Crested Butte Mountain Guides has a few spaces left on our Colorado Spring Ski Mountaineering Camp being held in Crested Butte on April 8-11, 2010. As the resorts close, it’s time to go bigger and badder, so learn the technical skills of ski mountaineering from AMGA Ski Mountaineering Certified Guides in this 4-day camp. $525 / person. Call us 970….349.5430 or visit our website for more info: www.crestedbutteguides.com

Starting last Friday, the Crested Butte Backcountry has been getting pounded with intermittent storms, leaving almost 2 feet of fresh powder in some places ! To start off President’s Weekend, CBMG Owner/Guide, Jayson Simons-Jones arrived fresh off a trip to the winter wonderland of the East Coast to find himself in waist deep champagne powder in the Kebler Pass Area outside Crested Butte. Here are some pics from the week….

Then the beginning of this week brought classic Colorado sunny blue skies and beautiful backcountry powder skiing. With CBMG having a few different trips taking guests out into the Crested Butte backcountry to enjoy all the fresh turns to be had.

John Dugenske, a CB second home-owner, and fresh off the plane with his family from Chicago, joined CBMG Guide JSJ for 3 laps out at Coney’s, and got “some of the best powder skiing of my life”  in.

The Page’s, from the Colorado Front Range joined CBMG Guide, Steve Banks, for an overnight backcountry hut tour to the posh and relaxing Maroon Cabin in Gothic, CO, for 2 days of powder skiing, getting away from the bustle of the ski slopes and everyday worries of the ‘plugged-in’ life.

Tuesday, Shane Murphy, joined us from Boulder, CO, for another beautiful bluebird powder day out at Coney’s again, with CBMG Guides JSJ & Chris Benson, for 2,000+’ of classic Colorado backcountry skiing !

The end of this week and again this weekend, Crested Butte is poised to get pounded by another significant looking winter storm, which will hit the ‘reset button’ on the backcountry and we will be getting out there to do it all over again. Now is the time to join us for a great Colorado backcountry ski tour, and with the US Freeskiing Championships taking place on Crested Butte Mountain Resort with a large contingent of local athletes competing and spectating, the Crested Butte backcountry will be in prime condition with no crowds! Call to book your trip today….

 —-CBMG Staff

We tend to forget when we are snuggled into our little ski town with a 9 month winter that there are people out there who don’t ski.  Heck, we had a woman from Georgia join us for two days of snowshoeing and nordic skiing last week who had never set foot on snow before.  Most of the locals here have diversified their winter recreation so much that  they have a garage full of winter gear (see Employee Gear Closet Vol 1, Vol 2, and Vol 3), but there are many who come to visit us who aren’t quite clear as to what the difference is between all those skis.  Let’s concentrate on what exactly backcountry skiing is in the first place.  A lot of people have a misconception that telemarking is the only way to ski in the backcountry.  While this may have been true in the early days with bandana donning skiers in jeans and 3 pin bindings, at this point there are many ways to travel in the backcountry including telemarking, alpine touring, and snowboarding.  And again, let’s ‘narrow our search results’ to alpine touring.  Alpine touring (AT) is the closest you’ll get to downhill skiing (as in skiing the groomers at Vail).   Let’s take a moment and see what makes an AT boot different from an alpine boot:

