Category Archives: DolomiteSport
City Limit Sign Sprints come to the Dolomites
Andi Mariner’s eyes lit up when I told him about the American group ride ritual of sprinting for city limit signs. The rest of our group didn’t seem overly interested until Andi’s 5th sprint win over me, then Tschusse decided to play and took the final sprint returning to Brunico.
Taking the city limit sign idea one step further, Andi asked if we should also be sprinting for the leaving the city limit sign as well. Twice the sprints! But in Italy, where villages come one after another with little more than a few farmer’s fields between, we’d have about 40 sprints for a normal ride. Double this for the leaving the city limit sign and we have 80 sprints. Additionally, some of these villages are so small that you can see the leaving the city sign while passing by the entering the city limit sign. As one guy is taking the win at the entering, another is winding it up for the leaving sprint. Perhaps the best tactic is to take the win at the first and continue the sprint right on through to the leaving sign. This all gets kind of dodgy when Church is letting out and the crosswalks are full.
Regardless, after 20+ years of this, I may finally learn how to sprint.
April Flowers vs. April Corn
It is April 15. I have about 80 days of backcountry skiing in this season. I also have 3000 km in on the road bike since January 1.
Now, I live with the frustration of training for road races, trail running or skiing corn while it is to be had. Which it is in great abundance.
Snow vs. Non-Snow sports? For some odd reason I turn to our Blog for answers, or just to do something other than ponder what to do. I know this is not really a “problem” in the traditional sense of problems. But for Janine and I our activities also dictate what we are doing for work. Shoot skiing? Or put away the skis and shoot trail running, mountain biking and road biking? April is tough. Green, warm valleys below and big, snowy peaks above. This or that? Our friends are the same, some off to warmer climates, some still making turns. The photographer needs things just so for great images, this is all just so in-between good and great.
And then the phone rings and we are reminded that we are supposed to go ski Mont Blanc. Or we go to Tuscany for a week…
Susie Sutphin Interview
Skiing corn beneath the Tre Cime di Lavaredo
A good friend of our’s from the US, Susie Sutphin, just stayed two weeks with us here in the Italian Dolomites. Together we pushed the limits of our legs and motivation, managing to ski every single day of her visit, 2 weeks solid. Included was Austria’s Silvretta Tour, a few days in the Zillertal Group, numerous days in the Dolomites, including three doubles where we skied during the day, finished at a hut, and then maximized our ski time by skiing out under fullmoon with a slight grappa buzz. The weather was at its absolute best behavior, favoring long days and lots of mileage.
Susie making tracks upward
Susie is the former Patagonia Athlete/Ambassador Coordinator from where we came to know her years ago, but now lives and works in Truckee, California for the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival. She is, simply put, one of the best telemark skiers around. Where people just should not be dropping their knee, she does, with grace and power at the same time. More than a few Austrians are likely singing songs about her right now. Susie’s primary goal in skiing is one thing, skiing steep, narrow, and mightily long couloirs.
This was Susie’s first visit to the Dolomites, I asked her some questions about the skiing.
I know what is coming, but what are your thoughts on the Dolomites?You have expectations from places, from the media, videos, etc… then what a place really is becomes focused when you arrive. The Dolomites are like the Eastern Sierra times 10. Turn everything up 10 notches and it is the skiing here. There are so many visible lines, so many things I look at and know I can go ski, the Dolomites are raining couloirs.
Here it is GO TIME. My skiing really improved in two weeks because the terrain required me to improve. Back home we have training grounds, then the Dolomites are the olympics. The Dolomites make you show what you’ve got.
And it is just so beautiful, the scale is massive, to be up high in the mountains at night and see the tiny villages shimmering below – fantastic.
Why the love of couloirs?
You always hear climbers describing being a part of nature when they climb. For me, being in a couloir, I feel connected to something so big, to actually be inside a mountain where not everyone can go is a great experience. And to stand on the top, looking in, seeing your ski tips sticking out above the drop, feels so good.
Explain the quote of the trip, “I love Europe”.
And not just for skiing, for everything. This trip was special, spending all my time with people who live here and not being just a tourist made it feel even better. Seeing how people live here, seeing my friends living here and how to make it happen, I love this.
What is your perception of Europe’s Mountain Culture?
The sports are just part of the culture, it is what you do. I heard a girl on the Silvretta Tour who was learning to ski in the mountains say, “I am from the Tirol, I must ski.”
