NORTHEAST MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
  • On Hiking (Home)
    • Southern New England Highest Summits
    • White Mountain Parsnip
  • About
  • Links

Interviews~ Reflections ~ Reviews ~ Reports ~ Advice ~ Humor 


Ski-In and Hike-Up: Beating the Long Flat Slogs

2/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Skiing across a wetland bridge on the Zealand Trail (Fischer S-Bound 112 skis, Voile 75mm 3-Pin bindings, Rossignol BX 6 boots.
Among the most difficult winter hikes on the New England high peaks lists are those with snowed-in approach roads. Take Zealand Mountain for instance: an out-and-back from the shortest approach is an 18.8-mile adventure, over half of which involves walking snowed-in roads and flat trail terrain. Many people who hike Zealand in winter do it as a grueling traverse with the three Mount Bond summits, beginning at snowed-in Zealand Road on Route 302, thence over the list peaks (and also the summit of Mt. Guyot) to the Lincoln Woods trailhead on the Kancamagus Highway—23.2 miles and 4,550 feet of elevation gain, including 9.6 miles of flat slogs. Doing Zealand-through-Bonds as a single traverse makes perverse sense because it is better to suffer the slogs once instead of repeating them. 
“Slog” is a very apt term for what is a sadistic exercise in mental endurance—especially at the end-of-day whilst physically exhausted, when  distance-marking visual cues have evaporated in dusk. For those "slogged" When will it end? isn’t an uncommon fixation. Beyond the madness-inducing tedium, the slogs can also be physically painful. I have a longstanding knee injury; hiking flat terrain for a long stretch is harder on my knee than ups or downs because I’m locking my knee in a relatively rigid position and inviting repetitive-use fatigue instead of flexing out the kinks as would naturally happen on irregular mountain terrain. Doing this in snowshoes or boots over hardpan monorail can be even more grueling. Although my handicap isn’t universal, I’ve spoken to more than a few people, both knee and hip-impaired, who have the same issue with the slogs. 
Picture
Ski and snowshoe tracks on the logging road approach to Elephant Mountain in Maine. [Photo: John Clark]
If you resent the slogs, I invite you to partake in the Good News and Blessed Glory of Skiing-In and Hiking-up (then skiing out the way you came in)! Yes, you can do it even if you’re a shitty skier. Yes, you can probably afford it.  
​. . .and yes, it counts towards your winter list dibs. As long as snow conditions are favorable, you can shave off a little time, a lot of fatigue, and add a little extra fun into your adventure. I use this method almost exclusively for the long flat winter approaches, and I weep with pity as I pass those poor wretches limping out in snowshoes.
​

How it helps:
  • Nordic skiing (the general term used for this type of skiing) uses different muscle groups than does hiking; by travelling part of your route on skis you’re diminishing fatigue by redistributing some of it throughout other parts of your body’s musculoskeletal infrastructure instead of concentrating it in fewer muscles and joints.

