Backdoor

Backdoor Trail maintenance today. Deadfall was interrupting the flow of the trail, but after a little de-sprucing today, it flows once again. Established my old trail up the south flank of Near Point -this route has better lines than the summer trail with wider gaps through the alders, plus a really nice powder line for the rugged touring set up.

This set up is just ideal for the Anchorage front country in Chugach State Park with its 1 to 2 mile approach then tilting steeply in alpine bowls. The system is comprised of Fischer Outtabounds skis with SNS-BC Salomon Adv Raid bindings & Salomon X-Adv 8 or 6 equivalent boots, I use the old Greenland model or a pair of 2007 model Adv 6 boots I picked up last season. The Fischer Outtabounds has a 88-68-78 mm sidecut and turns exceptionally well with the boot binding combination. Given good snow and a steep pitch, I'm almost as comfortable on this rugged touring set up as I am on my alpine touring system. For the steep tilt above in the bowls, I use 65 mm skins. The boots and binding borrow skate ski technology and the application works incredibly well for kick and glide, ascending with skins, and cranking turns on the descent.

The skis have a double camber with a wax pocket. Most skis of this genre have waxless "fish scales" for kick, but I prefer a wax pocket and kick wax. Kick wax has a better glide and it also climbs a little better than the waxless skis. The Outtabounds combination of kick/gliding, ascending and turning capability is the most versatile system I have skied with very, very good performance in all three elements.