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These are also referred to as 'pulks'. I no longer use the thing but when I first built one for carrying gear in the winter I took a kid's sled and screwed on some aluminum angles to the bottom, the kind you can get from the hardware store. Then you attach some PVC pipe via cord to a harness or backpack waistbelt. There are various plans on the web for building these things -- I think some boy scout troops even build them for merit badges.



I gave mine to user erykmynn a few years ago.

sjarelkwint wrote:

rhyang wrote:I gave mine to user erykmynn a few years ago.

Problem is I would like to use mine as a sled for coming down, so need to make the thing pretty fast and smooth but also really light and very sturdy due to the breaking system ...

You want to sled.... down Denali? Down the West Butt? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I look forward to reading about you in the news. Either you'll break every speed record, or you'll die. Either way, it will make a great article. Good luck!

S

I have ridden my pulk on both Denali and Vinson. It's not such a great idea

On Vinson there is a long, gentle slope above BC with a mostly straight track. In later years there are some crevasses near the side, but it's mostly straight. You can really fly down here, which means you can really hurt yourself, which would be really bad in that location, so only an idiot would do it. I did it, but at the time I was more worried about the 20kg bag of half-melted human shit (mine and my partners, I lost the bet) on top of my sled. It was good to wrap my arms around for added security, but it was kinda squishy (sorry Squishy!). If you're sled is at all packed high, there is a chance of turning over and this is bad. You only get less than 1km run, and the route is more than 10km along the glacier, so it's really not worth it.

On Denali, on the lower Kahiltna, if I recall correctly there was only a couple of sections that were OK for it and in the big scheme of things they were so short it is not worth devising any system to try to make it better. Spend your time training to pull the sled rather than ride it. Depending on the year there are also some really big crevasses beside (under? across?) the route so you would not want to go off-course or tumble and roll off the track, or hit the snow at speed, breaking through etc. Given that you would be on or near the track, on a mountain like Denali there is a good chance there will be other climbers on the track. They should not have to get out of the way of some idiot trying to ride his pulk down the hill, or be hit by pieces of that idiot's old green ice-axe flying through the air because his braking system blew apart at the first use. You would have to ride off the track, increasing your chances of going into a crevasse, where those climbers would probably decide to leave you, figuring any idiot who tried to toboggan his bulk down a crevassed glacier was too stupid to live amongst them

Unless you trial it in the Alps, which would also be a very bad idea, I doubt there is anywhere else where trialling it on snow will replicate the ice of Denali etc. so your braking system may not be viable. You could, on the other hand, spend that time in snow by learning to ski

How about paddle wheels?



One wheel left, one right, with individual downhill-grade mountain bike disk brakes for braking and steering, paddles sharp enough to slice up any climber you run over, and a parachute as an emergency brake.

Somewhere, I saw a thread where someone is looking for climbing sponsorship.

Stef, you might team up with them. I think the Producers of "Jackass 4 - Extreme" would be interested.

God, I wish I was 25 again. I'd be in it with you! It's not the takeoff, it's the landing.

If you want cheap, why not try a lobotomy.

gbeane wrote:you mean a sled?

That's ok. The entire OP is a write-off. The words "brake" and "steer" were spelled wrong too.

sjarelkwint wrote:If this thing might work it would be awesome!
Think about sliding down slopes to 20 miles an hour

We actually do this on Mount Washington, NH down the access trails which can be very steep in sections. We use small 3-foot long sleds and either lay on them face down with crampons on to steer/brake or sit on them and use our feet (without crampons) and hands to do it.

maybe one of these?

Does anyone remember Biglost and the great snowboarding pics he used to post ? I bet he knows folks that do stuff like this

I remember a few years ago he emailed me and invited me up to visit his family in ID. I completely forgot about that until now. How time flies. Maybe sometime I will have to go up there.

It is unrealistic to add a steering mechanism or brake mechanism to a sled/pulk/tobaggan. I have used and seen many variations over the years and nothing will provide safe control or braking.

These things should not be used on hills greater than 50 to 100 m high and not on slopes over 20 degrees unless there is a really flat runout. There are many accidents yearly in Canada - search toboggan - accidents - videos.

They are banned on ski hills as they are a hazard to skiers and to the rider themselves.

The only safe way to quickly descend snow slopes is to learn to ski.

sjarelkwint wrote:That's not my question, i didn't want to ski
In austria/germany they are also banned from ski-pists, I will find a way where to test it ...

Try the North face of the Eiger. No skiers there, and the result won't change much!

sjarelkwint wrote:

WouterB wrote:

sjarelkwint wrote:That's not my question, i didn't want to ski
In austria/germany they are also banned from ski-pists, I will find a way where to test it ...

Try the North face of the Eiger. No skiers there, and the result won't change much!

Might be able to do it like that parapenter on skies a couple of years ago

Well, given the fact that you are too cheap/lazy to learn how to ski, I think I know where this is going.
+

what is it that you don't like about skiing and snowboarding? honestly, if you do any sort of winter backcountry travel, you're putting yourself at a major disadvantage, going up and down.

sjarelkwint wrote:

drpw wrote:what is it that you don't like about skiing and snowboarding? honestly, if you do any sort of winter backcountry travel, you're putting yourself at a major disadvantage, going up and down.

Cold and fucking dangerous!

touche. trying some sort of makeshift sled will be much less cold and much safer.