I/O Bio Merino Wool

When it is cold and raw, like it is now in Jackson Hole, I reach for my wool. The new Merino wool is not uncomfortable and scratchy like its predecessor. This is not the wool sweater your mother used to throw on you. The new wool is luxuriously comfortable, warm and best of all for the active set, doesn’t smell worse than if  you rolled around in the dogs mess, like most synthetic long underwear, after sweating in it.

The thing I like about I/O Bio is the styling of the pieces. They are made to function for high intensity activities like running, biking, climbing, skiing and snowboarding, but they also look good worn on their own. So you can be just off a backcountry skiing or snowboarding run on Teton Pass, peel off your soft shell jacket and head straight into work with nary a nostril flared nor eyebrow raised.

Last winer Darrel Miller and I partnered for a climb and descent of he Teton Classic West Hourglass Couloir. The WHC rises above Garnet Canyon at a lovely steep angle on a north aspect for around 2,000 plus feet. I was initially snickering at D’s snowshoes until he busted ahead of me as I was too skeched to continue on my split snowboard due to my inability to sink my edges into the firm snow. I was forced to deboard (take off board) and climb. As I started up I sank up to my hips into the snow that was firm enough to support D’s snowshoes but not my Scarpa F1 Boots. That will not happen again as I now have B & D Ski Gear’s super FAT Crampons and will bring them on all splitboarding excursions from now on. It is frustrating putting oneself in a compromised position because of not having an essential piece of gear. Certain pieces of equipment at the right time are key. Check out my gear list here.

Darrel Miller climbing West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Darrel Miller shredding West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Darrel Miller spraying in West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Help support Darrel Miller and Storm Show Studios by buying his sweet snowboarding DVD’s, featuring Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the Teton Backcountry!

The following week I received two pairs of the Ski and Board Tights, size Large and X Large. I tried both on and sent the XL’s back. They are supposed to fit snugly. When I first tried them on they were a bit confining compared to what I am used to wearing for long underwear, which is I/O Bio thin merino. But it made sense that they needed to be snug and supportive to be able to benefit from them. After my first use I was amazed to feel good throughout the day of riding at the Village and especially at the end of the day, when I normally have knee pain (post exercise), there was none! I don’t know the exact science behind them, but they were developed with the Steadman Hawkins Clinic by Mr. Gustafson, a skier who wanted to reduce his knee pain after years of hard skiing. It is my opinion that with the development of the S1 Ski Tight and Board Tight, he succeeded – with flying colors!

Me, showing off my Opedix Ski and Board Tights on top of Albright Peak, Grand Teton National Park. Click on image to increase size.

For the past several weeks I put the tights to the test…snowboarding, skiing and ice climbing…from several trips into the Tetons (on the Middle, Albright, Nez Perce) all day skinning and riding to ripping multiple Tram laps (both skiing and snowboarding) at Jackson Hole to  climbing hard ice and mixed routes in Highlight Canyon outside of Bozeman, MT, to “skiking” (skinning and hiking) Snow King, hiking and riding Glory Bowl on Teton Pass, I have put these tights to the test and they are AMAZING! They “Unload” the joint (read about it here), according to the website and research. All I know is that when I wear them I no longer experience knee pain, which I have been having for the past 5 or so years, especially in my left knee, which has had 2 ACL repairs and is missing a significant portion of the Meniscus. My knees have been through the ringer…six knee surgeries in total to repair and rerepair/replace most of the ligaments in both of my knees as well as the precious meniscus. Of all the issues from torn ligaments, it is the meniscus damage that causes the most pain. Keep that meniscus as in tact as possible. With our active lifestyles we do harm to our joints. Based on how well these tights have performed and actually eliminated my knee pain with extensive use over the past several weeks, I think that they will add years to my active lifestyle. I have a few clients who suffer from excruciating knee pain who I want to have try these. I bet that they will suffer less. Isn’t that what we all want? Less suffering? I  sure do! And to have a lot less suffering for $190 is a deal!

