Winter hiking sleds

“Amen sister!

On the spot cremation makes sense though.
Just have 'em cart my ashes to ole Wes' Varginny in a coffee can.
And tell 'em to stand up-wind when they let 'em fly!

~@%^>”

“Great! I can't wait to read the "Donner Party" trip report! Maybe you can include some new recipes.”

“aero, I plan on fattening 'em up the night before with Polish stew and cheesecake, maybe some moose sausage in the morning.
Perhaps my saw will come in handy in more ways than one...moohaha!”

“Do we really want to know what's in Polish Stew?

Moose sausage???
How about Moose Oysters?
Aero?”

“Moose oysters? You'd need a step ladder to go after those things!”

“I mentioned that to the guy who shot the moose, but he wasn't interested in "harvesting" them. I've heard the nose is very good as well.”

“Yuck!”

“Y'all are sick!

twigeater-
Do you have to beat the snot out of it first?”

“gross! I didn't say nostrils, I said nose!. That soft part on the end. geez!

moose sized snot though, that is funny...”

“Moose bogies! Ewwwwwwww!”

“Backpacker.com has a sled review on their homepage made by Wilderness Enginnering. Much more expensive than making your own.”

“This thread has gone downhill....”

“Gear Guy on Outside mags web page answered a question today regarding hip belts for attaching sleds:

Here is the link:

Gear Sled

Interestingly, he is nt a big fan of using sleds himself . . .mostly because of the "chasing him downhill" phenomena. He sort of dismisses "hard" traces as a a solution.”

“Thanks lee! Is that our very own Pennsy Hiker that asked the question? cool!
I'm gonna check out that campmor belt.

I did the hook it to my pack thing last year, it was a pain. I'm going with the separate belt next trip, then decide which method I like best. I was also wondering if I really want rigid traces - what if I take a major flip? Am I gonna hurt myself on those metal poles? decisions, decisions...”

“Major Flip?
I dunno......let's take a poll

Sooooooo, Pennsy doesn't trust OUR advice.”

“Tiwg --

I have a confession to make.

And its a doozy.


I . . . .uh . . . .I have been daydreaming about you.”

“Can't get this trip out of my head.


My friend, with whom I trudged around in the ADK last weekend (in the snow), blew his knee.

He may or may not be good for the winter trek I had proposed with him (actually . . .an instructional thing with EMS on Mt. Washington for 3 days).

Until I can figure that out . . .I will just continue to fantasize.”

“Rigid traces are the only way to go. Without them, the sled will tend to run up over your skis even on level or rolling terrain.

Use rings to fasten the traces to your belt and to the sled, allowing rotation in case of a fall.

A large knotted rope tied to the back of your belt, long enough to go underneath the sled works as a good brake.”

“Couldn't you attach the rope to the sled front. How do you keep your sled from drifting laterally on traverses? Flat smoothed bottom sleds have a tendience to drift in certain snows. Anybody tried blades or runners on sled bottom akin to a dog sled or Yankee Clipper.”

“Mine has grooves instead of runners. I guess I haven't had much problem, because it tends to stay in the track that I have broken with my skis or snowshoes. Only on hardpack is it a problem.”

“nice lee, make me blush like crazy, then confess it's really my trip your after - men! >:p

Pathman last year my sled had rigid traces fastened the way you mentioned and it still slid beside me a couple of times. That's why I'm looking at a bent metal trace this year, but there's still that flippage factor...
My friend did use the drag rope you describe and that worked well, I'm adding one to mine.

I saw a homemade sled at LLBean that had rigid traces attached to the sled by an old external frame from a pack. The front of the sled was reinforced with wood as we've seen on others, but hers had a bolt in the middle that allowed the handle to swivel.

Hey lee, I have space on a trip I've got booked for January. Trout Brook Farm in northern Baxter, 4.2 miles in on snowmobile packed trails. Good trip to play with new toys.”

“ ziffco sled

I built mine from a k-mart kids sled, a 10' stick of 3/8" pvc conduit, 15' of 1/4" rope, and a military pistol belt, for about $18, slightly less than the $295 sled above.”

“Yeah lee, I know what ya mean.....

I'm seein' her as this wicked little nor'easter......who cusses like a mule skinner.

