Colorado Cabin Trip with the Crew

Three full days of fluffy Colorado backcountry powder. Myself , friends Ron and Boone, and four teenage boys who can simply rip it — going up or down. A variety of randonnee backcountry skiing gear was tested, a high fat diet was consumed, dishes were left in the sink, beds were unmade, it snowed and snowed more — smiles were bright. Ski eat sleep.

Boone nails another fine powder turn this past weekend.

We met up with Jim and Mike B., two guys who own a nearby cabin along with their own private mountainside with a run that looks like something out of a ski movie. On the left Jim is enjoying pride of ownership, ditto for Mike on right. Both guys are on Fritschi bindings, Jim with Atomic skis and Mike with BD Havocs.
Mike E. smiling. Why? Black Diamond Havocs with Freeride bindings — and the skill to find out just how good they ski powder.	Luke cranks his Karhus and Naxos

A rare photo of the old man, another exists of him taking a tumble — it’s presently being used as blackmail for a pair of Fritschi bindings.

How do you rate the hazard when your snowpit column test comes out as one solid mass like Jason is holding here? In this case, LOW, go ski and have fun. We base our risk control more on terrain and overall conditions than simply relying on a snow pit, but looking at the layers completes the picture.

When we weren’t eating steak eggs and bacon, some Texas Hold ’em was used to divide the candy.

Luke skied Karhu Jaks mounted with Naxo NX01, he’s been helping me test the Naxos for a couple of seasons now, and they’ve been working out well. They climb like crazy and hold him in fine. I did notice he’s not always able to totally step-in to the binding, but sometimes has to pull up the heel lever to complete clicking in — a minor issue that doesn’t seem to bother him.

Louie says “oh no, not another pic of me on your blog — make it stop!” Dynafit D812 skis with Dynafit TLT bindings, flawless performance.

Lessons learned from this trip: For some reason I need slightly higher heel lifts on my Dynafit Comfort bindings; be careful not to drop my small digicam in the snow; when skiing with strong teenagers try to leave ahead of them so they have to catch up; bacon is good and so are snowmobiles (and snowcats when they work, but that’s another story).