So a couple things here.  First off, ‘walk-mode’ or ‘tour mode’.  This is what is going to keep the skin of your feet attached to your feet.  Anyone who has toured in their alpine boots without a walk mode can attest to shedding some epidermal layers in the process.  Feet/boot problems can be a brutal penance suffered every step–comfortable boots really are the key to backcountry touring happiness.  So essentially the walk mode allows the boot to pivot with your leg when you are skinning.  Another difference in AT boots is the sole.  Typically AT boots have a rubber sole that allow for more graceful walking in rocky terrain, better grip when boot packing, and even on the steps coming out of the bar for that matter.  You shouldn’t use your AT boots in a Alpine binding as the release capabilities are different.  Next difference is the Dynafit tech inserts.  These are the little holes that the pegs from Dynafit (or the new G3 Onyx) clamp into.  Not all AT boots have these–It’s probably 50/50 Dynafit bindings/Fritschi bindings in the backcountry ski world.  If you have a Fritschi touring binding (or a Marker Duke), no real need to have the inserts, but you’ll still have the other inherent AT boot qualities (walk-mode/rubber sole).  Some BD Boots have interchangeable toe pieces to make your boots both Dynafit compatible as well as Alpine ISO DIN compatible, but that’s another blog. . . .Next difference in the Alpine Touring world is bindings–these are Dynafit bindings and they are a far cry from a step in alpine binding.  AT bindings allow the skier’s boot to release from the ski when skinning with  the pivot point at the toe of the boot, and then locks the heel down when you are ready to make downhill turns.  Like I said in the previous paragraph, there are two obvious choices in backcountry bindings–Dynafit or Fritschi.  Dynafit bindings are significantly lighter, but are also significantly lighter–something that a lot of aggressive skiers don’t necessarily want.  A Fritschi step-in binding (or the also prevalent Marker Duke) is heavier to tour with, but skis more like a traditional alpine binding.  It’s a little easier to get into a step-in binding, but ultimately it’s up to the skier to decide if they would rather have an incredibly light, efficient set up, or if they want something that’s heavier to tour with, but will be more powerful for the downhill turns.  Personally, I love the lightness of a Dynafit bindings, and they give me plenty of return on the downhill for my type of skiing.   
Next integral piece of equipment you’ll need when venturing into the backcountry is skins.  These are what you put on the bottom of your skis to give you traction on the skin track.  They are either made of nylon or of mohair, and adhere to the base of your ski with a layer of sticky glue as well as tension.  You won’t have residual glue on the base of your ski after you rip your skins off (at least, you shouldn’t!), and it’s best to keep that side of your skin free of debris or dog hair or anything else that will keep it from sticking properly to your ski.  Wall to wall coverage is another important factor–if you don’t have wall to wall coverage on the base of your ski, your day just got a whole lot harder–depending on how nice the person is that set the skin track, sections of steep climbs or kick-turns can be brutal with skins that don’t cover the full base of your ski.  Get a skin with a width 10cm under the tip width of your ski–this gives you the best coverage without trimming an excessive amount of skin. 

Lastly is the backcountry pack that should have 3 items at all times–Beacon, shovel, probe.  These are REQUIRED tools for backcountry travel and they should be required for your ski partner as well.  If your ski partner forgot their shovel, let them borrow yours!  Seriously, every member of your backcountry party should have these items and more importantly-know how to use them.  It’s also incredibly useful to take a Level 1 Avalanche Course to clue you in to basic backcountry travel as well as teaching you the basics of using your beacon, shovel and probe.

Starting last week winter has again returned to Crested Butte, dropping over 3 feet of fresh in the backcountry, and still snowing once again as of today! Timing of these storms could not have been better as they arrived in time to kick off our second sold-out AIARE Level 2 Avalanche Course of the season.

Along with all this snow, was also had a natural avalanche cycle and a brief window of high avalanche danger, allowing for some optimal learning conditions of which to study snow stability analysis…the core of the Level 2 curriculum.

All the snow has also been bringing some excellent backcountry ski conditions, with the warm and wet nature of the storms allowing instabilities to settle out relatively quickly for a Colorado snowpack and of which to enjoy some fantastic backcountry ski touring conditions with decreasing avalanche danger.

This week, we are also promoting our newest package with Cresed Butte Mountain Resort, in offering a guided backcountry skiing adventure through CBMR & CBMG. Get a full Dynafit AT set-up (skis, boots, bindings, skins) a lift ticket, Mammut Avalanche Package, and AMGA Ski Guide for a lift accessed excursion onto Snodgrass Mountain for some backcountry turns. Returning to the base area via chairlift and a quick stop at Camp 4 on mounatin for a coffee before a final ski back to the base area. All for $416 / person.

And…..finally…..Crested Butte Mountain Guides is finally taking bookings for the brand new ‘CS Irwin’ Snowcat Skiing operation at Irwin. Call us to reserve your cat seats today.

–CBMG Staff

Crested Butte Mountain Guides is proud to announce our latest trip offering for the Winter 2010 season…..Our NEW ‘Intro to Backcountry Touring Course’

This is a 3-hour mini-tour offered in conjunction with The Alpineer. It is designed to introduce beginning backcountry enthusiasts to the use of alpine touring skis and skins, how to use an avalanche beacon, skinning techniques, and of course, some backcountry powder skiing.

Cost is $150 for 1 person; $100 each for 2 or more people. The Alpineer is offering $20 backcountry rentals for this program (skis, bindings, skins, boots). Tours will be offered daily from 9-12 & 1-4 and need to be booked at least 24 hours prior through the CBMG offices.

Over the Xmas week, longtime backcountry ski guest of Crested Butte Mountain Guides, Jason Leonard & I went out and got in a few days of great fresh powder turns despite the lack of any new snow in a while now. Once again, coming straight from Oklahoma didn’t hinder him at all, as we went to some shorter ‘lap’ type places where we were able to get in between 3 and 5 laps for totals of about 3,000′ of vert each day.

