Sledge, Pulk?
 

mccannam sed:

On Jan 20, 9:15*pm, BGhouse wrote:
mccannam sed:

Has anyone built a sledge or pulk for towing your gear while xc
skiing?

Just putting the fitting touches on a pulk I'll be using during a Ski
Patrol Mountain Travel and Rescue course. *Here's my write-up on it:

http://webpages.charter.net/bghouse/SkiPulk/

Doesn't address your tracked trail requirement.

Thanks BG, that's useful site for building a pulk, I wish I would have
seen it sooner. I'm using the 7' pvc pipes for my person to sled
connection. I figure if it gets too cold I'm not going, but if I'm out
there and then it gets cold....

It seems a whole lot of folk use PVC without a problem ... Maybe carry
a simple repair kit with some kind of sleeve that could be
glued/taped/clamped over a break. OTOH, I plan to use a tow line as a
back-up to the tracers.

Funny thing, the Erapro sled is made about 20 minutes from my house
yet I only found out about from you.

Ain't that the way it is. I spent considerable time looking for a local
source, then ended up ordering it from REI.

I'm going to add some suspenders to my waist belt as I discovered that
there is a significant downward pull on the belt that had me hiking it
up every once in a while.

I've heard of that. One solution I heard was to attach it to a day
pack. I'll keep that in mind during sea-trails!

Good luck.


--
BG - W Michigan

Sledge, Pulk?
 

On Jan 21, 5:51 pm, BGhouse wrote:
mccannam sed:



On Jan 20, 9:15 pm, BGhouse wrote:
mccannam sed:

Has anyone built a sledge or pulk for towing your gear while xc
skiing?

Just putting the fitting touches on a pulk I'll be using during a Ski
Patrol Mountain Travel and Rescue course. Here's my write-up on it:

http://webpages.charter.net/bghouse/SkiPulk/

Doesn't address your tracked trail requirement.

Thanks BG, that's useful site for building a pulk, I wish I would have
seen it sooner. I'm using the 7' pvc pipes for my person to sled
connection. I figure if it gets too cold I'm not going, but if I'm out
there and then it gets cold....

It seems a whole lot of folk use PVC without a problem ... Maybe carry
a simple repair kit with some kind of sleeve that could be
glued/taped/clamped over a break. OTOH, I plan to use a tow line as a
back-up to the tracers.

Funny thing, the Erapro sled is made about 20 minutes from my house
yet I only found out about from you.

Ain't that the way it is. I spent considerable time looking for a local
source, then ended up ordering it from REI.

I'm going to add some suspenders to my waist belt as I discovered that
there is a significant downward pull on the belt that had me hiking it
up every once in a while.

I've heard of that. One solution I heard was to attach it to a day
pack. I'll keep that in mind during sea-trails!

Good luck.

--
BG - W Michigan

If you are jerry rigging a pulk set up- check out the Chariot ski set
up and how the telescopic poles attach (at an angle to the pulk), as
well as the beefiness of the hip belt (any large pack belt would
work)- I find it works very nicely and it is not cheating to look at
some proven designs : )
sounds like fun!
cheers,
K

Sledge, Pulk?
 

a pulk behind skis.

Has anybody a similar report for pulk behind snowshoes? I don't
have any kind of sense of balance, so skis are not on. Travelling
on snowshoes is a lot faster than falling down every 20 seconds.
Socks

Sledge, Pulk?
 

On Jan 22, 11:23*am, Puppet_Sock wrote:
apulkbehind skis.

Has anybody a similar report forpulkbehind snowshoes? I don't
have any kind of sense of balance, so skis are not on. Travelling
on snowshoes is a lot faster than falling down every 20 seconds.
Socks

Hi, I finished my pulk, I walked around with it just to see what it
would be like and it pulled fine. You might want to shorten the poles
a bit as it seems like the snowshoe tracks have tighter corners. mm

http://mark.mccanna.googlepages.com/pulk

Sledge, Pulk?
 

I've got the Chariot ski kit - this works very well with the skis a
lot wider than normal tracks so it doesn't sit in the tracks (but
doesn't sit on them and damage them). Not sure of the exact
dimensions, but not convinced that's terribly important either.

Sledge, Pulk?
 

mccannam wrote:
Hi, I finished my pulk, I walked around with it just to see what it
would be like and it pulled fine. You might want to shorten the poles
a bit as it seems like the snowshoe tracks have tighter corners. mm

http://mark.mccanna.googlepages.com/pulk

Sorry to be so late finding this thread.
Here is a manual that tells how to build a pulk:
http://www.skipulk.com/images/pulkbook.pdf
The poles work real sweet, I use them when I winter camp.

