Snow O Part 3

Colorado Mountain College Snow-O 2nd Weekend

The next week the weather changed dramatically. It was much warmer in the high 20s at night and probably in the high 40's during the day. To make things worse there was alternatively hot sun than wet snow falling on us.

The wet conditions caused a condition known as glopping which severely affected our group's Kifaru sled. Since the sled was not waxed and well maintained it glopped every 100 yards of uphill progress. About a 4 inch cake of wet snow built up under it and it had to be overturned and scrapped. The only remedy would be to fully dry the bottom of the fiberglass sled, than spray on wax and let that cure for a few minutes. No one had brought wax or was patient enough to dry the sled. So our progress consisted of dragging the 80 lbs sled a hundred yards than scrapping it clear and repeating. It took all 4 of us our best effort to get that thing to our Quinzee village.

Here Vic is supervising the drag, and providing helpful comments like "That sled is probably too heavy."

I had though that the digging of the quinzee was enough hard manual labor, but I was mistaken. After we had hauled our sled 5 miles to high camp. We had to excavate the monstrous snow pile that all 15 of us had created the week before.

Brady inside a nice cave.

Since it was much warmer this week than last digging into the pile was wet drippy, soaking work. About 8 hours later a bit before dinner it took the 4 of us all day to dig it out but it was done.

Me, Emily, Donald, and Phil. A job well done.

We move our gear inside and find out there is actually room for 6 people. We had done too good a job. Phil had gotten the most soaked of all of us from sweat and was starting to shiver uncontrollably in his wet layers.

I set up a qulliq inside to commemorate our move in and to save Phil from more hypothermia. A qulliq is an Inuit fat candle or lantern that is used inside their igloos to warm and cook. It is made from a stone bowl, with arctic grass and cotton as the wick and the fat of whale or seal. Other groups use a candle or two, but I want us to be extra warm. So I brought 2 bacon quilliqs' and a candle lantern.

We boiled water over these little lanterns!

It was so warm inside after I light up the fire. We hung our clothes up to dry them on our avalanche rescue probes, and many of them were dry in the morning. The 12 oz of bacon fat I brought was about just enough for the weekend to light fires after dark inside our huge quinzee.

Normally a Quinzee is about 32* exactly inside if it is built right to keep out the draft. With the warm fires going inside and the outside temperatures rising, it actually melted a big hole in our snow palace. Boo.

Lucky for us it was our last night. The weather was getting warmer and warmer yet it was dumping wet snow flakes on us.

Our second kitchen was much less elaborate than the first. It was a simple pit with counters and cubbies on the sides no seats and benches this time round. Kitchen liquid waste was dumped into a sump pit in the corner.

Frozen eggs for breakfast. Some one forgot to keep them inside the Quinzee.

The Descent

Skiing was the best part of the trip! It involved a lot of powder and tree manuvering. The first weekend we all let loose and went down with no plan, so an hour long round up was needed to find all the members of the course after we descended but on this second weekend we went down in small groups and stopped every few hundred yards. The big Kifaru sled glumped up again on the way down but with enough momentum it still went pretty fast down hill.

Things learned

• A quinzee will never beat a nice stove heated tent. A candle and quilliqs are better than nothing but not better than a nice wood stove. A wood stove is a luxury that can be had in woodland winter camping, but if we were to go on an alpine trip or out into the arctic circle nothing or a simple quilliq is all that we may get.
• Skiing downhill with a sled even in green treed glades makes for quite the adventure. 
• Bacon and cosmic brownies rule.
• Always keep snacks on hand at all times, even in bed.
• We used about 8 oz of fuel per person per day each weekend to melt snow and cook. Thats a bit under a liter per person that weekend.
• Most importantly, if its warm out don't light the qulliq up all night and melt your shelter.

Snow O winter camping part 2

Colorado Mountain College Snow Orientation Part 2

Sorry for the late post, its damned past summer now and this post is about skiing. How I miss the snow.

Our Instructor is an experienced ski mountaineer,  Her name is Vic Kerr she is small statured Scot. Serious in her manner, she had been on Denali and apparently peaks in South America, she didn't talk so much about herself. 

Vic in my beaver gauntlets. The gloves became our team mascot.

Despite the vague course description in the catalogue and vague stories of snow camping form the instructors, we find out after we mount up our ski sleds this course was to teach winter expedition camping and ski hauling as if we were on a big snowy mountain expedition. The course would be conducted on 3 days on two weekends in February.

Our 4 person groups' Kifaru sled.

Each other 3 person group had sleds made from children's plastic sleds.

Emily and I were mounted up on Alpine Touring skis. She had Marker Baron bindings, which were heavy and gunked up with snow and often jammed in freeheel mode. They were  a huge pain in the ass. Poor Emily. I used DynaFit bindings, which worked without a hitch. The Markers would probably hold up to hard skiing better in the long run, but for multiday trips like this, the simplicity of the dynafit design set it up for ease of use.

