Mt Jagungal snowshoe trip 2012

[mtbarney]

Tony, we've already got the lightweight thing figured out. Being in our sixties that is essential ! lol
We did a six day hike in nz in march up the dart river and over the cascade saddle with a pack weight of around 11 kg.

We found the heel lifters on the msr lightning ascents to be fantastic. Made climbing steep slopes relatively easy. I'm looking into Altai Hok skis. They describe them as a transition between a ski and a snowshoe...or Skishoe ...or ..sliding shoe.
I've enclosed the link here. http://www.altaiskis.com/blog/products/the-hok/

They have had very good reviews including backpackinglight.com. I can send you links if interested.

I'm thinking of using these in combination with the lightning ascents......snowshoes for steep climbs, and Hoks for downhill. The Hoks are very short and wide with permanent skins and universal bindings, so we can just use our normal boots. They are cheap as well, around $26o us, including universal binding. I'd be interested in your opinion on them.

[Tony]

Tony, we've already got the lightweight thing figured out. Being in our sixties that is essential ! lol
We did a six day hike in nz in march up the dart river and over the cascade saddle with a pack weight of around 11 kg.

We found the heel lifters on the msr lightning ascents to be fantastic. Made climbing steep slopes relatively easy. I'm looking into Altai Hok skis. They describe them as a transition between a ski and a snowshoe...or Skishoe ...or ..sliding shoe.
I've enclosed the link here. http://www.altaiskis.com/blog/products/the-hok/

They have had very good reviews including backpackinglight.com. I can send you links if interested.

I'm thinking of using these in combination with the lightning ascents......snowshoes for steep climbs, and Hoks for downhill. The Hoks are very short and wide with permanent skins and universal bindings, so we can just use our normal boots. They are cheap as well, around $26o us, including universal binding. I'd be interested in your opinion on them.

Hi mtbarney,

I should have mention that my mate and I are also very fit, I do mountain running and we do a lot of cycling, I feel this helps in doing big k's on snow shoes, also though I am not in my sixties yet I am close.

I was on the Rees-Dart track twelve months ago, some great walking country, we did the side trip to Dart Glacier and tried to climb up the Cascade Saddle but the weather started to close in so we dicided to leave it for another day.

I have checked out the Altai Hok skis and I would like to try them out, from the video's that I have seen I am not convinced they are easy to use for a person with low XC skiing ability, from experience it is very easy to get an injury while XC skiing down hill (Recent Helicopter rescue Mt Kosciuszko) that is why I snowshoe these days.

Tony