Apr 04 2011

Tips ‘n’ Tails for Climbing Skins

 
It doesn’t take long before you notice some folks have an easier time dealing with their climbing skins than others. Part of that is knowing the proper care and feeding of your skins. Part is the genetic make up of the skins themselves — the type of plush, the glue, and the tip ‘n’ tail hardware.

There's lots of options for outfitting your climbing skins.

There’s lots of options for outfitting your climbing skins.

By and large the differences in grip and glide between brands, or even various models from the same brand, are pretty minor. Their contrasts are certainly noticeable, but the variation is only significant to experienced users, and usually only over time. They all climb well, with differences in grip apparent only in adverse conditions, or for lack of technique. The distinctions in glide are more readily noticed but rarely appreciated except on long tours with fat skis and extended flat sections or by rando racers.

Keep making backcountry turns

Apr 01 2011

Testing Climbing Skins

There are lots of pieces of specialized gear that are nice to have and can enhance your time adventure skiing. Climbing skins enhance the experience so dramatically that they are practically essential for backcountry skiing. In the right conditions you can ascend a snow covered mountain faster without them (with crampons on frozen corn), but for most days and conditions, climbing skins are as integral to earning your turns as a free heel binding is.

Gil Estrada spoons Robert Blands tracks. Lil' Morrison canyon, Sierra Nevada, April 2010. click to enlarge

Starting next week Climbing Skins will become a regular focus for awhile. The Sierra has been pounded with snow and it’s being roasted into spring corn with all slopes good to go. Several manufacturers have sent samples for review and it will be good to begin a fresh round of comparisons.

It is my hope that this will become a community effort, with my posts establishing a place where you and I can compare notes on each particular skin, informing the backcountry community at large. I’ll begin the process with a first look at each brand and model on their out of the box condition, and their field performance on day one. From there, it will be a matter of documenting their performance over time. Quirks of the tip and tail hardware, how they are holding up after 10 days, 20 days, and special mentions of conditions that caused failures or trouble, like icing up, glopping up, leaving residue, or limits to grip.

Keep making backcountry turns

Mar 30 2011

Review: Doc Allen’s Versatool

Basic kit comes with the 1/4" driver too, magnetic extension, 10 bits and a pouch to hold it all.

Basic kit comes with the 1/4″ driver too, magnetic extension, 10 bits and a pouch to hold it all.

After years of carrying all manner of compact – and not so compact – ratcheting screw drivers, Swiss Army knives, and multi-tools into the field, I serendipitously stumbled across what might be the perfect screwdriver set for individuals or groups who want a real screwdriver in the field but wince at having to schlep anymore dead weight around the hills than is absolutely necessary. Hailing from less-than-alpine Fort Worth, Texas, Doc Allen’s VersaTool® is the brainchild of a local orthodontist. What ghastly oral procedure he was engaged in when inspiration for the tool struck, I have no idea, but his elegant, efficacious design couldn’t serve the needs of the backcountry skier or boarder better.

From the socket forward the VersaTool looks and acts like any compact modular screwdriver. It is the design of the low-profile handle — a continuous tear dropped-shaped loop of stainless steel rod stock — that distances it from its competitors. Permanently attached to this handle is a free sliding and free spinning “adapter”. Attached to this adapter is a removable ¼” socket. Along one side of the handle are three discrete, snap-in torque positions. Depending where you position the adapter you can take advantage of three levels of rotational force — which is considerable in the high torque alignment. The shape of the bare-bones handle has the added benefit of providing positive grip for cold or gloved hands
Keep making backcountry turns

Mar 29 2011

First Look: BD’s Compactor Ski Pole

The Compactor.
click to enlarge

As soon as I was introduced to Black Diamond’s Z-Pole concept I was thinking how appropriate it would be for snowboarders. The only problem was, the baskets that came with the Z-Poles were too small for anything but corn snow. That and the fact that the tips were manufactured in such a way that replacing the baskets would not be as simple as just popping them off and replacing them with a different one. That was back in August 2010, at the Summer Outdoor Retailer Show.

Compactor shrinks to a svelte 16 inches (41cm) long for easy storage.
click to enlarge

Six months later at the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show BD came through with their new Compactor ski poles, made specifically for backcountry snowboarders. Using the same Z-construction the Compactor pole easily folds down into a connected, z-folding package only 16 inches (41 cm) long. Overall length adjustment is achieved in the upper section with BD’s classic FlickLock™, allowing the pole to vary in length by 7½ inches (20 cm). The tip is a typical ski pole tip with a metal point. The basket is replaceable and upgradeable to a larger powder basket.