Great powder skiing, clear but cold weather, and a lack of any other backcountry skiers on our terrain all 3 days made for a wonderful experience, and one that Scott Palk (another Okie) juumped in on to experience with us on the 3rd and final day.

The big news, was Jason’s new switch to a Dynafit set-up for his backcountry skis. A longtime user of the K2 Mount Baker ski, with Fritschi Freeride’s and Garmont Endoprhin’s for the ability to use this set-up both on and off-mountain, after many miles of ski touring with me on my Dynafit’s, he is now a convert.

Freshly outfitted with some Dynafit Manaslu’s, Dynafit F12 binders, and Garmont Radium AT boots, he is now even more stoked then ever to be out in the backcountry ski touring with me, and is now also skiing better then ever and now (unfortunately for me) hiking like a CB local jacked up on too much Camp 4 Coffee.

As always, thanks for spending some of the holidays out in the Crested Butte backcountry with me making some turns. Looking forward to doing it again this year, and to making some turns in Alaska as well this spring !   And over 2 feet of fresh snow in the Crested Butte backcountry this week, means there is plenty more powder skiing to be had out there for the rest of you also….

–Your Guide, JSJ

Well, it’s here ! Crested Butte is getting pounded by our first big winter storm of the season, with 24″+ in the last 24 hours, with more in the high alpine, and more on the way!

Itching to get some backcountry powder turns in, a few of us guides decided to brave the winter burliness this morning and try and get some turns in, as well as get a handle on what is happening with avalanche conditions during our first natural avalanche cycle of the season.

What we found was a lot of new snow, with cold temps and gusty winds near treeline, creating very poor visibility and an incredibly touchy snowpack, as anything over 25 degrees seemed to be cracking and collapsing.

The sheer amount of the new snow, coupled with our previous thin and weak snowcover, meant ski penetration was full depth, resulting in lots of leap frogging a downtrack between us, the occasional load of powder being too much for forward momentum, and a few great face shot worthy backcountry ski turns on the steeper slopes.

Looking forward to letting the snowpack settle out a bit over the next few days, and then really being able to get after it.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)

This is a delayed posting from the winter storm that hit the Crested Butte area the week prior to Halloween. Great skiing and quite a bit of snow for late Oct !!

This past weekend Crested Butte was again hit with another winter storm, dropping 18″ of snow in the high country and settling in with current nighttime temps in the single digits. Folks…..winter is here !

Besides our usual offering of guided winter backcountry adventures, look for some new and exciting offerings from Crested Butte Mountain Guides this winter as well, such as: An AIARE Level 1 Cat Skiing / Avalanche Course; CB – Aspen Ski Tour; expanded terrain offerings for our CB Adventure Guides program with the ski resort; another spring trip to the world-famous Haute Route;  a spring multi-sport desert combo mountain-biking & climbing or skiing trip in the Utah / Western CO desert; and stay tuned to our website for up coming info on the re-opening of the Irwin Lodge Cat Skiing operation…book your cat ski trip through the CBMG office today.

Pray for more snow—

The CBMG Team

]]> http://www.cbguidesblog.com/first-turns-of-the-season/feed/ 1 http://www.cbguidesblog.com/employee-gear-closet-vol-1/ http://www.cbguidesblog.com/employee-gear-closet-vol-1/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:29:57 +0000 cbguides http://www.cbguidesblog.com/?p=1263

It’s that time of year when we look in our garage, dust off the skis and evaluate if any significant gear purchases are needed or if some things need to be sold off.  It’s the season of ski swaps as well, an excellent venue for making a little extra cash, get a good deal on some touring gear, or to do some trolling for vintage gear.  Ski Swaps can be like ‘Antique Road Show’ for mountain folk.  Or you can get some great collectors items like when Pat O’Neill was selling his skins at last year’s Nordic swap (who knows how many races have been won with those skins!).  I’ve worked a number of swaps and I used to deal with a lot of gear, so I thought I’d start this winter season with a look at my own gear closet. 

