Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ski Mo Race Transitions

I am certainly no expert on the subject, but I am well aware that in a ski mountaineering race transtions (were you go from skinning to skiing mode, or vise verse) are a huge part of a race, were time can very easily be gained or lost. As racers here in NZ get better and better, I am sure the transaction will start to have more of a roll in the results. Standing at the top check point of last winters Dynafit/Porters Speed Up race this was very evident, as I think 2nd- 6th place came down to the transition. To help those wanting to up the ante this coming winter I have uploaded some transition videos that Noel and I made last winter up at Temple Basin and they are on the side bar if you scroll down a little. Getting fast at transtions is not only good for racing. When Kath, Duncan, Jane and I did our Craigiburn Valley to Porters traverse last spring we did no fewer that 12 transtions. An average transition might be 5 mins, but with race gear and style we were spending closer to 1 min on transtions. Totaled up that's a saving of around 48 mins! If you have any questions, please asked via a comment and I'll try to answer them.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Photo of the day-April skiing

Jane skinning towards Mt Cockayne during our Easter Friday dawn patrol at Mt Cheeseman. We skinned from Middle Hut to the top of Cheeseman and skied the whole way back to the car! Not bad for April.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Summer Skiing

I've been missing skiing alot lately, between looking at web sites, getting e-mails from mates in Europe, reading old issues of Couloir and hearing about Duncan planing his trip to Alaska I was itching to get out and ski. It was a lot of hard work, but I knew after such a big winter and even some fresh snow over night here in the Craigieburn Range, that if I looked in the right places I would be able to hunt out a little snow to play on. ENJOY!
"The skier who forsakes the lifts to climb under his own power to a mountain summit is a very different person from the downhill only piste basher and is often regarded by the latter as something of a curiosity.
But he was the creator of the sport; and possibly with him lies the future"
-Robin Fedden, The book of Europen Skiing, 1966
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