My son the veteran took me the rookie for a bit of skinning action today in Little Cottonwood Canyon at Alta, UT.
I've done downhill skiing for over 50 years and dabbled in cross-country skiing and snowshoeing for almost as long. But this was my first day of skinning in alpine touring equipment. I used my own downhill boots and an extra pair of downhill skis (Volkl Ones, 186cms length, 116mm width) with AT bindings that my son loaned me. He set me up with a pretty heavy rig, but we only did two climbs at Alta; 1) to the top of the Albion Double Chair liftline, and 2) a shorter, but steeper climb from the Wildcat Base to Lower Rustler.
It was a beautiful day on the mountain with blue skies and about 4-5" of new snow. There might have been a hundred cars in the Albion lot, but people were very dispersed and trail traffic was light. For our climb up the Albion liftline I saw about three skiers, two snowshoers, one hiker, and two tobogganers.
The veteran and the rookie.
This is what it's all about! And good motivation during our first climb.
The veteran displays his climbing technique.
Devil's Castle is still there. What a beautiful day!
Albion liftline skiing.
View from Wildcat Base. We climbed up the intermediate run to right a short way and then caught lower Rustler to left.
This photo gives a sense of the number of cars in the parking lot beside the Goldminer's Daughter Lodge at about 1PM.
Traversing over to Lower Rustler.
Mission accomplished.
It was sad driving by a very lonely looking Snowbird resort.
My conclusion about skinning is that it's a whole lot of shuffling for relatively little schussing. But skiing is skiing and it felt good to get out there 20 days after my last lift served day
I've done downhill skiing for over 50 years and dabbled in cross-country skiing and snowshoeing for almost as long. But this was my first day of skinning in alpine touring equipment. I used my own downhill boots and an extra pair of downhill skis (Volkl Ones, 186cms length, 116mm width) with AT bindings that my son loaned me. He set me up with a pretty heavy rig, but we only did two climbs at Alta; 1) to the top of the Albion Double Chair liftline, and 2) a shorter, but steeper climb from the Wildcat Base to Lower Rustler.
It was a beautiful day on the mountain with blue skies and about 4-5" of new snow. There might have been a hundred cars in the Albion lot, but people were very dispersed and trail traffic was light. For our climb up the Albion liftline I saw about three skiers, two snowshoers, one hiker, and two tobogganers.
The veteran and the rookie.
This is what it's all about! And good motivation during our first climb.
The veteran displays his climbing technique.
Devil's Castle is still there. What a beautiful day!
Albion liftline skiing.
View from Wildcat Base. We climbed up the intermediate run to right a short way and then caught lower Rustler to left.
This photo gives a sense of the number of cars in the parking lot beside the Goldminer's Daughter Lodge at about 1PM.
Traversing over to Lower Rustler.
Mission accomplished.
It was sad driving by a very lonely looking Snowbird resort.
My conclusion about skinning is that it's a whole lot of shuffling for relatively little schussing. But skiing is skiing and it felt good to get out there 20 days after my last lift served day