Jay Powder Day!

At long last Ullr has smiled upon us and our prayers have been answered in the form of a bout a foot of snow across Northern New England!  Anticipating this long overdue dose of snow, Rob, Ziehl and I cranked out a week of work in less than days, loaded up the car and hit the road bound for Jackson NH, where we crashed at the Denaro residence.  Armed with a fire-hazardous quantity of coupons and discounts, we set our alarms for 7:30 AM.

Winter Readiness: New Kicks

I think I'm about as ready as I'll ever be for the upcoming snow season, and now so is my car: new wipers, synthetic oil, new brake pads, new rotors, and the pièce de résistance: studded snow tires imported straight from Finland.  Alright winter, let's see what you've got!

New Years Day Tucks Expedition

Thoroughly fed up with the lackluster in-bounds skiing thus far, and more interested in shredding gnar (there was no real pow, but there was plenty of gnar) than partying our guts out, Rob, Ziehl and I set our sights on a New Years Day 2012 Tucks Expedition.  We rolled out of bed around 7:30, and some how managed to squander a solid two hours of precious daylight before hitting the trail just after 9:30.


View New Years Day Tucks Expedition in a larger map

The Tuckerman Ravine Trail was about 50% water ice mandating some sort of traction.  Rob and I strapped crampons onto our AT boots; while Ziehl, with the winning combo, raced ahead with trail runners and Micro-Spikes.  No part of the trail was skinnable.

On the way up we encountered the Hermit Lake caretakers who confirmed that there may indeed be some half decent skiing to be done in the bowl.  They also assured us that the Avy Fx was essentially unchanged over the last 12 hours and generally favorable.  With so few potential slide paths even in existence with this unseasonably thin snow pack, only isolated and small instabilities could be expected.  We decided to head into the bowl for a closer look at our prospective lines.

The bowl, looking pretty gnarly...

Winter Readiness: Dual Dynafit Duke Binding Insert Mount

Here's the deal: this is going to be a lengthy walk through regarding mounting AT bindings on skis.  Be forewarned: this should be fairly dry unless you are specifically interested in the process.  If you're not you might consider skipping this one.  Or maybe just look at the pictures.

And I should probably also make a brief disclaimer.  I have no formal training in performing any of these activities.  As qualification, I offer only my reassurance that I take my skiing very seriously.  Anyway...

Peaked Mountain and Middle Mountain

Here's another great hike for those in the mood for a great alpine view, but without the time or energy for a more ambitious full day hike.  Best of all, this hike is literally moments from down town North Conway, for your après-hike convenience.  Here's a quick overview:


View Middle and Peaked in a larger map


The hiking is fairly quick, and the views from the top serve as ample reminder why you came out in the first place!  Through the trees a few peaks at Mount Washington can be had, but the real highlights are the Southern Presidentials, the eastern slopes of the Pemi, and the Sandwich Range.  See for yourself:

Mt. Chocorua

North Conway, Cathedral, the Southern Presis...

Chocorua Again

Sandwich Range

Gear List (click links for more product info):

Winter Readiness: Thule Repair

Among the casualties of last year's epic ski season was my Thule Mountaineer: a fifteen year old ski bin which I picked up last fall, second hand for $150 bucks, sight unseen with help some help from my friend Rob and the TGR Gear Swap Forum.  The thing had been in some guy's garage for God knows how long, but it had clearly seen some action.  The hardware had seen better days; I immediately replaced the mounting bolts with new ones borrowed from my kayak carriers.  The whole thing mostly held up for the duration of the winter, but towards the end of season some fractures in the shell began to develop in a few isolated spots.  Hoping to get some extra longevity out of my investment, I endeavored to repair things before it worsened.

The patient: some severe cracking to the left and below the latch.  Possibly
a stress point? 

The second region of concern: less complex pattern, but larger and
precariously closer to an edge.

The same crack as above shown from the inside of the box.

The proposed plan: drill out the intersections and endpoints of all of the fractures to prevent them from propagating any further and and then attempt to repair the material using some kind of plastic cement.  My Dad dug around the basement and eventually came up with something which claimed to cause localized melting and subsequent re-bonding of many typical plastics.  I figured I'd give it a shot.

A power drill and the smallest bit which will span the largest of the cracks...

Rear fracture: drilled out endpoints and intersections.

Side fracture.

Side fracture after applying the cement to the outside.

Side fracture with cement applied to the inside.

Rear fracture with cement applied to the inside.

Rear fracture after cement from the outside.

Side fracture after a few ski and hiking trips.

Repaired rear fracture.

Repaired rear fracture from the inside.