And all the older people out?
Great, to be in the mountains, on a tour, arrive at a hut and there are 150 people inside of all ages, amazing. It is so inspiring and motivating. There is so much depth to the culture.
Would you return?
The question is “How do I come back forever?”
Finally, in your group of friends back in the US, is there an awareness of the Dolomites?
They think, “They’re somewhere in Italy, right?” That is it. They seem to be known for just climbing. For skiing, Chamonix and the Alps overshadow everything. But the Dolomites are the most varied, the location and proximity to other incredible areas, the Ortler, the Silvretta, Stubai, etc… And then the Dolomites themselves, if you love skiing couloirs and love just real skiing, go to the Dolomites.
Susie Sutphin dropping into the Holzer Couloir, note the ski line, straight down
Susie Super Psyched post Holzer Couloir
Skinning beneath the Tre Cime di Lavaredo
In the Silvretta
Also posted in Dolomites, Profiles, Skiing
Tagged Backcountry Skiing, Dolomites, Europe, Mountain Sports, Ski Touring, Telemark Skiing, Women
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Dolomite Couloirs: The Holzer Couloir
Susie Sutphin dropping into the Holzer Couloir, note the ski line, straight down
When I first started coming to the Dolomites I kept hearing about all the couloirs. Today I really found out what they are about.
Together with Janine, Andreas Irsara, Susie Sutphin and Arnt (last name unknown…) we headed out for what Susie would later describe as, “The best day of my life!!!”.
First up was the more serious business, the Holzer Couloir (Canale Holzer). Immediately beneath the Piz Boe tramline on the Sella Group, this is a backcountry endeavor without the need for skinning. As you arrive at the entry the first thought is, “No way, nothing can go through this”.
Impossibly steep, narrow and at first blind, one only enters because there are ski tracks already in place. Then the fun begins; sustained 45-50 degrees, 5-8 meters wide maximum, and 500 meters straight to the bottom. It is a stunning line and once seen, obvious as to why it has appeared in countless extreme ski films.
Once we squirted out the bottom we headed straight to the tram and back to the top for the much easier Canale Joel, this one a much more modest 35-40 degrees and south facing – thus, a corn fest.
Finally, after a sizeable lunch, we descended the Dolomite’s most famous off piste ski descent, the Val Mesdi. This was my first time to ski this line and I quickly discovered why I hear about it so much. It is perfection. Being incredibly long with a fantastically narrow and steep entry, it starts off with some business but turns into a massive open canyon with thousands of feet of vertical Dolomite rock on each side. It was difficult to ski because I was continually looking around. We agreed that the style of skiing in the Mesdi must be something like what a big wave surfer feels, just riding this massive feature of what nature dishes out.
Once back enjoying beers on the deck of a hut, I realized Susie was right, this was one of the best days of my life as well, but somehow, here in the Dolomites, I just keep saying that same line.
Exiting the Holzer Couloir
Susie dropping into the Joel Couloir
Susie Sutphin in the Joel Couloir
Looking down the length of the Val Mesdi
Also posted in Dolomites, Photography, Skiing
Tagged Backcountry Skiing, Dolomites, Mountain Sports, Sella, Ski Touring
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Silvretta Tour
Day 5 on Austria’s Silvretta Tour. This is my first ever post from a hut with wireless. How much better can Euro huts get…? Wireless does it for me.
As usual we are finding ourselves in an amazing landscape, skiing great snow, eating excellent food and meeting fun people. The days are full, breakfast at 7, skiing until about 4, then drinks at the hut before a massive meal.
This is a work trip, we are shooting a clothing catalog so amongst all this ski tour life are a lot of photos.
A few more days of hut living then we’ll be home and posting photos.
What is in my pack?
After countless emails asking me about what sort of gear we use, it is time to just go ahead and show it off.
Yes, we are in the mountains 300+ days a year, year in and year out. I field questions daily requesting camera info, clothing, packs, GPS, food, etc… Seems we do know about gear.
So here it is, gear for a 7 day ski tour in the Austrian Alps. No camera gear shown, no pants, wearing them… And we are staying in huts, thus no food.
Why do we love European ski touring? 7 days skiing in alpine terrain, 24lbs/11kg total with camera gear. Note credit card.
