Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

The Gorge with Revy. Parked at km 15, the air was really cold when we got out of the truck, -20C and you could feel the cold right through your clothes. Climbed up and over the top to the other side, and Revy wisely chose to keep us in the sun all day on the southwest facing slopes. No wind and temperatures were quite comfortable, felt about 10 degrees warmer, had to peel the layers off on the uptrack. Fun to ski runs that were new to Revy too. Did a few laps down the back, finding nice open sections with great snow and connecting through some treed sections. Nice sunlight and good views of valley cloud below and snow ghost trees at the top of the ridge, but no cameras with us :(. Oh well, took mental pictures until I ran out of film. Also took a good mental video but am having trouble downloading it.
Finished with a run back down the colder side where we did some traverses to minimize our time down in the gully at the bottom. It played out pretty well. Some sluffing in the deep steep snow at the top, but not a problem - not deep and not running too fast.
A great second day on backcountry skis this year, out for 6 hours, moving for most of it, almost a 2000 metre day at the start of the season.
Always fun to be out with Revy, lots of good conversation on the uptrack.

C • Wow! 1

C • It's nice that you have an ... 1

Headed to Sovereign Lake to ski some different trails. Cold again, green wax is still the ticket. The trails were empty and freshly groomed after the NorAm races this past weekend with over 400 top racers. Wanted to get out on classic skis again to practice the pointers from Friday and try to iron them in. Skied Carl Wylie, Black Prince, Woodland Bell, and then swapped to the waxless skis for a lap of Passmore to compare. The waxless are pretty good (almost infinite grip that makes me fear that my technique could suffer, and decent glide) and I'm sure today's cold temps were not the most favourable to the waxless (and these aren't the condtions when I would need them).

C • Waxless skis 3

Climbing stat includes one short lift up the Silver Queen chair to save hiking up to the village.
Went with the skate skis for some variety today. Miles wanted to do a bunch of crazy fast downhilling and step-turn corners with the assistance of the lift, so he did 4 laps this morning.
Nicki and I started with a lap around Bridle Path and then had planned to take the lift up to the main summit but decided to earn our step turns and stay warm. Did a decent job of not revving too high while skating all the way up Cross Mountain and Paradise until the upper bits with a couple of steeper sections where you just have to push to keep the momentum or else end up in a walking herringbone. Then continued up the very black diamond Lars Taylor Way ( and some long steep climbs) all the way to above the lookout so that we could rip down all of Upper Paradise and Comin' Round the Mountain Connector. Then continued on yesterday's good route of Aquaduct etc. More snow today, much of it must have fallen early this morning because it was on top of the grooming and tracksetting. A fun tour all the way up. My butt is killing me and my energy is getting depleted. Gladly called it quits before noon so that I can save some energy for when Revy and C-Bass come out tomorrow morning, and was glad that IronSalmon (Seanie) wasn't looking to go out for more in the afternoon so we just hung out and caught up.

Went for the big adventure tour today, connecting SilverStar to Sovereign and back around.
Up Cross Mountain and Paradise, seemed faster to the top today than yesterday but we were fresh versus doing this climb in the afternoon yesterday. Comin' Round the Mountain, Moose Alley, Alder Point out and back. Checked out the Captik cabin, then Comin' Round the Mountain to Lars Taylor Way. Arrived at the Black Prince cabin in Sovereign quicker than I would have guessed. Then a bit of a gong show trying to detour through Soveriegn and avoid the race course closures while getting to Aberdeen trail for the return trip home. Ended up looping Woodland Bell completely and then decided to just hop on Gold Mountian Parkway and head back to SilverStar for lunch.
Even though it had warmed up to -12C or warmer in the air, the green wax was still working well on the snow, giving enough grip and gliding really well.

My butt hurts. I'll take that as a good sign that I am doing some things right.

Took the chairlift up and had a fun rip down Upper Paradise with all of its turns, and continued on Comin' Round the Mountian Connector because it was so fun. Then up Comin' Round the Mountain to Paradise and down Aquaduct, Paradise, Main Street Skiway. Still had a little bit of light left when we got down to the village, so continued on Bridle Path and Meadow Trail, bringing me right by the condo.

At SilverStar with Miles and Nicki. Got some great tips from an instructor friend of theirs. Did some loops of Meadow and Sidewinder trails.
My tips: above all, I need to work on my forward lean. Lean forward until I am about to fall. Lean forward as a plank, don't hinge at the waist. Also, at home, practice standing planks: lean forward as a plank while facing a wall until I'm about to fall forward into the wall. I need to get comfortable with being leaned this far forward. That should help me get some more speed for all of the work I am doing.
Also:
Start on ball of foot, and land on ball of foot, don't land with foot flat or heel down or shoot the foot forward. Land with hips forward on top of foot, not behind. Ankle should always be bent (except for the very end of the step off).
Keep glutes activated all the time, on both sides. This will also help prevent hinging at waist, and keep you from using your hip flexors which would mean your are shooting your foot forward.
On a slight downhill or flat, practice gliding as far as you can on one foot while pushing with both poles. Once you have to put the foot down, switch feet. Count how many times you have to switch feet within a certain distance. Work on reducing this number.
When poling, lead with the elbows. Likewise, the legs lead from the knee, not the foot.

As Nicki summed up the day, the three Bs: balls, bum, balance.

A fairly cold day. -15C or so, green wax worked well - had enough grip and great glide.

C • Don't forget.... 5

After a tasty lunch at Nicki and Miles', headed up Cross Mountain, Paradise, Comin' Round the Mountain, and back down. Tried adding a layer of blue wax when I was slipping a bit too much and it didn't feel quite as cold as on Sidewinder this morning. It helped just a little but also lost just a little glide. That said, the cold snow was sometimes a little coarse.
Then a hot tub party on the roof of their hotel followed by appies, beer, great stew, apple pie and whipped cream. Then got my butt kicked at Uno but we still need to playback the video on a very suspicious card fumble by Nicki where she dropped a bunch of cards and somehow came up with just one left in her hand.....

C • Uno 2