 Poster: A snowHead
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I have been piste skiing for 25+ years, although I only started in my, very late, twenties. Once I had got my myself to a decent standard I spent a good few years skiing with my kids who now increasingly disappear off themselves, when not looking after me  , which is great.
I have made several attempts over the last couple of years to have a dip in to ski touring, not to be able to access the knarliest, steepest extreme stuff but to get away from the crowds, see some scenery and nature and then ski back to wherever. I have done some off piste skiing so that bit is not particularly a problem. I also want to burn up a bit more of the increasing store of "fuel" that I am carrying around with me than you do getting on and off a chairlift. To parallel it, we live near a big mountain bike trail centre but only pass through it after riding from / to home and over the adjacent moors and forest. The centre trails are still good but I like the route planning and different conditions of finding your own way.
My attempts to try it failed each time, a cancelled course, a cancelled flight, a cancelled holiday etc. so when I saw someone selling a set of ski touring equipment on here I snapped the lot up and took it with me to Alpe d'Huez at Easter.
This was the equipment, K2 Shuksan skis 181's (2010 vintage I think), fritschi diamir eagle bindings, nordica tr1 boots and black diamond skins.
From where I was in Alpe d'Huez, Eclose, the easiest was to ski down to Huez village and skin back up. Because the boots were one size too big for me the control was a bit random but I skied down the red piste, through the tunnel (not "The Tunnel" if you do not know Alpe d'Huez ! ) under the road and pretty well down to the bubble station in Huez. I put the skins on, which seem to stick very well, clever stuff that, and started my ascent up the blue piste, which was fine, and then the red which got increasingly difficult as it got steeper. It reached a point where I could not continue straight up, so I started traversing across at an angle, which was fine until I wanted to change direction, how do you do that ?
Anyway I reached Eclose, and our appartment in about 45 minutes, the vertical is about 250m I think. I was actually very surprised how little time it had taken, in fact I think I can skin up the eclose slope faster than the chairlift.
I managed to improve the technique, and time a bit (down to 35 mins),after I realised the "heel rest" had 3 different positions and I could raise it more for the steeper sections.
After a couple of days, or evenings after skiing with the kids to be honest, I got a bit more confident and had a few excursions into the trees on the way up from Huez and managed to do some sort of better direction changing. The route up the side of the blue piste to above Alpe d'Huez town was longer but easier.
I dumped the Nordica boots and got some Technica Cochise ones, the right size too !, in an end of season sale and these improved the skiing dramatically, less blisters too. So now I want to carry on with this maybe somebody can give me a few pointers.
I think the skis are too big for me, I ski 1.78 Alpine (same as my height, weight 85kg) ?
They also seem very soft, is that a touring ski thing ?
How do you turn corners going uphill ?
How soon before the glue will need replacing on the skins ? I don't know how many times the previous owner used them but I probably did another 10 times, so say 20 so far.
Where do you find some nice routes ? Like I said I am not looking for hyper-knarly stuff. ( I do already have transceiver, shovel. probe from doing a bit of off-piste and done a bit of transceiver training.)
Maybe this should be in trip reports, but really I am after advice on the techniques / equipment.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glad you're finally getting to give it a try. On the kit, good move to get rid of the boots - pretty outdated and not that great even when they were a current model!
K2 touring skis do have a reputation for being soft. Really, I wouldn't fixate on buying specific touring skis - unless you really are looking for exceptional uphill performance, it's best to get a pair of skis you like and stick touring bindings on them.
Glue rarely needs replacing on skins. If it is obviously patchy or bunged up with dirt, that might be the time. Otherwise, don't worry about it unless you skins are detaching from your skis within 5 mins of skinning
Changing directions - there are some uphill kick turn tutorials on youtube. I try not to kick turn unless it is too steep to do a rounded turn. Kick turns are a bit more energetic
Nice routes - this will probably be available in book shops in Alpe d'Huez:
http://www.olizane.ch/article.php?IDrecord=104
Has a few things in that area which are quite accessible so great if you (a) can read French a bit and (b) have transport to get to the starting points
Not sure what you general knowledge on off piste travel is, but make sure you have the kit and have some idea about whether an avalanche is likely to land on your head 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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skitow, The snow seems to have gone from my end of N Wales  I've just started touring too, there are a few people up for it around here next year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Avalanche Poodle,
Change of name ?
