Feb 27 2014

Review: La Sportiva Climbing Skins

 

A nice, low profile skin tip system. Look familiar? Can you say me too K2?

Along with their expansion into the ski hardware business, La Sportiva rounds out their product offering with climbing skins using a 70/30 blend of mohair and nylon for Winter 2014. In theory you could get these same skins from Pomoca, their secret source, but with the La Sportiva version you also get the K2 tip and tail kit. Combined with one of my fave recipes for managable, reliable skin glue these are worth searching a little harder for, especially if you have tip and tail holes in your skis ala the K2 brand, or Dynastar’s High Mountain Cham series. These skins come pre trimmed to La Sportiva’s ski line, which oddly enough is a good match for a number of skis in the K2 line.

Which begs the question. Why not buy the K2 skins with the same tip and tail kit and a stickier glue? Two reasons. One, you want better glide from the mohair component in the La Sportiva plush. Two, you don’t need a sticker glue, you want one that’s just sticky enough and won’t get slimy when stored warm.
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 25 2014

In Defense of the Duckbill

 

Only pinheads would rely on duckbilled leather boots and pins for control.

Essential tele with leather, duckbills & pins.


While it is fun to entertain the idea that NTN equipment is offering new possibilities without a duckbill, there are a few of us who still recognize the value of the duck and we’re not all quacks even if you think we are. To the young and inexperienced it is easy to become fascinated with new technology. However, for proof the duck is not silly or backwards, consider the Amish and Luddites, who aren’t as dumb as you think. Likewise the Nordic Norm way, which is not the fastest, nor lightest way to travel on skis, but is simple, elegant in its ugliness, functionally versatile and comfortable.
 
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 21 2014

1st Look: Ski Baskets with a lift

 

The new shape of baskets to come. Lift basket not only pushes, it can pull too.

The new shape of baskets to come. Lift basket not only pushes, it can pull too.

One of the new directions in ski pole development has been a recognition of how limited the function of most baskets are. Yes, they provide a resistance to pole planting in soft snow but when it comes to using that disk for anything that requires a bit of backbone for support they’re next to worthless.

Some are better than others, and there have been attempts to make baskets more utilitarian but I think most have missed the mark for true backcountry utility. That will soon change.
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 19 2014

Review: Volken’s BC Ski guidebook for WA

 

Washington routes for ski tours.

Washington routes for ski tours.

There’s another guidebook for backcountry riders in Washington. This time the author is noted guide Martin Volken, a Swiss guide whose training in the Alps has served him well in the glaciated environs of Washington’s volcanos and Cascade range.

The book begins with an historical retrospective that lends insight to knowledge that exists only in a few dusty corners of the internet and Lowell Skoog’s archives. About the only thing missing from his introduction to this new guidebook is any mention of the work he did in carrying Washington’s ski mountaineering torch with his brothers in the 80s.

One could argue that all this info is available on the web, and no doubt it is, but not with the insight of Martin Volken and the guides of his Pro Guiding Service, chief among them co-authors Chris Simmons and Ben Haskell. A benefit younger skiers may miss is having everything related to skiing in Washington in a single, organized, non-electric package that includes the advice of experience, something that has dubious credibility when found on the web.
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 17 2014

Review: High Trails “Post-It” Climbing Skins

Update 27aug17 — Glue verdict after 4 seasons

There’s another “glueless” climbing skin now available from High Trails. Like other claims of glueless, this claim in pure marketing spin, of the 180° variety. They most definitely use a glue, but it is a silicon based adhesive that acts more like a Post-It, especially compared to the tackiness of traditional skin glues. So while it isn’t really glueless, it is a far more manageable glue that is easy to put on, take off, and peel apart after storing.

Grip ‘n Glide

A dense 65/35 blend of mohair and nylon makes up the High Trails climbing skin.

A dense 65/35 blend of mohair and nylon makes up the High Trails climbing skin.

The plush on my test pair is a 70/3065/35 mohair/nylon blend. There are no issues with grip, it holds well to 25° on a polished skin track with the requisite technique 25° demands, and above in grippy snow. On first impression glide is good, but that’s as far as it gets. It is a very subtle thing but I’m starting to notice that a blended plush does not glide as good as some nylon skins, and definitely not as good as pure mohair. Compared to a mohair Gecko, or Ascension skins, High Trails didn’t glide as well, but are far better than K2 nylon skins or G3’s High Traction skins.
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 13 2014

Sugar Bowl adapts to fitness skinning

 

Two locals keeping their lungs and legs in shape for the BC season.

Two locals prep for the BC Season by keeping their lungs and legs in shape at Sugar Bowl.

When Sugar Bowl announced it was changing their Uphill Skinning from free to paid I wasn’t surprised. The buck and a half price ($149 in Federal Reserve monopoly notes) seems a bit of an over reaction to poor revenues for the season, but saying it was because of costs associated with skinners who weren’t following the rules didn’t add up.

Everyone who I know personally that skins at Sugar Bowl has been using the “don’t ask, don’t tell” trails for years. That’s where we don’t ask if we can, they don’t tell us we can’t skin up on “their” land. The result is we have respect for their property, the chairs, buildings, equipment, and their liability, while acknowledging we are “trespassing” on land they don’t own, but are leasing from the USFS. No doubt we are taking advantage of the fact that at its root the land is ours. But it isn’t like Sugar Bowl has to let us. Fortunately for the Truckee backcountry community, they have. It’s a simple balance. We aren’t flagrant with our permissions to travel uphill. We’re selective and stick to the shadows. After all, part of the allure of skinning is the solitude of walking through the trees without a human cannonball swooping down on us. Thus, the lure of skinning in-bounds is hardly a backcountry experience.
Keep making backcountry turns

Feb 11 2014

Whither goest tele?

 

Who's still flying with a free heel?

Who’s still flying with a free heel?

The word from retailers in 2014 is in stark contrast to the claims of 2-million telemark skiers from SIA. Nobody knows how many active telemark skiers remain, but three things are true: First, there aren’t 2-million or even half a million telemark skiers left in the US, but there are still a couple hundred thousand or more. Secondly, as a zealous faction of skiing tele still breathes and third, its pulse has never waned.

The question isn’t when is tele going to resume growth, the question is, as the torch of tele passion is picked up, will it be via a retro return to leather, pins and waxless metal-edged skis? Instead, perhaps a stubborn refusal to abandon the duckbill and free pivoting cable bindings. Or, follow the trend unfolding, a slow embrace of NTN.
Keep making backcountry turns