If you’re a backcountry snowboarder, these poles should be on your list of must have items for next season (11/12).

Next on the wish list, a Whippet version of the Compactor. Pretty please for winter 11/12?

 

Black Diamond Compactor Ski Poles
MSRP: $ 119.95

Size: Standard Large
Length (extended): 105-125 cm, (41-49 in) 115-135 cm, (45-53 in)
Length (collapsed) 38 cm, (15 in) 40 cm, (16 in)
Weight/pair: 580 g, (20 oz.) 595 g, (21 oz.)

 

Mar 28 2011

Review: K2’s LockJaw Ski Poles

The new LockJaw® Carbon/Carbon and Carbon/Alu ski poles from K2 take the concept of functionality for a ski pole to a new level. The core features remain, like the Lock-Jaw® clamp that holds reliably and is easy to adjust. But what originally distinguished K2’s backcountry ski poles from the competition, depth readings and slope indicators, are significantly improved with next years models.

Bubble gauge inclinometer tucks under the handle, indicates slopes skiers are intersted in.
click to enlarge

New for next year is a bubble gauge slope meter tucked under the bottom of one of the ergonomically designed handles. It only covers the range of angles a skier would be interested in – 30° to 45° – coincidentally the slope angles most likely to avalanche.

In the models with the bubble gauge inclinometer, depth readings adorn both poles, not just one. Turn the pole upside down and probe down into the snow. Numbers are shown on the pole shaft every five centimeters up to 40 cm, to indicate depth relative to the top of the handle. On the Carbon/Carbon model the depth numbers are kind of hard to read. They blend in, but once you recognize ‘em they’re obvious enough. Part of the reason you don’t notice them immediately is because the first 40 cm of shaft beneath the handle is a grippy sheath that makes it super easy to choke up on the pole while traversing. Then you notice that the numbers are part of this rubbery sheath, hence the blended visibility of the depth numbers. The rubbery sheath grips well in a variety of temperatures, and snow does not stick to it.

Keep making backcountry turns

Mar 25 2011

Tahoe gets buried!

Wow! We’ve had a lot of snow this ten-11 season, more than I’ve ever experienced since moving to the Tahoe area, but yesterday took the prize with a cold, fluffy layer of icing on an already phat cake of snow.

This shows the snowfall for the last week - MINUS the 3-6 feet that fell in the last 24 hours. click to enlarge

The snowfall backed off around midnight, but the winds remain high so there is lots of drifting snow, high avalanche danger on all passes, and low visibility. The area is pretty much shut down. I-80 was closed both ways yesterday and remains so this morning. Same for Hwy. 50 coming up from Carson City, Nevada, then running through South Lake Tahoe to Sacramento. Hwy. 88 is closed going over Carson Pass to Kirkwood. Can’t seem to find any beta on Hwy. 431 running by Mt. Rose ski resort but I can’t imagine it is open either. Or the Kingsbury Grade from South Lake Tahoe down to Nevada. Hwy. 89 which runs along the west shore of Lake Tahoe, by Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley then through Truckee is closed as well. And here in the Prossor neighborhood the roads haven’t been plowed in 24 hours. Caltrans has all hands on deck for the main roads and side streets will just have to wait.

Keep making backcountry turns

Mar 22 2011

The Need for Knee Pads

Back in the day knee pads were worn because you had to drive low to control skinny skis with leather boots and pins. Thus, we wore 'em like a dorky badge of honor.

Make no mistake about it, if you telemark, it’s not a matter of if, but when you will need a pair of knee pads to save your precious knees. You can make all the excuses you want about how your stance is tall and you never ski low so your knees aren’t at risk but time and numbers (probability & statistics) are against you.

The unique mechanics of the telemark turn require one knee or the other to be closer to the ground and potential trouble with each and every turn, especially compared to alpine skiing or snowboarding. Inevitably you’re going to hit something whether you just compress, hook a tip, or bury a ski in such a way that your trailing knee drives straight into the ground and collides with whatever is there.

Most of the time that will simply be a pile of soft snow. But it only takes one time for that to change and the results could be disastrous.

Keep making backcountry turns