Weeknight rando rendezvous?

Thanks for the responses. I haven't made firm plans yet, but if the weather settles down, some evening next week might be fun for this. My in-town obligations limit my time in the mountains and I've found that these short trips to the pass keep me from jonesing too bad.

It would be fun to experiment with transitions and a stopwatch to see if we can improve. I've done some experimenting with different ways to strip and stow the skins, and it would be fun to get other people's ideas. The idea would be to play around in a non-competitive setting and see if it's possible to generate the buzz you feel after a rando rally. But in this setting we'd have the opportunity to learn from each other, which doesn't happen much in a real race.

I talked to Seth and Ben about this too.  We were thinking Wed nights, Seth liked the 6:00 time, Ben and I were thinking earlier- work early hours so get off early.

We were talking about starting this Wednesday, 1/7/09; but the weather is a problem and I have a work trip.  Next week might be a good pick.  There is also a Marmot Demo night at West.  So try some other gear too?

Part of the question and dilemma is where to ski, issues of land use for Hyak; good hill to climb and easy descent's.  Silver Fur might be better groomed; but not sure about ambient light.  Skiing with headlamps in unknown terrain can be problems.

I Ski Patrol at Hyak, and have a Patrol Radio- so if there was a problem I can call Central.

If there ends up with very many people it is hard to stay under the radar.  I'm wondering about climbing at Silverfur area and descending in Central with the lights?  I haven't tried it but wondering about Parking by Central Ski Patrol Building, start there, across to Silver Fur, up, over and back down.  Others have ideas.

As  far as learning skills check out: www.ussma.org/ , there are some videos from the experts.  But they have race setups- so you will need to modify to fit your gear.  The big thing is practise, practise, and practise some more.  Maybe we cam learn the Skooging technique???

Thanks Rick!

I assume this is the technique page you were referring to:

www.ussma.org/cosmic/learn/technique/transition-how-videos

That's impressive. He's not doing anything different than I imagined, but he sure does it fast. My skins aren't designed as nicely as his, so I can't do exactly what he's doing, but I can certainly practice doing my routine quicker!

My wife and I are interested. Wednesday ~6 works well for us. However weather this week doesn't look too appetizing. We are probably out if it is pouring rain.

Lowell: I'd be interested, assuming I can duck out of the office a little early. Tuesday or Wednesday would work. Thanks. Curt

Lowell, Excellent map! Plenty of variations to be had.

Like Rickster said, I'm very interested. Any night works for me.

There's usually a suprising amount of ambiant light to see, and headlamp skiing is pretty fun

The carpooling is especially appealing since I'm usually driving back and forth to the Pass about 3 or 4 times a week.