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2024-03-22 at 17:09 - comment by mike w

AT - Thanks for the reminder about the Badger Pass Tragedy. It should never be forgotten. For the young'uns reading this report, we should clarify that '09 refers neither to 2009 nor 1909, but 1809. The Tragedy was the basis of Rudyard Kipling's 1894 novel The Jungle Book. Personally, I think the impact of the story was lessened by Kipling's decision to base it in India instead of the Rockies.

2024-03-22 at 14:07 - comment by ulrikeski

Mike: a great tale of perseverance. I take it that the embedded skins on the skis were good for the uphills on the icy snow and no full length skins were needed.
Too bad your track is now covered under new snow. Trail breaking required to get to that cabin now!

2024-03-22 at 11:37 - comment by Mike W

Thanks Helen! Based on Sporten's skier weight specifications, it looked like 185cm would have been a better fit for me. But Switching Gear didn't have it in that size, and I like the maneuverability of shorter skis such as when floundering in isothermal snow as in the Cuthead Creek photo. I was concerned the 175's would have too much grip and too little glide, but hoped I could compensate by sliding the binding back as far as it would go. In the worst case, I was prepared to shave off some of the skin hairs to improve glide. But the skis worked great with the binding in the centre position.

Although an NNN-BC binding & boot setup would be sturdier for more challenging terrain, the combination of NNN bindings and my Combi boots were more than adequate. And it had the advantage of lighter boots with a moveable binding. For more challenging terrain, I've got the Little B's!

Thanks for the Skogan Pass tip. I haven't been to the pass yet this season, so I might head there tomorrow.

2024-03-22 at 09:32 - comment by aqua toque

There's an oldtimer around these parts, who as an infant was the sole survivor of the '09 Badger Pass Tragedy (and subsequently raised by wolves).

When asked about it says he'll "never get over Badger Pass".

2024-03-22 at 09:22 - comment by SkierRoger

Thanks for taking us along on that adventure, on a snowy Friday morning.

BTW: I tried to enter the new acronym but for some reason the website wouldn’t take it 😂

2024-03-22 at 09:04 - comment by GordN

I too noticed the skis right away! Nice snag at SG.

2024-03-22 at 08:43 - comment by HenryL

As they would have said in the old days, "Huzzah, huzzah!". Great trip. You persevered longer than most folks would.
I'm surprised that AquaToque (I like to use AT for short) didn't badger you about your growing quiver of skis.

2024-03-22 at 07:35 - comment by aqua toque

Fun with acronyms!

lol

2024-03-22 at 07:22 - comment by Helen Read

What an incredible report you wrote.....it was like ready a perfect mystery without the dreaded culprit attacking you at Cuthead Cabin. You got yourself a sweet pair of Sporten skis and am sure those skis never got further than Skoki Cabin in their previous rental life at Wilson's. I did not see them in my visit to Switching Gears a few days ago, but might have been tempted because 175 cms is the sweet length of my Asnes, which are 76-56-66. I prefer the back country binding but heh, you got yourself an awesome pair of skis and with the imbedded skins. Your trip report was entertaining; how you and Sporten Explorer's persevered. I will be searching for a "Badger Pin" at our local Thrift Store, cuz you earned it. BRAVO MIKE W.! Today's perfect conditions at Skogan Pass are screaming out to you!

Cuthead Cabin at last!

