A question...

[Alaskan Rover]

When I end my sojourn in flatland and head back home to Alaska, there are some peaks that I would just love to re-visit. The thing about Alaska peaks is that due to the rather dry air, there is a lot of sublimation going on...and this makes for some excrutiatingly HARD surface crust. What appears to be decent snow while scoping it out with binocs, turns out to be super-smooth but ultra hard sheet of inpenatrable top crust at 45 degrees of slope. As many of you already know, 1200 feet of 45 degree hard crust is an almost certain deathwish...and I would never attempt the descent in my softboot/FatBob setup. The only gear I would use for those sublimated peaks is what I have always used before on the steep hard stuff...my old pair of 208cm Volkl P10's and my Lange X9R racing boots and those damned poles. That set-up has never let me down on the Alaskan remote steeps (yes, even though they ARE skis!!). Unfortunately, I can only use this set-up when I am able to bum a heli-ride or a snowcat up...as they are strictly downhill gear. For true remote peaks, I have a full set of alpine Randonee skiing gear...and even though this gear allows me to climb and skin myself up a route, I don't trust the randonnee skis/boots quite as much as my heavy Volkl P10s/Langes for steep crusty descents.

So here is my question: My randonnee boots are a really decent pair of Scarpa Denali plastic shell mountaineering boots...they sorta look like Raichle Flexons but with vibram soles. I use these with my randonnee skis and they work well with my sherpa snowshoes. I would love to try those 45 degree crusts with a carving board, so am wondering if my randonnee/mountaineering boots would work well as a hard-boot set up on a carving board....that way, I could put the board on my back and climb and snowshoe (Sherpa snowshoes have built-in crampons) my way up the route and board down on the carving board (with the Sherpas on my back). My only qualm with it would be that the Scarpa Denalis don't come up the shin nearly as high as my Lange racing boots...but maybe with the different angle of carving board versus skiing, this isn't quite as important. Any ideas???<!-- / message -->

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[lonbordin]

This post might help:

http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29672

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