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OK would-be ski film makers, it's time to take all of that GoPro helemt cam footage from last winter and create your own ski film. Winter Wildlands Alliance is seeking entries for the 8th annual Backcountry Film Festival.

The Festival seeks to promote the work of grassroots filmmakers who tell compelling and entertaining stories of nonmotorized backcountry recreation and environmental preservation. Do you have a compelling story, some quality footage and a keen eye for a fun, educational or juicy topic?

This year’s categories are:  Best Short Short (under 5 minutes), Best Environmental Message and Best of Festival.

•    Your film should be short—no longer than 30 minutes—and tell a thought-provoking, interesting story of backcountry, nonmotorized recreation or environmental preservation.  Your film should take place during or otherwise relate to the winter.  We’re open minded about what kind of films we’ll show: documentaries, fiction and experimental films are welcome.

•    The Film Festival premieres in Boise November 2012 and travels during the winter months to more than 80 locations throughout the nation. 

•    Submissions must be in DVD format, please include 3 copies.  Your submission must be received in our Boise office by September 15

Get all of the details from the Backcountry Film Festival web site

It's time foe the second installment of the new Sweetgrass Productions Webisode series of backcountry skiing in South America. Summer may be full swing in North America, but winter is just getting started down south. Enjoy as the Sweetgrass crew takes us inside their two-year-long quest in search of high mountains, snow and adventure during the making of Solitaire . . .

On The Road Episode VII - Welcome to the Jungle from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

The crew at Sweetgrass Productions - the folks who brought is such fine ski films as Solitaire and Signatures - have launched a summer webisode series. Here's the first installment to help keep the backcountry ski fires burning through the summer.

On The Road Episode VI - End of The Line from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

The selection of lightweight alpine touring boots available gets better every year. What passed for light four or five years ago now pales in comparison to the boots headed to store shelves next season.

We gathered a good collection of three and four buckle boots from Black Diamond, Garmont, Dynafit, Scarpa, La Sportiva and even Tecnica for a little uphill and downhill comparison testing last week. The number of buckles on a given boot is less category defining than it used to be. Most of these boots are aimed at all-around backcountry skiing and for use with good-sized modern touring skis.

Here's the line-up of boots skied:

Dynafit One PX

Dynafit Mercury

Garmont Cosmos

Garmot Orbit

Black Diamond Quadrant

Black Diamond Prime

Black Diamond Swift

Scarpa Maestrale

Scarpa Maestral RS

La Sportiva Sideral

La Sportiva Spitfire

Tecnica Cochise Light Pro

The La Sportiva boots are really the only boots here not aimed at the general touring market. The Sideral and Spitfire come from the rando-racing end of the spectrum, yet they still proved to be very skiable. We paired them with a Dynafit Manaslu ski and it was a great combo. One boot absent from this test group is the Dynafit TLT5. I hope to get time on them this month.

Every one of the boots we skied has a generous walk mode. We found that when a boot shows 60-degrees of walk range, much of the range is found in the cuff hinging backward, and as hard as we tried to figure out when that might be important, short of rando racing with really big strides, it seams more like a marketing tool than actual functionality. The Tecnica Cochise Light Pro came in with the most limited walk mode. It walked ok, but when compared to the very walk oriented cuffs of the others, it was the least forgiving. It was also probably them most alpine boot like in downhill performance (no suprises there), still it is respectably light at 3.28kg/pair.

The Garmont Cosmos, a brand new boot for 2012, offered a great blend of natural walking flex, progressive tongue flex in ski mode and downhill performance. Its fit is also a little bigger volume than say the Dynafit or Scarpa boots. It mostly closely resembled the comfortable fit of my Scarpa Spirt 4's, but is almost a pound per boot lighter!

The new Dynafit boots are a strong continuation of their existing line. Moving to a three buckle system where the upper buckle releases the cuff for touring, the One and Mercury felt very capable of driving bigger skis while keeping thier weights very close to 3 kg/pair.

BD's boots appear unchanged on the outside aside form the new colors, but they all sport new, updated liners. They still use the Boa lacing system, but feature all new foam materials. The Prime remains a solid all mountain performer, while the Quadrant was the burliest of the boots tested, and can clearly drive any ski. The Prime, like the Garmont Cosmos, has a nice progressive flex to the tongue and still holds its own in ski mode.

The Maestrale series offer very respectable weights, great freedom of movement in walk mode and a stiff downhill feel given stout tongue designs. The unique foldover toungue entry has withstood a season of abuse without issue, so although we were a little warry of the design when first unveiled in 2011, it has proven to work great.

We'll have full write-ups on these boots and hopefully a couple more this fall in the print mag. Here is a a growing list of alpine touring boot weights

Shop for Alpine Touring boots

Black Diamond Equipment is hosting a fundraiser on June 11 for a celebration of the Wasatch Mountains and to thank Utah Representative Jim Matheson for his ongoing commitment to protecting these precious mountains. Matheson is the only member of Utah's Congressional delegation opposed to selling U.S. Forest Service land in the Wasatch for the proposed SkiLink project headed by Talisker.

SkiLink would open tens of thousands of acres in the Wasatch Mountains to commercial skiing and resort development inevitably bringing construction and human traffic that would seriously threaten most heavily used backcountry recreation terrain and the water supply on which half of the Salt Lake Valley’s population relies.

A coalition of developers, lobbyists and politicians are pushing SkiLink, a proposed gondola that would ferry skiers over the ridge that separates The Canyons resort in Summit County on the Wasatch Back to Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon on the Wasatch Front. Building this lift would require the Forest Service to sell a two mile long parcel of proposed wilderness along and just below the Wasatch Crest, home to some of Utah’s more popular and easily accessed backcountry ski, mountain biking, hiking and trail running terrain.

"The allure of the Wasatch is its compact nature. It provides both stunning access and a profound natural setting in a close proximity to the greater Salt Lake area. The proposed SkiLink would be akin to introducing a strip mall to this area,” explains Peter Metcalf, President and CEO of Black Diamond, Inc. “One off inter-connects would urbanize the backcountry, ruin the integrity of our water shed, mar the views, and do nothing to minimize traffic, transforming the Wasatch from a gem of multi-use activities to a sprawl of lifts, cars and buildings. We already have 7 great ski areas in the central Wasatch. Part of Utah’s great allure is the juxtaposition of these world-class resorts to pristine backcountry skiing. This is what makes Utah a signature destination ski attraction. Building SkiLink will not enhance ski tourism, it will actually degrade it and work at cross purposes to why people come here."

The event is set for 6 p.m. in the Black Diamond Atrium, 2092 East 3900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah.  A $30 contribution is requested.

Check out Andrew McLean’s site for more details on the SkiLink project

or visit the SkiLink propoganda site

Just another day on Mont Blanc. Looks like fun. I'm guessing the first drop off is the crux...