That's the better route. If you do Wood Out you'll end up skating the whole length of Pipeline. If you Cloud out to Tahawus to Peace Pipe you may only need to skate the last hill on P-line. There was a rumor last week that someone did P-line wirthout skating, but I've never done it.
You've skied it right?
"A leisurely 45 minutes" for The Road when it was new. Nice.
I wasn’t trying to ski it fast, just keep momentum up for the flats and rollers. We did Upper Steilhang to Cloud to Tahawus because we wanted to carry some speed into Peace Pipe. If you’re willing to accept a slow start on the Pipeline you can take Wood Out, which is much more old school Gore, then anything on the Dark Side is in play.
The absolute highest point on a trail is on Upper Steilhang but you can cut through onto Cloud by the ski patrol hut if you prefer that. Any trail on the Dark Side will get you to Wood Out, or Cloud to Tahawus will work too. Once you’re on the Pipeline there’s pretty much just one way down.
In the spirit of Keeping Gore Weird, now someone has to do the weirdest way down. Mistakenly believing the Interconnect to be open, we once started down Upper Steilhang and included Darby Woods, Woodchuck and Wood Out, then found the bridge closed.
I was a Nordic racer back in the day when classic was the only way, so I’m biased toward poling over skating. I use adjustable poles and a few times I’ve put them out to Nordic length for the Pipeline. Makes it easy!
Awesome. I am sure with my 11 and 8 you we would stop, so it won't count. Except I am sure it will be fun. Someone once told me at WF that you're not an expert unless you ski the 3000' without stopping. : )
