Whites River backcountry

Just back from a week backcountry up around Whites River and Schlink. Saw some people the first day, then only the two of us for the rest of the time, until the run out.

Cold temperatures, and three solid days of new dry snow - MAGIC!

Photos linked from Flickr

The beautiful skin up to the Rolling Grounds


Part of the ride down, blissful.


And how did the new sled go? Pretty well really. Not too much drag on the uphills or in the deep snow on the way out, and very nice to not have the weight resting on my shoulders. A fair amount slower than when I tour with a rucksack, but can you have as many luxuries then? Fresh baked choccy cake, goats cheese and mushroom crepes, and much much more... On the side slopes it performed reasonably well, although I learned early to try to get the centre of gravity as low as possible. The most evil situation was skiing across slumping snow bridges on creeks, having to turn it accurately to get the sled to climb straight out the other side rather than flip when climbing on a sharp diagonal. Pretty eassy to turn with the hips.

The new O1 bindings and the jak bcs performed fantastically. Longer stride length and no energy spent on bellow flex was well worth any weight penalty.