Jay Silveira
New member
Saturday was free Telemark demo day at Lost Trail, and having received the early heads up this year, I was going to take as much advantage as possible of the opportunity. Hamilton was engulfed in fog when I left in the morning, but about 15 minutes south as I passed through Darby, I broke out into bright sunshine. The next fog bank was right up on Lost Trail Pass, but I could see that the upper mountain was in the sunshine. It made for a surreal picture, and the slopes really stood out sparkling in the sun. I had arrived right at opening to get set for demos, but demos wouldn’t start until 10:00 A.M. so I went up for a run off chair 1. Once on the lift, I soon broke out of the fog bank and could see the amazing vista for the day. To the north, the southern reaches of the Bitterroot Valley were mostly clear, but to the south in Idaho, it was a sea of clouds with mountains sticking out. I could see the Beaverheads, more of the southern Bitterroot, and looking over to the Big Hole, it looked as though that area was free of low clouds. It was quite a way to start a morning. I took a quick groomed run on North Bowl, finding that Wednesday’s snow had settled nicely into a soft base. There was no traffic on the slopes at this hour, so I just let the Volants run and it was a blast. <BR> <BR>After the warm-up, I headed into the lodge to get set up with Telemark boots. Last year I used T2s (Scarpa) but this year I got Garmont Syner-G with the padlock liner (there’s a different G-fit liner that I think gets heat molded if you buy your own pair). I guess I have a pretty regular foot because whenever I demo they seem to fit fine. They checked the size off my alpine boots (25.5, or 255, something like that) and gave me the same thing in the Garmonts. I headed outside to get set up with some skis, and they gave me Rossignol HellRazors with Black Diamond 02 bindings. These bindings were different that what I used last year, most notably in that the usual Telemark binding spring was not actually visible; it’s sort of hidden in this metal tube which is supposed to protect it a bit. They felt a little different, but that could be due to the tension setting as well. <BR> <BR>I headed up lift 1 and went for a run on North Bowl. This setup felt notably different than what I used last year, and the only thing I can guess is that it was less stable. Last year on a combination of T2s and Atomic TM 22 skis everything just clicked, and within minutes E and I both felt really comfortable. We hit powder, groomed, and even steep bumps, and although I wouldn’t say we were immediate experts, the combination of equipment made the transition from alpine gear very easy. This time, the skis didn’t want to behave, they seemed to want to slide around, and it was harder to get my balance centered. <BR> <BR>The were a few people starting to appear on the slopes now, so instead of heading back to Chair 1, I continued on down to the now open Chair 3 (Huckleberry Lift). To give people an idea of what the Chair 3 area is like, I’ll say it’s a near spitting image of the Toll House area at Stowe. It has a few steeper pitches (a few hundred vertical each) than the Toll House, but it’s got a similar long slow lift, lots of rolling green slopes, and is usually ignored by most people. It was the perfect place to try and figure out this tele setup. As an added bonus, Chair 3 doesn’t open on weekdays, so all the slopes would be either soft groomed or untracked powder. <BR> <BR>I started out on Candy Stick, but somehow worked my way over to Sneaker under the lift. Sneaker is usually groomed a little in the center, but has lots of untracked. There were already a few tracks on the trail, but I jumped in for some fresh lines to see how the teles felt. It still wasn’t the same as last year; in similar powder conditions the other setup felt great, but here I couldn’t get things to flow. I continued on down on the groomed Gunsmoke and worked on turns, surprisingly glad that there wasn’t a huge slope. I hit the same run a couple more times, and things improved a bit, but not to where I felt very confident. I decided it was time to grab another set of skis from the demo rack and see what happened. <BR> <BR>This time they gave me K2 Super Stinx (181 cm I think) with Voile Hardwire bindings. I signed up for the 12:30 Telemark clinic they were giving, and headed for another run on North Bowl. This setup felt much better than the last. It was a little hard to tell since I had a few more runs under my belt, but things just seemed more stable. I met up with Stu, the instructor for the clinic, and since I was the only one who showed up for this session, it turned into a private. We worked on stuff like leg position, weight, monomark etc., and finished off with some bumps on Upper Thunder. It was nice to have a model to follow, although I couldn’t make it look quite as smooth and effortless as Stu. I was pretty happy at the end; things had progressed pretty well. Although I wasn’t feeling at quite the level of ease as last year, I had some good pointers to ensure I wouldn’t develop and crazy bad habits. Stu said he had a lot of fun, since he moved along at a pretty good clip trying to push me. <BR> <BR>After the clinic, I was ready to head back to chair 3 for some more runs on my own and to test out a variety of conditions. I had remembered the layout of the area better now, and knew how to get to Main Street and Side Street for some steeper powder. Main Street had not been groomed at all, and it has one really steep pitch that I knew would be a challenge. The steep chowder was tough, and a few times on the first run, even though I was trying to take it slow, I had to resort to alpine stance for a quick stop. After a few more runs I was learning how to handle the chowder. I just had to have confidence that despite the choppy snow throwing me around, if I held the line of my turn it would pull through. Having accomplished my goal of skiing the steep pitch of Main Street, I decided to treat myself to some less tracked and slightly lower angle terrain on Side Street. The powder on the right side was beautifully light, and dropping the knee felt great in the fluff. I was feeling confident enough to jump into the trees along the side of the trail, and although I couldn’t quite hit the lines I would have normally chose on my alpines, it was fun to get into the trees. I was a little worried about hitting a knee, since there might be stumps about and I had no knee pads. I chose the lines that looked cleanest and didn’t contact anything. <BR> <BR>I kept going until they roped off the Chair 3 area for closing, then called it a day. Overall, I still like last year’s setup of the T2s and TM 22s the best, and if I was to go out and buy something today I’d shoot for that. It was fun to try out some different setups though; I’ve got a better idea of the feel I’m looking for. Returning home, it turns out that Hamilton had stayed in the fog all day, it was like a different world compared to the sunny conditions on the mountain. <BR> <BR>The bottom lift op at Chair 3 said that the plan is to open Chair 4 (Saddle Mountain Lift) next weekend. He was up there with some instructors and patrollers and said that the last storm put it over the top; the conditions and terrain are great. More snow this week should help to make for a great opening; I hope to be there next Saturday to check it out. <BR> <BR>J.Spin