Ed Huesers
http://www.grandshelters.com

Sledge, Pulk?
 

I've had good luck with ski-sleds that just had the skis bolted to the
sled with wood-slat back-up so bolts wouldn't pull thru the plastic. I
didn't try to keep the camber in the ski as is pictured at the one
link---it seems like the load will eventually bend over the bolts.
Well, we use our ski-sleds for ADULT sledding as well as for pulling
stuff around! We find that the plastic sled bends with the camber of
the ski anyway.

I vaguely recall 9.5" being a good comfy ski track width (when I built
a track-setter). There was a thread here years ago on the variations---
I don't recall the standard. If you're off by an inch it feels
awkward!

We connected our poles just with simple rope loops---never had
failure.

I always GREATLY prefer shock-absorbing poles. And the poles are
always CROSSED for good turning.

I made my poles with a dowel, eye-hook, hollow alum conduit that the
dowel could slide inside of, bungee cord. It worked great for classic
striding, for skating, for shoeing. (I agree that shoeing could use
shorter poles for tight terrain.) I remember doing some fun adjusting
of pole-length and bungee length to keep skis from hitting the sled
and to absorb my entire ski-lunges.

With any kind of heavy load a suspended pole is needed otherwise you
have a wretched sense of starting/stopping all that momentum no matter
what your mode of travel. Maybe there's a place for a rigid pole,
though.

Have fun!

I'll do a photo write-up on this at my OYB site sometime. My pulk is
presently disassembled so I can't provide pics right now.

--JP
outyourbackdoor.com

Sledge, Pulk?
 

jeff potter wrote:
With any kind of heavy load a suspended pole is needed otherwise you
have a wretched sense of starting/stopping all that momentum no matter
what your mode of travel. Maybe there's a place for a rigid pole,
though.

The poles I use are 1/2" diameter solid fiberglass and can be
obtained in any farm supply store. They are sold for putting up electric
fences.
I too experienced the hercky jercky motion until I got the entire
linkage so it had no slop in it. Now the pulk and I travel as one.
I've skied full speed down through the trees with the pulk in tow
and had no problems.
I've also had the sled roll over when the weight was loaded to high
and I was traversing a side hill. The poles twisted up like pretzels but
were fine once I took off the waist belt and untwisted them. I can't
imagine this with metal poles.

Have fun!

Yes, always.

Ed Huesers
Http://www.grandshelters.com

Sledge, Pulk?
 

[ jeff potter ]

With any kind of heavy load a suspended pole is needed otherwise you
have a wretched sense of starting/stopping all that momentum no matter
what your mode of travel. Maybe there's a place for a rigid pole,
though.

I've heard that people travelling over glaciers with a really heavy
pulk (think skiing to the South Pole) sometimes use really long, rigid
poles. The theory being that if you fall through a snow bridge the
pulk stays on top and the poles hold you up. I'm a bit skeptical, as
you usually make a big hole if you fall through with skis on, but it
might be better than nothing.

Around here (Norway) many people ski with their small kids in pulks. I
think the poles currently are aluminum mostly, and they're hinged in
the middle for easier transportation. This is the most popular one:

http://fjellpulken.no/


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

Sledge, Pulk?
 

In article ,
Martin Thornquist wrote:
I've heard that people travelling over glaciers with a really heavy
pulk (think skiing to the South Pole) sometimes use really long, rigid
poles. The theory being that if you fall through a snow bridge the
pulk stays on top and the poles hold you up.

The problem is that this presumes your sled's travel is perpendicular to
the line of the crevasse and not colinear to the snow bridge. Most of
the time: it won't be. Skis are very good distributing weight compared
to unshod walking boots except for very wide crevasses as in large enough to
swallow a sno-cat (think Mawson's Will and his ponies breaking
through snow bridges). Then the ski gives you a false sense of security
until you get to the thinnest part of the bridge.
You can get over thin Antarctic snow bridges with skis
which you can't do with a sledge.

I'm a bit skeptical, as
you usually make a big hole if you fall through with skis on, but it
might be better than nothing.

People trying solo traversals and winter ascents of Denali have tried
horizontally carrying ladders or long strong poles (and back packs). The
advantage on temperate/continental glaciers unlike ice sheets is that
you have an idea of flow direction and some sense (but not always) how
crevasses run (rememeber: not always like bends/turns).

N. Uemura's body has never been found on Denali, and he used this solo glacier
travel system.

--