Dyanfit bindings.

Marker Bindings

On the first weekend route finding to establish our base camp and our next camp was part of the lesson. Hiking trails easy to find in the summer became impossible to follow in winter. This problem was compounded by the dozens of tracks left by other skiiers.

Our big ski and splitboard convoy.

On the first weekend we were shown basic skills such as setting up our shelters in the fluffy Colorado Snow. This involved stomping and more digging and extensive use of deadman type anchors. They are where you pack down a spot and bury a stick where a stake would go. They are awful. Our 4 man group slept in Emily and I's Titanium Goat tent with stove.

Titanium goat tent and stove.

Members of other groups suffering from cold and fatigue would stop by to warm up their feet and have tea. 

Other groups used the North Face V25 expedition tents.

The second major set of skills we learned was setting up our kitchens and privy areas. The kitchen was a big square shaped trench dug out and piled in the center. The trench would become the standing area and the mound in the middle was the storage and cooking counter tops.

The Svea chugs on!

Each group had 2 or 3 MSR Whisperlites. Each weekend we had about a 25% failure rate.

Cooking outdoors at 15*. We would have prefered to cook in the tipi as we normally do, but people kept getting on to us about fire safety.

After we stuffed ourselves with bacon, cosmic brownies, and other fatty foods. We learned how to use WAG bags, and to pee in designated locations away from camp.

Contains a double mylar bag full of deodorant and desicant, TP for 1 or two uses and a saniwipe. This is all packed out and trashed.

On the last day of the first weekend we scouted out sites for our second weekend which would involve building snow shelters and caves called Quinzees. The quinzee design was selected by Vic because it was the only design that worked for large teams using Colorado winter snow. This type of snow is not nice "snow ball" snow where it can be packed by hand. It is like trying to pick up and pack dry sand or feathers. To combat this we stomp out a platform big enough for our 4 man group and than pile snow and pack it simultaneously. We ended up making our pile to large, so all 15 people in the course after they had finished piling snow had to come help pile our for next week.

Digging is the worst. Piling and packing snow is a close second.

Team effort.

Things learned

While Vic's method of tent platform set up which involved extensive boot and ski stomping created a very bombproof sleep surface, but was very labor intensive, it broke through several strong and weak layers of snow and required us to stop down maybe 3-4 feet.  Emily and I would previously just do a cursory stomp  of about 1-2 foot and our body heat inside the tent and the heat form the stove would thaw the surface snow and freeze it again creating an adequate surface to sleep on. We would not do such an extensive platform building process again.

The wood burning stove provided excellent warmth and comfort for all, as usual.

WAG bags are a major improvement to pooping in the snow especially in the future on a big mountain expedition where there are many many people pooping at base camp.

The  camp kitchen we made was very nice, if it was sunny. However, in windy cold conditions such as this first weekend we would have stuck to cooking inside the tent.

The Quinzee we began to build was incredibly labor and time intensive, it is not fit as a survival shelter or even as a multiuse shelter on any sort of trip. If the snow was better like in the maritime climates it would be more appropriate for a fast shelter.

Climbing boot part 3

Getting on Ice with the Zamberlan Expert Ibex GTX RR

The name and model number are a bit of a mouthful. I had been ordering in these mountain hunting boots one at a time, due to cost, and the Ibex was chosen last. I own Meindl and Kenetrek goods of other models and going to a new brand is a bit of a leap out of the ordinary for me.

The Ibex is marketed like the previous two boots as a mountain hunting boot, what makes it different is that is design is just a modification of a normal climbing boot rather than a ground up hunting boot. They just seemingly had a color and shank swap between models, and that is precisely why I chose the Ibex over the Pro, to try out.

Expert PRO 

Expert IBEX

A shank is the piece of metal that rest under the arch of the foot. Often times in mountain boots it will extend to the toe to increase the stiffness as mentioned before. The PRO model has a "Duraflex" shank, while the IBEX has the "Pluriflex", whatever that marketing lingo means.

The Ibex boast a one piece lower, but its made of Perwanger silicone suede. Treated or not, I don't prefer the material over good full grain. It has the obligatory Goretex, and the Goretex brand Duratherm insulation similar in overall construction to the previously mentioned La Sportiva Nepal Evo, a very standard mountain boot.

Shank and Stiffness

The same two test are conducted. Arm strength however unlike the previous two boots is unable to budge the boot sole into flexing at all. Putting the boot on and standing on an edge, body weight can get a small amount of flex out. Now we are talking, that is a SHANK!

Nepal Evo Flex under 80kg from Black Diamonds crampon tests'

I went over to a fellow climber's house and he happens to posses a pair of Nepal EVO's and I got to handle the two side by side. Even with body weight I can hardly get any flex out of the EVOs at all. It is most certainly a stiffer more technical boot, but I think I'll shell the money and stay with the IBEX because I'm tired of trying out brown boots, at-least it would be better on a longer march over rocks and earth.

