Mountain Canopy

 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.

Think of the back country as a series of huge mouse (or Rat ) traps. Slide out onto a large smooth surface of white, creamy cheese and after a few sweet turns you hear a pop. Your world breaks into large, bone crushing, unpalatable blocks; a second later you are jumping for the bigger blocks as you attempt to ski down and out. A split second after that your world becomes white and engulfed. Survival at that point is just luck.

 This winter has created many of these slab traps on all slope aspects here in the central Rocky Mountains. Back country travel is much more dangerous than usual and will continue to be dangerous into the spring. We subscribe to http://avalanche.state.co.us/Forecasts/Vail+Summit+Co/ avalanche forecasts and recommend that everyone support this project.

UpSkiers, as have many back country skiers and boarders, been involved with near-misses. One a bunch of years ago, in the early days of the CAIC is discussed at the UpSki Website here . UpSkiers have trigger slides while ascending slopes but that is more rare than upon descent, the wind is supporting much of your weight on the way up and if you are lucky enough to trigger the slide close to your position then it is likely you will be lifted above the fracture line.  The danger with UpSki is that you get to the top of the mountain and realize that you don’t have a safe route down. More than once we have walked back down a rocky ridgeline after realizing while ascending that we didn’t belong there. UpSkiers have to consider that they are moving up and across slope at speeds which don’t give them much time to gather data. Sometimes we “hover” on the edge of the slope with our weight in the harness, canopy partly vented, and use our ski poles to check snow conditions. The best plan is to just avoid pockets of “considerable” danger, stay on the ridgeline and consider the fact that descending will be required.

Welcome to UpSkiing, Wind Mountaineering and adventure in the alpine back country. This blog is mostly an ongoing discussion between UpSki Inventors John Stanford and Phil Huff about the equipment, maintenance and use of UpSki gear. Catagories include Canopy Design, Venting Systems, Release Systems and the UpSki Experience.