~!^>”

“LOl, well I ain't little...

o(:D”

“I got my fibreglass conduits and saw 20' at $2.76 a foot. I said no way, take it back. Then I didn't know what I would do. Last weekend at Sunday River ski area, I noticed that they used PVC pipes jammed in the snow with ropes connected to them to line folks up for the lift. You gotta know they have been hit and abused a bit and they appear to stand up to it. So I am going to use PVC for my sled.

Guess my concerns about the PVC being too brittle are much ado about nothing.”

“Let me know how it works out. I have mine under construction right now.. See "Pack Sled" thread.”

“Klimber-
I've never had a problem with my PVC traces, FWIW.

:o)”

“UK - that's good to hear. I was optimistic about my pvc sled, but ya never know.

I am more or less finished with my second sled, a bigger one, 66 inches, with 3/4" water heater drain pipes. Pretty solid and the size of it would probably make it a 2 person sled. With that in mind I added a crude swivelling / removable broomstick steering handle for the rear. Hopefully, I'll get some pics of it up soon with descriptions.

I keep going on hiking trips but I'll get em up soon.

Welcome to the thread Dave. I'll check out the other thread and look forward to seeing your sled pics.

Amy - How am I going to give you those hill boosts if I have my own sled now?”

“When you but the PVC for the traces try to find "schedule 40". It is a thicker version than regular PVC which is schedule 20. The gray PVC is electrical and is the thin stuff, look for white plumbers PVC its available in schedule 40. Also be advised that PVC does get VERY brittle in cold weather. I have drop 10ft lengths of 3" PVC and had the ends shatter.It was on concrete but I imagine that frozen ground could be similar. Maybe carry some rope as a backup.”

“You know, sometimes, I feel like too much of a MacGuyver. Perhaps we are over engineering these sleds----- But ain't it fun!!!!
Here's a what I'm a gonna do. I'm a gonna use conduit, schedule 40, and run a rope through it and tie it around my waist or to a waist belt or something. If the conduit breaks, I'll duct tape a stick to it for a splice, or remove the conduit and just go faster than the sled when it comes to downhill runs ;

”

“I saw the one plan for the Artic Sled and I like it I am going to try to make it.

8)”

“My PVC works fine also, doesn't appear to get brittle at all.”

“There's more than one way ya know...”

“Well, I built three sleds today. Found some nice 66" long sleds to start with. They are about 2x thicker than normal (heavy) and have all the edges beveled to remove and sharpness and they have two "keels" to prevent fishtailing,plus numerous tie-down points. I used a modified rigid trace sorta like big coops I believe. Total cost per sled about $27 total assembly for all three, 1.5 hrs. I am so geeked for snow!”

“just picked up a swiss army mountain rucksack (rubber) as my pack for the sled - $20 at the local army-navy store. I plan on using that and a large sealine bag to pack my gear, prolly with a tyyvek wrap, like someone suggested.”

“Buddha --

A quick note . . . If you have to bail on the sled (e.g blowdowns, too steep, broken sled, lack of stability, sliding out on a traverse etc etc) you may want to have your gear packed in something you can carry easily.

A guy from the gym designed his load so that his backpack went in with the straps facing up. When he had to carry it was an easy transition. Collapse the poles, and put the backpack on, with the sled still strapped to it.

Just concerned that it would be no fun to hump a couple of duffle bags through the woods.

the flip side is, that with a well tested sled, on a gentle trail, you probably needn't worry.


Birch --

Sounds great!”

“hmmmmmm, good point Lee.”

“Buddha --

Stream crossings might be an example. But then, Taking it apart and humping a couple of duffles for a crossing may not be a big deal.

I saw a guy at Zealand Falls Hut who had a short wide sled with built up wood sides. It was almost like a squat box that slid. He had a tyvek liner and just stuffed his bags into the tyvek lined box, folded the tyvke down, strapped it with bungees and was off. However, the hump up to the hut is a steep 200 yards beside a waterfall and he had to make 2 0r 3 trips for all his gear.

however, my friend's northface pack didn't lie well in the sled. It had a high center of gravity and the sled kept rolling.


I ain't got the answers . . .I just got lots of questions.”

