{"id":131,"date":"2012-03-13T11:07:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T18:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/?p=131"},"modified":"2012-03-13T11:12:55","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T18:12:55","slug":"superultraheavy-winter-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/2012\/03\/superultraheavy-winter-trip.html","title":{"rendered":"SuperUltraHeavy Winter Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States Forest Service has a series of cabins, fire lookouts, and other shelters available for rental at a nominal cost all over the country. In SW Montana there is a LOT of federal land and therefore there are a LOT of these rental cabins. Navigate your way to recreation.gov<\/a> to see for yourself.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

\"Spanish<\/a><\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

A couple weekends ago my lady, a friend of hers, and myself put some winter gear into a big ol’ Otter Sled<\/a> (designed to normally be pulled behind a snow machine) that I hand fashioned into a pulk and set off for a four mile ski to the Spanish Creek Cabin<\/a> in the Northern Madison Range of the Gallatin National Forest. \u00c2\u00a0I was prototyping a pulk system that I will ultimately build onto my Mad River Rocket<\/a> sled using a far lighter and better performing system. \u00c2\u00a0I plan to cover this in more detail in a later post.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

\"SuperUltraHeavy<\/a><\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

As you can see in the above photo weight was of absolutely NO CONCERN whatsoever. \u00c2\u00a0I set three Rubbermaid tubs on the floor in the living room and told the ladies that if it fit into the tub I’d pull it in the pulk. \u00c2\u00a0Water, food, sleeping bags, pillows, books, wine, beer, slippers, warm clothing, you name it – it all went in. \u00c2\u00a0They each wore a small backpack with the day’s water and food in it and I wore a pack that I put my sleeping bag into (simply to give it some shape). \u00c2\u00a0I attached the pulk with a couple carabiners and set off through the sticky snow.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

The hike into the cabin is along an asphalt road that is not plowed in winter so the gradient is very mellow. \u00c2\u00a0The area is very windblown however and given the low snow levels of the season there were many portions that contained exposed asphalt. \u00c2\u00a0About a 1\/4 mile into the ski I removed my skis, placed them onto the pulk and walked for about two miles over asphalt, hardpacked ice\/snow, and through minimal drifts. \u00c2\u00a0At about the two or 2.5 mile mark the snow levels increased and I was able to ski with the load behind me.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

The system I was prototyping for the pulk uses a commonly-known method of two five foot lengths of PVC pipe crossed in an “x” pattern and connected to the hipbelt of the pack. \u00c2\u00a0I ran lengths of rope through the PVC pipe for this prototype but the final version will not use rope. \u00c2\u00a0The “x” pattern tracked behind me on uphills and downhills very, very well. \u00c2\u00a0It did roll over on my twice when I was attempting some sidehills that were simply too steep. \u00c2\u00a0I estimate however than in my upcoming design the load will ride much lower (aka no more spacious Rubbermaid tubs) and will therefore allow me to attempt steeper slopes with a lower center of balance.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

This was also the first overnighter I took using the Madshus Epoch<\/a> skis I procured this year. \u00c2\u00a0In the past years all of my backcountry travel has either been on snowshoes or via my splitboard but I have been entertaining the idea of using a set of skis that would allow me to focus on making miles quickly and easily on trips where descending wasn’t the primary focus (as with splitboarding). \u00c2\u00a0I chose the Epochs because they allow for excellent edging and control in offtrail as well as groomed trail situations. \u00c2\u00a0To complement the ski I went with a vintage three-pin Rotefella Telemark<\/a> binding and the Rossignol BCX11<\/a> boot.<\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

\"Madshus<\/a><\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

\"Rainier\"<\/a><\/p>\n

######<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States Forest Service has a series of cabins, fire lookouts, and other shelters available for rental at a nominal cost all over the country. In SW Montana there is a LOT of federal land and therefore there are a LOT of these rental cabins. Navigate your way to recreation.gov to see for yourself. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “SuperUltraHeavy Winter Trip”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,29,10,30,31,5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-backpacking","category-gear","category-montana","category-myog","category-skiing","category-weekend-trips","category-winter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samh.net\/backpacking\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}