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.

Much of our efforts in developing a safe back country traction kite design have centered around a quick and reliable venting system. The UpSki vent system and vent line retraction and brake systems have worked extremely well but we are looking for a light weight, low bulk version to work with the new super lightweight back country design. In the past couple of years Kite Boarding and Skiing have begun to use emergency release systems. Here is a review of some them as they might be used with UpSki Equipment.