Sep 08 2013

Intro: Backcountry Talk forum on E.Y.T.com

 

Screen grab of the new Backcountry Talk forum on Earn Your Turns.com

Screen grab of the new Backcountry Talk forum
at Earn Your Turns.com

When I first began spreading the news about earning your turns in the backcountry it was via a crude newsletter that was Xeroxed and sent to about 50 people under the title “le Chronicle du Couloir.” A lot has changed since then, but not my interest in promoting this activity. I’m not the first, nor will I be the last person to recognize the value that comes from exploring our world on a pair of skis.

Since that crude newsletter the magic of the internet has crashed upon the world and made it possible for like minded people to share their experiences and pose questions among their brethren. Some of you already noticed, but there are some new links at the top of this website. The latest is the addition of BC Talk, which is short for Backcountry Talk, a new forum associated with this website.
Keep making backcountry turns

Sep 05 2013

First Look: Ski Touring Guide to Whistler

 

Out of bounds at Whistler.

Out of bounds at Whistler.

One of the more instructive sites on the interwebz, backcountryskiingcanada.com is sprouting wings of paper as they expand their publishing repetoire to include a skier’s guidebook for Whistler.

I can’t tell you doodly-squat about the caliber of the writing since I only have access to a fuzzy view of the book, but the layout seems compelling with lots of photos of the key faces or feature that are available off each route. Plus each major route has a topo map indicating slope angles and orientation.

Information is provided on nearby huts, guides, and mechanized backcountry options plus advertisements for local shops that hopefully will still be in business when this books finds its way on to the shelves of the next generation – if they are still reading by then.
Keep making backcountry turns

Sep 03 2013

Review: Plum AT Bindings (v13/14)

First impressions can be deceiving, but not in this case. When you first look at the tech binding from Plum you can’t help but recognize this is more than a two-pin tech binding, it’s a work of craftsmanship.

plum yak binding for alpine touring

Plum bindings: Tech simplicity, finished with elegance.

Nowhere is this more evident than when taking in the look of the Yak, Plum’s widebody tech binding with an anodized blue skin that draws your eyes with its metal beauty. When you dig a bit deeper, you begin to appreciate the simple beauty of these bindings.
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 27 2013

Clif Bar: Delicious organic energy

 

Handy, tasty, organic, recycleable.

Handy, tasty, organic, recycleable.

Being the first is often considered a key to success in business. To be certain, it lends an advantage but only if the product is strong enough to withstand the stresses of competition. In the long run, the better product usually wins. It will if consumers are given free will to chose.

Even though they weren’t the first to the market with a compact energy bar, Clif Bar WAS one of the first energy bars targeted for the outdoor market that used natural ingredients and resembled a cookie or breakfast bar more than a tooth breaking, chocolate-coated chemistry experiment. (Yes, back in the day I actually did break a tooth on a PowerBar, the first energy bar, but not the tastiest.)

Over time Clif Bar has added to their assortment of energy foods with 20 flavors of the classic Clif Bar, plus 11 Clif Kid’s bars, 15 flavors of Luna bar, 9 Clif Shot, 8 Clif builders, 6 Clif Crunch and Mojo bars and four of the latest addition, Clif Kit’s Organic bars. You may not like all of them, but you’re bound to like at least one or two in the line.
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 26 2013

Review: Dynafit’s Mercury (& Vulcan)

Hoji hikes along a ridge enroute to Alta from Solitude.

Hoji earns his turns with Vulcan’s underfoot along a ridge enroute to Alta from Solitude.

Aside from fit, there is precious little to complain about with Dynafit’s TLT boot line. All utilize Dynafit’s patented Ultra Lock System that integrates the mode switch with the cuff buckle for shifting gears to uphill or downhill with a single move. That alone warrants a closer look for my turning earning friends.

As the thinking goes, if it’s good for the up, it’s bad for the down and the holy grail of every backcountry boot made is to find the right balance of each with the widest span possible. Inevitably a compromise is made in one direction or the other, but Dynafit’s Mercury (or Vulcan if you insist) has arguably the widest range available in an alpine boot.
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 21 2013

Skiing down, tele up? Sifting through SIA’s data.

 

Telemark (aka BC) Skiing continues to grow while the larger Alpine and Snowboard numbers have declined.

Telemark (aka BC) Skiing continues to grow while the larger Alpine and Snowboard numbers have declined.

The latest Participation Report from SIA indicates a few trends you might expect, and one that continues to confound the free heel faithful. As you would expect after two years in a row with below normal snow levels participation in skiing was down this last year, but only by 2% according to the SIA report.

Yet the ranks of telemark skiers continued to grow. Based on interviews with over 40,000 people, SIA claims the number of free heel skiers has nearly doubled in the past three years with 2.8 million people telemark skiing. As much as I’d like to believe that, it is results like that which cast serious suspicion on the validity of the rest of the report.

Now, if you consider telemark to be synonymous with backcountry as interchangable terms then some of SIA’s numbers can be believed. Kelly Davis, Director of Research at SIA admits, “The tele numbers are funny.”
Keep making backcountry turns

Aug 19 2013

Telemarktips.com (1998-2013): RIP

 
Telemark may not be dead, but the forum that every fool free heeler used to hang out at, Mitch’s Bar, aka telemarktips.com, has pulled the plug. May it rest in peace.

Mitch Weber, brains and brawn behind Telemarktips.com

Mitch Weber, brains and brawn behind Telemarktips.com

Born the brainchild of one Mitch Weber, Telemarktips burst on to the scene in 1998 to fulfill the hole created when another fledgling internet forum, Telemarque.com, was shut down by its owner who sought fulfillment elsewhere. Mitch was enamored with the vibrant interplay of anonymous personalities that were busy blithering on about how telemark skiing was the sensation of the century. He agreed and saw the demise as an opportunity to pick up the torch and carry it himself.

It quickly became obvious that not only was the telemark community as wild and vociferous as it claimed it was, but Mitch had his finger on the pulse of the free heel crowd and he knew how to stir the pot of controversy. Often all he had to do was call into question the opinions of the then reigning publications spreading the backcountry gospel, Couloir and Backcountry magazines.
Keep making backcountry turns