Category: Gear

First Look: Fischer Ranger 12

Fischer Ranger

  Everyone is getting in to the backcountry these days with ski boots that offer some form of a walk mode. Most don’t have much range of motion, but compared to none, anything is a welcome improvement if you’re hiking for your turns, or just want a more comfortable walk to and from the lifts, …

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Review: Garmont’s Prophet for NTN

As an in-bounds, freeride oriented tele system, Garmont’s Prophet is a solid choice for the boot side of the equation. As a backcountry oriented system, like the Freeride binding it was designed to work with, there are better choices available. Prophet uses one of the classic ingredients of alpine boots, overlap construction to deliver a …

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Review: Garmont’s Excursion

  The Excursion is Garmont’s superlight touring boot. In days of old it came with a thermomoldable Gfit liner and weighed almost a pound less than a comparable pair of T4’s. Sadly, it now comes with a preformed, alpine style liner with little moldability. However, as one of the very few lightweight boots with some …

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Review: G3’s Onyx

One of the factors that remains a concern with all tech bindings is their ability to release reliably when needed, and not fold when you want them to hold. In that realm Onyx is a solid notch up from the standard tech binding offerings.

Review: Rottefella’s NTN Freedom

How Freedom locks and unlocks the toe

At first glance Rottefella’s Freedom binding pretty much rocks. It shares the heritage of NTN’s trademark superb control, both in forward resistance and edge hold, although in the case of the Freedom, less is more ‐ meaning a notch less tele-resistänçe gives a wider sweet spot – mo’ betta’ in deep snow. Depending on the …

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First Look: Voile’s Charger BC

Lest you misunderstand, these skis violate the Nordic mindset with their width, and an Alpine skiers with the waxless pattern. But when you need qualities from both, it becomes an excellent fit for a lot of backcountry conditions.

TR: In-bounds, untracked at Sugar Bowl

  What are the results from the season opener? Fresh tracks, two face shots, a serendipitous meeting with friends, revelations with G3’s Onyx, some sweet tele turns with an attack of the nuns using the NTN Freedom binding, no trouble but an unexpected symptom with Ascension glue, the usual frosting with G3 Alpinists skins, and …

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