Apr 28 2011

Avalanche claims Kip Garre & Allison Kreutzen

Very disturbing news. Kip Garre, local Tahoe area ski mountaineer and Allison Kreutzen were found dead this morning (28apr11) by friends in an avalanche debris pile at the bottom of a couloir on Split Mountain in the Sierra Nevada range.

More details from Powder.com

For more insight on Kip check out Backcountry Magazine’s story on Kip Garre.

Locals view from Truckee’s Moonshine Ink.

Personal note: I didn’t know Kip and news of his passing might have simply been yet another name tied to a statistic but for some reason that’s not how it hit me. Perhaps it was because the Split Couloir had recently crossed my radar and was under consideration as a destination but I think it was more the realization that I just hadn’t met him yet, but would eventually because of my personal knowledge of a few of the people involved in the search for he and Allison when they failed to return home. The reaper could have been spinning on the other side of that row of mutual friends and recent descents in the 50° realm and how anxious I was in doing them underscores how tenuous our walk on this earth can be.

May the peace of God that surpasses all understanding comfort the family and friends of Kip Garre and Allison Kreutzen at this tragic time.

 

Apr 27 2011

Review: Verdict on Telemark Tech System

In the two months since my last report on the performance of the new TTS binding they’ve been put through a fairly thorough gauntlet of conditions; crud, muck, crusty muck, powder, cream cheese, icy groomers, smooth cruisers and hair raising steeps.

Peter Leh easily holds an edge on 'packed powder' with the TTS binding.

The most impressive performance was in the Cross Couloir, off Mt. Tallac. My own style was less than impressive, which helped clarify how stout the toe nipples holding your boot are. They may look small, but they have a tight bite.

It is true that there is a limit to how far the cable will allow a boot to flex in this binding. Somewhere around 35° to 40° of heel lift the cable simply says no more. At which point to drive the knee any further forward means the cuff must provide the rest of the motion, and/or the ski must bend at the tip more. Well all three of these phenomenon were pushed to their limit on more than a few turns at the top of the Cross Couloir. TTS held. It was no place to be losing a ski either.

Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 24 2011

Face Off: BD’s O1 vs Voile’s Switchback-X2

Clouds were still spitting snow on the slopes around Tahoe and the trend has been for fewer and fewer customers as spring marches on toward summer, despite continuing to flirt with old man winter. The result was three to five inches of whipped cream on a smooth base of glazed corn. It felt sort of like dust on crust, except the edges of the BD Aspects easily sliced the glaze and held fast while the creamy top fell to the sides.

The green machine and the silver bullet.

Conditions were excellent for “testing” the ski in soft, firm, and in-bounds crud while simultaneously comparing Black Diamond’s popular O1 telemark binding with Voile’s beefed up Switchback X2. The two were pretty equal which allowed me to notice the skis performance.

The first impression was how big the shovel on the Aspects felt. With 40mm of sidecut the tips on these boards love to dig in and turn. Running straight isn’t a condition they abide by when they’re put on edge, but thanks to a smooth flex they have a good repertoire of turn radii, from short and sassy to big sweeping carves.

Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 19 2011

Review: Colltex Climbing Skins – 65/35 mixed

First Impressions – April 2011

What struck me first was the deep blue hue. For 2011, that’s the color of Colltex’ 65/35 Mohair/Nylon mixed plush. More than that though it was nice to see a simple, solid-colored plush that wasn’t too bold, yet was distinctive.

Bold without being brash.

The next thing I was relieved to notice was that these were only 90mm wide, the width requested. It’s getting darn near impossible to get a straight climbing skin less than 100mm in width anymore. I know, most of you like wide skins for your phat skis and you want to trim ’em wall-to-wall so you have as much grip as possible so you can follow or set a competitively angled skin track. Good for you, but that’s not for me. I’ll ‘splain why in much greater detail in a future post. For the moment I’ll just add that being in the minority creates a small inconvenience when it comes to outfitting a new pair of climbing skins, and that is the process of cutting them down to size. I’ll spare you the details but trust me, making perfectly straight, parallel cuts is more difficult than trimming to the shape of your ski. Thus, it was a relief to be spared that task before putting them to work earning my turns.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 14 2011

Review: Black Diamond’s Glidelite Skins

After four years of comparing various climbing skins side by side it was time to settle on my fave pair. The choice was easy. Black Diamond’s Glidelite nylon climbing skins had excellent grip, decent glide, weren’t immune to icing but were less prone to it than G3’s Expedition skins, Colltex’ nylon skins, and especially Low-Fat skins from the 2005 era.

Glidelite skins from 2006.

Out of the box the glue was too sticky to be easily managed. They took a lot of effort to pull apart when stuck glue-to-glue, even despite their moderate width of a straight 80mm. I prefer straight skins because they are easier to line up edge to edge when storing, and since they are symmetric along their length, there is no exposed glue to be easily contaminated. Thus, barring a drop in the dirt or being baked on the dashboard they tend to last longer.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 12 2011

Review: G3 Zest

As one who came late to the front rockered ski party, I’ve had just over a season on a pair of Voile Drifters, and finally came to appreciate the early tip rise in powder, crust, sastrugi, spring mank and even windbuff.  As the Drifter is truly a fat powder ski, I was curious to see how this rocker technology translated into a ski that was a bit slimmer underfoot.  Enter the G3 Zest.

Look at lil' sister. G3's Zest.

The G3 Zest could be considered the Tonic’s little sister, featuring the same the same front rocker and overall shape, albeit with smaller dimensions (132/100/123).  Of the two available lengths, I skied the shorter 166 cm version, which clocks in at 7.5 lbs/pair.
Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 09 2011

Review: Voile Vector

First Impressions

Fat enough to float, svelte enough to keep the weight down. At $550, the price is right too.

Conditions were suspect for my maiden voyage on Voile’s Vector ski with their Switchback X2 binding. Nonetheless they delivered admirable performance. A good six inches of heavy snow had fallen a day earlier. The skies cleared the night before and temperatures dropped into the single digits (F) causing the surface to dry out a bit, but not enough to overcome a temperature crust that had begun to form already. Thus, the goods were encased in a heinous breakable crust that was enough to almost hold my weight, but not quite.

On the climb up I broke through the crust every step of the way so I wasn’t anticipating a glorious descent. The early rise tip of the Vector definitely helped while breaking trail to prevent my skis from submarining and they easily rose to the surface. On subsequent tours in light and heavy powder, this feature of the Vector’s performance remained consistent.
Keep making backcountry turns