Grand Traverse... What have I gotten myself into?

[Jonathan S.]

[...] I've got a blacklight pro + trab gara that I think will be a decent setup for this [...]

Suggest comparing the course stats to even your flattest tours and then revisiting this statement.

As for high-volume skimo boots, try to track down a discontinued Dynafit PDG2.
(The "2" part is important!)

[sfotex]

Toe box in the Fischer Travers is pretty roomy.

[lowsparkco]

I trained for it in 2012 and then had an emergency for work and couldn’t race. I did go look at most of the course beforehand. There’s a hut I booked, The Barnard Hut, I think. We were able to hike in from the Castle Creek side and hike to the ridge overlooking the ski area boundary, and then hike south towards CB then next day before skiing out to the car. If you do a couple of your longer weekend walks, one from the CB side and one from Aspen, you can see a lot of the race course. The guy I trained with finished the race and felt like the way we prepared really set him up for success.

I focused on having a strategy for fast transitions and as little friction as possible for all of the rolling terrain. Kick wax, skinny mohair skins without tail attachments, and a pair of wall-to-wall synthetics were all in play.

We put hot water in an insulated bladder with insulated hoses zipped into the shoulder straps of our packs for water for the first third. You could cut the bladder open and ballast the ice if it freezes and go to the backup of collapsible canteen bladders inside your coat for the later miles.

I’m sure in this day and age there’s plenty of commentary about how to succeed. Just start trying everything you can and see what works for you. I did a lot of skate skiing to cross train, and the usual 2 or 3 days a week of lift served.

[Percy Rideout]

I trained for it in 2012 and then had an emergency for work and couldn’t race. I did go look at most of the course beforehand. There’s a hut I booked, The Barnard Hut, I think. We were able to hike in from the Castle Creek side and hike to the ridge overlooking the ski area boundary, and then hike south towards CB then next day before skiing out to the car. If you do a couple of your longer weekend walks, one from the CB side and one from Aspen, you can see a lot of the race course. The guy I trained with finished the race and felt like the way we prepared really set him up for success.

Great advice. We dirtbike this terrain in the summers, and there is no substitute for seeing it yourself.

[fleaches]

Suggest comparing the course stats to even your flattest tours and then revisiting this statement.

As for high-volume skimo boots, try to track down a discontinued Dynafit PDG2.
(The "2" part is important!)

Yeah good advice, even the "flat" local traverse I was planning to train in has more elevation change than the GT. I'll get some laps on it soon and see how the gear feels with a really long and flat day...

I did manage to track down some used PDG2 boots on this suggestion, I'll see how they fit.

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[fleaches]

Toe box in the Fischer Travers is pretty roomy.

I really wanted to make the Travers work, it's such a great uphill oriented boot but when I tried one on the fit was way off for me in the heel. I could just about take the boot completely off by leaning forward no matter how tight it was. Zg peak fits me really well but does not have the effortless ROM of the Travers (and definitely not a real race boot).



Thanks for the advice all, I'll see if I can get out early and do some reconnaissance on the actual route, that seems like a big deal.

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[whipski]

a serious suffer fest

[bobz]

I did the EMGT probably a decade and a half ago. I think I used a 20-liter pack, and probably could have made do with something more compact than that. Depends on what you're carrying of course; if you have wide skis that need bulky skins, etc etc, you might need more rather than less.

Ski gear: I did fine with non-metal edge 60-underfoot XC gear, NNN-BC bindings and boots. People who aren't experienced with XC gear would probably have trouble with that, but I really like a comfortable flex for that kind of distance. The fast skiers use variations of proper XC racing gear (or did back when I skied it); I'd consider that stuff a bit precarious for someone who just wants to complete the course, though for someone aiming for the fastest time, fast XC gear is probably the only way to go.

Let's see... Thanks to not having metal edges, I took a bit of a slide coming off the high pass, but whatever, I did a pole-arrest (with the pole tip, no I didn't bring a whippet pole) and traversed out of the slightly lower angle slope where I'd slid down to. For epic distances, I don't worry too much about downhill performance, as downhill takes up relatively little time compared to the uphill/flat slogs, regardless of how well or poorly you rip the downhills.

Have a versatile layering system. Count the grams and the ounces will take care of themselves (so: polypro, not merino; 6 oz windshell, not 1 lb+ goretex parka; etc.; depends on conditions, and whatever current minimum requirements are of course) Good to have generous pocket capacity so you can grab small odds and ends such as energy bars without needing to stop and take off your pack. Stopping as little as possible buys you a surprising amount of hourly distance, compared to the usual daytouring style.