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Cool footage! Love the dogs!

 

I've actually done this before but on regular alpine gear. The Oregon Coast has some great sand dunes. One day after watching one of Warren Miller's films with a brief clip of dirt skiing, I figured it could be done on sand and thought it was worth a shot. Some friends and I went to a second hand store, bought some old skis and boots and then made the 4 hour trip to the coast for a camping/sand-skiing session. On the way, we picked up a case of silicone spray to help with the sliding.

 

All in all, we had a blast. It was like skiing very heavy, wet powder. You were able to make turns just fine though and for the most part could keep things under control pretty easily. The dunes we were on were only a couple of hundred feet high, so we just hiked up to the top. We had 3 different ones around directly behind our campsite on the lake. One was a wide-open face while the other two had a bunch of european beach grass clumps growing on them. Great for skiing around and using as obstacles.

 

The angle of repose for sand is around 32 degrees. Most dune slip faces are around this angle when the winds are prevalent from one direction in the area. Hard as hell to climb up in boots, but great for going down! We mostly skied on the lee-slopes to stay out of the wind, but made a few runs down the steeper faces.

 

Snowhaus - they wouldn't need skins for the climbing. Looks like they were getting up via a ridge. Plenty of friction to hold them while going up.

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