Repairing a Torn Skin - Black Diamond Ultralite Mix STS Climbing Skins

Hitting a rock is known for inflicting core shots, not skin tears. In this case, at a dip on a ridge while ascending, I skied off the minor rock outcropping at the top of the ski run I call Scott Cutler's Yellow Coat and hit ground and nearly face-planted. From the sound of plastic and metal grinding on rock, I was sure I had a core shot, but no, just a skin rip. What do you even call this? Skin shot? Third degree burn? Road Rash? Skin flapper?  I doubt my old, heavyweight Black Diamond Ascension Skins would have torn, I've had ground-hits with them and I barely lost any fibers, and no hint of a tear. 

I bought Black Diamond Ultralite Mix STS Climbing Skins this winter to go with my new lightweight rig (BD Helio 88's - 167cm, Atomic Backland Tech Bindings - no brakes, Scarpa F1 boots). The whole rig is light and the skis are surprisingly fun to ski. The Helio line has a reputation for being stiff with little dampening in soft snow, so they are more of a hard-snow ski, but I've had fun with them, even in deep, soft Utah powder. My only complaint, which is due to my choice of a short length (167cm), sometimes I feel like I'm going over the handle bars. This is remedied by balancing body weight over the skis, and staying light on my toes and with that you can sort of mimic a fat ski, like a Voile V6 (yeah, still skinny, but that's my current fatty). And don't sit back on any ski, fat or skinny, as that just makes one look like a Grizzly Gulch tourist. Yeah, fat skis give us mindless turning in deep powder - and who wants to think when there's 12 inches of new snow? - but just remember, the lighter you go, the farther you go, thus more consumption that new 12 inches. 

The BD Ultralite Mix STS Climbing Skins skins are surprisingly light but I wasn't expecting them to be hard to handle. They have very little rigidity compared to the BD Ascension Skins. In a strong wind, like when transitioning to ski on a ridge or a peak, they flap and sail in the wind like the thinnest prayer flag in Tibet. When this happens I usually give up trying to fold them neatly and instead just wad them up into a ball and stuff them in my pack. It takes too long to fight them in the wind when friends are waiting on me to ski. The down side of wadded skins is that when transitioning to skin they are a tangled mess of glue and fibers at the bottom of my pack. It takes some work to pull them apart and attach to skis. Again, with the time clock running and OCD friends waiting to skin, the pressure is on. Overall I like my 'heavyweight' Ascension Skins better just for their ease of use. Yeah, twice the weight of the Ultralites, but their substantial thickness aids in transitions due to their easier handling. Another thing, the Ultralites are slightly less grippy than the Ascensions, which is a serious matter on the Wasatch's notoriously steep, 'one-time-use-only' skin tracks (too steep = slippage when packed hard). Wind aside, they are often worth their tougher handling for their weight savings so I'll stick with the Ultralites on calm days, but go with the Ascensions on stormy days solely for their ease of use in strong winds.

Skin repaired, first with a sewing machine but finished by hand-stitching with needle and sinew. Yes, it looks very red-neck, but I think it'll hold. I tried sewing it with Kara's Bernina but I gave up after breaking four needles, including two heavy duty needles. The machine seemed to sew through the thin skin just fine, at least for the first ten stokes but then the needle quickly bogged down and broke. I don't they broke due to the thickness of the skins, rather, I think they picked up a layer of skin glue with every stroke, eventually getting coated with glue and snapped when the friction was too much. Just too much torque from Kara's high-end Bernina which usually sees only fine quilts and delicate lace works of art. After four broken needles and with my darling wife glaring at me (I was invading her terrain, and her $5,000 Bernina), I then sewed it by hand with a needle and sinew. In hind site I should have ironed-off the glue at the spot of the rip. In my defense, in High School I took a Home Econ class where I sewed myself a powder jacket (late 1970's shell), so I'm not a total old-school-Mormon around sewing machines. 

Epilogue:
I made a big mistake and didn't change the last needle which was still coated in skin glue. Kara was totally jacked when the fine cloth of her current quilt project, intended for our new granddaughter due in July, was pulled into the bobbin/needle workings of the Bernina. Ooooops! Sorry, K! Dinner at La Qai?   

