tirsdag den 29. oktober 2013

Summers End

The past weekend marked the end of daylight savings time for this year. The weather was pretty nice Saturday and Sunday, but yesterday definitely brought an end to that feeling, with the arrival of the first big storm (some say it rivals the legendary storm of 1999, the roads this morning surely witnessed that some damage occurred to buildings, threes and scaffolding etc.).
So I thought it was fitting to call the short movie I made while playing around with the new Garmin Virb action cam (more on that later) for Summers End.


Summers end from Christoffer Larsen on Vimeo.

onsdag den 9. oktober 2013

Kongesporet 2013 and Narrow/Wide chainring follow up.

Today is Tuesday. My bottom only hurts a little now.
Sunday evening it was a bit worse. Crossing the finish line Sunday afternoon it didn't really feel that bad. The pain came creeping in after I'd relaxed for a couple of hours.

Sunday morning 9 a.m. I was ready on the start line of the inaugural version of Kongesporet (Kings trail) 2013.
For the last two months I've been training to start racing again, planning to debut in the Slushcup in November. Despite that plan I was ready on the start line of Kongesporet this Sunday. Thinking it might be a good opportunity to test my fitness and finally do some racing again. I'd signed up for the marathon distance of 105 km, as the shorter distances of 42 and 21 km are for kids and rookies.
I've ridden marathon races before, but it's been a couple of years, so I didn't really know what pace to set. But I had a plan.

2nd or 3rd loop in Boserup.
Photo: Mikkel M Beisner, Grip Grap

søndag den 22. september 2013

Race Face Single Ring Narrow/Wide - initial impressions

Are the XX1 style narrow/wide chainrings worth the money?
The answer pretty much comes down to their ability to keep the chain from falling off, when running without a chainguide.
I thought it might be interesting to isolate the narrow/wide effect, too see what it really does.

 Narrow/wide and standard version of the Race Face Single Ring.

I've been riding a standard Race Face 34T Single Ring since spring, and have so far put 1400 km on it.
Today I changed to the 34T Narrow/Wide version of the Race Face Single Ring.

mandag den 16. september 2013

Moroccan climbing

Back in the spring of 2010 Jonathan Mathiesen, Jens Arne and I wen't to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco for some african skialpinism.
I've since had 900+ photos that I want'ed to get sorted and perhaps share a few of.
Anyways now it's autumn '13 and the Danish Climbing Federation are organizing a climbing trip to Tafroute in Morocco, so what better reason to put of some pictures.
This first post from our trip three years ago, is primarily climbing orientated. Later post can cover skiing and culture.

Trekking in from Imlil. 1600 vertical meters + food and gear for two weeks = mule - good idea.

torsdag den 13. juni 2013

Take care when clipping high.

Take care when clipping high. Especially at the beginning of the route or close to ledges etc.
Illustration from the Petzl techtips section.

lørdag den 18. maj 2013

What to do when you loose half your chainring bolts?

Ever tried spreading your chainring bolts all over the trail?
I tried it today. When I discovered something was wrong, to bolts and nuts were missing completely, and the other two had loosened so much, they only had a couple of threads keeping them together with the nuts.
A 15 min search only revealed one bolt. Two nuts and a bolt had been abducted by the numerous very large ants that were all over the trail today.
So how to continue?
Search in your pockets (saddlebag in this case) and see what you can find.
In addition to my tools and spare tube, I found a couple of meters of 3mm cord.
Tighten to two remaining bolts and tie the cord through the two empty holes.

Two bolts and cord for the rest.

It holds up pretty well. Enough to both ride home and to get some icecream to celebrate the arrival of summer.

fredag den 5. april 2013

Sluff management

Jim Conway and Mark Newcomb has made a good writeup on sluff hazards and sluff management techniques, for the US Forrest Service Avalanche Center.
It's not new anymore, but the information is still relevant. I think it's easy to understand and easy to apply.

http://www.fsavalanche.org/encyclopedia/sluff.htm

Small sluff on Cheops Mountain. Rogers Pass, BC.

tirsdag den 2. april 2013

Recue mission on Combeynot

"Chris; Iben have twisted her knee!" Someone yelled. I'm at around 2900 m and breaking trail on the boot pack after it got too steep to skin. The majority of the group is about 100 m below me, around a corner. I can't see what's going on down there. Communication is difficult because of distance and terrain. Decision is easy, go down and see how bad it is.


The had started in beautiful weather at Col Du Lautaret, and we had ascended the 900 vertical m in little less the 3.5 hours earlier.
The goal was Pic Ouest de Combeynot (3145m). Our skin track had gotten gradually steeper with more frequent kick turns, before we decided to boot pack the steepest part.

mandag den 1. april 2013

Pic Blanc Du Galibier


Easy and popular ski touring on a nice peak close to the (cycling)historic Col Du Galibier.
On good weather days the peak is quite popular, fifteen cars at the trailhead (Col Du Lautaret) are not uncommon.
Most people ski down the south east side (same route as the ascent), but the west wall gives access to good skiing, often untracked and holds powder longer. The first 150 vertical meters of the west wall, are a bit steep. So make sure conditions are stable.

Pic Blanc Du Galibier. Erik posing.

mandag den 18. marts 2013

Airtravel and Avalanche Airbags


Airtravel and airbag packs are a subject I see debated all over the web and fairly often.
There seems to be a lot mystery and misconceptions around this matter (also among airline check-in staff).

I bought my Mammut Pro 45 Avalanche Airbag Backpack last year, and flew with it a couple of times last season.
This season I have, so far, flown six times with the pack and cartridge.

Some components of the system comes under the dangerous goods regulations. Which part depends on what brand of airbag you use.
For Mammut/Snowpulse, BCA and Wary the dangerous goods component is the cartridge only.
For ABS the dangerous goods components are the deployment handle and the cartridge.

As stated by the IATA (International Air Transport Association) it is legal to carry an avalanche airbag cartridge on a plane. Either in your carry-on or in the checked piece.
Extract from the IATA website:

fredag den 1. marts 2013

Skitouring Revelstoke. Greely Bowl and northeast

Got some local advice on where to find good skiing and touring just outside the Revelstoke Mountain Resort boundary. About 1.5 hours of skinning in total and a full day of very good skiing. I guess the pics speaks for themselves. The timing was also right, perfect ski conditions just before the big storm tomorrow shuts down all touring possibilities for the next couple of days.


mandag den 28. januar 2013

Local Ice - Video

The video from last weekends ice climbing at the local crags.

Skånsk Is from Christoffer Larsen on Vimeo.

iPhone/iPad friendly version:

søndag den 20. januar 2013

Kullen / Hovs Hallar Januar 2013

Like said, like done.
Departure from Cph friday afternoon at 15.00. Arriving at the Kullaberg parking lot just as darkness had fallen.
Having brought along some powerfull headlamps, the plan was to scout the north coast for ice possibilities.
We started out near Visitgrottan. The pillar left of the cave was really thin, but further up the ravine to the left, the ramp that leaves to the forrest directly above the cave, had formed enough to mandate a try.

Short sections of thin ice