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Jan. 22nd- Sled building clinic @ Crystal
- ron j
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15 years 4 weeks ago #196165
by ron j
Replied by ron j on topic Re: Jan. 22nd- Sled building clinic @ Crystal
Sorry to have missed the party, Dan & Chris.
You pics reminded me that I took some photos of the system I use when I donated my work stinx to the FOAC.
The system is exceedingly simple, however it does require half inch holes in the tips and quarter inch square holes in the tails of the skis (about 20 minutes of work with the right tools).
The tail cross bar is ideally a shovel handle, but I have also used my snow saw (including its hard plastic scabbard) and my aluminum pack back stiffener bar, both of which also have quarter inch holes drilled in them. I use carriage bolts to attach a cross bar to the tails of the skis. Carriage bolts have a square grip section under the head to engage the square hole in the tail of the ski which prevents the bolt from turning as the wing nuts are tightened down.
I bring the ski tips together and pass a carabineer through the tip hole. While this makes the leading end of the sled pretty narrow (usually the feet end), the trade off is that the sled, being a solid triangle, is exceedingly strong; in fact pretty much indestructible for the purpose intended.
It takes less than two minutes to assemble the basic frame. Then what’s left is to tie whatever cordage or runners that are on hand to, ideally both the toe and heel bindings (sorry, no bindings on the skis pictured), and extend them out to the side to later tie in all the padding used and the victim. Then a (nearly empty, ideally fairly large and sturdy) pack lays down over the bindings; then whatever padding, headrest material at the crossbar, tarps etc. are laid down then the victim, all of which is tied onto the skis with the cordage/runners previously mentioned.
A runner or cordage clipped to the ‘biner serves as a pull rope. For lowering down steeper slopes a belay can be set up from above and tied to the cross bar at the back. For side hilling it is helpful for a rescuer to be positioned uphill to the side of the sled while holding a runner or cordage passing over the victim and attaching to the downhill side binding to help keep the victim and sled from rolling over.
I have used this system in the “sled races” we used to do in the Mounties ski mountaineering course overnight field trip and it was a consistent winner (mainly because of the under two minute assembly time).
Since I usually have a short section of 7mm, runners and ‘biner in my pack for safety belays while dropping cornices and dropping in to test snow stability in coulies, the only extra gear that I need to carry is the carriage bolts with wing nuts and washers (about 2 ounces). That’s the part I like the best about this system
That, and the fact that I haven’t had to use it for real (yet – knock wood :)
You pics reminded me that I took some photos of the system I use when I donated my work stinx to the FOAC.
The system is exceedingly simple, however it does require half inch holes in the tips and quarter inch square holes in the tails of the skis (about 20 minutes of work with the right tools).
The tail cross bar is ideally a shovel handle, but I have also used my snow saw (including its hard plastic scabbard) and my aluminum pack back stiffener bar, both of which also have quarter inch holes drilled in them. I use carriage bolts to attach a cross bar to the tails of the skis. Carriage bolts have a square grip section under the head to engage the square hole in the tail of the ski which prevents the bolt from turning as the wing nuts are tightened down.
I bring the ski tips together and pass a carabineer through the tip hole. While this makes the leading end of the sled pretty narrow (usually the feet end), the trade off is that the sled, being a solid triangle, is exceedingly strong; in fact pretty much indestructible for the purpose intended.
It takes less than two minutes to assemble the basic frame. Then what’s left is to tie whatever cordage or runners that are on hand to, ideally both the toe and heel bindings (sorry, no bindings on the skis pictured), and extend them out to the side to later tie in all the padding used and the victim. Then a (nearly empty, ideally fairly large and sturdy) pack lays down over the bindings; then whatever padding, headrest material at the crossbar, tarps etc. are laid down then the victim, all of which is tied onto the skis with the cordage/runners previously mentioned.
A runner or cordage clipped to the ‘biner serves as a pull rope. For lowering down steeper slopes a belay can be set up from above and tied to the cross bar at the back. For side hilling it is helpful for a rescuer to be positioned uphill to the side of the sled while holding a runner or cordage passing over the victim and attaching to the downhill side binding to help keep the victim and sled from rolling over.
I have used this system in the “sled races” we used to do in the Mounties ski mountaineering course overnight field trip and it was a consistent winner (mainly because of the under two minute assembly time).
Since I usually have a short section of 7mm, runners and ‘biner in my pack for safety belays while dropping cornices and dropping in to test snow stability in coulies, the only extra gear that I need to carry is the carriage bolts with wing nuts and washers (about 2 ounces). That’s the part I like the best about this system
That, and the fact that I haven’t had to use it for real (yet – knock wood :)Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
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