Home > Trip Reports > may 25-27, white river area adventures

may 25-27, white river area adventures

5/15/12
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Posted by bs. on 5/31/12 8:55am
the inter glacier was probably not the best choice for my first run on my new hardboot splitboard setup. 


it was my first time at white river CG and i did not expect to boot so far to reach the snow.  starting skinning around 5k and had to turn back at 7.5k due to agonizing foot pain.  i don't know how you skiers do it!

i encountered a bear blocking the trail on the way out.  i guess he was friendly because he opted to keep foraging instead of having me for dinner.


had a fun night of camping and the next day took my aching feet to a more accessible location across from the crystal mt ski resort.


not exactly a "big line" but a fun second hardboot outing on which i met a few friendly folks (and got rained on).


i got back to my van, thinking it was time to head home and relax, only to find a text from kyle about riding the inter glacier.  i decided i'd better go home anyway and get my soft boots!


climbing the emmons glacier.


a cloud started to roll in as we ate lunch on steamboat prow.


the cloud looms closer as we begin the descent of the inter glacier...


until we found ourselves in a surreal world of grey, with no visible distinction between the glacier, the air, and the sky.


we waited awhile, hoping for a break in the cloud.  when it didn't come, we transitioned and carefully traversed to our uptrack on the emmons.  for the first time in my life, i was really, really glad to have a gps reciever.  we found our skintrack and followed it down for a few thousand feet until we finally exited the cloud.


a master of many things, bushwacking among them.


for a weekend beset by rain, low viz, horrible foot pain, and close bear encounters, it sure was fun!
yeah, the boots take some getting used to! i find a little pre-emptive Vitamin I(buprofen) helps. or Vitamin B(eer). I put a beefy skiing insole in my boots because my feet were pronating too much, which made things even worse. That helps a little (and keeps my feet warmer). I also learned the hard way that I didn't need as much sock in a ski boot... and to check that I was NOT in downhill mode. Only took a couple thousand uphill vert to realize the source of pain. ouch. never was one for learning things the easy way.
glad i persevered through all the , though. i love riding in hard boots now.
that's one slick setup you got there, too, I might add!
thanks for the TR.

author=bs. link=topic=24962.msg105479#msg105479 date=1338508531]
it was my first time at white river CG and i did not expect to boot so far to reach the snow. 


Ouch! My toes hurt just thinking about this!

I bet you could skin without skins in the dark with those new boots though.

Your feet will fit in there fine once you lose some toe nails.


So do you have both the dynafit toe and heel pieces on the split, in addition to the hard plate bindings?  In theory could lock the heel and 'ski', for those pesky annoying ups and downs the barely (or don't at all) warrant a full transition?  What about the weight - equal to or lighter than normal split setup ? 

I was thinking of trying a setup like your picture b/c I already have the boots.

there is usually not enough room for the dynafit heel in between your stance.

although if you moved your touring point up an inch and rode a 23+ inch stance and had low tech race binding it could work...

i think it's funny that the most notable aspect of this TR was that i put dynafit bindings on a splitboard.

not getting eaten by the bear was a much more memorable aspect from my perspective!

but it sounds like i may be able to heat mold the boot shell to better fit my foot, so i might not have to write this off as a very expensive failed experiment.  it would have been nice to have hard boots yesterday, if only for the muddy, exposed, side-hill bushwacking.

author=bs. link=topic=24962.msg105637#msg105637 date=1338837478]
i think it's funny that the most notable aspect of this TR was that i put dynafit bindings on a splitboard.

not getting eaten by the bear was a much more memorable aspect from my perspective!

but it sounds like i may be able to heat mold the boot shell to better fit my foot, so i might not have to write this off as a very expensive failed experiment.  it would have been nice to have hard boots yesterday, if only for the muddy, exposed, side-hill bushwacking.


;D

Do you have wide feet? I do and the TLT5 did not fit me well out of the box. In fact, they straight up destroyed my feet. I was able to make more room in the toe box by softening the boot shells with boiling water and using ratching clamps to flatten and widen the front part of the boot. After that little mod they are quite a bit more comfortable for me and thus I avoided my own little very expensive failed experiment.

That's a pretty cool mod you've got; always fun to see a science project.

author=JoshK link=topic=24962.msg105638#msg105638 date=1338838965]


That's a pretty cool mod you've got; always fun to see a science project.


not quite a mod, there are lots of dynasplitters out there and manufactured plates to switch out between soft and hard boots.

the boiling water trick should work well, id imagine there are plenty of professional bootfitters out there near you too.

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may-25-27-white-river-area-adventures
bs.
2012-05-31 15:55:31