I think for living in a ski town and working at a gear store, I’ve kept it pretty minimal with 3 pairs of skis (exluding my skate and nordic gear).  Let’s start with the Movement skis.  Movement is a little known Swiss company that is just starting to gain some ground here in the US.  The Freeheel is their assymetrical tele ski and I gotta say–I love them.  They’re great on the resort, but also nice to tour with.  Their line seems pretty ‘new school’, but across the board, their skis have gotten incredible reviews.  They don’t get that much press (I don’t think they were even included in Skiing Magazine’s Gear Review), but if you get a chance to demo them, you should.  Although then you’ll want to buy them, which could be bad. If you have a recession proof job–go for it!  But if you don’t, don’t even ski them–it’s better off just not knowing.  I put a Voile Switchback on them which I think is the most trouble free of the tele touring bindings.  I’ve tried the 01 and the Ascent, but I really like the Switchback for it’s even flex and it’s reliability.  It’s streamlined–not a lot of parts to break or have issues with and it flexes the most like my old hardwire Chili’s, which were my favorite tele bindings.

Next up is the Dynafit Mustagh Ata, or my ‘Lion King’ skis as Jayson once called them.  If you can get past the crazy chinese lion eyes staring back at you while you are skinning, then you’ll fall in love with this ski.  It’s amazingly light, but still very stiff.  I never drop the knee in the backcountry anyway, so these are my go-to skis for touring.  I’ve had these for a couple of years, and I’ve had so many good days on them not matter what the conditions are (except breakable crust–I just can’t have a good day on breakable crust no matter what skis I have).  They are mid-range in terms of width and I’ve never felt like I needed more ski or should have a thinner ski.  Incredibly versatile.  And of course Dynafit bindings speak for themselves.  I’ve never felt the need to go with the fancy-smancy FT12 binding, the Comfort has always been good to me.  Although I think they are discontinuing the Comfort, so the ST would be my choice.  If I could click my heels three times and get another pair of skis, I’d get the Manaslu’s–love those for deeper powder days.  But if I was searching for a one and only pair of AT skis, I’d probably go with the Mustagh ATA Superlights which are new this season. As far as the Phat Luv’s–I wouldn’t take those in the backcountry unless I was being towed on a snowmobile by Dan Locknecker for every run; the bindings make these fairly heavy. I did have a day of towed skiing up by Irwin last winter with these and they were just the ticket.  When we’re in a nice storm cycle, these can’t be beat for an awesome day on the  hill. I can’t believe I did it, but I did–I sold my Mega Rides this year. I’m trying to keep a stasis in the gear closet and I knew I wanted to get a slightly stronger boot than the Mega Rides, and I’m a Garmont girl, so I went with the Luster. It replaces last year’s Radium (for the ladies) and I swear they feel lighter than my Mega Rides! I’m excited about the wrap around cuff and the stronger flex. I haven’t skied them yet, but I know they’re going to be awesome. I’m now realizing I really could have taken better pictures . .. For tele boots I have the Garmont Elektra (white and silver) and my old Venus boots (blue) that I learned on. I really only ski the Elektra’s, but I keep the Venus’ around for the sole purpose of a lighter boot for the Al Johnson.   Also note my Puma’s there which were my indoor soccer shoes from high school that  are close to 20 years old (which after doing the math, I still cannot believe), I still cannot throw away.  They are literally ‘blue suede shoes’–I mean come on. 

You may be asking yourself why I included a picture of two random pieces of fabric–well this may be the most important $20 that only costs $1.32 to make piece of fabric in your gear closet!  The Buff!  Yes, we made fun of all the Europeans that wore them years ago (and when we saw them on ‘Survivor’ used as tube tops), and then we made fun of our friends that came back from Europe lauding the benefits of the buff, and then we made fun of our friends that wore them after getting them as a prize for the Randonee Rally, and then we finally bought one ourselves. . .I don’t know why this small piece of fabric makes such a difference, but it does. It’s often exactly what you need to shield your face from pin pricks of flying ice, or a little extra warmth around your neck, or the classic ‘buff/visor’ combo (which still makes me laugh at you, but just a little). I may have a Buff photo collection by the end of the season. All the guides love their Buffs. . .

My last favorite item that has proved extremely valuable in the backcountry is my Patagonia Down Sweater Jacket. This is the pullover from last year, but I think making it a zip up is a big improvement. It’s so frickin’ light, and so frickin’ warm. Perfect for when you get on top of a ridge and the wind is howling–it’s like wrapping a sleeping bag around you. It’s light enough not to be a burden in your pack and compact enough to squeeze on under your shell.
Well, that’s some of the items in my closet. We’ll be featuring some other employees of CBMG and find out what’s in their closet. I’ve heard that Jayson has 18 pairs of skis. . . let’s find out.
–Karina Steele (CBMG Office Manager)

Join us this Saturday at Alison’s house in town for the biggest ski gear sale of the season, with all the local pros, rippers, and guides selling all their used, slightly used, or still new ski gear.

—CBMG Staff