Yeah, but what those rec.bc folks don't know is that skate skis are JUST
the tool on thos spring crust days. Just ask Mark Nadell (the Sierra
crust cruising maniac)!

First of all, I wasn't using skating skis. For the record, I can ski
skate, and fairly well, with a pair of thin telemark skis and telemark
boots. The metal edges glide fairly well.

Secondly, other than breaking through the snow, the skis I was using were
pretty good. I wasn't the only one on light equipment out there. If we
wouldn't have taken the last segment of the trail, at the end of the day I
would have considered my equipment selection to be OK.

A shovel on the other hand might be wise for reasons other than
avalanches.

Maybe using it to knock some sense into yourself? ;- )

ha ha...


Sorry to be so hard on you-- consider it tough love.

Hah! Imagine the welcome this would get on rec.skiing.backcountry,
talking about using skate skis and a light shell on a February
backcountry day excursion in Canada. Well said, Chris. -- GG



First of all, this wasn't true back country. This was ski touring as in a
ski set trail. True back country skiing is about skins, trecking off
trails, etc.

Secondly, have you ever skied in Canada in February ? It was a very warm
day the day we were out. Above freezing. The reason it was cold in the
valley was due to a cold air pocket caused by: shadows from the mountains,
it was beneath a glacier and no wind. Later in the day I was warm and
others were overheating. Was it really such a stupid decision ? Compared
to the people in sweat pants I was in excellent shape, clothing wise. They
were wet, I was dry.

People can sit back and criticize me and my story as much as they want. I
relayed the events of the day and emphasized mistakes we'd made for the
purpose of learning, both for me and for others. I made them look black
and white, but during the day they weren't so obvious.

The BIG mistake of the day was routefinding and not paying enough
attention to it. The other mistakes were more tradeoffs than mistakes and
that is kind of the point of the story: there is a fine line between
tradeoffs and mistakes when skiing in the wilderness AND the conditions
can change VERY quickly, making what was once a trade off, a BIG mistake.