Sep 15 2014

Review: Scott-Sports Cosmos II & Celeste II

 

Scott Cosmos II. Light & wide.

Scott Cosmos II. Light & wide.


In their second year building Alpine Touring boots, Scott made a few changes to address issues with buckles breaking and improve the touring performance of the Cosmos and Celeste boots. The buckle change is disappointing; their ability to hinge out of the way made getting in and out of the boot a simple affair. Unfortunately, too many users asked for warranty replacements when they walked with the buckles sticking out to the side and accidentally broke them off. Since reigning attitudes say Scott should pay, they eliminated the likelihood of that happening by removing the ability to hinge open.
 
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Sep 10 2014

First Look: Stanley’s Vacuum Coffee System

 

Stanley's VCS

Stanley’s VCS

Stanley is transforming itself from a second rate copy cat company of cool camping gear into a top notch source of goodies for camp decadence. The latest evidence of that is their 1-liter Vacuum Coffee System. You still need a stove to get the water hot enough to boil it for making coffee and your favorite beans ground to your prescription, but Stanley’s VCS handles everything else once you’re ready to brew a fresh pot.

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Sep 09 2014

Review: Dynafit’s Radical AT boot

 

Dynafit's Radical - Economical, Efficient, Powerful.

Dynafit’s NEW Radical


In recent years Dynafit has earned a reputation for producing low volume, high priced boots through their TLT line. Such is the price of trimming weight. Unfortunately those with higher volume feet couldn’t experience the touring freedom they offered. That changes this year with Dynafit’s new Radical boot. It isn’t Dynafit’s lightest, or stiffest boot, but it surely is their roomiest. A case could be made that it skis smoother than the Mercury or Vulcan, and is easier to switch modes.

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Sep 02 2014

Marker unveils the Kingpin

 

Marker's Kingpin. 2-pin toes, lateral release at the heel.

Marker’s Kingpin. 2-pin toes, lateral release at the heel.

The rumors of a new 2-pin tech binding from Marker have laid dormant until about two months ago when I caught wind of a junket in Chili to introduce the binding to the world. Very soon I realized threats to job security among people “in the know” must have been very strong as nobody who knew anything would say so much as boo.

Nontheless I did wrangle one detail out of an unsuspecting “insider” that the new binding would not latch in to the heel using the classic pair of spring bars on every other pintech binding, but hold down the heel like a regular alpine binding. This inevitably led to speculation that lateral release would come from the heel rotating ala a Tyrolia binding, which it does.
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Sep 01 2014

Review: Fischer’s Hannibal BC Ski

 
Dostie and I ran into each other walking dogs at dusk the other night. No, he’s not my alter ego, rather, my cousin, Jeff Dostie. We both happen to love backcountry skiing, work at ski shops, and purely by chance, live in the same neighborhood. We don’t agree on skin track strategies but we do agree that light weight skis are not as versatile as heavier skis. Of course, for the backcountry some compromise should be accepted. In our experience, when a ski drops to less than eight pounds per pair it’s difficult to maintain dampness and consequently, hold an edge on hard snow.

Fischer's Hannibal 2014 131-100-117 • 6½ pr

Fischer’s Hannibal 2014 — 131-100-117 x 180±10 cm • 6½ lbs./pr.


This season’s crop of lightweight fatties, however, is pushing that weight threshold closer to seven pounds and one of the better examples is Fischer’s Hannibal which clocks in at 3¼ pounds per ski (6½ lbs/pr). That’s light enough to suggest they can’t handle hard or heavy snow, but on groomers and velvety corn they’re awesome. Reality check; that isn’t versatile enough for serious consideration unless they can handle difficult snow too.
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Aug 25 2014

Review: Scott-Sport’s Synergy

 

Scott Sport's Synergy. Best new tele boot for 2014. Only new duckbilled boot.

Scott Synergy. Best/only new tele boot for 2014.

The best new 75mm telemark boot to come out this season is Scott Sports’ Synergy. It is also the only new plastic telemark boot design to be created for the duckbilled Nordic Norm in the last five years.

Three years ago Garmont gave up on the ski market and sold their ski boot assets to Scott Sports. Sales had been dwindling steadily since 2006 when Garmont abandoned their traditional last shape and adopted a narrower last. Former customers who counted on the wide lasted boots were forced away and new customers did not replace them. There aren’t a lot of extra frills for this boot, but there aren’t many missing features either.
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Aug 23 2014

Some boots incompatible with Dynafit Beast

 

The Beast goes on a diet. DIN 14 and still with angular movement at the toe.

Dynafit’s Beast 14.

Dynafit sent out a notice recently announcing a few models of boots that are known to be incompatible with their Beast binding, both the 16 and 14 DIN models. The Beast features a rotating toe unit and the heel unit requires a special after market Power Insert that covers the top of the boot heel.

The potential for this new heel insert to not work with boot brands other than Dynafit was a source of early criticism by boot manufacturers. It is possible the number of boots that exhibit problems working correctly with the Beast is larger than this notice indicates, but these incompatiblities can serve as examples of things to look for with other boot models.
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