Sep 14 2012
Vermont’s Ski & Snowboard Museum in Stowe, VT
The museum grew out of Vermont publisher Roy Newton’s personal collection of skiing memorabilia. At the turn of the century his collection became the basis for the Vermont Ski Museum, which was established in Stowe, Vermont.
Keep making backcountry turns
Sep 12 2012
Chris Davenport, world renowned big-mountain skier, signed on with Scarpa last month as a product ambassador, tester, and a key member of Scarpa’s product development team. According to a press release Davenport, who has worked with boot manufacturers like Salomon and Garmont, was attracted to the Scarpa brand for the opportunity to be intimately involved in the development and testing of a new line of ski boots for the freeride market.
Chris Davenport joins the Scarpa team as ambassador and to help in the development of future products. Interview here.
“Scarpa is super well respected in the world of skiing. For me, this is a chance to work with an already great line of products, but also a chance to help create something innovative and new,” said Davenport. He just returned from testing a new boot in Chile that is set to be introduced by Scarpa at the winter trade shows in January.
Another factor that attracted Davenport to working with SCARPA was meeting the Parisotto family that owns the company, along with the SCARPA North America team, and seeing their passion for developing game-changing products for skiing and mountain sports.
“We’re all product people, we love having the right product, the best thing out there, the most high performance thing we can have,” Davenport said. “So I think that also makes this a great match.”
I had a chance to speak with Chris Davenport about his new role and what he is currently working on at Scarpa.
Keep making backcountry turns
Sep 10 2012
Garmont Cosmos – $700 – 1450g/boot – EZ Fit Liner – Sizes: 25 – 31.5 (mondo)
The lack of mass is due primarily to the use of Grilamid® on the lower shell, and to a lesser extent the use of magnesium in the metal components of the buckles. Garmont first experimented with Grilamid® on their Masterlite boot series. Grilamid® is a nylon based plastic that is 5% lighter than Pebax, but stiffer, and maintains its relative stiffness over temperature unlike polyurethane shells. To maintain structural integrity while minimizing material Garmont adopted the same Webframe technology used in the Masterlite series to reduce weight but not performance.
Keep making backcountry turns
Sep 04 2012
Right from the get go Blizzard’s Kabookie delivers confidence. By modern backcountry standards it is not a light ski, but by resort standards it isn’t a tank either. At 8 plus pounds per pair it is light enough to be bearable on the uphill, provided you aren’t pairing them with a pair of overweight slackcountry bindings. They are stout enough to slay whatever snow snakes lurk in the depths of funky snow known by terms like Cascade Crud, Sierra Cement, frozen chicken heads or mashed potatoes.
Blizzard’s Kabookie • 133-98-118 • $850
Sep 01 2012
What began as an internal, preventive recall by Mammut to replace the pressure gauges in all first generation SnowPulse avalanche airbag packs has now been officially mandated by US Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall is aimed at replacing pressure gauges (v1.0) that could leak.
This gauge does NOT need to be replaced. The absence of an A or B indicates a gauge with a potential leak that should be replaced.
Aug 29 2012
Trekker’s are easy to adjust, affordable, and effective.
If you only make occasional forays away from the lifts this is a super cost effective way to go. Don’t forget, you need a pair of climbing skins to go with the Trekkers. The other option for adding a free heel while insisting on using your race bindings is something like the MFD plate. The Alpine Trekker has several advantages over the MFD plate.
Keep making backcountry turns
Aug 27 2012
Some things in the backcountry are immutable, like the motivation to reduce weight. One way or another, cutting weight usually involves some compromise in performance. That axiom remains true with La Sportiva’s RT binding, but less than you might expect. Even though it only weighs around ½ pound/foot it has some impressive features built into it.
The patented safety release lockout yields a consistent resistance.
The main thing you get with the RT that you wouldn’t expect for a such a feather weight tech binding is adjustable release settings, not only for the heel unit, but for the toe as well. That does not mean that the toe has an adjustable release setting for downhill mode. It does mean the precision of the release value when “locked out” for touring is leagues more adjustable than however many clicks you feel when you lift the lock out lever like most other tech bindings. Instead of adjusting the resistance to the wings opening up by increasing the pressure via a cammed lock out lever, the height of the bar the front lever presses against is raised or lowered with a screw. According to La Sportiva, the adjustment yields a release value equivalent to DIN 8-14. The practical reality is I had my toe lockout set for a moderate value of 7 and never had it pre-release, either while skinning or telemarking.
Keep making backcountry turns
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