Dec 16 2013

Review: Thule’s EasyFit Tire Chains

 

Thule's EasyFit chains - no belly aching necessary.

Thule’s EasyFit chains – no belly aching necessary.

Last winter I was introduced to Thule’s Easy-Fit Tire Chains. The idea sounds almost too good to be true. Even if the voluptuously enticing YouTube video of a bikini clad lass putting them on makes you wonder if they’re trying to pull one over on you, that same video evidence shows that they are easy to put on.

So I tried ’em myself – the chains that is. Not in nasty conditions, but in real conditions, when I was running late and needed to get the rig out of the driveway and in to work with a minimum of tardiness. Of course, being rushed they were a bit harder to put on the third time than the second time for the camera. This time each second counted and in spite of the natural ability for the chains to snag a bit from each chain spinning in opposite directions, it untangled equally easy with a quick shake of the tensioning bar or pulling on successive ends of the magic hoop on the inside of the tire.
Keep making backcountry turns

Dec 16 2013

BCTalk: Upvalley from Gothic, CO

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It looks as though new forum member elinck’s position as winter caretaker at some sort of Colorado scientific facility could very well dethrone Alaskan snow pole inspector as everybody’s current dream job.

Tea time at the lab.

It’s roughly a four-mile ski from the trailhead along the closed/unplowed road into the townsite, so groceries and beer are sort of a reverse hut-trip.

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Dec 12 2013

Sugar Bowl offers FREE Uphill Pass

 

Uphill skiing is now officially okay at Sugar Bowl.

Uphill skiing is now officially okay at Sugar Bowl.

Sugar Bowl has taken the lead in California by offering an official, free (uh, not as of 19jan14), Uphill Pass to all skiers interested in skinning in-bounds at their resort. All anyone needs to do to obtain it is to go to Sugar Bowl special tickets and sign a waiver agreeing you’ll use common sense and won’t act like a jerk or idiot. In exchange for the courtesy of registering, they take your photo for the pass and give you an armband to wear your Uphill Pass whenever you’re using Sugar Bowl’s slopes for a little skinning workout.

Update (19jan14): Sugar Bowl charges for Uphill Pass

In a nutshell the waiver says you agree to abide by Sugar Bowl’s rules and regs, you understand the Placer County Skier’s Responsibility Code, you won’t play chicken with ‘cats, sleds or other machinery, dogs must be leashed and you will clean up any mess they deposit, or pay for any damage they cause.
Keep making backcountry turns

Dec 11 2013

BCTalk: Conditions in Alberta

…skiing conditions these days appear to be character building…

Photo by CSG on Backcountry Talk

Photo by CSG on Backcountry Talk


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Dec 08 2013

Review: G-Form Knee Pads

updated 3may14

G-Form Knee Pads provide protection all around your knees, and they conform to your anatomy.

G-Form Knee Pads provide protection all around your knees, and they conform to your anatomy.

When you’re the minority player in the arena, you work with the leftovers and adapt products from other sports that are more popular. Such is the case of the telemarker looking for knee pads. When you’re dropping a knee, it’s not a matter of if you bash your knee on a rock, stump, or from a crash at speed, it is only a matter of when.

G-Force is in the business of making protective gear for all manner of human joints and bones. Their protective pads are made from a foam similar to other brands like POC and Spyder. G-Form calls it RPT™ – Reactive Protection Technology – a composite of PORON®XRD™ material and proprietary G-Form materials and technology that instantly stiffens upon impact and absorbing over 90% of the energy. What What distinguished their impact protection is the flexible form it takes. By breaking a surface into several pieces, bonded to a form fitting sock that you, for our purposes, slide around your knee, G-Form allows their pads to adapt and maintain contact over a large surface area while the joint is moving.
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Dec 04 2013

BCTalk: Valdisease 13/14 De-Mechanized

 

TEST

A man. His skis. And the snow poles.

Forum member Valdez Telehead sends this existential scene in by way of his Valdisease 13/14 De-Mechanized thread.

Skinning solo was brutal with a catchy ice crust just under 12-16″ of dry powder for the first mile or so into the “Worth-it” Glacier. Valdez has been nuked with snow as we are 68″ for November, thus just a few inches from the second snowiest November (74″). The record is 107″ or something sick like that. More precip has fallen in Valdez in the past [few] years than ever before.

Keep making backcountry turns

Dec 02 2013

Tahoe snow miners strike gold

 

A nice break in the weather scheduled for Dec. 3rd in the northern Sierra Nevada.

A nice break in the weather scheduled for Dec. 3rd in the northern Sierra Nevada.

This season has taken longer to engage than I would like, but when does winter ever start on time? More specifically, what is on time? In my dreams it would kick in mid-October, as soon as the wood was done, and it did, but the wood wasn’t done. Nor did it last. With luck early season storms are harbingers of more to come.

I have no illusions of winter being held at bay on my behalf while I finished upgrading the woodshed this season, because I only just finished it this evening as the wet began to fall from the skies. From a dry wood perspective, it was rather convenient. It was just a hint of snow, but within an hour water was dripping off the roof. It wasn’t a minute too soon and even if I might, who am I to scold the weather for being late?
Keep making backcountry turns