Gorgeous day today, temps started in the upper 20's and by the time I got back to the truck into the mid 30's- perfect! Snow was a little iffy towards the top with the sun out, was getting some pretty bad sticking- I need to get some skin wax and keep it with me. I was rolling with my Frost River Summit- the perfect size for a long day out in the winter- I don't skimp on shelter bits this time of year (bivy, light quilt, down parka, ccf pad, etc) as well as carrying a decent size saw and axe.
I recently added a sternum strap and sewed some leather loops on a small accessory pocket so I could keep items like map/compass, few bars, lip balm, etc handy- worked extremely well.
The base layer I'm wearing is a wool net affair from Aclima, my first outing with it and I'm already sold. I started out with a midlayer over top, but as I climbed it was too much and shed it, wore just the base layer to the top where I broke for a little lunch. The top stayed extremely dry despite the effort up, just layered a windshirt over it when I stopped and it was perfect.
found a nice little spot for lunch- that pole is a Tiak- it's what the Altai people use skiing in lieu of poles
tools brought
the Tiak did double duty holding my water bottle for boiling water
nothing like a hot cup of mocha at 7500' with 3+' of snow!
headed back down all the bad snow was gone, replaced with extremely fast snow! the Tiak did a pretty good job of slowing me down when needed, it also aided in making turns on the trails- I fell a couple of times (also helps getting up!), but I think with poles I would have fell a heck of a lot more
the trip out was almost half the time of the trip in, that's the biggest advantage I see to the Altai Hok skis over snowshoes- I simply can cover more ground in a day- not a ton faster climbing, but descending- a lot faster
thanks for reading!
I recently added a sternum strap and sewed some leather loops on a small accessory pocket so I could keep items like map/compass, few bars, lip balm, etc handy- worked extremely well.
The base layer I'm wearing is a wool net affair from Aclima, my first outing with it and I'm already sold. I started out with a midlayer over top, but as I climbed it was too much and shed it, wore just the base layer to the top where I broke for a little lunch. The top stayed extremely dry despite the effort up, just layered a windshirt over it when I stopped and it was perfect.
found a nice little spot for lunch- that pole is a Tiak- it's what the Altai people use skiing in lieu of poles
tools brought
the Tiak did double duty holding my water bottle for boiling water
nothing like a hot cup of mocha at 7500' with 3+' of snow!
headed back down all the bad snow was gone, replaced with extremely fast snow! the Tiak did a pretty good job of slowing me down when needed, it also aided in making turns on the trails- I fell a couple of times (also helps getting up!), but I think with poles I would have fell a heck of a lot more
the trip out was almost half the time of the trip in, that's the biggest advantage I see to the Altai Hok skis over snowshoes- I simply can cover more ground in a day- not a ton faster climbing, but descending- a lot faster
thanks for reading!
