This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web. We have fun here, come on in and be a part of it.
We've had an odd winter so far in Northern Alberta. Cold snaps to -25 C were a bit earlier than usual, but also some unseasonably warm stretches back around 0 C with sunshine recently.
Out for a little jaunt the other day through the bush, decided to make a straight shot across a small muskeg lake. It's pretty shallow, so I knew the ice would be well established by now and would be safe to cross. But the fresh blanket of snow was hiding and insulating quite a bit of slushy surface water that had melted during the last warm spell!
The slush packed and froze to the bottom of my skis, immediately turning them into 10 pound ski-cicles and bringing me to a quick halt. No more grip, trudged my way back into the dry snow. Had to use the old truck keys / powder basket combo to scrape my skis clean. Would have been a lot easier with my little red wax scraper!
Well the first thing I thought is I always carry a scraper, and a cork, and two colors of wax. It all fits in the pocket of my soft shell. However saying I always carry a scraper would not have been very helpful. When I read Al's post, I thought that's more like it. I actually do use my skis as a scraper when I put too soft of a kick wax on. The too soft of a wax is usually red or red/silver. Soft wax can be pretty gooey, and I found my USGI skis make the best scraper for that goo. It was nothing I thought of on my own. I read about it on Pinnah Dave's Back Country Skiing Page.
Slush is rough no matter where you encounter it.
Haha yep good input from Al with the ski edge for sure. No idea why I didn't think of that in the moment, would have been way more efficient!
Early and late season I have been pocketing a couple waxes, cork and scraper in case temps change when I'm out and about. But up here you don't often see much temp change through a single day once you get into December-January-February. So I would just pocket single wax-of-the-day and a cork when temps were steady. Definitely won't be making that mistake again! Learned the hard way that a wax scraper is not just for wax!
We've had an odd winter so far in Northern Alberta. Cold snaps to -25 C were a bit earlier than usual, but also some unseasonably warm stretches back around 0 C with sunshine recently.
Out for a little jaunt the other day through the bush, decided to make a straight shot across a small muskeg lake. It's pretty shallow, so I knew the ice would be well established by now and would be safe to cross. But the fresh blanket of snow was hiding and insulating quite a bit of slushy surface water that had melted during the last warm spell!
The slush packed and froze to the bottom of my skis, immediately turning them into 10 pound ski-cicles and bringing me to a quick halt. No more grip, trudged my way back into the dry snow. Had to use the old truck keys / powder basket combo to scrape my skis clean. Would have been a lot easier with my little red wax scraper!
oh man, I feel your pain! Good on you for scraping and rallying...I’m wishing for your snow right now tho.
