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@@user-sh9pu6kk7g Thanks for the enthusiasm, user! You sound like the target audience I envisioned for my summer content. There isn’t a lot of info for many of the off-the-beaten-path routes, lakes, and peaks in the Flat Tops, and even less that’s presented in a way that really conveys the in-person experience. You’re lucky if you can find a backpacking blog or summitpost article from a few years ago. My hope is to do more camping/fishing/hiking videos since that’s what most people seek to do in the Flat Tops. That said, we’re having a baby in 2 days, so that’ll limit my opportunities to get out for a while. Have fun!

Sweet, I hope you get the chance. It really is a unique range in CO for having so much easy alpine terrain with so much water.

Again, great content! The Colorado flat tops are a gem. Let's hope only the kind visit.

The slope I wanted to get to was going to require a 15 mile round-trip hike with skis and boots on my backpack, which seemed questionably reasonable until I found out how much of it would be over snow (and mud).

It depends somewhat on the ski and boot pairing, but I suppose I opt for 3-pins more often. There’s a lot of overlap, but I’d say the bell curve for 3-pin skews further towards the downhill end of things, with a broader range of uses overall thanks to boots. NNN BC skews more towards xc touring, but it can still be great for light downhill turning with a higher-end boot. I’ve never skied a ski that was too much for 3-pins, but I have maxed out my NNN BC before when skiing downhill. Considering the topic of this particular video, I’d say it’s usually cheaper to put together a used 3-pin setup than NNN BC, especially considering the need for a high-end NNN BC boot to really push it beyond xc to xcd. If money isn’t much of a consideration, then the rottefella xplore binding could be the right solution.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain thanks for the feedback. At the end of this season I bought Salomon 83s, then rottafella NNNBC bindings and a higher end Salomon nnnbc boot (all 50% off). The bindings and boot feel pretty solid and the boot has considerable flex, so hopefully that equates to better turning!

@@andrewhicks6712 Sweet. Seems promising, hope it works out well.

Haha, a miracle was indeed needed! Thanks for noticing. I think I had 3 separate breakthrough moments this past winter (one in Feb, one in April, and one in May) where feel + head knowledge combined at just the right time, and all 3 occurred while I was using the Voilés. Now that I’ve figured out some basics on the Voilés, I am able to duplicate it on my other skis, but the Voilés blended ease of turning with the confidence of stability that allowed me to isolate and focus on some of the other feelings and movements that brought about breakthrough. I can’t wait for next winter to see what new slopes I can tele on that I couldn’t handle this year. How was your winter on the Front Range? Did the Hoks work out for your wife?

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it so thoroughly.

Just fish scales. In the winter I often bring at least some mini skins though, just in case I end up at the bottom of something steep and deep with no way out but up.

Well, thanks for all the comments this season! The snow in the Flat Tops seems to be lingering, so I’ll keep seeking it out.

Lots of nice clearings and gentle slopes around there and easy to access.

Thanks! I’m happy to be associated in any way with those guys and yourself as well. The main reason to have a channel at all is for the camaraderie of other folks who are into the same thing.

Agreed! It takes one to have the other, and skill and courage have to develop mutually! I think that’s partly why it’s such an advantage if you pick up skiing while you’re young before your brain fully develops risk assessment.

Somehow I missed your comment when you posted it. I definitely default to having my hands in a position to catch myself rather than to ski aggressively. I need to get the muscle memory for having my hands lower and out front so I can break that habit even when my mind starts to drift to other aspects of my skiing. Are you over in the Yampa valley? I’d be down for skiing sometime this winter.

Thanks! Pants are arguably the most important part of my gear!

It really is ideal for XCD and yo-yo laps.

Cheers!

Thanks, and good saying. I’m super awkward and inhibited in any situations where I actually have to dance, so I’ve got my work cut out for me 🙃 But it is starting to feel a bit more like dancing (in a good way).

Sweet. I mainly ski there because it’s as convenient as it gets (when it’s free), but it sure is a pretty spot. I keep meaning to hike around Shrine Pass in the summer and somehow haven’t pulled it off yet. And thanks, I feel like I’m finally putting some things together when it comes to the tele turn.

Nearby. To my mind, this (and Dinosaur) is all part of the vague upland/divide between the White River and the Yampa River that kind of bridges the gap from the Southern Rockies (CO) to the Central Rockies (UT) and forms the northeastern boundary of the Colorado Plateau region. This particular spot is in the Gray Hills.

Thanks!