The pain I was experiencing after a day of riding or skiing, especially resort riding (more vertical on generally firmer snow) was getting so bad that I was no longer enjoying riding unless it was untracked powder. So that basically eliminated the Village (Jackson Hole) and other resort riding. I am happy to say that I rode and skied the Village several full days this winter in the S1 Tights and had no knee pain. This is really remarkable. I highly recommend the Opedix Ski and Board tights and look forward to trying the running tights and also the posture shirt, which will hopefully cure my “climber’s” posture (overdeveloped lats and underdeveloped pecs).

Goats caught on film mating high in the Teton Mountains!

On one trip using the tights with Darrel Miller of Storm Show Studios on Nez Perce’s West Hourglass Couloir, I took this photograph of Goats Mating in the Tetons. The one on the bottom may even be a native big horn sheep. Word has it that the mountain goats, pictured mating in this rare image taken in Lupine Meadows, may threaten the native Big Horn Sheep. Story on goats invading the park here.

On this outing I was skeptical of Darrel’s mode of uphill transport, snowshoes. They do not glide and generally sink in more than skis or a splitboard. I met up with him as he was breaking trail up Garnet Canyon. I took the route on the Morain between Taggart and Bradley Lakes and contoured into Garnet after the initial steep section above the morain’s end. I was fortunate to find a couple of sneaks down into Garnet and was happy to have my new Scarpa F1′s, with their forward lean lock throw, which allowed quick transition from uphill to down without removing my skins. Up high, as we were entering the west hourglass couloir on Nez Perce, the snow became firm and steep and I was not comfortable skinning so removed my skis (splitboard) and began postholing through the crust. I watched with envy as Mills stomped up the couloir, with much less effort than I, on his snowshoes.  I did not have a pair of splitboard crampons that fit, like these, from B and D Ski Gear, which I am soon to get. Crampons are vital for skinning in firm conditions!

Back to the Tights…There are a couple of minor annoinances: no zipper/pee hole and the waist closure is a simple shoe string type tie with elastic waistband. For $190 I would like to have a zipper to pee and a better waist closure, like an overlapping Velcro closure. At least reduce the size of the elastic where the knot is to be tied for ease of tying! I did have better results with the knot staying tight by using the surgeons knot, shown here on this fun shoe lace tying site.

Bottom line: if you want to reduce or eliminate knee pain during activities like snowboarding or skiing or want to prevent knee pain from developing in the first place, buy the Opedix S1 Ski and Board Tights.

End Knee Pain with these tights!

Axl night skiing at Snow King Mountain.

This past weekend my son, Axl, and I skied on Saturday evening at the King (Snow King Mountain). It was our first night runs together, at least of the skiing kind. We alternated skiing with swinging on the swing set at the base. I narrowly missed stepping in a dog dukie left by a woman and her golden retriever about 5 p.m.

Axl and I started the evening with a run on the Cougar chair, where Blaize Oswald, 7 years old, fell from about 40′ up on December 30, 2009. The following information about the incident is from the Jackson Hole Ski Club’s website:

“Today (Dec. 30, 2009) at the Holiday Camp Blaize Oswald, age seven, fell from the Cougar Chairlift at the Snow King Resort between Towers One and Two. Ski Patrol responded quickly and sent Blaize to St. John’s Medical Center where he received a full CT scan. The test showed minor bleeding on his brain and a partially ruptured lung.”

Axl swinging at Snow King.

Blaize is currently doing well and according to his mother, Leya Ozwald, “very excited” to get on his skis again soon. There are no protection bars on the Cougar chair, which, as a father of a young child who enjoys  taking skiing on the mountain, sucks. The bar is not a guarantee that shit won’t go bad. From my personal experience, when a safety bar is 1) Low, like on the Casper Chair at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, or 2) have the arms that come down from the bar which touch the chair as on the Teewinot lift at Jackson Hole, which you can situate in between the small child’s legs (or adult legs if not 3 or less are on the quad chair) that offers greater security (for child and for parent!).

