Mountain Canopy

John and Sara Stanford visited mid-May to work on the UpSki, travel to Leadville with Kristie and I for dinner at the Grill and just have fun.  We then worked on some new concepts for a lightweight Mountaineering UpSki. The best of John’s hours of work back at his shop might have been the new anti-inversion grid created from lines instead of tape. More testing needs to be done and this year we have so much snow that Indy pass did not open on Memorial Day weekend (which was early in that cycle). The smaller control center is very close to being a workable design with some work to do on the vent line retraction method.

We continue to hear from a special group of individuals who want to use the UpSki design to aide in their back country fun. Canopy Serial Number 109 was recently acquired by Kevin Passmore in Glenwood Springs. He has 5 years of snow kiting and 4 years of backcountry skiing experience. He said “I love that when I launched this the other day (for my first time), I wasn’t even slightly concerned by the 100yrd wide space & 360deg variability in wind direction-  I would have never even considered launching a kite in such conditions.”

The Stanford visit featured on snow testing on Loveland Pass and John’s photo’s from that outing will be posted soon. Over the years John and I have continued to consider new designs that would improve the sport or lower manufacturing costs. My garage and John’s attic contain a variety of canopy prototypes and venting systems. All tests to date have resulted in the same conclusion that the original UpSki design designated the “Explorer Model” is still the best design for Alpine Ascent. Now we are trying to make a lightweight version but with the same design, after all it has worked well for over 22 years.

John Stanford, upski co-inventor, designer and sewing geek extraodinaire, has been cooking up some new equipment to meet the needs of the Colorado Back Country crowd. He will be in town next week for on snow testing. As you can see from these photo’s the sport of UpSki and it’s equipment continue to evolve. And Yes Greg, that is your cargo canopy that is getting refitted. The focus will be on a smaller canopy with a new anti-inversion grid and lightweight control center. Skiing down should be more fun as well. John Stanford is a well known designer and builder of custom Photography equipment, check out his website.

Speaking of fun, John and Phil hooked up (via websites and email) with an old friend from Virginia Sky Diving days, Rocky Walker who now goes by the stage name of Maximillion Cletus Booteah, exceutive pilot and song writer. His website is www.thatsongsux.com

Also fun was the discovery that the musical video clip created by John’s buddy Pete was posted to YouTube by www.upski-jp.com (upski Japan). Much of The footage was shot by Brian (Stinky) Stephenson on Independence Pass, Loveland Pass and Lake Dillon. It features Jon Harrington (in lime green pants), Tim Moran, Betsy Cuthbertson and Phil Huff. If you know your skis and boots you might guess the era. 

 Jon Harrington, who has been UpSkiing almost from the beginning of the sport, suggested to his neighbors Dan and Clarice that learning to ride the wind might make for a fun afternoon. A major winter storm was arriving as they UpSkied Loveland Pass on the last day of April.  Great Fun, Dan made so many laps so quickly that he was just a blur in the background of these pictures.  Speaking of Jon, here he is on YouTube.com riding with Dan and Clarice in the video footage and some stills from Tunnel Bowl.

Greg Dietl was on another part of the mountain with buddie Tod, so all in all there were 6 canopies active. Dan and Clarice borrowed Mike and Betsy Cuthbertson’s canopies. The snow softened to the point of being mush but did not have much if any freewater. May has started with another storm cycle so UpSkiing looks good to go until Late June this year. 

 Long time Breckenridge buddies: Brian, Pete and Bud took a windy UpSki ride in tunnel bowl on Sunday the 20th. Huge Cornice on the white wave area of the bowl, some of them approaching 20 feet of vertical. After brief checkout, Pete followed buddies Brian and Bud out of the base area by the Tunnel complex. Even with winds gusting to 50 MPH the mountainside was quickly tamed and wind powered ski lifts were everywhere. With the strong wind came a whole bunch of smiles and hours of fun. Check out the slideshow here.

Unknown to us, Jon Harrington of the Red Baron Canopy fame, arrived later and UpSkied across the bowl from our position.

 Warren has climbed almost all of Colorado’s Fourteeners and extensively ski tours. So for him, strong gusty winds were just to be expected on his first UpSki outing. Tunnel Bowl and the peaks above and beyond it are often used for training walks by Warren and his friends, on this day, he got the fast ascent version.

The winds were forecast to be 15-25 with Gusts to 40 and the wind guage a mile away later showed why we were tossed around with such force. Gusts were actually to 60 mph and average winds in the 30-40 range.  After a few training runs we got a pretty solid ride into the lower valley.  One particular strong gust caught Warren working on his venting technique. Clearly this isn’t golf but even so, a sudden blast of wind helped create the perfect Buettner Divot . While we sought the shelter of the wind protected lower valley we were still getting very strong wind.

Not to let a little body slam get in his way, Warren followed me up to the 12,000 foot level and the upper bowl. The ride was hot but with the stronger than forecast winds we skied out.

Pretty impressive day for a senior mountaineer.

 Paul decided that he would try that funny sounding sport outing offered by his wife Mary’s Technology Instructor. So one of the first UpSki visits into the Tunnel Bowl was launched on 4/5/2008 with Paul, game to go. After some instruction and almost no wind to speak of, things picked up for Paul and me as we made it to the upper bowl above the 12,000 foot level in a few minutes. Click on the picture above to see a slide show and map of the 1,000 vertical foot playground.

This year we are using Twitter to keep everyone up to date on those Instant UpSki adventures. www.twitter.com/UpSki is the link and if you follow on your phone then you will have the latest information.

Big winds and lots of snow, just the March forecast we had in mind. The back country remains “multi-faceted” in more ways than one. Coming down will continue to be more dangerous then going up but expect to trigger deep hard slabs on almost all aspects. Winds have remained W thru NW for most of our weather cycles. Some very strong winds occurred last night so all of the BC rules will have changed this AM. Everything but West facing is now rated considerable. Friday afternoon is our next scheduled UpSki outing and it looks like Loveland Pass if the winds stay NW.

We had to laugh, Greg Dietl was having Lunch at Mango’s in Redcliff, CO the other day and encounterd some Snow Kiter’s who said that they had heard of UpSki but that it didn’t work except in narrow wind ranges for ascent. We laughed, this is what we have been saying about kites for years! Actually Kites have improved in their high wind handling but still nowhere near the 8-60 mph range of the UpSki. As for ascent, Kites fly in the stronger winds 9o feet above the terrain which helps them gain energy but for going up in a 20 mph wind it would be hard to beat the UpSki.

Here is an excellent Ozone Snow Kite Movie about wind mountaineering using traction kites. The movie starts with ski mountaineers  skinning up, much later the Ozone kite team arrive and race to the top in just a matter of minutes. The point isn’t that the ascent is faster, it is of course, but it is so much more fun.  Racing uphill using a traction kite is to experience a pure backcountry freedom. Which equipment is better suited for alpine ascent? We like the UpSki for several reasons including it’s wind range and ease of use on steep terrain. In the right terrain the kite looks like a blast as well.  However you get back there ….

It is Bud’s Birthday and like the rest of us he is ready to get into the backcountry for some more UpSkiing. Bud and Tanya skied Aspen Highlands Sunday, Breckenridge on Friday and Saturday. I skied with Greg Dietl Friday morning. We have been getting some great snow!

Jon Harrington and I skied A Basin and Montezuma Bowl this morning. A shift of wind to the Northwest kept up from UpSkiing on Jon’s Birthday. We had a run down before clouds, wind and snow white-ed us out. The new lift is excellent and reaches well down the backside of the ‘basin. Here is a picture from last year, before the bowl was lift served. Here is the slide show for that day.