First Look: Ion – G3’s take 2 on Tech
G3 unveiled their new tech binding to the world today, Ion, to be available next autumn, 2014. More than just a follow up act to the Onyx, their much dismissed first foray in the …
Skinning: Tracks of the Tortoise
Taking the low road has several advantages. It is unquestionably more efficient…is consistently safer, arguably more aesthetic and, for those still intent on a challenge, is more difficult to achieve with purity…
Canadian Study reduces Avalanche Survival Time
The commonly accepted survival phase for burial in an avalanche is about 18 minutes…This more recent study suggests 10 minutes would be a more appropriate guideline…
First Look: Volkl’s Vacuum Climbing Skins
Volkl’s new Vacuum climbing skins are the first skins to be marketed by an alpine ski company that you should really take a closer look at. In the last few years Volkl has offered …
First Look: Moonlight’s Tele Tech Bindings
Interest in telemark bindings with a tech toe gained more advocates last week as fourteen writers and photographers from around the world tested beta versions of Moonlight Mountain Gear’s new telemark tech binding. Conceptually …
Black Diamond Tele-boots sentenced to die
It’s unofficial: Black Diamond is adding a nail to telemarks demise by ending production of their telemark boot line. If you like their teleboots, better buy ’em while you can because they won’t be …
Technique: Stealth glading & construction
Let’s just call him Joe, for the sake of obscurity. Joseph Robertson if you must know his full name. Friends call him Joe Bob for short. He’s a trouble maker from way back. One …
Review: Scarpa’s Maestrale RS
Finally managed to put Scarpa’s Maestrale to the test last week. Not just a couple of conditioning tours with a few tepid turns thrown in to get back to the car, but an actual locked-heel …
Beta report: 22D’s Lynx 2-pin tele binding
Last season 22 Designs introduced Lynx, their next generation 2-pin telemark binding. With that introduction the classic beta program was eliminated and 22D took orders in mid-October 2018 for a limited production run of only …
Review: Volkl’s BMT Series – 94/109/122
It was two seasons ago my preconceived notions about rockered skis, especially the too fat variety, were blown to smithereens. For me, that means anything wider than 110mm at the waist which simply cannot hold …
Upgrade details to Meidjo v1.2
Update 09dec15 When this article was first published, we called this version of Meidjo v2. Since then M-Equipment has made further changes rendering this version 1.2 (retroactively) and subsequent changes in December 2015 as v2.0. …
Rerun: Touring with Luddites
© 2002 “Bet the person who skied that face soiled his shorts.” Nils Larsen, telemark videographer, telemark instructor, telemark equipment consultant, and all around zealot of this subspecies of skiing, is standing beside me studying …
May 12 2014
BCTalk: Colorado is STILL skiing
- By Dostie
- 3 mins to read
Keep making backcountry turns
May 05 2014
Review: Devilish details of Fritschi’s Vipec
- By Dostie
- 17 mins to read
Vipec is the first 2-pin tech binding to offer lateral release at the toe. Inherent in that feature is the sort of elasticity in-bounds alpine skiers tend to insist on. Not only does this mean a safety release alpine skiers are familiar with, it also means a connection that isn’t quite as bone-rattling tight as tech bindings tend to be. In terms of downhill performance it gets two thumbs up, as long as you adjust the toe pins correctly.
Keep making backcountry turns
Apr 30 2014
Review: OMG’s TTS toe – beta, not better
- By Dostie
- 9 mins to read
Keep making backcountry turns
Apr 29 2014
Review: G3’s Zenoxide Carbon skis
- By Dostie
- 4 mins to read
As a touring ski in almost any variety of soft snow, even with some zipper crust thrown in for texture, G3’s Zenoxide Carbon 93 is a great ski to ride. It has a smooth even flex to deliver nice round turns. Thanks to a little carbon fiber thrown into the layup mix, it’s not a noodle, and has a nice rebound to it with a surprising amount of strength for its weight.
Even in mank and crud it holds it’s own, only getting kicked around in frozen chickenheads or sastrugi where every BC ski gets kicked around. Some might say that 93mm at the waist isn’t wide enough to be a powder ski, but that only depends on whether you like to enjoy the depth of powder, or the surface. For surface skimmers it comes up shy, but for when it’s steeper and deeper, 93mm is just fine. Not buying anything under 100mm at the waist? G3 knew that, consider their C3 105 instead.
Keep making backcountry turns
Apr 27 2014
Dave Beck: Architect of the Sierra High Route
- By Brad Rassler
- 4 mins to read
Keep making backcountry turns
Apr 22 2014
Review: Petzl Tikka R+ headlamp
- By Dostie
- 4 mins to read
Gone is the ability to flip a fresnel lens over the beam to diffuse it optically. Instead, a default lens provides a high beam center with a wide spillover. You can select a reactive setting where the intensity of light reflected back is sensed and the output adjusted on the fly to approximate a constant level of illumination. Thus, if you’re in tight quarters aimed at a white wall, the light will dim, down to 7 lumens if you’re close and the white wall is actually a mirror. When you point away, where the closest surface is yards away, or a darker surface, the light intensity will increase, depending on the mode it is in, up to 120 lumens. It’s cool bit of technology but frankly my brain makes those adaptions faster and if I need more or less light I’d rather make the switch manually. YMMV.
Keep making backcountry turns
Apr 21 2014
TR: North side of Mt. Lassen
- By Dostie
- 9 mins to read
Meeting people through the internet has always seemed a bit weird. The concept isn’t what is weird. Meeting strangers at a party, in a bar, through a dating service, or a notice on a kiosk is always a bit of an adventure with the unknown. The internet is just the electronic version of how strangers rub virtual elbows before actually meeting.
What is weird is the perverse perspective that results when you see the side of a persons personality they chose to project on the internet before meeting them. That face may or may not sync with their actual personage. To be sure half of that is due to what is lost in translation. The other half is due to what leaks through between the lines. It was the latter half that had me a bit nervous to join an ad hoc meeting of BCTalk regulars for a ski tour on Mt. Lassen.
Keep making backcountry turns
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