Report Submitted by Mike W
(trip) Date: Tuesday Mar 19, 2024

Submitted: Friday Mar 22, 2024 at 00:48

Participants:

Me and my Sporten Explorer 64 "Cuthead Cabin" Special Edition skis

Discussion:

Cuthead Cabin is about 10km beyond Stoney Creek Cabin on the Cascade Valley Trail. I tried this trip in January 2021 on my skinny skin skis, but had to turn back 4km short of the Cabin. My skinny skis weren't up to the trailbreaking and were bending at an alarming angle into the weakening snowpack. This year I posted a comment on Sara's Jan 2 report of her Cuthead Cabin trip (https://www.skierroger.ca/index.php?content=showski_special&id=2520 ) : "I clearly have a gaping deficiency in my quiver of skis, between my 44mm track skis and my 89mm light touring skis. I definitely need a pair of metal-edged light touring skis just wide enough to fit in the tracks. I'll nickname them my Cuthead Cabin skis!". Well, my quiver deficiency got filled Sunday on a visit to Switching Gear in Canmore where I found the ideal pair of skis, recently retired from Wilson Sports' rental fleet. Sporten Explorer 64, 175cm, 64-52-60mm profile, full metal edge, and skin kick zone. Apparently 2020/21 vintage. They came with Rossignol Turnamic Race NNN bindings (photo 1).

Total distance: 50.00 Km

Photo 1 Cuthead Cabin at last!

I set out early Tuesday morning, hoping to take advantage of the crust from the recent thaw-freeze cycles and the last sunny day before the forecast snowstorm. Seeing that the trail was last groomed on March 12, this website's FTG (Follow the Grooming) directive was recklessly ignored. As a consequence, after only 100m, I was seriously considering turning around. The road was a hard-frozen wasteland of gouged ski tracks and bootprints (photo 2).

Photo 2 The sorry state of the Cascade Valley Trail.

My skis were skidding in all directions but I decided to at least go as far as the Bankhead junction, vainly hoping that conditions would improve. Then I decided to continue up the first bit of hill, still hoping that conditions would improve. Skiing in the trackset was impossible, due to the thaw-freeze phenomenon of "Track Within A Track" (use of acronym not advisable). During a hot day, the bottom of the machine trackset softens so much that narrow skis can gouge out a deeper track. You end up with say a 44mm-wide track meandering inside the machine-set 70mm track. Any ski wider than 44m will have one edge drop into the inner track and scrape the frozen sidewall, preventing any glide (photo 3). So I skied on the crusted boot-tracked surface, which under better conditions would be called the skate lane. But at least I was having a better time than a couple of skate skiers whose old tracks showed they had herring-boned all the way up the first 2km of the hill.

Photo 3 The dreaded "Track Within A Track".

Fortunately, conditions improved on the descent to the Cascade River Bridge and beyond. The trackset was still unusable, but the bootprints were largely gone, the crust was supportive, and double-poling was working well. Despite the early flounderings, I made it to Stoney Creek in about the time I had originally expected (photo 4). There was only a single skier-set track which was too narrow for me to use, but the crust was smooth with just a cm of ski penetration.

Photo 4 Stoney Creek.

A few km past Stoney Creek is a series of creek crossings, only one of which required skis to be removed (photo 5).

Photo 5 - A good spot to fill up on water.

The skier-set track ended about a km beyond, but I could just make out a hint of a depression in the snow which was probably Sara's Jan 2 track. The only other tracks were wolves. The crust was weakening as the day progressed, but both Sara's track and the wolf tracks provided an extra bit of support. I passed the Elk Trap 1km later (photos 6 & 7). Beyond that was an old sign for Flints Park (photo 8), but still a few km to go to Cuthead Cabin (photo 9).

Photo 6 - Elk Trap.

Photo 7 - Elk Trap.

Photo 8 - Sign for Flints Park.

Photo 9 - Still a few km to go. Photo taken on return, looking back toward Cuthead Cabin.

Up to now my main safety concern was being stalked by a cougar, as per recent reports on this website. But when I arrived at the junction of the trails to the Panther River and Flints Park, just 1km from the Cabin, a signpost alerted me to an even more terrifying threat. So terrifying that I dare not speak its name (photo 10).

Photo 10 - Extreme Danger Ahead!

In a flash I hopped over Cuthead Creek (photo 11) to the relative safety of the Cabin (photo 12). After a leisurely lunch #2, I headed back, happy to leave the B----R threat far behind.