February 16-18 Rendevous Huts BC (Methow)
2/15/08
Canada BC
3184
3
What luck - I'd had the honor of an invitation to a nifty hut weekend in the low elevation Methow on the only weekend the alpine's been truly accessible this season. I'd never have gone on such a weekend, save for the invitation, but I'm glad I did. Great people, good snow, beautiful weather, and interesting skiing.
The Rendezvous hut system consists of a number of huts linked by nordic trails. We stayed in the Rendezvous Hut, but as I understand it, they're all quite nice. Easy access, great views, not outlandishly expensive, etc. I heartily recommend them to the BC skier with an attached nordic skiing contingent. Skillful use of a topo map and persistence can yield adventuresome and potentially excellent skiing within range of the huts. I skied Rendezvous Mountain a couple of times, Fawn Peak once, and thrashed through a sadisticly tended tree farm above Cow/Cub creeks on the way home.
Snow: Spring skiing. Stable. Crusts, soft snow, and corn populated the E-S-W slopes depending on the mood of the sun, while slowly heavier powder (may have a soft warming crust atop now) lurked on NW-NE aspects.
I had the amazing experience of seeing my previous day's track paralleled by two hardy snowshoers from nwhikers.net on my way up the following morning. They paralleled it for more than a mile before surpassing my previous day's effort. Thanks guys - you made my day.
Also - I used the skin trimmings from my skins to make micro skins that toured and glided nicely up the nordic trails. In our conditions, I barely experienced any trouble. Worked far better than I had expected.
The Rendezvous hut system consists of a number of huts linked by nordic trails. We stayed in the Rendezvous Hut, but as I understand it, they're all quite nice. Easy access, great views, not outlandishly expensive, etc. I heartily recommend them to the BC skier with an attached nordic skiing contingent. Skillful use of a topo map and persistence can yield adventuresome and potentially excellent skiing within range of the huts. I skied Rendezvous Mountain a couple of times, Fawn Peak once, and thrashed through a sadisticly tended tree farm above Cow/Cub creeks on the way home.
Snow: Spring skiing. Stable. Crusts, soft snow, and corn populated the E-S-W slopes depending on the mood of the sun, while slowly heavier powder (may have a soft warming crust atop now) lurked on NW-NE aspects.
I had the amazing experience of seeing my previous day's track paralleled by two hardy snowshoers from nwhikers.net on my way up the following morning. They paralleled it for more than a mile before surpassing my previous day's effort. Thanks guys - you made my day.
Also - I used the skin trimmings from my skins to make micro skins that toured and glided nicely up the nordic trails. In our conditions, I barely experienced any trouble. Worked far better than I had expected.
Trumpetsailor it was nice to meet you and to enjoy the summit with you and my buddy. Indeed a spectacular summit with million dollar views. Thanks for the props on our avoiding your previous tracks, not many snowshoers I've heard leave ski tracks alone.
Here's a pic of the fearless Trumpetsailor high atop Fawn Peak
Here's a pic of the fearless Trumpetsailor high atop Fawn Peak
Love the microskins idea! I've been thinking of trying this too, using some old skins. Where on the ski did you stick the slivers?
thanks
thanks
Bryan - great to meet up with you guys up there. Great day! It'd cost far more than a million dollars to get a driveway up to a home up there. I hope that nobody ever will. Once I get my photos linked to the web, I'll send a PM.
Pablosan - Straight down the center. My full-sidecut trimmings, ~13mm at the widest, put the grippiest patch right under my foot. In order to provide the tiniest amount of tip retention, I flopped ~3" or so of the skinniest bit directly over the tip of the ski. More than that, and you'll find that it flops around if you need to kick or stomp to bust a little accreted snow loose. I'm quite sure that the fact that the skin glue was pristine helped considerably. Fortunately, you get two pair with every pair of skins!
There are definitely conditions in which I don't think they'll work well. Apparently, however, there are at least some conditions in which they're effective.
Pablosan - Straight down the center. My full-sidecut trimmings, ~13mm at the widest, put the grippiest patch right under my foot. In order to provide the tiniest amount of tip retention, I flopped ~3" or so of the skinniest bit directly over the tip of the ski. More than that, and you'll find that it flops around if you need to kick or stomp to bust a little accreted snow loose. I'm quite sure that the fact that the skin glue was pristine helped considerably. Fortunately, you get two pair with every pair of skins!
There are definitely conditions in which I don't think they'll work well. Apparently, however, there are at least some conditions in which they're effective.
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