                                       

Black's Peak to Hidden Couloir II, April 19, 2019

The ski descent from the top of Black's Peak down the Hidden Couloir is one of the the biggest lines off Bountiful Ridge, if not he biggest, at about 2,400 vertical feet. Yeah, real skiers (Central Wasatch skiers) snicker at such modest fare with derision, but they show up here when LCC is closed for avy control, then go back to the lemming tracks in LCC, BCC and Millcreek when the canyons re-open. But they're right!! Bountiful Ridge is total bull-shit skiing at it's worst. Long approach, short runs, absolute bush-whack hell. Worse yet, after skiing any of the Hidden Couloirs or the Big Drops, you're at the bottom of the mountain, stuck in a never-ending rats-nest of brush, miles from deliverance from the trap. Plus you're at almost the same elevation as your starting point in North Canyon (around 6,200 feet), so it's either repeat your earlier climb or dive into the descent into hades.

Bush-whack down Mueller's or skin back up the way I came?? No simple answers in a complex world and my mind is too simple for that think-tank. Screw it! Next time I'm going to Coalpit like all real-men!  

But I get ahead of myself. It is the journey which brings character . . . 

Kara's Meadows emerging from the deep snow pack of the winter of 2018-2019. There hasn't been this much snow here since the winter of 2010.

KPF still buried deep. Last winter (and the previous three winters) the saplings were never covered like they are now, and it was almost unskiable without getting tripped by hidden snags. KPF is re-establishing quickly, and I'm not fighting it. It was great while it lasted but it created it's own complications.  

Session's Mountain from upper KPF.

The snow-stake is emerging from hibernation. The top is over four-feet above the summer trail and this winter was the first time in over a decade that it was completely covered. (Ski pole added for scale.) 

Moose Beds!! I love seeing the bath-tub, ice-beds formed by their bodies when sleeping in snow. Unfortunately the beds seen here all winter have melted.
I love that the Moose are back! They disappeared for several years due to hunting pressure and it broke my heart. Don't misunderstand, I am not against hunting or guns, some of my biggest hero's are big game hunters, but they do it they way it should be done, with complete respect for the game and to simply provide for their families. That said, I am against indiscriminate killing for the sake of glorifying ones ego. When I was much younger I did a lot of killing, but over I time I came to realize the killing I did was all about my narcism and had nothing to do with sportsmanship, feeding my family or even trying to balance the herd into a healthy equilibrium. I'd now much rather see a living Moose in the wild than to see them killed. I regret all the killing I once did to gratify my ego.
In the case of the Moose at Rudy's Flat, I heard from rock-solid sources that a huge bull Moose was shot four years ago, just an eighth mile from Rudy's Flat, and the hunter took only the head to be mounted in his living room, leaving 2,000 pounds of meat to rot in the dirt.
And please save the lecture. Yes, I eat meat and I don't kill the cow so you're likely thinking I'm a bloody hypocrite, but that's a stupid argument in today's over-manufactured economy. You drive a truck yet you didn't build that truck. You might ride a bike but you certainly did not build those components nor weave, epoxy or bake that carbon fiber frame. You use petrol yet you did not drill, pump, transport nor refine that oil into petrol. You use a phone yet I highly doubt you even know how silicone is created, let-alone miniaturized to fit into your shirt pocket. So, yes, maybe I am a hypocrite when it comes to meat, but don't even begin to assume you are innocent. Look around you. Did you create anything surrounding you in this exact moment? Even 1%? If you really think that argument is real (shoot your own meat or you're a douche), it simply reveals an incredibly shallow mind. 

Near Rudy's Flat, skis-on or off?? 

,

I may have been born stupid but it's getting better, but still stupid here. . .

Just over 33 inches still on the ground at Rudy's Flat.

My best selfies are face-less, and if you've seen my face you know why.

Beautiful trees, both dead and alive and full of character, found all along the ridge.

Farmer Joe Smith burning Tamaraisk? I see these smoke signals every spring and I'm still clueless as to their purpose. Or, maybe its the construction of the new state pen? Who knows?

One of my rocks has survived for years. I've placed these in tree-crotches all over the mountain to see it they'll be enveloped by the trees (mostly not), but most are removed during the summer by Boy Scouts, mountain bikers or deer hunters, and the lower on the mountain they're placed the higher the likelihood they will be removed.

Mountain Mahogany upon reaching the ridge top along the summer trail. 

Grant's dead tree has finally fallen over. My Dad (Grant) took at least a thousand pictures of this beautiful old tree, and that was long before the day of free digital photography. 

Sad too see it has fallen . . .

Grant's Tree, view north.

Grant's Tree, view west. 

The Central-Wasatch-BAD-ASS sector (l-r, Gobblers (barely in frame on left), Raymond, Dromedary, Sunrise, Broads Twins, Thunder). The nearer, timbered ridge is Little Black Mountain, which is the south side of City Creek Canyon.

