Jan. 22nd- Sled building clinic @ Crystal

Dan, Clem, et al.:
It appears that interest has waned for this event...
FWIW Jerry White has agreed to film the two demos of sleds in the coming emergency evac module (this coming Tuesday) of his Mounties ski mountaineering course, along with some of the student’s sled construction efforts at the end of the lecture and post the results here.
Since Crystal seems to have received mostly rain at its base for this last storm, I believe I’ll opt for higher terrain this weekend.
Nonetheless, I appreciate your efforts.

Bummer.
Well a few of us will still be partaking, so if anyone wants to join on Sunday at 1 at Crystal, give a shout. 8O2-272-One One 8 One

If you don't get around to practicing this skill, I'd encourage folks to consider a drag-bag style sled like the Brooks Range Eskimo sled. No assembly required.

Sled building in the drizzle went on as planned. Below are shots of the Brooks Range Eskimo sled. It was a no-brainer to put together and slid very nicely. We put skis in for rigidity, but decided that if there is no concern about spinal injury, it would be more comfortable without skis inside.
We wanted make sure we could make something fully improvised with minimum gear. We were able to make a rigid frame using 6 ski straps, and two shovel handles. The cordalette pictured was us playing around, trying to create a hammock type seat. It could be used to simply pull the handles together, and enough would be left over to use as a haul rope. We decided it would be best to cross up poles from bindings to tips, creating a nice bed.
Then we had a pre-fab steup a la Hattrup with holes in shovel handles, tips and tails. Very effective, easy to put together. The only drawback is everyone in the group needs to have compatible skis with holes.
To rig the victim to the sled, we took an empty backpack, placed it with hip-belt at top and back facing up. Hopefully you have two compression straps with quick clips and each side which can be clipped around the skis (maybe use duct tape on the edges to reduce wear on straps). The shoulder straps are then undone and crossed over the pt.'s chest. The hip belt can go over the pt.'s forehead and with enough padding can be effective at stabilizing the c-spine. The pt.'s hips and legs could be secured with a length of cordalette or p-cord.
I started putting together my Brooks Range sled with bars, but quickly gave up in frustration. Without regular practice, this option seems to have to many interconnected pieces that aren't stable until you cinch the whole thing down. The bars pop off easily, especially on skis with large tips. And large tails might not fit in the slots for the tail bar.
Here are some points we took away:
1) Minimum gear we want: 6 long ski straps, two shovels (or one extendable shovel who's handle can be separated into two parts, 2 18'-21' cordalettes, 30' p-cord, bivy sack.
2) While a rigid frame can be made without the crossed ski poles, they provide an nice bed frame to keep the pt. off the ground.
3) The Eskimo Sled is easy and durable. It will be great to show people and use in avy rescue courses. However, there are lighter tarp/drag bag sleds out there that can also function as bivy sacks and emergency shelters. They are probably not as durable, though, and are most likely a one time use item if used in a long haul.
4) Getting good at lashing items together with ski straps is a critical skill and it will make life easier if you have a good system. It seemed like doing one complete wrap around one object and then going around the second object was a good rule of thumb that was sturdy in most configurations.
5) Before transferring your pt. to the sled, do a trial run on an uninjured person to make sure the sled will handle being hauled.
6) We would like to do some more comparative tests hauling sleds in deeper snow to see which style is most efficient. Is a slight A-frame shape much worse that parralell skis? Do skis provide significantly more float than a drag bag? Etc.

Cheers,
Dan

Here is a link to some more pictures.
picasaweb.google.com/chrismeder/0123ImprovisedSledBuilding#

Nice photos! Did you guys test the bolts by lowering or dragging it loaded? Was ther any deforming of the shovel when you tightened the bolt down? Seems like a cool way to secure it.

Matt: We didn't try lowering or hauling weight in the bolts & shovel handle setup. My shovel handles are pretty substantial so I wouldn't expect any deformation from them even when loaded. I wondered the same right after I'd drilled the holes, and was unable to produce enough force in tightening the bolts to affect the handles. To test rigidity of the sled, we did throw it around a bit. It was pretty strong, and its amazing how much the crossed ski poles add to the strength.