“Check out the 2002/2003 Mountain hardware winter/spring catalog. They feature a guy who is trekking across the north pole and has constructed his pack sled out of an old whitewater kayak. He just cut a bit larger opening around the cockpit and attached a cover and harness to tow it with. Still floats just like it should..... Great concept, but I imagine it's kinds heavy.”

“Lee, I think that is a great idea to attach the sled. Haven't put mine together yet, but I'll consider how to do that as I build it. Could be a real convenience.”

“I found a sled-riding sled that I may purchase (only $6) to rig w/harness system as a packsled. Its about 20" wide, 3' long and about 6" deep...y'all have to have seen one of these sleds at some point in your life.

Anywho... Does anyone have any good reasons NOT to use one of these sleds as a low-cost packsled???”

“From what I'm seeing, people seem to have better success with longer sleds (4 - 6 feet). Suprisingly, I haven't come across anyone who regretting getting too cheap a sled to modify.”

“Should work. I chose a deeper sled only because we encounter such deep powder out here in Utah. I wanted a little more "freeboard" to keep the snow and spindrift out of the sled.

If you have snow conditions that would allow for a "shallower" sled....go for it.”

“Sierra Cement, baby!”

“That's about the same consistency as Cascade Concrete right?”

“I worked on my sled last night, making some modifications from last year - which worked fine, but ya know we gotta play with our toys. Mostly I changed the traces and added a belt.

I swapped out the three velcro straps that hold my bag in, for cinch straps and added a knotted drag rope. For the traces I used two water heater drain pipes (thanks Pennsy!) threaded a line through them and joined them together with a hose coupler. This gives them some play, but I think that's ok. Then tied the pipes to the sled with the existing line (last year I drilled holes and put in grommets and ran a line all around it).

I made a belt from a piece of seat belt webbing and a backpack buckle. I put two grommets on each side of the belt.

I haven't finished connecting the traces to the belt yet, but the plan is to run the line through the grommets on the belt and tie the excess line back. If I have enough, use the line as a flimsy "connector rod" to reduce some of the play in the traces. I don't want to cut the line in case I need it.

Now the big question is, will it fit in my car, lol?

Buddur I think my sled is the dimensions you described.”

“AmyG and I have talk about making some mods to her sled. The biggest problem we have had is going down hill. When there is alot of weight in the sled, it has a habit of trying to out run you(or over you). A couple of us were thinking that making some kind of connector bar between the traces might help.

I have also found that the longer the traces the easier it is to pull, but it also makes it harder to go around turns. I think the belt is a good idea, just wondering if its possible to rig it so it will not get in the way of your pack belt. I usually just hook it up to the pack, although it makes me worry about damaging the pack sometimes.

Either way, I hope it works out for you. As far as loading it into a car, I cant help your there. Im spoiled with a truck. Oh yeah, AmyG also lubed the bottom of the sled. We havent tested it since, but I think it will make it easier to pull.

Good luck with the sled.”

“Thanks Dare!

Mine did the same thing, that's why I changed the traces. I think (hope) this rig'll work well. I went with the belt because I got annoyed having the sled hooked to my pack. It was awkward to unclip so I'd take my pack off to get to the sled or if I wanted to get in my pack it was hooked to the sled...pain in da butt...
I've got some goop for the bottom as well, never tried it though.

My car is a small SUV (I used to have a truck so I know what ya mean about spoiled) and I think I can just unhook the hose coupler and fold over the pipes.
It's going in there one way or another, lol!

I'm using it this weekend, so I'll post a report about it's "performance."”

“Twiggy - if it doesn't fit in your car, you can always drag it behind you. Maybe Tom Terrific will volunteer as a passenger.

I just put up some pics of my 2 gear sleds. They are quickies and I haven't had time to add details. Hopefully, later I can work on that.

The first sled is 66" long and uses hot water heater drain pipes. The second sled is a Walmart 4 footer used with 3/4" sched 40 pvc pipe. Neither sled has been used in true winter conditions yet.

Pennsy's Sled Pics”

“Well gee Pennsy you make sure you let us know when you add the details, lol.

My sled is just like your blue Wal-Mart one and my traces are simliar to your first one. Except I couldn't get two pipes with the same length after the bend, but it worked ok. I just attached them with rope.”