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#1
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TR Utah visit
I'm having lots of fun in my visit to Salt Lake City -- excellent snow cover
and warm weather make a nice change from the Northeast U.S. What I've been doing so far: -- Mill Creek Canyon + Mountain Dell -- cross-country and video at Alta -- backcountry tours in powder snow I arrived on Monday afternoon and headed straight for Mountain Dell -- no single killer climb, but plenty enough hills on this one-time World Cup course to put my flatlander lungs into searing. Track firm by Utah standards, but when I strayed too far from the center, or I poked my pole way down into the snow several times. A fun place, despite being a golf course right next to Interstate 80. Tuesday afternoon: So much snow this year, I was able to start a steep-ish backcountry directly from a normal city street with residential houses. More searing while climbing up on skins, and after half an hour I was half-lost. But then I figured out where I was, and enjoyed some nice turns coming back down in "decent powder" (Northeast terminology) or "old consolidated snow" (Utah terminology). Wednesday: Three hours of skating at Mountain Dell -- with no searing in my lungs any more. Finally learning to skate slow. Tried Vordenberg's Hot Feet drill -- I find I'm liking the Nathan Schultz "slow tempo but immediate leg-push" variation. Thursday: Heard the reports from Chris and others about XC skiing at Alta, so Sharon and I drive up there. Along the way Dave calls my cell phone and invites me to join him and other partners on a "super" big backcountry tour on the weekend to take advantage of the unusual snow conditions. Alta cross-country: Wow these Utah skiers are animals! The Alta trail map says that the Albion area has green novice trails, but they'd be super-expert anywhere else. After a hundred meters of climbing I just gave up. I asked someone wearing an Alta jacket what I should do, and he said I should get up the hill by riding on the lifts -- so that's what I did. Going down, I saw the signs for "Easier Way" and followed them. At first I was tentative on my Madshus Hypersonic 3x3 skate skis and Pilot boots, but then I passed a couple of people with yellow Pilot boots, and I felt more in control when I got back to the bottom. So then I decided to try the "blue" trails, so I rode up the Supreme lift, and made lots of stem christie turns all the way down. My next exploration was the Sugarloaf lift, and I decided the "black" trail was worth a try, so I made a bunch of stem christie turns down the "Sugarloaf Bowl" trail. I was kind of amazed that the plastic(?) edges on my race skate skis worked on that hardpack snow up so close to the windy ridge. (I had been wondering how those Sierra adventurers could do those big backcountry traverses without metal edges, and now I have a clue.) Videos: Sharon took some more videos of my V1 technique at Alta -- I've fixed a couple of things, but still too much up-and-down motion, and not enough push out to the side. Friday morning: Backcountry tour with Eric. Like Chris suggested, the north-facing shady areas still had some fun powder snow. We had a wild time dodging trees and going air-borne off soft snow pillows. Mill Creek Canyon on Friday afternoon: Excellent grooming of a wide snow-covered road that goes up, and up, and up. Great place to fix those V1 mistakes uncovered by Sharon's videos of me at Alta. More on the Hot Feet drill. I'm passing classic striders and walkers, no other skaters. Feels better than I've ever skated before. But I have to stop after 13 minutes, and again after another 5 minutes, and again and again. It feels so powerful that I can't make myself do it slowly. Made it to the top, start skiing back down, and . . . Lots of skaters climbing up -- really good skiers. So every time I reach one, I stop my descent and turn around and follow them up a ways, to see what I can learn. Best politically-incorrect exercise: A woman skating up with her poles held horizontally across her waist, turning from side to side with each leg-push, and seeing her poles turn with her. So I tried it, but not for long. What a mind-blowing idea, skating up Mill Creek Canyon with no poles -- and smiling. (Do not get into a race against her) A few minutes later I come to a guy with a full beard climbing with a quick V2. In my dreams. I did not try to copy him. When I finally got to the bottom of the snow and my car, my face muscles felt nearly frozen. So that's what all those skaters had in those little backpacks: extra clothing for the descent. Ken |
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#2
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TR Utah visit
Sharon and I continued to have a great time around Salt Lake for another
three days. Saturday we followed Chris Cline's suggestion of looking for backcountry powder on the ridge between Big Cottonwood and Mill Creek Canyons -- and found a nice downhill run -- after a moderate pretty approach under another bright blue sky. Not real deep or light snow, but plenty good enough for us Easterners, with only two other tracks there before us. White Pine Touring in Park City was our XC center for Sunday. It's got the biggest set of gentle trails we've found there so far, and another sunny pleasant day. Then we went down to the hillier Farm area, and Sharon took lots of videos of me climbing the first big hill on the loop. After that I inflicted some pain on myself doing repeats of the Junior Team trail. Overall the strongest skating I've ever done. We slipped in another hour at Mountain Dell before we drove to the airport and flew home in the evening. My first lap I got behind a slower but solid skater, and got some more excellent practice on how to skate _slow_ up the hills. Second lap I allowed another skater to gradually leave me behind. I was also working on fixing some things I saw in the yesterday's videos. And it was working -- my best day of controlled-pace skating ever. I could have stayed another couple of days, but without any fresh snow in the backcountry, I decided to go home with Sharon. Then I was rewarded by new snow at home -- pleasant ungroomed skating in our local city park, under _bright_ sunshine (unlike the city parks of the Salt Lake City valley). Alta -- Someone pointed out to me by private Email that the designated _cross_country_ trails at Alta are _not_ the ones I was on, and the real XC ski trails there are much gentler than I described. Ken |
