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Interestingly strange contest: Win 7-days of heli assisted ski touring with Greg Hill

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Many of you probably know Greg Hill or at least his name. He is often being referred to as “The Million Feet Man” for touring one million feet in one season, all self propelled trips.
And because I have great respect for Greg and for all the projects he has accomplished I can’t help but to find the heli assisted ski touring contest presented by him interestingly strange 🙂

The contest

The contest is offered by Canadian Mountain Holidays, the biggest heli skiing company on the planet, with Arc’Teryx, and Greg, I guess:
“CMH Heli-Skiing & ARC’TERYX want to know What Inspires you to Ski Tour. Make a movie – tell us why you love to Ski Tour. You could win a 7-day Heli-Assisted Ski Touring trip with CMH, ARC’TERYX and Backcountry Legend, Greg Hill. See www.cmhski.com/arcteryx for more details,” according to CMH write up on YouTube. The web page provided doesn’t reveal too much more detail.
You can watch the contest promo video with Greg here:

So what is interestingly strange about it?

To me the contest is interesting because it is strange. There are two things that are quite strange about it:
Firstly, why would you make a movie or write an essay about why you love to ( or what inspires you to) backcountry ski and tour so much, if the prize is something on the opposite end of your spectrum, and maybe values.
GM my as well announce a contest to let them know why you love to drive a Toyota Prius and the top prize will be Cadillac Escalade.
And secondly, strangely enough the contest is presented by Greg Hill, the man that built his name and reputation on hard work in the mountains – by touring NOT flying, way more than almost anyone else.
It is true that I don’t know the 7-day trip’s itinerary, therefore I am not going to make any assumptions, however, I still find the contest interestingly strange 😉
Also, I don’t know whether the contest is presented by Greg Hill the ski guide, or Greg Hill himself, the ski mountaineer. Not sure whether that makes a difference or not but it is a curiosity.
And this may be the idea behind the contest, to make a little controversy. It certainly caught my attention.
I wish luck to anyone that enters the contest and would love to hear how the trip went down. With Greg, it is going to be fun for sure, but I would like to hear how much the helicopter was used.

Rogers Pass: Significant changes to Winter Permit System

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Since the end of the last season the System underwent significant changes that were introduced to public at the beginning of this one.
Anyone that skies or skied at Rogers Pass most likely knows about the Winter Permit System that is in place to keep the winter recreating public safe, however, now the rules got a bit more strict and some new restricted areas were created.

What is the Winter Permit System in short?

Skinning up inside Cheops restricted area.
Skinning up inside Cheops restricted area.
“The Winter Permit System allows backcountry users to enter Winter Restricted Areas that are affected by the highway avalanche program when artillery gunfire is not anticipated,” explains Parks Canada website.
In other words, it is in place to make sure no one will enter areas when they are under gunfire via avalanche control work that is conducted to keep the transportation corridor open.
The Winter Permit System divides the park into three types of areas:

  • Winter Prohibited Areas are closed to visitors all winter.
  • Winter Restricted Areas are where permit holders can only ski here on days when the area is posted as open.
  • Winter Unrestricted Areas of the park are open to visitors all winter. No permit is required.

How does it work and what is new?

From a skier point of view the permit system used to work this way:
Any time you or your group intended to ski in a winter restricted area you had to drive up to Rogers Pass Center, find out what’s open and what is not, and apply for a permit.
Then one of you filled out the permit and off you went to where it was open – meaning the area was not controlled by avalanche professionals for that day.
Since the changes were introduced this process changed a bit. In some ways it means more hassle, more restrictions but in some ways it makes things easier and makes rules more clear.
Now there are two ways how to apply for a permit to a winter restricted areas:
1. The old way with a change:
As before, you drive up to Rogers Pass Center and fill out the permit there. But as of now, everyone in the group needs to fill out a permit and sign a waiver. A bottom portion (stub) of the permit of each one’s permit needs to be placed on the dash of your car. The bigger slip goes with you on the trip.
2. The new way:
You apply for an Annual Winter Permit – for free – at the Rogers Pass Center (RPC) and you will be set for the rest of the winter without needing to drive up to RPC each time you want to ski in a restricted area. To get your Annual Winter Permit you need to sign couple of waivers and sit through one of the orientation sessions that are being held twice a week at RPC.
The Annual Winter Permit consists of two “credit card like” looking cards. One has a photo of you on it and you carry it with you on your trips. The other one needs to be placed on the dash of a car that is used to access the area.
Of course, you can access a restricted area only when it’s open. To find out what is open you can either visit Parks Canada website or call this number: 1-250-837-SKIS (7547).
Benefits
An obvious benefit for those that ski the Pass regularly or couple of times a season is that they don’t have to drive up to the Pass every time they want to ski in a restricted area.
Hassles
For those that ski the Rogers Pass only a few days per season it means driving up to RPC to get a permit any time they want to ski in a restricted area. And each member of the group has to fill out the permit and sign a waiver, each and every time.
New restricted areas
There are three new restricted areas that are very popular locations – McGill, Cheops North, and Grizzly Shoulder. That means that you will have to apply for a permit any time you intended to ski here, unless of course you have the annual permit.

