Oct 06 2015

TRPA plan cuts Tahoe ski access – again!

 
Last week CalTrans finished work that eliminated another handful of parking locations in the Tahoe area, including the prized spots accessing Jake’s Peak, Bliss Peak, plus the Desolation Wilderness to the west. Mike Schwartz, owner of The Back Country, sounded forth the battle cry and the Facebook connected Tahoe community buried the bureaucrats behind this devious plan with a barrage of complaints.

Tahoe's West Shore, target of TRPA's Hwy. 89 improvement program (eliminating parking spots).

Tahoe’s West Shore, target of TRPA’s Hwy. 89 improvement program (eliminating parking spots).


The good news is the bureaucrats backed down a bit and offered to keep open and plow the parking lot for DL Bliss state park this next winter. It has traditionally been closed from November to May.
Keep making backcountry turns

Pages:

Sep 22 2015

Review: Fischer’s TransAlp AT boots

Fischer's TransAlp Thermoshape - good bang for the buck.

Fischer’s TransAlp Thermoshape – good bang for the buck.

Fischer is going all in with the two-pin tech system for Winter 2016. Starting this year Fischer retailers will be selling Dynafit bindings, albiet with the Fischer logo on them, and they have beefed up the TransAlp boot series with taller cuffs and an economy version that offers better downhill performance.

Trans Alp w/Vacu-plast

Returning this year with a taller cuff are the TransAlp and TransAlp Lite, in men’s and women’s versions. These boots are built using Fischer’s proprietary Vacu-Plast Technology, with the ability to heat the entire shell for a custom shape. As a result, the stated last width of these boots is 97mm to 107mm, suggesting the range of adaptability. In practice Fischer’s vacuum molding process expands more reliably than it shrinks. Thus, these are a great boot for folks with ultra wide feet who want a snug fit without sizing up, or tend to need lots of customization to normal ski boots to get a comfortable fit.
Keep making backcountry turns

Sep 16 2015

Bela Vadasz, ASI Founder & Guide, dies

Bela Vadasz 1953-2015

Bela Vadasz 1953-2015

Bela Vadasz, a leader and visionary in America’s ski mountaineering world, has died. He founded Alpine Skills International with his wife, Mimi Maki-Vadasz, in 1979 and from that moment on, dedicated his unrelenting energy to guiding, teaching and promoting the mountaineering life; not just mountaineering, but ski mountaineering in particular.

As someone who worked with him for two decades the news was not completely unexpected, but shocking nonetheless. Losing friends is never easy.

Bela had been in and out of hospitals with repercussions from a compromised heart condition a few times over the last decade. The first time he was diagnosed with mild myocardial infarction he thought it was just a severe case of indigestion that lasted a day and a half. As a mountaineer he knew how to endure pain, and thought he was in excellent physical condition. Except for his heart, he was.
Keep making backcountry turns

Sep 16 2015

Preview: Moonlight’s Tele Pure binding

CAD drawings of the "final" Tele Pure binding design.

CAD drawings of the “final” Tele Pure binding design.

The inclusion of Dynafit-style 2-pin tech toes in a telemark binding, first pioneered as the Telemark Tech System is bringing a wave of enthusiasm and incremental development to the world of telemark bindings. A brief summary of the salient points of each binding made to work with NTN boots was detailed last week in the post The Case for NTN Grows.

Last week Moonlight Mountain Gear unveiled a revised website showing the first production versions of their tech style bindings with an optional heel stabilizer or a lighweight tech-style heel. As reported last season, the prototype bindings skied well but there were several unfinished details.
Keep making backcountry turns

Sep 07 2015

The Case for NTN Grows

 

NTN's biggest advocate - Mitch Weber

NTN’s biggest advocate – Mitch Weber

As recently as 2013, the reasons to drop the duckbill for a duckbutt were significant, but mostly based on a personal requirement for releaseability. Not all pinheads agree that safety release is paramount, but neither are many of them claiming they might never want release. Few of the non-release advocates have actually lost ligaments in that gamble, while those who have demand it.

Then there is the ability to get into the NTN binding without bending over. A nice convenience, but it still won’t prevent your friends with training heels from making fun of you because your mind is broken just like your binding.

Along with release came brakes. Perhaps the single most convincing factor about Rottefella’s NTN Freedom and Freeride bindings was the elimination of bending over to put on a leash, and the likelihood of getting clobbered upside the head by your own ski in a cartwheel crash. That and edging power previously unknown in the telemark world.
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 31 2015

Rerun: Backcountry Economics 101

 

Heading to Milestone Col on the Sierra High Route in May 2011.

Heading to Milestone Pass on the Sierra High Route.

In these strange economic times most people I know are sticking to basics and any money for frills is very judiciously spent. If it’s not a necessity, it needs to act like an investment with long-term benefits and quick paying dividends.

Which is why, even though skiing has always been a luxury, you need not be in the well-moneyed class to enjoy it. As Yosemite climber Erik Beck pointed out, “At either end of the social spectrum lies a leisure class.” Thus there are always two ways to make turns. Buy ‘em or earn ‘em.
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 28 2015

Review: Marker’s Kingpin

Marker Kingpin. Tech toe with six-pack of springs and a classic Marker heel.

Marker Kingpin. Tech toe with six-pack of springs
with a classic Marker heel.
click to enlarge

Marker Kingpin managed a season and, aside from some production issues with the toe pins falling out, the overall impression of the binding is positive. In fact, thanks to Lou Dawson drawing attention to the pins falling out, that’s one thing you can count on not failing from here on out. Cross your fingers just in case. 😉
Keep making backcountry turns