Thanks! I’ve started swallowing my beginner pride by doing parallel turns when conditions and terrain make that more suitable. I’m not sure if I could’ve managed the same turns on xc skis with high/long camber and minimal rocker, but it seems to work well with the Voilés. In technical terms, I think I was probably “up-unweighting” and then pivoting the skis, along with using a bit of wedge and traverse to control speed and pick my line through the clutter. Here’s a good video I found about unweighting: czcams.com/video/WKG3V55KPp8/video.htmlsi=HJJiTIwTlTiHrPuK

Better keep a low profile, the deep XCD state is gonna come after you now.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain let them come… especially if they’re bringing all the “deep” with them! The deep snow, amirite? •slaps knee•

Thanks for the encouragement. I certainly don’t wish to prescribe what skiing ought to mean and look like for everyone else. In such a niche sport, I pretty much just want to connect with other folks like you who share the same thrill since we can be few and far between.

This is why it’s important for dads to constantly remind their kids that life ain’t fair, and then drive the lesson home by unilaterally making decisions that work in our own favor.

Yeah, I’ve lucked out a few times at Recycled Sports in Frisco. Summit County seems to have a good population base for this gear.

Yeah. Since both cross country and telemark seem to have a lot of older participants, you can often score deals as folks who are well off eventually retire from the sport.

Haha. Either really dedicated or not dedicated enough to drive 30 minutes into the mountains.

I was pretty excited as well to realize this was a thing a few years ago!

Yeah. I had roughly 2 liters of water (only drank 1) and a bag of walnuts, bars, and an orange. Part of the issue may have been spending 10 hours in the car the day before.

FWIW, it's really expensive, but the new Xplore system from Rottefella is a very nice upgrade for this kind of skiing. Fixes everything wrong with NNN/BC IMHO.

@@imoldandyoureinmyway I have the red bumper and I like the control of this boot, but it is heavy for a long tour. I hope to get some xplore boots and bindings once I either become rich and famous or they start showing up on the secondhand market.

Thanks and correct! The Flat Tops are great if you avoid the 1,000’ cliffs. The wilderness in this area is a big deterrent to snowmobiles as well.

Yeah, no need to spend $2000+. Spring is a great time to find deals on secondhand gear, but you do have to know what to look for since the retail folks aren’t usually helpful when it comes to this kind of skiing. What climate/terrain will you be skiing in? What proportion of mileage to vertical is your ideal outing? These are some factors that will affect the gear you choose. A good middle-point in the spectrum I mentioned in the video can be achieved with skies that are ~100-110mm in the shovel and ~70-80mm underfoot. On the more xc end, that means Fischer S-bound 98 skis or skis of similar dimensions, generally with fish scales and metal edges. On the more downhill end, maybe Altai Kom skis or Voilé Objective/Endeavor. Between the two ends, perhaps the Madshus Guide/Annum/Panorama 78. A 3-pin binding with cable option and a burly leather boot, or Scarpa T3 or T4 or T2 (for the downhill skis) would work. All this stuff can often be found used if you’re in an area with plenty of BC skiers and keep an eye out on Craigslist, FB marketplace, or secondhand stores.

Thanks, JLO!

Perhaps! My main goal was for them to look goofy and not at all sultry, so that probably could have ensured I got the right message across.

Was a lot of fun! Thanks for all your instructional stuff on your channel.

Thanks! Sometimes the turns feel pretty good. It’s been a warmer winter which has largely melted the lower valleys out by now, but the area in this video is about 8,000’ with mountains above reaching 11,000’+. Snowpack is right at average at elevation. Hope Montana eventually got something appreciable.

Is that the Fischer Transnordic? I have an old 2-buckle NNN BC boot with a high plastic cuff and stiff leather. I’d say that with that, NNN BC maxes out just shy of a plastic boot and 3-pins but no cable, but maybe a bit better than leather and 3-pin. The pivot is different with NNN BC, so the stance needs to be more compact than with 3-pin in order to keep the ball of the foot down. I suspect that some folks with the Transnordic BCX might end up leaving their 3-pin setups in the garage, but not the folks looking to ski the most challenging conditions.

I predict around Thanksgiving ‘24. It’s weird, a lot of storms showed promise for the San Juans this winter but ended up heading for the Elk Mountains or NW CO instead. Even though we’ve had a good amount of SW winds, the San Juans keep getting missed and Steamboat is the first CO ski area to hit 300”, in an El Niño phase no less. Right now, Durango’s 2-week forecast looks springlike, but NW CO looks to keep similar temps to what we had most of February (nothing really over 50*F in the long range yet).

😪@@GoTeleOnTheMountain