Complete skiing. Near perfect continuity between flats, uphills and downhills.

[Baaahb]

Adjustable poles are great. I will usually adjust them a few times on any tour, or even at a resort. Shorter for aggressive turning, longer for striding or touring. One of my sets of adjustable poles also has a secondary grip about three inches below the primary grip that I use for short sections, such as the uphill pole on a brief traverse of a steep slope. I cannot see where it becomes a hassle adjusting them. Be sure to get a set that adjusts to a long length as well as a short length; some only go to 135 or so. And only flip lock style connectors, not twist style.

[bgregoire]

Be sure to get a set that adjusts to a long length as well as a short length; some only go to 135 or so. And only flip lock style connectors, not twist style.

The long BD traverse, a classic, goes to 155cm. Good option.

I used to think that about flicklocks only, but now that Asnes came out with a line twist-style poles, I'd be willing to try those out too.

[Cannatonic]

I keep trying to like adjustable poles but end up not using them. Not sure why. I'm usually happy w/ 145 or 155 fixed. I guess I'm not doing much pole-planting on the downhills and 145 seems OK to me. To me the best feature of adjustables is they collapse down to fit into the pack better, good for snowboarding tours.

[FourthCoast]

It is something like 50 deg F and raining in February right now. I wonder if this is driving me mad. I feel compelled to build my own wooden skis.

Does anyone know where I can find detailed step by step plans to build wooden skis with metal edges? At the moment I think I want something like the Gamme 54 but made myself and finished with linseed oil on top and pine tar on the bottom.

[Lo-Fi]

Adjustable poles are great. I will usually adjust them a few times on any tour, or even at a resort. Shorter for aggressive turning, longer for striding or touring. One of my sets of adjustable poles also has a secondary grip about three inches below the primary grip that I use for short sections, such as the uphill pole on a brief traverse of a steep slope. I cannot see where it becomes a hassle adjusting them. Be sure to get a set that adjusts to a long length as well as a short length; some only go to 135 or so...

Yep. From the XCd thread:

IMO you can ski your whole life and if your poles are too long you'll never get it right.

This! I couldn't agree more. With the invention of adjustable pole there's no excuse. Somehow people still can't figure it out.

Poling is one of the tricky things to get right in tele skiing. High hands while riding the tele tightrope are extra challenging (this dude is very cool, though):

This guy is cool. Skis, powder gaiters, hat, jacket. I want to be this guy. I assume it's Brad English.

I find having adjustable poles, that can be shortened on the fly in anticipation of a long downhill , are really helpful and are an important part of my "complete skiing" aspirations.

[FourthCoast]

I saw some snow so I am thinking about skis and bindings.

I really like this Riva II binding. The only issue is it being (long) out of production. I expect everything but the cable will last forever. I would like to be able to make a new cable myself if possible.

Has anyone here successfully made a replacement Riva II cable?

[fisheater]

You may be interested in these Fourthcoast. I have no experience with this binding, but it appears similar.

https://aspinockwoods.com/shop/ols/products/g3-targa

[FourthCoast]

The lake effect snow machine finally got started up here and has been consistently dropping light fluffy stuff the last week or so. For those of you in the mountains or up in the UP of Michigan this might not seem like a big deal but we have something close to 24" of fluffy snow all the way to the bottom right now.

Anyway... This is deep soft snow for me. Getting up to speed and trying to make some soft snow telemark turns is a lot of fun. It is so smooth and effortless. Very different from the sheets of ice I skied when alpine racing. I also have to keep reminding myself that I can't cross block trees like slalom gates.

But holy crap it is really hard to climb back up out of this stuff. Even on a moderate slope I could not get the kick wax to give me enough traction to move myself up or even sideways. The ski tip would be up on top of the snow and the tail near the bottom. Before I could get any weight on it I would slip backwards and lose progress. It was also too deep to herringbone up the hill because my tips would get quickly burred and I could not lift the ski. The only way I managed to get back up the hill was a very slow side step up. Even then I would lose about half the progress of each step from the snow packing and sliding.

When I made it back to the trail, climbing on packed snow with maybe 3" of fluff on top felt effortless, by comparison.

Is there any technique to make this less exhausting or am I just out of shape and need to build endurance?

[lowangle al]

I use a side stepping traverse, one step goes up and forward. when you take your ski off(or out of) the snow place it down so it is somewhat level so you don't slide back. I take big steps, as high and forward as possible and make good terrain decisions so you don't end up struggling on a particularly steep spot or needing to do a kick turn where a tree is in the way. Most importantly try to use the same up track for multiple runs even if it results in going longer distances.

[FourthCoast]

Hi Al,

Thanks for taking time to respond. I will keep your advice in mind next time I am out.