Training Log Archive: revy

Day one of a ski trip to Selkirk Mountain Experience, a ski lodge just 30 km NE of Revelstoke. Nice to be able to hop on the helicopter right in town and fly to the lodge. No significant snow in about 8 days and a big wind event a couple days ago meant I didn't have high expectations in terms of snow quality. At least the weather was supposed to be decent for the next few days so we'd get a good lay of the land.

This is a guided trip which in some ways is nice (less stress for me) but in other ways forces me to just chill and follow someone else's lead. I think I have gotten better at it over the years - 4th guided trip for me and certainly seems easier to just accept that we aren't the ones making the decisions.

There are 13 guests here this week - six of our friends are taking a mountain leadership/avalanche course while Mike, VJ and I are just doing the guided skiing thing. Nice thing is that for the seven remaining guests we have two guides so we split into two groups. We (plus our German friend Dirk) essentially had our own guided small group. Kept a solid pace all day - not super hard but didn't feel like I had an extra gear - I have been doing alot of skiing this year at a slower steady pace and that seems to be the pace that the body prefers to go.

Snow conditions were actually acceptable - some wind affect but snow was soft enough to enjoy the turns. Went up Allalin Peak and Moon Hill.

Warm up on the dog loop and then tempo pace around Mickey's and Evelyn's (17:30). Interesting that at a race pace I mainly kick/double poled rather than diagonal strided around the loop. I can see why fast XC skiing has become about double poling. Second easier effort loop - 20:20.

Easy skate with Courtney and Annie. Skis felt pretty fast today - had waxed them with high fluoro - might have been in my mind:)

Steady pace - kept it easy although had a couple stops to answer some phone calls and talk to some friends. Started on the waxable skis but grip sucked so switched to the waxless ones. Still wasn't great grip but enough to make do. Tired to start but felt better after 30 minutes.

Easy warm up around the dog loop and then did 5 sprint intervals on Evelyn's (1.1km). 3:18/3:16/3:14/3:16/3:20. Seemed faster when I tried to relax and maintain proper technique. Finished with 20 minute easy cool down.

C • 3:08? 2

The slow disapearance of multisport events continues - MOMAR is only holding one event this season. Unfortunately numbers at the Burnaby event weren't high enough last year.

C • Bummer 10

Relaxed ski with Courtney and Ryan. A few cm of fresh meant I had the advantage on my classic skis vs their skate skis. Waxed again today - OK grip except on the steepest hills. I think I have already waxed more this season than the last three combined. Adds to the challenge.

Was surprisingly sore this morning and it didn't feel like I had been skiing to hard. I think the culprit was Xbox Saturday night - DanceCentral and Track and Field perhaps.

C • "Relaxed"... 5

Cold and clear today so a trip to the pass seemed like a good plan. Steve joined Courtney and I. No firm plan but Avalanche Crest came up as an option and since it was in the sun and I had never skied it it seemed like an interesting option. Uptrack was a bit meandering with intermittent super steep bits. I broke a few hundred vert of new trail once we were out in the open. Decided to do a short lap in the upper bowl. Snow quality felt good but a few hasty pits I dug showed there was a sun crust about 40-50 cm down so there was certainly a sliding layer. Top snow didn't seem to have much cohesion however as we climbed we conciously decided to avoid crossing a steeper slope that faced a little more south. As I climbed the alternative way the snow felt good and then suddenly I could feel the sun crust underneath so I decided to swtich direction. As I turned I felt a little settlement and next thing we know we see the snow sliding down the slope we had decided against crossing (a aways away from us). So remote trigger from 50 m away, 20cm crown, 100m wide, 100m long. Interesting to see, glad I wasn't knocked over by it (not enough snow to bury anyone), reassured that my decision making was sound.

You can see in the picture the slide on the left. Settlement happened on the upper switchback.

We skied down on some more mellow slopes and didn't have any further issues. We then climbed back up to the ridge and looked down at the 1200m of fall line descending we had to do to make it back to the car. At least a dozen tracks before us but still lots of fresh turns to be had. Nice line - a bit challenging in spots - had to pick our way through a couple cliff bands. Courtney did not enjoy that part - type 2 fun:)

C • Sounds like a fun day 9