Those pictures were on Minera Mountain last Thursday, very wet snow. The picture of the cornices does not do justice to them, I only had my phone with me.
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skitow, if you haven't already discovered, when you are skinning up steep slopes, if you are very deliberately weighting your heels, it's surprising how much steeper a gradient can be climbed than when you are centre weighting e.g. 30 degrees plus is quite possible without axe or crampons in good snow conditions. As mentioned before, kit shouldn't be a compromise to the downhill either and unless you are a weight weenie, your touring skis and boots can serve you just as well for lift-served resort skiing (piste or off-piste) as for the touring you want to do. In my opinion, they're better actually as a lighter weight pair of boots with rubber soles and a walk mode, make tramping around town, stairs to ski lifts and the mountain cafe etc, a lot easier.
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moffatross,
Thanks for that. I was probably making it artificially worse because I was skinning up a piste which varied from fresh undisturbed to solid where the downhill skiers had scraped the recent snow off to the piles of loss stuff on the outside of the turns.
And no I am not a "weight weenie"  It was quite slushy too because I was starting from the lowest point of the resort at the end of the day.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| skitow wrote: |
I also did not mention one other thing. I now know why skitourers have such huge backpacks, it's got nothing to do with Avi gear it's because you take so many clothes off as you overheat climbing up  |
i come up with a new layering "solution" every year. touring really can be a whole new world of faffing with kit if you let it!
there are some great things you can do from the tip of Pic Blanc if you have skins. not sure what your skiing level is, but a traverse of the Grands Rousses is great fun amongst many other lines up there. edit to add that these are glaciated so appropriate caveats apply. well worth the cost of a guide for a day if you get the conditions
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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pam w, Thanks Pam. Very interesting. I picked up on this "Across the valley is the tiny resort of Arêches, with 14 lifts". What would she make of this then :- http://www.col-dornon.com/ski-et-neige/ er 3 draglifts ?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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when you're skinning up, make sure you keep your skis on the snow and dont "lift" them, you're skinning up, not walking up
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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One thing which was quite a revelation to me, when I did my "intro to touring" day was how great the boots felt. Hired, off the shelf. Light and comfortable and, I;m sure, perfectly OK for the kind of skiing I mostly do (ie rather elderly!). Even after a couple of hours of skinning they were surprisingly OK. I did get a blister on my shin which was a nuisance in my normal ski boots for a few days afterwards. I could easily be persuaded to get a pair of lighter touring style boots for downhill skiing, though they seem very expensive!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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pam w, The Tecnica Cochise ones I got are very light, they are supposed to be made from a thinner but just as strong plastic, and they came out at 160euros with the end of season discount. The guy in the shop said he had quite a few women buy that kind of boot exactly for the reasons you said.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Arno, I have just bought some proper thin touring and climbing pants which I suspect I will probably use for a lot of general skiing also, I do tend to overheat.
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skitow, that sounds interesting. Where did you get them?
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and which - I see that some are more beefy than others.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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pam w, I got the 90 version, although I have 130 flex "normal" boots, but then as I said above I did not take up ski touring to do knarly stuff. I do have "Tecnica feet" though, quite narrow. I just buy the same size boots each time and if they are Tecnica they seem to fit spot on straight away. I used them with, what I think, are the too big for me K2 skis and they felt good, not too soft at all.
I got them from a local shop in Alpe d'Huez but they are on sale in a few places, even here :-
http://www.ellis-brigham.com/products/Cochise-90-W/6236
Jest an edit to say that they do not have the full vibram soles for walking like most of the "better" touring boots do, just a bit of an uprated normal ski bot sole.
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skitow, you can buy rubber (and Dynafit compatible) sole blocks for them too, btw.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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