Oh no! Just when we were all starting to improve the thaw set in !!
Oh no! Just when we were all starting to improve the thaw set in !!
My son wasn't impressed by my 25 year old boots! However he thought the equally aged skis looked OK.
My Cross country skis are proper old schoolOriginally Posted by wycoller
steel edge skis from Rossignol, 75mm 3 pin bindings. leather boots with vibram sole.
Now for the Epic!!
This probably deserves it's own thread.....
Had four hours out today set off to climb Margary hill up cut gate. tried this on foot on Saturday, and had to turn back due to deep snow. once above the tree line it was apparent that there was at least another foot with deeper drifts. Progress was good on consolidated snow but hopeless in the deep fresh stuff
Once on Cut gate its self the density of snow increase with thick windpack/wind slab on the lee side. Made good progress but visibilty drastically reduced to zero due to cloud and wind blown snow. Moved up on to the top but ended up wallowing in 2-3 foot snow over deep heather constantly breaking through I dropped back to the lee side where a brief gap showed that the wind had created a surprisingly big cornice!!!! just 3-4 metres to my right.
I continues on giving the edge a healthy gap. There was no one around and I suspect there hadn't been any one up here for at least a week.
Another 200 m along the edge and the conditions were terrible. so I stopped took off my skis had a drink and decided to head back. Just then the wind stopped and the vis picked up and I notice I was only 2 m from the edge.
The next moment I was falling!!! then face down in the snow and then rolling. Yep the cornice had broken taking me with itI'd only dropped 15 ft and then rolled 25ft but to say I was a bit shook up. No injuries at all but I was a bit worried about the chance of more collapse. I made my way back up to the fracture line apprx 3-4 ft thick. beneath this there was at least 6-10 foot of vertical snow.
I guess not many can say they've fallen through a cornice in the peak!!!
Any way I managed to tunnel, plough, climb my way back up but it took best part on an hour up in white out conditions, Took some pics and a movie shot as I had my camera around my neck at the time. The bits you can see(as snow went every where) are pretty dramatic. I'll try and post some soon
Decided to head back direct and had to fight through deep drifts over deep heather. In 2-3 days times after a slight thaw and a good freeze the skiing will be amazing. This snow will not dissapear overnight, there just so much of it. One drift was at least 13-15ft deep and had produced a double cornice.
Awesome stuff but glad to be back at the car having seen no one all day. quite an humbling experience I can tell you.
Last edited by IanDarkpeak; 12-01-2010 at 05:16 PM.
A stream crossing on the way up, usually you drop down in to this but I was able to ski straight over it.
Attachment 2795
wall line before on way to Cut Gate
Attachment 2797
It all gets a bit blurry now due to the spindrift etc
This shot is after the event looking up Black object TR is my ski, the snow face is the fracture line! approx 3-4 foot thick!
Attachment 2796
Is it possible to put movie stuff direct on here? Brett?
[QUOTE=IanDarkpeak;294574]My Cross country skis are proper old school
Snap!
I had some old plastic boots with a vibram sole but they rotted over the 18 years of languishing in my shed. "New" Crispi boots are the same but the real Mc Coy.
I love the sound of your epic. well done for surviving. I thought I'd ski across to the summit of Round Hill from the high point on the Blubberhouses road but I just kept falling through into the heather and getting the skis stuck so I bailed out. Sometimes I want an epic but I already know how to survive (so far) All I want is to ski like a Norwegian.
Talking of which has Eirik Stangness skied the 3 Peaks yet? It was perfect on Sunday apart from the howling wind on the tops.
First read this just after you posted it, Ian, but I thought I needed to digest it a bit before posting. Certainly counts as an epic in my book! I was trying to explain to my kids last night why we may not be climbing any mountains this weekend when we're in the Lakes, and your story came in very handy! This time last year we took them up on High Street in wind, snow & low cloud for a "big adventure" & to give them the experience. The big difference was that there wasn't the depth of snow there this time last year. Good job you survived to tell the tale! Could have had a broken leg as well - then we may have been reading about it in the papers rather than on the forum.My Cross country skis are proper old school
I guess not many can say they've fallen through a cornice in the peak!!!
Any way I managed to tunnel, plough, climb my way back up but it took best part on an hour up in white out conditions....
And of course it could just as easily have been me or loads of others on the forum & elsewhere who love getting out on the tops in wild conditions. Without pushing the boundaries life loses a lot of its flavour - for me anyway.
I agree there's no value life with out knowing you will die one day.
Plan to try again on friday but this time on touring skiis and skin up, at the very least coming back will be easier
Out again today and a friend lent me his spare pair of ski mountaineering skis - he gave me a few goes on them on other trips over the last few days and it turns out you can actually steer them whilst going downhill. Makes a change from falling over then getting up pointing in the new direction I want to go. I liked these a lot, they were great and I would like to do more but there are lots of other things I would like to do as well and unless we can expect a winter this good every year its not really justifiable for me. Plus I still really enjoyed getting some miles in on my old x country skis - its nice to go places, especially while running is a bit of a problem in or on the snow.
This stuff would be impressive on alpine skis but on nordic it's simply incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cppkpKu-CA
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