So far, so good.  I've loaded it up pretty heavily and gone for a few long road trips and it's still in one piece. I have to imagine it's not as strong as it originally was, so I hesitant to claim that it's permanently fixed, but for now I think it'll get the job done.  If this plastic cement eventually fails, I may try using some kind of fiber glass.

Gear List (click links for more product info):

Winter Readiness: Winterized Zipper Pulls!

On the surface, this post is almost silly.  But I assure you, the only thing silly about it, is that the industry hasn't gotten their act together and done this themselves.  Alas, the industry is frequently swayed toward form before function.  Anyhow...

...If you're wearing your ski jacket, then you're probably wearing your gloves and you probably have all you can do to access all of the zippered compartments of your jacket or day pack with your maimed manual dexterity.  They give you about an inch of string or fabric to clutch onto with a finger with is like two and half inches thick.  OK, I exaggerate slightly, but you get the idea.

Winter Readiness: Shakedown Cruise

With winter fast approaching, Ziehl and I figured it was about time for a pre-ski season shakedown cruise on Franconia Ridge. In light of our lofty backcountry skiing ambitions, we felt compelled to benchmark our conditioning on familiar grounds. I also was interested to see how my new shell pants and jacket would perform in alpine conditions. And, with little else to do besides take in the view one step at a time, mountains make the ideal place to get fired up for the upcoming ski season by endlessly speculating as to the snow conditions of various aspects, potential challenges on the approach, estimated ratio of fun to effort...you get the idea. Any way, here's the map:


View Franconia Ridge November 2011 in a larger map


The forecast was for a high in the mid 40s, mostly sunny, and light breeze.  When we rolled into the parking lot at 9:30, it was mostly cloudy and very windy.  We threw on our shell jackets, packed our bags and hit the trail eagerly.  

Winter Readiness: Black Diamond Factor AT Sole Block Install

In the spirit of the recent post regarding testing my winter load-out, I decided to document my various winter preparation activities just in case any of this eclectic trivia or minutia should be of use to anyone else out there. (And judging by the searches by which people seem to arrive at this site, at least some of this might be useful information...) So, here's the first topic in the Winter Readiness series: How to install a set of AT Sole Blocks on the Black Diamond Factor boot.

15 Miles

Last weekend Ziehl and I pulled off our multi-day Bigelow Range / Flagstaff Lake excursion, as per our plan discussed earlier.  Our party unfortunately unraveled towards the last minute, with the final roster consisting of just the two of us.  We made some quick logistics adjustments (less cars, less boats) and went for it.  As it turned out, our shortened roster would actually be the least of our troubles before the end of the trip!  The full trip report follows.

Autumn Adventure

Last Sunday Deb, Ziehl and I decided to head up north for a day hike, some cool temps and some fall foliage.  Our specific plan: Hit the road at 7 am, arrive at Lafayette Place around 9 am, and start hiking.  Really, the plan was to wing it.  We had the vague notion that we should hike Kinsman, since none of us had done it before, but the details didn't fully evolve until later, during the course of the hike.

The Bigelows, Revisited

It's been a while since I've been hiking, nearly a year since I've had the pleasure of visiting Maine, and even longer since I've been kayaking, so with these things in mind, Tripp and I hashed out a plan for a multi-day, multi-mode excursion in the Flagstaff Lake region.

Winter Readiness: Winter Expedition Loadout

With winter fast approaching (October is next week, November = ski season!!!), I've been stocking up on various new gear items and thought it was about time to see that they all actually work together.

In particular, I recently wangled a GoPro, chest harness, and spare mount kit at a stupendous discount.  I kinda don't want to mount it to my ski helmet for a few reasons: it's completely outlandish looking, and I hear it tends to pop off if you wreck really hard.  So, I decided to spring for the chest mount.  My major concern with this decision was whether it would actually fit reasonably well with all the rest of the stuff I expect to be wearing if I'm actually skiing some place worthy of the GoPro.  Despite the stifling, disheartening, and entirely unseasonable temperatures in Boston lately, I got decked out in just about every piece of technical gear I own to see whether or not this is even feasible.

Torrey Pines

This past weekend I was out in San Diego for LBK and Emily's wedding.  Amid all of the pre-wedding hustle we found time for good old fashioned outdoors fun.  LBK brought us out to Torrey Pines State Reserve, where we went for a great walk through the hills of SoCal which abut the coastline in so many places.  This is another great hike if your pressed for time, but are in the mood for some great scenery.  And since San Diego has virtually the best weather possible, you can just show up whenever you feel like it and enjoy the scene.

Finally...

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