7 day ski tour: the gear
Also posted in Photography, Skiing
Tagged Backcountry Skiing, Gear Review, Mountain Sports, Ski Touring
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April Spring Ski Tour Schedule
The Ortler Group
For the 9th straight year, we are about to begin a month long, non-stop ski tour.
Even with a proposal from Janine to head south to Sicily in late April for a few days to tan the body and not just the face, we are still looking forward to at least 30 more days of skiing in the backcountry. This with 70 already on the books, the usual… With the massive amount of snow in the Dolomites and Alps, we have tours planned for May as well, a ski ascent/descent of Mont Blanc and a Berner Oberland Tour to end the season. I guess a few days eating seafood instead of hut food will be appreciated come late April.
And YES it is work… Fun work, but work nevertheless, we (especially “I”) love it. Euro hut living is an odd thing. We travel/ski as a small group of friends but live in these mountain huts dorm style. Often we have massive sleeping rooms where 40 or more skiers are packed in like sardines, many of whom may not have showered in days and ALL of whom have been eating volatile food for dinner. You get my point. Thankfully there are ear plugs, unfortunately there are no nose plugs.
If we are lucky, there is cell and data service at the huts and the iPhone allows our “office” to remain open. But more often than not, I have to go out at night to check in for the American work day, ski up onto
some windswept ridge and wander around looking for data packets. It is absurd, but part of the job. Emails must be kept brief to prevent frostbite.
Dinner is at 6:30 sharp each night, breakfast is served depending on your itinerary, anywhere from 5-7 a.m. We are always at the mercy of the weather.
Our schedule changes daily, we are photographers, we need blue sky and powder. For work, white skies are deadly and make our moods foul. The grass is always greener concept haunts us. Sunny days are treasured and full of action. But for every bluebird day there seems to be a day spent with the GPS in hand, blindly following and praying that the waypoints are accurate and wishing we didn’t have to travel in such horrid and dangerous weather.
All of this fill our memories and our stock library. It’s not just about turns, it is the whole package and it is an odd way to live yet it is my favorite time of the year. I never tire of traveling on skis in massive, glaciated alpine terrain. It is a perfect experience.
And so it begins this week, hut reservations have been made, we check into the Alps fulltime come Friday morning. We’ll do our best to update the blog with fun tales and photos.
Ski touring in the Berner Oberland
Skier beneath the north wall of the Aletschorn, Berner Oberland
Touring
Dan & Janine inside their snowcave for the night
Poor eating conditions make life difficult
Morning departure from the Chanrion Hut, The Haute Route
Janine impressing the Italians with Swiss building skills
Quaint European mountain shelter, the Jamtal Hut
The Ortler Tour
The Pizzini Hut, Ortler Tour
Glacier touring
The impressively situated Vignette Hut, Haute Route
The drying/dining/sleeping room
Also posted in Photo Business, Skiing
Tagged Backcountry Skiing, Mountain Sports, Photography, Ski Touring
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Garmin's Virtual Training Partner
So I got my new Garmin Forerunner 405 the other day. A watch, a GPS, a training tool, a little coach in a watch.
I used it for the first time today training ski rando. All worked perfectly until this little window kept rotating through telling me I was behind my virtual partner. It even had a little guy running along, in font of my little guy.
Huh? I was livid, I went faster but no matter what I did, the little icon man stayed off the front. Soon I had sweat dripping off my hair, as I went higher an icicle formed and dangled in front of my eyes, irritating me that much more. I was afraid to slow to deal with my icicle for fear of little icon man disappearing off the screen. Thankfully I was reaping the rewards of an all new playlist, Forza, and rather than bluegrass twanging in my earbuds I had Tool taking root in my pscyhe. I was ready to fight.
And fight I did, by the time I got to the top I had closed in on my little virtual buddy. I thought I would take him on the descent so as if in a race, I stopped, ripped off my skins, threw the downhill lever on my boots, stashed the skins inside my chest pockets and was off. Down I flew on the hard pack ice, no longer able to look at the screen, I hoped for the best in my efforts and stubbornness.
10 minutes later I was finished and like a downhiller made my last turn to stop outside the Kronplatz bar, ever thumping with techno. With my quads screaming in protest of my ridiculous descent, I pulled back my shirtsleeve and with gloved finger hit the pause button. But wait, where is he? No, I had not just paused the little battle, I had stopped it altogether, he was gone, off to the showers. Unless I really read the manual, will I ever know the outcome? Does it really matter? And just what does this say about my personality?
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