  • In Nordic skiing, you use less effort to achieve a longer stride, covering more ground faster (if the snow is good and terrain is even or slightly inclined). On the way out—because you’ll probably be going slightly downhill on average—you’ll use even less effort and may enjoy glorious periods of effortless coasting. 
What approaches it's good for: Out-and-back hikes with long, relatively mild terrain: Lincoln Woods Trail, Zealand Road, Sawyer River Road, Gale River Road, etc. In Maine, it can be used to get to some of the “Sixpack” Hundred Highest Peaks, Mount Abraham via the snowed-in Firewarden’s Road, and to the base of Katahdin or the Brothers in Baxter State Park (lugging a sled into the park behind your skis, which is surprisingly easy). If you’re a fair skier you can even get a little further up some of the milder but narrower trail sections beyond the roads mentioned above, and if you’re a skilled skier you can throw in some steeper trails and open woods glade runs if conditions are right.
​
When to do it: When the snow is good—deep enough to cover hard obstacles and exposed drainage channels. Ideally, the snow is broken out and not too icy or crusty; temperatures are below freezing. If snow is deep and unbroken, and you have company, you can take turns breaking it out with about the same effort or less as you’d expend with snowshoes, creating nice runs for yourself on your return trip.  It is easier to ski out on a once-broken ski trail than it is to snowshoe out on a once-broken snowshoe track because the track of skis is continuous, flat, and uninterrupted, not choppy like snowshoes tracks.  Avoid icy conditions and unbroken snow with thick crusts. Avoid trails with frequent or long steeps (unless you are a good skier), lots of narrow twists and ledge-hops, and open water crossings. 
Picture
Above: Skis and ski boots (in plastic bag) stashed at the foot of the steeps 0.1mi below Zealand Falls Hut. Skis are set diagonally into the snow in a shady area with bottoms away from wind to prevent precipitation from sticking to the bottom surface of the ski.
How to do it: In a nutshell you strap your snowshoes and/or traction to your pack, put your hiking boots in your pack, ski to the base of the steeps, drop skis and ski boots (you’ll leave them right there), put on hiking boots and choice of traction. Reverse the process on the way out. The little extra weight you’re carrying (the extra pair of boots) is more than offset by the energy savings. Pro-tips: stash your ski boots in a plastic bag or large waterproof stuff sack and put a toe warmer in each boot to reduce stiffening. Place your skis in the snow in a shady area, angled diagonally down and away from sunlight, precipitation, and wind direction (all of which can cause icing on the skis) or against a tree with the bottom surface of the skis sheltered. You can also take advantage of the plastic bag by leaving additional gear in it (return trip water, etc.) that you won’t need for the summit. 
​Gear you’ll need:
Skis: Your best bet are medium to wide Nordic skis--many recent models are “shaped” (the width of the skis changes from the front to the ski to the middle, and again to the rear of the ski) which offers more turning capacity; look for outer measurements in the high 60cm range to the 112cm range. Generally speaking: the wider the ski, the more floatation, stability, and turning ability. You can use narrower Nordic skis with equal success if the terrain is milder, groomed, or fairly beaten out by other skiers (Lincoln Woods Trail and Zealand Road are often well broken out by skiers) or if you’re a good skier. The length of your ski will depend upon the characteristics of your ski brand and style vs. your weight— check the manufacturer’s guidelines. 

​
Other ski characteristics: you’ll  want a steel edge to cut through rougher snow patches, and a climbing pattern on the bottom of the ski for ascending (which saves you the curse of wax-on, wax-off, repeat--visualize the Karate Kid--with different kinds of waxes for different temperatures and conditions).

Picture
Simple 75mm 3-pin binding set on ski.

Picture
NNN (New Nordic Norm) binding and boot. The NNN-BC version has a wider and thicker binding bar in the toe. [image: public domain]
Bindings: There are three main options for doing the slogs: NN (Nordic Norm) 75mm 3-Pin bindings without fixed cables, NNN (New Nordic Norm) bindings, and NNN-BC bindings (the backcountry version of NNN). These bindings all have a free heel and offer easy ankle hinging, which reduces fatigue and increases speed on mild terrain. NN 75mm 3-pin bindings are built to perform reasonably well on both flat and steep terrain. NNN and NNN-BC are most performative on flat and moderate terrain (NNN-BC the better of the two on ungroomed trails and/or unbroken snow). If you’re a good skier and want to mix your long flat slogs with a little steeper downhill work, 75mm 3-Pin bindings are probably the way to go; some models even come with removable cables which provide more support and control on steep vertical turns. If you go with NNN-BC bindings, a manual lock is preferable over an auto-lock (the lock is what keeps the boot attached to the binding) because auto-locks can become jammed by ice and snow, and you can pop off manual locks more easily if you fall and are having trouble righting yourself.
​Boots: First and foremost, make sure that your boots are compatible with your bindings! The hardware on ski boots is engineered to only work with a specific kind of binding. Second, you’ll want something light and fairly flexible for the long slogs; go with synthetic fabric or leather (not hard plastic). Third, make sure that you buy boots that have adequate winter insulation. Although you can hike in Nordic boots, you may not find them quite as comfortable on steep mountain terrain as hiking boots, but you can experiment—if you don’t mind hiking in them, you can save yourself some weight by not carrying hiking boots on your trip. The ducktail toe on 3-Pin boots might interfere with snowshoe and traction bindings, however.
Picture
Nordic boots built for use with 75 mm 3-pin bindings. Note the three holes and duckbill at the front sole of the boot.
​Poles: Ski poles or adjustable trekking poles with a snow basket attachment will both work fine. A wider basket is preferable for deeper, unbroken or minimally broken snow but a small trekking basket may work just as well on packed or groomed surfaces. I keep a wide basket on my poles all winter long. 
Picture
Collapsible Black Diamond ski/trekking pole with wide snow basket.
​Gear you might want: Climbing skins (a fabric that is stretched across the bottom of the ski for extra traction) can be useful in places where the terrain is rolling with frequent short steep sections, and the snow is firm and slick. You can use the skins to help you climb and to slow your descent. A small plastic ski scraper can come in handy if you happen to slush your skis through running water on colder days. Several ski gear manufacturers make lightweight packable models (ex. Swix and Dakine); while most are intended to scrape wax off skis, they will work well for ice, too (if you have a climbing traction pattern on your skis, be sure to scrape front to back). If you plan on carrying your gear over some steep terrain for moderate stretches, take along a ski strap so that you can tie your skis together and throw them over your shoulder. Most skis come with a ski strap when you purchase them. 
​
Gear you probably won’t need: Unless a lot of your travel is going to be downhill on long steeps, avoid gear that is intended specifically for downhill. Traditional downhill (lift-service) alpine skiing gear is useless on the slogs. "Backcountry" alpine gear (AT bindings, NTN bindings, 75mm 3-pin bindings with fixed, non-removable cables, etc.) is intended primarily for climbing up then skiing down. Although you can manage flat terrain with them, they won’t offer you the speed and ease of use on long slogs that Nordic gear provides. If you’re inclined to do a lot of “hike-up, ski down” activity (for example the Moosilauke Carriage Road and the Hale Firewarden’s Trail) these are probably the kind of setups you’ll want to look at. But that kind backcountry skiing takes skill and practice and is beyond the scope of this article.  

