Having grown up skiing in the northeast US, icy groomers are my jam. I’ve been skiing the east since I was about 5 years old and didn’t even know the concept of skiing in powder until middle school, when my family visited my uncle in Colorado. With over 30 years in the Poconos it can get a little boring and repetitive. None of the mountains in the Poconos are big and the terrain is… let’s just call it beginner-friendly. There are days where the mountain is relatively empty and there are no lines at the lifts. I might run through all the trails in an hour or two and then wonder what to do next. Usually, I’ll just find the couple runs where there is a decent side hit and just repeat that over and over. Or I might go to that half of a trail with some moguls or a terrain park and just spend the next couple hours practicing there, assuming they’re even open.
Since I finished school and started working, I’ve also been spending a little bit of time most years out west, often in the Midwest US and Rockies or up in British Columbia, which has made the experience of skiing in PA/NJ/NY all the more underwhelming. So, for the past few years I’ve been thinking about what’s next. I can’t spend the entire seasons in the Rockies, but I love skiing so I’d still take the Poconos over not skiing. Here is where skinning comes in.
I’ve always watched the exploits of mountaineers and backcountry skiers with admiration and envy, but always surrendering to the truth that I am not skilled enough to be doing excursions like that and I don’t have ability to dedicate the time needed to develop it. More recently, the thoughts have also been… I’m in my upper 30’s. I have the knees of an octogenarian. It’s probably too late to start developing those skills. Then a couple years ago, I started road cycling, and this past year I started mountain biking. So, it got me thinking… maybe it’s not too late. If I can pick up these new hobbies/skills and new ways to hurt myself, I should start skinning and maybe one day I’ll actually be able to go alpine touring on a backcountry trek. So my first go at skinning…
Okay… the skinning…
I was up in Vermont for a few days and decided to spend a couple of those days skinning. How’d it go? Exhausting. Sweaty. Cramps in weird places (my shins). But overall, enjoyable.
I don’t have friends who are backcountry skiers, so I mostly relied on YouTube videos to understand the basics. And of course, on my first couple goes, I was slower than molasses in the winter. The uphill push is tiring and got my heart rate up quickly. So, even though it was freezing, I was down to a couple light layers and still a sweaty mess. It doesn’t help that I use frame bindings, which are heavier than the tech bindings. But I figure I’d mainly be doing this at resort mountains or easy local hills for a couple years before I’d even consider heading into the backcountry, so better to start with frame bindings.
Over the couple days I was skinning, the area I struggled the most on was a short steep segment that was covered in frozen granular snow (man-made). My skins would stick to the top layer without issue, but as I put pressure down to slide my opposite ski uphill, the top layer of snow would start sliding downhill, taking me with it. There was so much of the granular snow that it kept happening after repeated attempts. If it was backcountry, I think I would have just chosen a different line that wasn’t as steep. But since this was a resort mountain where you’re restricted to specific trails and have to stay on a specific side of that trail to avoid collisions with downhill skiers, I could walk across the trail to find something less steep. It was also right behind a tall roller, so if I were to walk across the trail, downhills skiers would not be able to see me at all.
After a few futile attempts, I ended up locking my bindings and side-stepping up to the peak of the roller. It was only 10–15 meters, but I spent a lot of time on the struggle-bus there. So, what do you do in these cases? If you’re in the backcountry and there aren’t any alternate less steep lines available? Or does this not typically happen with real snow and it’s only a man-made granular snow issue?