may 28-30, 2005, Mt. Shasta, CA

So, did they work, and how were they? Show everyone proof that your ride was a success (or even a complete failure)!

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bigKam
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may 28-30, 2005, Mt. Shasta, CA

Post by bigKam »

Kelvin and i, and a handful of other friends, drove from Seattle down to Mt. Shasta over Memorial weekend. we arrived Sat. morning around 10am, checked into the rangers station for current snow and weather info. at the rangers station we ran into Amar Andalkar and Corey, also from Seattle. the two of them decided to join our group. our plan was to skin up to Horse Camp to spend the night and climb Shasta early Sunday morning. from Bunny Flats it's ~1000 ft. to Horse Camp. Kelvin and i decided to bring along three-pairs of skis between the two of us. i skinned up on the Doinks and Kelvin skinned up on the Upper Krusts. we each carried one Kung Paoder ski. we brought along an extra pair of skis just in case something happened (keep reading). we arrived at camp around 4:30pm, set up tents, then went out for a ski on lower Avalanche Gulch. the snow was very nice, basically soft unconsolidated, granulated wet crystals. the snow didn't seem like it had went through a melt/freeze cycle yet. we also noticed some huge releases on many aspects. i skied the Doinks and they were excellent. they carve so well in soft snow and are a joy to ski. Kelvin carved on the Upper Krusts and he seemed to enjoy them in the soft snow, too. below is a photo i made of Kelvin skiing back down to Horse Camp.
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on Sunday morning as i was jumping into my G3 bindings, the heel throw snaps in two! i was not to ski the Doinks today, but luckily we brought an extra pair of skis. at 6am we started climbing up Avalanche Gulch under clear and calm skies. a few hours later the weather moved in. the winds were strong and we were hit in the face by ice crystals. instead of pushing on, we decided to ski down to camp to wait out the storm and then go yo-yo skiing in the afternoon. the ski down on the Kungs was pretty fun, but i had to get use to skiing on ski with sidecut. the snow was pretty firm at first, and the Kungs handled pretty well. Kelvin skied the Krusts and he noticed he had to finesse them a bit. again, skis with sidecut do shine on harder snow.

at camp i fixed my G3 bindings on the Doinks with parts from the Hammer Head bindings on the Kung Paoders. around 1pm we started skinning from camp up Caseval Ridge. we ascended to ~9200 ft., just above a nice bowl. at the top of the bowl the weather moved in again, so we waited around for 45 minutes until it cleared enough to ski. surprisingly, a sucker hole opened up just long enough for us to ski down. the corn was amazing. here's a picture of Kelvin cranking a turn on the Krusts. notice the flexing of the ski and how it carves the snow:

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i skied the Doinks for part of the time, then switched over to the Upper Krusts. the Krusts skied pretty well, however, because i was used to the "more" relaxed reverse sidecut of the Doinks, the Krusts caught me by surprise -- they swung around a lot quicker than i expected. but overall they were fun to ski. because the snow was so soft, the width felt nice.

anyway, it was a great weekend and i'm glad we got a chance to ski on our home-made rides again. i think Kelvin has some words to say about the weekend.
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