Europacks

Today I skied the “backcountry” again. Does anyone else ever look at some “bakcountry skiing” backpacks and wonder who the hell would buy them, much less which two items one would actually put in these packs before they were overstuffed? Well, the answer is Euros. When you don’t need to do any hiking, and when every tram stop along the way to the top has a bar where you can buy food and drink, you can use a 15 Liter pack. I need to imagine 15 Nalgene bottles too, it’s OK. The answer to the second alf of the question is, of course, shovel and probe. They really don’t bring anyting else, and really don’t need anything else (cell phones don’t count because they are generally safely tucked between cheek and shoulder). People think I am trying to compensate for something else by wearing a 3000 cubic inch pack. Now that is a measurement that’s easy to visualize.

Here’s a warning to everyone who will be out here: get in shape if you want to ski this stuff. The altitude and snow are killing me (I am also on tele boards, but still…) Yesterday I only took two runs, and today I only took three. The third hardly counts because I never linked more than 3 turns together before falling. Today I skied the Cesso again, which was awesome. The snow was a lot more stable today and there was some new windblown snow in the Cesso so that was sweet. Then we skied the Cesso again, except dropping in from higher up (definite no-fall zone). Than we skied the Passarella, which means “Tiny Passage” . It is steeper and narrower than the Cesso; as Wayne Cambell would have said, “So it’s not just a clever name.” Noone had skied any of these things. Although today there were probably 50 or more people skiing up there, almost all of them just ski the standard route. Those three runs did me in. It is about 3500 vertical per run, which is pretty sweet. The guy skiing with me today has skied from the summit of Mt. Blanc to Courmayeur (over 10000 vertical). Awesome.

I am trying t put up some pictures, because today it was sunny and warm, but it’s giving me trouble. Eventually you’ll see the Cesso and the Toula. Start running those stairs!

Added: Damn pictures wont go on the dialup connection. What's with the font change??