Jan 23 2013

OR Report: On Snow Demo notes

The Outdoor Retailer Show began yesterday up at Solitude ski resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. It’s always a blast checking out new skis, boots and bindings. The sun was blaring and the snow was tired, groomed, and firm so it was a good day to lock the heel and just cruise at speed to see what skis held an edge best on hard snow. The results have little bearing on how well the skis I tried would work in typical backcountry conditions except in a steep couloir with wind hammered snow or refrozen corn.

The surprise hit of the day was Voile’s new V-8 ski which had no problems holding an edge while bombing down the runs with training heels. Other skis were not so capable except for Volkl’s V-Werks Carbon Katana. This is a fully rockered ski but not a spoon. As soon as you tip it on edge it is already preflexed and it just grabs an edge and holds on no matter how hard you push it. Actually, the harder you drive it, the better it responds which seems to be typical of Volkl skis these days and why they have such a stellar reputation among chargers.
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 22 2013

OR Report: Backcountry Boots for 2013

Nowhere is the interest in backcountry skiing as evident as in the number of choices being offered for ski boots next season. Ten years ago there were a handful of companies making boots for turn earners, and none of them had any affiliation with a major alpine ski brand. This year there are very few of the majors who don’t, and the only ones not offering a ski boot are those already burned by the passion of interest with too few customers for too many products. For those of us practicing what we preach, the added interest from more companies only increases the dilemma of what to chose – a position we only dreamed of a decade ago.

From the alpine side of the aisle, interest has been growing slowly but steadily to integrate a walk mode without compromising downhill performance. This year K2 joins with Atomic, Lange, Salomon, Fischer and Tecnica. From the backcountry side the focus is on appealing the mindset of the in-bounds skier without compromising mobility for touring. Dynafit and Scarpa selectively add more mass for mass appeal while Garmont bows out and Swiss titan Scott sallies forth with old molds and new enthusiasm. It’s a tightrope of a walk and there’s a ton of options to chose from.
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 21 2013

OR Report: Backcountry Bindings for 2013/14

 
Alpine Touring
In the AT realm, there are a ton of new bindings headed our way. I don’t know if this is better or worse, but there are many more to follow in the years to come from the likes of companies like Salomon, Look, and probably from K2 too. For now, it’s mostly familiar faces.

Dynafit’s Beast. Over 4 pounds per pair (1 kg)
for a cool $1000. Skis not included.

Dynafit
In case you didn’t hear, Dynafit is chasing the freeride chargers with the first $1000 dollar binding called the The Beast. It weighs in at an paradigm bending 4 pounds per pair. Actually, in the world of plate bindings four pounds is sort of an unobtainable dream anymore. What do you get for all that weight and cost? The weight buys the unbeliever’s trust along with DIN-16 release values on the heel for added assurance along with a toe that pivots to allow for more elasticity in the system. The climbing pegs are simple and easy to engage. It is somewhat reminiscent of G3’s Onyx in that you don’t have to exit the binding to switch to touring mode, or spin it. It appears easier though, just flip the pegs forward to cover the heel pins for free heel touring.

The result is a Dynafit binding that is optimized for charging hard in or out-of-bounds without sapping your energy when skinning back. Two questions naturally arise. Can Dynafit deliver on The Beast’s promise? Are there enough customers willing to pay for it?
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 19 2013

Outdoor Retailer Show – Winter 2013

It’s that time of year again when all the companies gather to show off next years wares. What I’m aware of already will be posted over the next week in semi-daily installments. With any luck I’ll squeeze in some updates of relevant items that I unearth at the show.

In a nutshell interest in backcountry skiing continues to grow. All the major alpine ski companies are now offering products aimed at earning your turns, whether that is through an easy out-of-bounds detour from the lifts or a more committing week long traverse. This is reflected not only in lighter weight skis with skin notches in the tails and rocker in the nose, but also in nearly every alpine company now gearing up to provide boots with a walk mode and an AT binding with their brand on it.
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 15 2013

Review: Scarpa’s Maestrale RS

Scarpa’s Maestrale RS. Lots of power in a welter weight AT boot.

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 bombing mission. Frankly it was hard to resist. Not only was the snow perfectly prepared – I was also armed with a new pair of Dynastar High Mountain Cham 97s. These in turn were rigged with a fiddler binding, the Yak by Plum. It was flat out fun cruising cold powder packed by machines and fluffed by fellow skis on the groomers, or charging a firm ski line in the couloirs under the Lincoln chair at Sugar Bowl. And it was a Powder Monday.

The Chams were amazingly responsive, and the only fiddling I had to do with the Yak was attaching the safety strap. It is true that to really enjoy making powerful alpine turns you need a good system. This was a sweet one, with a solid transmission of power mounted to a pair of planks that had zero problem holding an edge, whether in the steep runway of a rock lined couloir or banking giant slalom sized turns down an open bowl, the Chams held and Scarpa’s Maestrale was the maestro, conducting every command with power and precision.
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 09 2013

Should airbags packs be required?

We’re fully invested in the new season now. The calendar has flipped over to a new year and there’s enough snow to ski just about anywhere. Here in the Tahoe area the avalanche hazard is in dispute. It’s not that the BC community doesn’t know the avy lizards are lurking. Hell, they killed two people the day before Christmas and it wasn’t out of bounds, it was INSIDE the boundary in both cases and the lizards had even warned us all the day before at Squaw Valley’s KT — again, an inside job.
Keep making backcountry turns

Jan 07 2013

Review: Skin Glue Confessions

Over the past three years I’ve had the opportunity to use two versions of BD Ascensions (Nylon), G3’s Alpinist (nylon), BCA’s Magic Carpet skins (nylon), GlideLite (nylon), Gecko (mohair), Clip-Skins (synthetic), Colltex (65/35 nylon/mohair), Pomoca (nylon), K2 (nylon), and La Sportiva (nylon). All were new within the last 3 years. Plus I’ve mixed in old skins from the same companies so I have a lot of years observing various versions of glue. Here’s my notes on the relative differences between the glues.

Heading up on the heels of a fresh storm, thanks to gumption,
free heels and climbing skins with good glue.

Keep making backcountry turns