Skiing bottom parts of Grizzly Shoulder and looking towards Cheops North (with Hourglass), both are new restricted areas. Photo by Reiner Thoni.
Skiing bottom parts of Grizzly Shoulder and looking towards Cheops North (with Hourglass), both are new restricted areas. Photo by Reiner Thoni.

Why all these changes?

Based on Parks Canada website: “Changes to the Winter Permit System are based on concern for public safety – due to expanding terrain use by backcountry recreationists and the operational need to separate recreation activities from avalanche control actions. Boundaries to Winter Restricted and Prohibited areas have been adjusted in order to firmly apply accepted standards of 1000 metre standoff from artillery targets.”
In other words, until now skiers were exposed to the same danger but now that is no longer acceptable 🙂
Now more seriously – it is a concern now because people are skiing at places they never skied before and the highway avalanche program professionals feel that there would be potential accidents if these changes weren’t made.
Also, a part for initiating these changes was how backcountry users were dealing with railway tracks – crossing them or just walking on them.
By law, crossing Canadian Pacific Railways tracks is trespassing on CP property. Therefore, some crossings and access points have been evaluated and re-established. And make sure to not walk on tracks at all. You can walk parallel to them but at least 16m away from them.

What you should do? What others think?

Parks Canada is making a great effort to make sure that the public has access to as much terrain in Glacier National Park as possible. Therefore, we should all behave in such ways that won’t compromise future use of this great terrain by getting us shut out via some highway corridor safety or CP property issues. The priority is on safe public travel and transportation, so be good guests for the sake of all of us.
Understandably, some local or frequent skiers to Rogers Pass feel that something is being imposed on them that restricts them in a big way. I might agree in some ways, however, I think we should give the new changes a chance and re-evaluate them at the end of this season.

What do you think? Want to learn more?

Changes to the System is a bit of a hot topic among the Rogers Pass winter users these days. Therefore, you are welcome to express your opinion about this topic and discuss it in the comments below. It would be interesting to see what people thing.
To learn more details about the changes in Winter Permit System you can visit Parks Canada website – Winter Permit System.

Must see: Ski like James Bond

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I came across this footage on my friend’s blog – www.skialpinizmus.eu – and thought to share it with as many people as possible would be great. Have good laughs and make sure to pay attention to James Bond’s gear 🙂

My equipment guesses:

  1. The watch at about 10 seconds in looks like a hybrid of old Cassios and one of the first HP printers.
  2. Don’t know about the one piece ski suit, but he sure didn’t need any base layers like we do now. Any guesses?
  3. Best piece of equipment Bond used is still being used today.
    I believe the backpack he had is Arc’Teryx Arrakis 50 liter. It looks the same.
  4. Skis are most likely Rossignols judging based on the ski tip art – Gallic rooster. See at about 49 seconds.
  5. I have no idea what the goggles were, whether his or the bad guys’.
  6. And I would like to find out what ski poles Bond was using too. They seem very cool with that shooting feature.
  7. Ski boots – no idea.
  8. I know nothing about parachutes and BASE jumping but Shane McConkey would have been proud of Bond for sure. He would have had good laughs too.

About the movie

The clip is from a movie called “The Spy who Loved Me” from 1977. According to Wikipedia it was filmed at many locations. Based on those listed this scene could have take place in Swiss Alps and at Mount Asgard on Baffin Island. More at Wikipedia.

Your guesses

Anyone have an idea about the equipment used in the movie? Funny or serious, share your thoughts.

Ready for winter? How crazy is too crazy?

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As backcountry skiers, we all have most likely been in a situation where we had to “justify” ourselves as backcountry skiers to someone else. We had to explain that what seems crazy to most is very natural to us.
As a society, I believe, we are now a bit too far beyond the safety boundaries, and I mean on the safety side. If you don’t have a mortgage, take course for everything you want to try and don’t take a shower at least twice a day, you are close to be an outlaw by today’s standards.
Then of course many people literally think that you are crazy just because you prefer to ski in a human-uncontrolled enviroment.
We all know that backcountry skiing is potentially dangerous but we understand, through experience, that you have a lot of control over your destiny while gliding down untracked slopes.
Is there then anything that a backcountry skier considers to be crazy? Apart from scientists and politicians what is too crazy for us?
Well, no one can define for anyone else but the below video shows something pretty darn crazy to me. How about you?

