backcountry skiing with the foothill freak

 

Spruces to Millcreek

February 4th, 2007

Because unpleasant situations make good practice for future unpleasent situations

The plan was to ski from Spruces Campground in Big Cottonwood over and out Millcreek Canyon. The group was a friendly bunch of experienced backcountry skiers, most of whom I hadn't met before. I think I made a really good first impression when at the trail head I realized that I'd left my skins at home.

It's been a while since I felt like such a noob. Luckily, the group was very understanding. It was obvious that the only beating my ego would take from this mishap would be self inflicted. It also became apparent that I had two choices: to hitch a ride back down the canyon while wallowing in self-pity, dreaming of travels lost and powder un-plundered, or to just start walking and see how far I could get.

Of course I chose the latter option. There's just no adventure in getting to the trailhead, realizing you've forgotten something, and going home.

Knowing that there hasn't been any real new-snow accumulation in weeks, I figured that I could hike pretty far up the canyon, maybe even up to the deso trail fork. So I started off, maintaining a good clip on the completely supportable trail. I passed a couple avalanche classes. It looked like the prerequisite for one of the groups was to have a tiny plastic shovel and huge pants with the crotch at knee level. Maybe I need to take an avy class to find out what these new trends are all about?

The trail was easy going, firm supportable, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I started sinking in, so I began a round of brainstorming. The first idea was to break some piney branches and strap them to my feet as a crude snow shoe. Then I thought of my skis built in flotation and ways to turn them into non-sliding devices. The deciding factor was when I realized that piney branch snowshoes wouldn't have the benefit of multi-level climbing posts. So here it is, the result of my learnings:

 

What to do when you've forgotten your skins

Step 1

Find some dead branches that have a diameter a bit thicker than a pencil. I wanted something that would break easily into measured lengths, so I chose dead aspen branches, which become very brittle with age. I then broke the branches into lengths slightly shorter than the width of my skis.

duct tape

Step 2

I keep a roll of duct tape on my poles a few inches below the handle. Mostly I keep it there because it makes an excellent lower grip that I use on long traverses. The second reason is for days like today.

My first few experiments used the full width of the tape. Not only did it not work as well for making my anti-sliding devices but I noticed that I was going through the roll too quickly. The best solution was to use a half wide strip of tape.

step 2

Step 3

I made strips three times the width of the ski and placed my stick in the middle.

step 3

Step 4

Then I took a much shorter piece and wrapped it around the stick to prevent it from getting knocked out.

the finished product

Step 5

Finally, I positioned the sticks on the bottom of the ski and folded over the ends of the tape. I put 3 on each ski, in the center third of the ski. The one beneath my foot and the one behind the binding seemed the most essential and the best spot to put a forth.

How it worked

With my MacGyver climbing grips I not only finished the bi-canyon traverse, but I climbed far enough up Reynolds Peak to get a good line down into Millcreek. I could climb on the steepest skin tracks as long as they were firm and even. Any sort of irregularity would take pressure off the climbing twigs and I'd go for the dreaded back-slide. If I broke my own trail, which I ended up doing in order to maintain sanity, I could climb about as steep as a kick-wax setup would allow.

Overall, it was much more fun to figure out how to make them than it was to use them. They advanced easily, but forget about glide. On each climbing step, the ski slipped back just a tiny bit. Nothing much, but infuriating to someone used to the instantly secure grip of quality fur. I also came to realize that skins have decent lateral grip, as a sloping skin track would send this set-up skidding off to the side. It was a good reminder of the few wretched days I toured on Voile Snake skins waaaay back in the day. Let's just say I have a new appreciation for skins, and on my next tour, I'm not likely to forget them.

 

skis

boots

poles

SKINS

beacon

shovel/probe