Crampon and Ski binding fit

Excellent on all fronts with my current gear. No side to side slip when torqued and pushed.

Field Test

Leading on WI 3- 4, Top roping on WI5!

The Fang WI5 at Vail. Didn't actually climb up the fang.

Like rock climbing ice has its own classifications of difficulty. WI means Water Ice, usually waterfalls. The falls shown at Chalk Creek near Leadville and up in Vail, CO. WI 3 and 4 indicate steepness, nearing vertical, WI5 indicates a ice feature that is exactly around 90* or even slightly overhanging,

Ice climbing: buttes and bulges

Ice screws are placed into the ice to protect against a fall.

  

 

A good end to a day!

Night climb. Temps around 15* feet stayed warm. Was starting to get cold on belay.

Cons

As of the writing the water proofing is starting to wear off the surface after a dozen day uses, I will probably have to spray them down with silicone as the instructions suggest no oil or wax. Wish they were full grain I could just use the bees wax I normally do.

On top of that, this lace eyelet of the boot should be a metal hook, not some crappy piece of webbing. It makes it impossible really goddamned hard to tie this boot up with gloves on. Huge design flaw in cold weather.

The final major problem I'm noticing is that the back of the boot is not covered by the huge rubber rand like it was for the other boots reviewed. It is an exposed piece of leather with pretty weak stitching. Post holing a few miles the dozen times its been used I'm already noticing some abrasion on the stitching from the ice and snow. A coat of Shoegoo black may be needed in the future.

Conclusion

I still have yet to test them out on a long march in alpine terrain with a heavy pack. So far just a few mile approach to get to ice climbs with a lighter pack. That will most certainly be the next part of the review. My impressions so far that I can't return them is that they are very technical, I could probably juice out more performance on ice with a stiffer boot, but even than, this is the stiffest boot I have yet owned, and time will tell how this boot last.

Gif taken from Black Diamonds very informative study on crampon durability.
http://blackdiamondequipment.com/en/qc-lab-gear-doesnt-last-forever--crampons.html

Climbing boot part 2

Kenetrek Mountain Guide 400

I've been a fan of the Kenetrek company for a while when years back I went and looked for a sturdy, yet low key winter backpacking boot. What I found was the the Kenetrek Grizzly.

A few hundred miles later the boots had holes in them and Kenetrek repaired and upgraded the boots for free to the Northern lowers. While the boots didn't have the longevity as I had expected. I noticed that they had began importing an Italian mountain hunting boot.

The Kenetrek Mountain Guide mentioned crampon compatibility it has the same one piece Vibram crampon compatible sole found on many climbing boots such as the Scarpa Wrangell,  the  La Sportiva Malaku and the US Military Bates Tora Bora. According to reviews these two previous boots are semi rigid, and have someflex at the ball of the foot.

La Sportiva Malaku

Scarpa Wrangell GTX

Bates Tora Bora

Construction and Shank

On examination of the Mountain Guide 400, the upper was perfectly crafted full grain leather. I was more excited about that than anything. The Meindl Alaska Hunter was nubuck, and full grain one piece construction was a huge step forward. One piece construction means that from the tongue of the boot to the rear heel seem is one piece of continuous leather with no stitching. Less parts less room for failure. The membrane is WindTex which appears to be a GoreTex type membrane.

I did the two test mentioned in the previous post and using my arm strength tested how much flex the boot had. It flexed quite easily at the ball of the foot. Already a very bad sign for a mountain boot. It flexed as much or MORE than the Asolo 520 backpacking boot. I use this boot as a standard as most stores and REI's carry it. Putting the boot on with a heavy sock. I tip toed on edges and it flexed considerably. With crampons, the boots were floppy enough to begin to bend the crampon. Another very bad sign because when stress is transferred into the crampon it can snap the metal or pop the crampon off while you are on a steep climb.

Crampons and Ski Bindings

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the Mountain Guide with my own crampons. So I stole this stock photo from a a Russian site. It reflects what I found when putting on the Black Diamonds. The standard vibram sole fits crampons like a dream. As you can see from this following picture, the front toe wire does not protrude like the Meindl Alaska hunters from the other post.

A very good ski fit.  This boot would probably kick and glide around on low angle snow very well with a ski.

A secure and symmetrical toe wire fit, much Better than the Meindl.

A good heel lever fit as expected with the Vibram made heel welts.

Conclusions

While the Kenetrek is beautifully built, and has welts from crampons and skis. Its floppy flexible mid-sole would seriously prevent it from doing technical climbs and terrain that I am looking for in a boot. Maybe it is to be expected this hunting type boot would be very focused towards trekking over climbing. The crampon welts are just a tease. A mountain guide told me that "Automatic crampon compatible" could mean anything because there is no official standard on rigidity.

If you are looking for an excellently constructed marching boot, and you may occasionally come upon a snow or ice field, this may be a good boot for you.

Onto the next candidate: 

Zamberlan IBEX