These flying guys are over the top for me but at the same time I feel every bit of energy in this video. After all it’s amazing that humans can fly with such a precision, for so long and without engine support.
But I wanted to share this footage with you because it always makes me think about the boundaries of human adventure.
What is safe enough and what is worth some risk? I try to answer these question from time to time and the answer changes from time to time. The more the winter goes on and the more mileage I have under my belt I feel more comfortable with more variety of situations. Then some times I get slapped but fortunately just enough to get me thinking again.
So my “balanced” conclusion usually is that we should live for moments but never forget that there are moments to have tomorrow too. Because of this I some times miss a good run and it used to piss me off. It doesn’t piss me off anymore because I know I ski enough to get my moments too.

What’s too crazy for you?

Do you ski no matter what? Does your perception of risk change as the winter passes and over a course of longer time? What makes you think twice?
Share your opinion with others in the comments below or just think for a second what’s worth what. It’s all good the snow is on its way 😉

Have your say: skinning in or through ski resorts?

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What do you think about skinning in or skinning through ski resorts?
This is a very hot topic among backcountry skiing community. For sure it is a bit of an oxymoron “backcountry skiers skinning in ski resorts” but there are very specific reasons why all of us do it from time to time.
skinning-over-ski-resortMy reasons for doing it is accessibility, training and certain avalanche conditions. Some times I just want to skin through a resort to access backcountry while other times, after a storm, I would do couple of laps in a resort just to be safe.
Main reason why ski resorts don’t like us doing it is their liability and their insurance policies.
I understand their point of view, yet I believe there is a solution; however, there is not much will (based on what I experienced couple of times) to agree on something.
(This issue seems almost non-existent in most of the European resorts and around the world. It looks like we, in North America, tend to sue too often for small things, so we are paying a price for that even on this end.)

Usual Experience

I had discussions about this issue with numerous staff members at couple of Canadian and US ski resorts. We always ended up in a “closed, unlogical” loop, example:

When you buy a ticket, by that act, you are waiving your rights to sue them for damages. (Specific conditions of such texts can be found on the back side of every ski area lift ticket.)
I am not a lawyer, but my reaction to that was that if I buy a ticket, thus waiving my rights and satisfying their liabilities, I should be OK to skin up. The answer is NO. That has to with their “ski area rules”. (I bet, those can have wide interpretation.)
So my next suggestion was that if a more complex document (like a season permit to skin up at specific times, on specific runs) is crafted I would be willing to pay for it every season and sign it. The answer was NO.
Again, not being a lawyer, my next reaction was: “Whether it is more safe to have weed-smoking-chimneys take a break at the most invisible spots (for downhill traffic) than a very experienced person to skin up by the ropes of the ski area boundaries?” There was no definite answer on that. More or less they were leaning towards YES, but they hesitated to say so in a clear way.

No disrespect to anyone smoking anything, I just couldn’t come up with a better example at that moment; I was cold and furious. 😉
Since I know my stand on this topic, I would like to know what do you think:
What do you think is a fair solution for both parties to address this issue?
Should we be allowed to skin up at all?
Can we do laps when avalanche ratings in the area are high or extreme?
Should we be allowed to skin up only to access backcountry?
Should we pay for it?
You can take a stab, in the comments below, at all of these questions or just one, or even come up with your own. I believe, we are all very interested to see what each of us thinks.

The Revelstoke Steamer: do you have the legs?

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Within backcountry skiing community, Revelstoke is well know for its location – being a base to endless adventure opportunities during the winter months. But being summer now, Revelstoke has something else up its sleeve.
The Revelstoke Steamer (not sure whether its an official name) is a brutal bike hill climb done as an individual time trial up the road to the summit of Mount Revelstoke.
The climb is 27km long and gains about 1600m vertically! Those are impressive numbers that easily compare this climb to any giant passes that are featured in Tour de France.
So, if you want to get your ski legs tested before the first snow falls then make sure to check out the event’s website and sign up.
The race itself will be held on September 13th, 2009. In person, you can find out more information at the Flowt Bikes and Skis store in Revelstoke.

Welcome to SkinTrack.com

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After some time of planning and developing this site was born out of enthusiasm for backcountry skiing and outdoors in general.

Skintrack - what goes up must come down!
Skintrack - what goes up, must come down!
The main goal of SkinTrack is to share and provide useful information to backcountry skiers, ski mountaineers and other outdoor enthusiasts in ways such as:

  • help beginners to become more efficient and more skilled in their activities
  • offer an honest advice about backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering gear
  • share various tips and tricks
  • introduce others to the beauty of backcountry skiing
  • provide reports and results from ski mountaineering racing scene
  • give opportunity to ask about or comment on the posted topics
  • and more

You can read more details on SkinTrack’s about page.