Come on over," I say.

Karl getting psyched. He's a pretty good tele skier but confessed that his tree skiing experience was a bit limited.



So of course I let him go first. "Aim for the spaces between the trees," I advised.



He ate it a few times. Then lamented that he should have bought the Annums instead of the Epochs. Yup.

Turns were good. That one tree we cut made all the difference.