Anyone who is anything in the back-country ski world ski over there. In comparison, Bountiful Ridge is a kindergartner's-nap-time area, freakishly flat with short, short ski runs. Go ski White Pine, Maybird, Hogum Fork or even the moguled-out Superior-Cardiac shit-show and you'll never come back to Bountiful Ridge. Save your skins, skis, pride and integrity and don't waste your time in Davis County. Ski the Central Wasatch with real skiers, but go early, there's no parking if you're not at the trailhead before sunrise.

Thunder Mountain (l) Lone Peak (r) and upper Bells Canyon between, with wet-slides visible coming off Lone Peak.

Dromedary, Sunrise and Broads Fork Twins (l-r) . . .

 . . .and then there's the flat and lonely crescent bowl. Really no comparison to the gnarly Central Wasatch, so don't waste your time here. View NW, toward Centerville, Farmington and West Layton/Syracuse way out there. Bountiful Peak and Francis Peak on the upper right.

Hitting a rock is known for inflicting core shots, not skin tears.  In this case I skied off the minor rock outcropping at the top of the ski run I call Scott Cutler's Yellow Coat, I thought the rocks were covered, but then I hit something hard just under the snow and I nearly face-planted. I was sure I had a core shot, but no, just a skin rip. What do you even call this? Skin shots? Third degree burn? Road Rash? Skin flapper?

View SW over the SLC valley, taken from drone from above the summit of Black's Peak. Black's Peak was the ultimate goal when I was a teenager (1975-1981'ish) and we thought we were true mountain men each time we summited. Looking back I had a glorious teenage existence pretending I was Jeremiah Johnson while hiking to this peak, but now it seems so small and insignificant. That said, compared to the crowds now fanning the rest of the Wasatch Mountains, this area is still somewhat pristine and still somewhat rarely visited: two huge wins by my standards.

AHHHH, the splendor of the summit of a lonely peak. Not much in this world feels so rewarding, if only for a minute or two. It's worth the effort to get there. View south towards the central Wasatch.

View SW over the Salt Lake Valley and the Oquirh's across the way.

View NE. Grandview Peak is barely seen over the Douglas Firs on the ridge in the middle of the upper right quad. I was hoping the drone was high enough to get a good view of Grandview and upper Cottonwood Gulch, but I couldn't tell during the flight because it's a tracker type drone without any viewing capability, so basically I'm flying blind. Obviously I should've gone higher. 

I told you, the best selfies are face-less, for obvious reasons. 

Sorry, too many summit/drone shots, but I can't resist. View SW.

Skiing Mark's Ghost-North to get to the entrance to the Hidden Couloir II, which is the flat, open area on the ridge directly above me (straight ahead) in the photo. Hidden Couloir (the original) is down the ridge from Hidden Couloir II, through the Douglas Firs to the next opening, which is not in view here.

Black's Peak from the traverse over to the Hidden Couloirs.

The entrance to Hidden Couloir II. The trees are widely spaced and it's great skiing when the snow is not cement, but the entrance is not totally obvious until past the Doug-Firs directly in front of me here. As you can tell the snow was wet cement given the rollers off each turn, and very trippy when I broke through.

Roller balls off each turn are not a good sign.
Almost into the main chute of Hidden Couloir II. Just around those trees and it's steeper, fall-line skiing, but he snow was like wet cement and I kept punching through and almost tripping. I never fell but I sure did not make many elegant turns today.


I was so tired and blitzed that I didn't take many photos once down Hidden Couloir II. I took this to give you an idea of the bush-whack hell while post-holing through wet snow while hiking down Mill Stream/Mueller Canyon. Don't do this! It sucks! It's best to skin back up the couloir and go out the way you came. I didn't do that because the snow was too wet, soft and unsupportable for steep skinning today. Timing is everything and I should've turned around at Rudy's Flat when I realized there was no refreeze last night.

I ran out of water at the top of Black's Peak and I normally never drink from any stream, but after bush-whacking and post-holing for what seemed like miles, and with miles still to go, I was feeling dizzy from dehydration, so, when I saw this clean-ish spring (Mill Stream was manky-brown from the run-off), so I got on my knees and guzzled without care until I was bloated and feeling sick, but that fresh mountain water tastes soooo good!  I should know in a week or two if Giardia or Cryptosporordium was present.

Skin repaired, first with thread and finished with sinew. Very red-neck but I think it'll hold. I tried sewing it with Kara's Bernina but I gave up after breaking four needles, including two heavy duty needles. The machine seemed to sew through the skin just fine, at least for the first ten piercings but then the needle quickly bogged down and then broke. I then sewed it by hand with sinew. I don't think the Benina needles broke due to the thickness of the skins, it was the glue that eventually coated the needle with skin glue then grabbed it as it went through. In hind site I should've ironed-off the glue at the spot of the tear.