PM - Skinned ~2 x GW at Brighton w/ Andrea [3000'].
Comments
From MarkS on Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 11:37:45 from 153.168.255.215
This may be a dumb question Jake, but what is the difference between "skinning" and "cross-country" skiing?
From Jake K on Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 16:53:08 from 67.166.113.191
Not a dumb question. One day I'm going to do a blog post explaining this in detail but I've been saying that for year :-)
XC skiing is a "horizontal" discipline, and you have a free heel the whole time.
"Skinning" is the term used to describe the primary uphill technique in backcountry skiing. The skis have special bindings that allow you to have a free heel when you are climbing up a mountain, and then the heel locks for downhill skiing. You put a "skin" (synthetic material, but used to be made of animals skins way back when) on the bottom of your skis to give you traction on the uphill, then remove them so you can ski normally on the down. Skinning allows you to climb really steep terrain... you can skin up a 40+ degree slope, something you could never do on XC skis.
A couple videos give the general idea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5__mgGcv1dA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXAslVXnA-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNnlG2NLZ5U
From MarkS on Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 08:15:12 from 114.158.61.155
Thanks for the explanation Jake. I now have a much better idea of what you mean when you skinned 3000'.
The videos were amazing.
Going up those steep inclines in skis looks like quite a workout, maybe even better than doing hill sprints.
Hope you have a nice winter.
For me, I think I will spend most of mine in Okinawa running along the beach.
From Jake K on Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 08:38:42 from 67.166.113.191
Yeah, basically just uphill hiking on skis. Luckily there have been major advances in equipment over the past decade... especially in the boots, which are relatively lightweight and flexible when you are going uphill.
Tracking feet climbed is a better indicator of the effort you put in opposed to miles traveled, as you can probably imagine if you watched the videos :-)
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