The lift to the summit of Snow King, Exhibition, has a safety bar, I believe, every fourth chair. It is surprising that the folks at Snow King don’t put in safety bars on all the chairs on Exhibition, at least during the Hill Climb. During the Hill Climb, and throughout the year, Non-skiers/boarders are required to use only the chairs with safety bars. During the annual Hill Climb, this causes a huge backup of people wanting to ride the lift. If there were bars on all the chairs the wait time would be much less, and safety arguably increased. In addition, I would think this action would increase revenue for the mountain. I don’t know how much a safety bar costs, but it is a fairly simple device with minimal hardware required to install, taking only a few minutes for each chair. Snow King can hire Lawrence Bennett, artist and metal worker with a shop at the base of the mountain, to make custom ones for them, if they don’t have a line on some. I bet there are used ones that can be bought from a ski area that doesn’t use them because they went out of business or upgraded their double chair to a triple or quad. Hopefully monetary gain would follow doing the right thing, which in my opinion is to keep the kids and adults using the lifts at Snow King, our beloved town hill, safer. OK…what the hell is safer? Well we can debate that, but to me it is having bars on the Cougar lift so that I don’t have to hold my son or clip him in to the lift with a cord to prevent him pitching off and getting hurt or killed while out trying to have a good time.

On Sunday Axl and I were at Jackson Hole for the day where we ripped the animal trails off of Teewinot Lift and then ventured up to Casper and over to Thunder. I am learning the easiest ways down from all the lifts as I go out with Axl these early days of his skiing. Giradelli larger milk chocolate chips and GU Chomps got us through the day. I heard about using a ski pole to help slow Axl down but have not yet tried it. I have been skiing without poles and grabbing him and carrying him like a football over the steep sections, which unfortunately interrupt many of the cat tracks, at least for enough time to not have it be a smooth, super easy ride down from the Thunder, the Gondola (getting onto Amphitheater for a brief moment until one can cut east to Nez Perce is steep and challenging) and even Casper (below the restaurant to the cat track). This being said, there may be some easier ways which I haven’t learned yet and hopefully won’t have to as Axl is getting stronger and ripping more every time out!

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Help support StephenKoch.com and protect your child’s noggin with the Giro Slingshot Helmet at Backcountry.com. Or for up to 60% off, click here. Backcountry.com’s semi-annual sale starts Today!

Enjoy!

I have complied and will discuss with JHMR and hopefully have them back up. I believe transparency is the best thing. Let’s tell the truth and look at the facts and move forward.

Have fun, be safe and enjoy!

Special Information: The Wyoming Department of Transportation will close Teton Pass at 8 A.M. Tuesday for avalanche reduction work. Re-opening time will be dependant on the amount of snow impacting the highway.

An upper level low pressure system brought dense snow, strong winds and very warm temperatures to Western Wyoming Monday. Winds at 10,4000 feet were west-southwesterly at 30 to 40 mile per hour averages with gusts into the 70s. Four to six inches of new snow fell during the day in the Tetons with as much as a half inch of moisture. In the past thirty six hours 6 to 8 inches of new snow have contained one and three quarters inches of water. The Continental Divide/Togwotee Pass area received 1 – 4 inches of snow and the Southwest Trails/Greys River area accumulated 2 – 4 inches. Valley floor temperatures reached into the forties and numerous roof and road cut slides occurred.

Avalanche control work at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort produced numerous hard slab avalanches to five feet in depth and running full track. The Headwall area released a moderate slide then a team used an explosive charge to control a remaining pocket. The charge pulled out most of the remaining headwall and ran to below the restaurant burying three patrolmen briefly after the debris flowed around a ninety degree corner of the building and continuing several yards. During a brief clearing in the weather several large, long crowns from naturally occurring avalanches were reported on northeasterly aspects from 8,500 to 10,000 feet. Most of these slides continue to run on the persistent mid-November crust.

For more information visit: www.jhavalanche.org or call 307.733.2664

Be safe in there and out there.

Stephen Koch

It was easier to make turns on the north face of Mount Everest than it has been to ride Switch! And less scary as well!

More soon.

May you be happy, peaceful and healthy.

I look forward to seeing some of you soon for backcountry turns and possibly turns at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort if I get hired on as an instructor.

May you enjoy my photograph.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss having me speak for your corporate group, university group or school group. I customize my presentations to meet your goals.

I am also available to share stories with small groups or families on vacation in Jackson Hole apres ski/snowboarding or over dinner.

I am available for hire as a backcountry snowboard instructor and guide, backcountry ski guide, mountaineering instructor and guide, avalanche safety instructor and ice climbing instructor and guide.

Please email inquiries to me at stephen (at) stephenkoch.com or call 307.699.0202