#3
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TR Utah visit
Ken Roberts wrote:
Alta -- Someone pointed out to me by private Email that the designated _cross_country_ trails at Alta are _not_ the ones I was on, and the real XC ski trails there are much gentler than I described. Yes, the trails you mentioned are lift-served alpine ski trails, not XC trails. I didn't even know Alta had designated XC trails. Can anybody provide more info about this? There's nothing on their website... (P.S. Sorry for coming to the party late, but I was Googling on XC options near Alpine skiing and this post popped up. It seemed recent enough to warrant a reply.) -- //-Walt // // http://tinyurl.com/3xqyq |
#4
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TR Utah visit
Alta does have XC skiing. It is turning into the early season (usually
early November) training area for many SLC skiers. It is not the most challenging area and the loops are small, but at 8500 ft you definitely get altitude. For those familar with Alta, the loops are on each side of the transfer tow from the Wildcat base to the Albion base. The other area is up the "summer road", a nice climbing workout. It is the takeoff for many backcountry tours and usually has a good surface. A map is located at the bottom of the page at http://www.alta.com/trail.html Click on the map to get a more detailed view. Dan Vargo SLC, UT In article , Walt wrote: Ken Roberts wrote: Alta -- Someone pointed out to me by private Email that the designated _cross_country_ trails at Alta are _not_ the ones I was on, and the real XC ski trails there are much gentler than I described. Yes, the trails you mentioned are lift-served alpine ski trails, not XC trails. I didn't even know Alta had designated XC trails. Can anybody provide more info about this? There's nothing on their website... (P.S. Sorry for coming to the party late, but I was Googling on XC options near Alpine skiing and this post popped up. It seemed recent enough to warrant a reply.) |
#5
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TR Utah visit
Daniel Vargo wrote:
Alta does have XC skiing. It is turning into the early season (usually early November) training area for many SLC skiers. It is not the most challenging area and the loops are small, but at 8500 ft you definitely get altitude. For those familar with Alta, the loops are on each side of the transfer tow from the Wildcat base to the Albion base. Thanks. I don't know how I missed it on the trail map. Sounds to me like this is more like poling around the base area of a downhill resort than getting off into the woods to explore. -- //-Walt // // http://tinyurl.com/3xqyq |
#6
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TR Utah visit
--0-1683732688-1075835614=:13985
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Alta has something like 5 - 10 K of groomed nordic track in Albion basin and circling the rope tow between the "Goldminer's" base area and the Albion base area. It's essentially down in the meadows along the streambed, and rolls up into the foothills below Rustler. The Albion Basin road is also good for skating without having downhillers hurtle past you-- it ascends with several switchbacks from the Albion base area up into the basin proper. Chris Cline SLC, UT Walt wrote: Ken Roberts wrote: Alta -- Someone pointed out to me by private Email that the designated _cross_country_ trails at Alta are _not_ the ones I was on, and the real XC ski trails there are much gentler than I described. Yes, the trails you mentioned are lift-served alpine ski trails, not XC trails. I didn't even know Alta had designated XC trails. Can anybody provide more info about this? There's nothing on their website... (P.S. Sorry for coming to the party late, but I was Googling on XC options near Alpine skiing and this post popped up. It seemed recent enough to warrant a reply.) -- //-Walt // // http://tinyurl.com/3xqyq --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! --0-1683732688-1075835614=:13985 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii DIVAlta has something like 5 - 10 K of groomed nordic track in Albion basin and circling the rope tow between the "Goldminer's" base area and the Albion base area. It's essentially down in the meadows along the streambed, and rolls up into the foothills below Rustler. The Albion Basin road is also good for skating without having downhillers hurtle past you-- it ascends with several switchbacks from the Albion base area up into the basin proper. /DIV DIV /DIV DIVChris Cline/DIV DIVSLC, UTBRBIWalt >/I/B wrote:/DIV BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"Ken Roberts wrote:BRBR> Alta -- Someone pointed out to me by private Email that the designatedBR> _cross_country_ trails at Alta are _not_ the ones I was on, and the real XCBR> ski trails there are much gentler than I described.BRBRYes, the trails you mentioned are lift-served alpine ski trails, not XCBRtrails.BRBRI didn't even know Alta had designated XC trails. Can anybody provideBRmore info about this? There's nothing on their website...BRBRBR(P.S. Sorry for coming to the party late, but I was Googling on XCBRoptions near Alpine skiing and this post popped up. It seemed recentBRenough to warrant a reply.)BRBR-- BR//-WaltBR// BR// http://tinyurl.com/3xqyqBRBRBRBR/BLOCKQUOTEphr SIZE=1 Do you Yahoo!?br Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=21608/*http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/"bTry it!/b/a --0-1683732688-1075835614=:13985-- |
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