Another type of ski that probably won’t net you much in the way of energy savings on the slogs are short, “hybrid” skis" (ex. Altai Hoks or Black Diamond Glidite) that strap to hiking boots. These skis can be great fun for narrow and/or steeper downhill terrain, particularly in powdery snow and/or on bushwhacks and narrow, winding paths, and for climbing moderately steep irregular terrain. On the long flats and mild rolling terrain, they will perform more like snowshoes than skis on average (better than snowshoes on moderate downhills).  
Picture
Different length Nordic skis; two with NNN and one with NNN-BC bindings [Photo: Pamela Gagnon DaSilva]
Training can’t hurt. Nordic skiing isn’t a mystical art. If you’re just doing relatively flat roads or wide, flat trails, a few local afternoon pre-hike runs with your weighted pack ought to be enough to intuitively familiarize yourself with the skis. Unless your route is consistently flat or just slightly sloped, you’ll probably want to learn how to stop and turn safely. Here is one good  source of how-to Nordic skiing videos (a little poking around will yield others).  
If you want to do routes with steeper terrain, you’ll want to invest more time in practice, or be willing to learn the hard way and take some lumps. You’ll fall at some point—everyone does. Getting up after you fall while keeping your skis on can be a gymnastics exercise. To avoid crashes, you can always opt to simply take your skis off when you come to a rough patch and carry them down.  You’ll also want to be familiar with the herringbone technique (duck walking with your skis pointed diagonally out) and side-stepping (keeping skis level and digging the edge in to step sideways up steep banks) to get up short steep pitches in slick snow. Both are easy to learn with a few videos clips and some pre-hike practice runs, but you can also opt to take your skis off and walk up challenging spots. Many XC skiing centers across New England offer groomed-surface Nordic skiing lessons, and various mountain guiding services offer backcountry lessons and guided backcountry tours (Redline Guiding, out of New Hampshire, specifically offers this specialized training). 
Picture
"Herringbone" Nordic ascent tracks.
That’s all folks—this article is intended as a primer; there’s more you can learn about skis and skiing. Hope to see you cheerfully beating the slogs in skis!

This article was inspired by a recent conversation on the Random Group of Hikers FB page. ​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    TOPICS

    All
    Advice
    Gear
    Great Small Peaks
    Hazards
    Hikes To Try
    Mountain People
    Nature
    Philosophy
    Trip Reports

    Humor (The Parsnip)

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Visit Our Facebook Page


    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • On Hiking (Home)
    • Southern New England Highest Summits
    • White Mountain Parsnip
  • About
  • Links