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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

WURL Recon and Lisa Falls

The WURL on skis remains on my mind. I think we have our route more or less established. I had some questions about the Cottonwood Ridge between Twin and Monte Cristo. So, last week, we got out a couple times to do some recon. It looks like we will ski Drom into Mill B, around the Sundial, and skin up to Superior. On skis, this makes the most sense. Hopefully, we will do this in the light.

We have also made some gear modifications. Basically, we (me, Bart, and Andy) will all be on rando race gear -- race skis and Dynafit low tech bindings. We have made what I consider a pretty significant mod on the low tech bindings to enable us to skin steeper lines (more on that later). We'll all be on Dynafit DNA race boots. Our skis are fitted with wall-to-wall Ascension skins. We have packs or modified our packs so that we can strap our skis to our backs without removing our packs -- to save time. I'm convinced that without race gear we will not be able to complete the WURLOS.

To test out our gear, on Saturday, we did a Tanners Lisa Falls blitz. Here are a few pictures:

Bart and Andy skinning up Tanners at dawn:

From Lisa Falls 2010

The Tanners saddle with the Pfeif in the background. The WURLOS will include the Pfeif and that ridge.

From Lisa Falls 2010

Sun peeking out from behind Drom. To summit O'Sullivan, we will climb the snow field in the top right to gain the ridge.

From Lisa Falls 2010

Climbing up to the base of Twin Peaks. The WURLOS will follow this route to the top of Twin. We hope to avoid having to break too much trail.

From Lisa Falls 2010

We will follow this ridge to the top of Twin.

From Lisa Falls 2010

And then summit O'Sullivan and Drom.

From Lisa Falls 2010

Ripping skins on the summit of Twin.

From Lisa Falls 2010

The other Twin summit is a few feet lower. We won't be tagging it on the WURLOS.

From Lisa Falls 2010

For kicks, we exited out Lisa Falls. There are limits to what is skiable on rando race skis or any ski for that matter.

From Lisa Falls 2010
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Below the falls was unskiable and some boulder hopping and downclimbing was necessary.

From Lisa Falls 2010

Here is me smashing my camera into Lisa Falls. Photo by Andy. Luckily, it still takes pictures.

From Lisa Falls 2010
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2 comments:

  1. LayneApril 14, 2010 at 11:37 AM

    Sounds epic. I hope you guys have good weather and fast snow on your attempt.

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  2. Jonathan S. ShefftzApril 26, 2010 at 6:49 PM

    Sorry to hear it didn't work out -- or at least I think that's what happened . . . was the second attempt a success? I get exhausted just from reading too many details about such a route! (You guys would get a good chuckle over what counts as a long tour out here...)
    Just wondering though:
    "We have made what I consider a pretty significant mod on the low tech bindings to enable us to skin steeper lines (more on that later)."
    -- Is the heel elevator just a single position that is just way too low for steep skinning?

    ReplyDelete