Backcountry skiing (Telemark) 2:00:00 [2] 7.0 km (17:09 / km) +650m 11:42 / km
New Years ski trip to Sorcerer Lodge with Revy/C-Bass, Atsuko, Brook/Andrea, Russ/Vikki, Stuart/Eiri, and Adam.
Flew in today, so not a big day. That said, flying in with just two flights in the big 212 helicopter made it quite efficient and we are at the lodge quite early.
This was the first lodge I ever flew in to, back in January 2004 when I was still pretty new to telemark skiing. On that trip, the terrain and snow were just too much for me, so I ended up doing parallel turns on my telemark gear for most of the week. This time, I started on telemark gear and hoped that my ability would be stronger. On the first lap, the deep snow combined with lumpy terrain (not all of the dips and pillows are filled in or smoothed over yet, some probably never do) made it challenging for telemarking, yet I knew it could be fun on AT so I took advantage of the chance to switch when we swung by the lodge after our first lap. Unfortunately, the reason we were swinging by the lodge is because Vikki forgot part of the bindings for her snowboard so her only option was to borrow skis (fortunately she had hard boots with tech fittings, so this was possible). She has never skied, and these were not the conditions to learn. She dabbled in a little bit of skiing for the rest of the trip but didn't join the group much :(