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Silver King, Crystal Mt., November 24, 2007
Getting free of the crust to change directions worked well; my ski came off on the next turn when I tried to pivot under the snow!
Kevin and I decided to get some EZ turns in before the Apple Cup started, and since the snow cover was still a little low, we thought the grassy lower part of Crystal Mountain might be easier on the P-Tex than Rainier. We pulled into the lot with about 50 other cars full of skiers, hikers, and sledders and headed for Campbell Basin with the sun shining.
There was a distinct but frozen skintrack from a day or so prior, but no one else ahead of us. The track was fast and had adequate grip on all but the steepest parts of the skin, and we cruised to the day lodge in short order. The grip wasn't quite enough on the traverse to the Throne, so we broke (separate) fresh tracks in the crusty corn on the way to the top of Silver King.
The most direct line off the top of the King looked a bit boney, so we decided to try the next chute to the south, and skied delicately in the lightly sun-crusted snow feeling for rocks. Three turns in, I skied out of my right ski with very little effort, and sat down watching my ski slide slowly into a hole in the snow. Kevin, of course, ripped the chute and recorded my adventure with his Canon.
We skied to the bottom without mishap and decided to have a sandwich, where I found that the retaining washer that holds the Dynafit fore-aft adjustment shaft was missing, and my heelpiece had moved about 4 or 5 mm back on its own, so that the pins just BARELY engaged my boot heel. No wonder I had trouble staying in my binding!
After dropping Kevin off at Four Corners, I decided to stop in at Marmot Mountain Works in Bellevue, on the chance that they would have some Dynafit parts lying around. They didn't, but store manager Eric went the extra mile and cannibalized a new set of TLT Speeds for a fresh baseplate! We swapped on my modified body and topplate, and I was good to go. Beyond the call of duty, for sure, thanks Eric!
