Latest
Gifts for Skiers
Gifts for Skiers Holiday gift ideas for the skiers on your Christmas list We've put together a few of our favorite gifts for skiers to help seed your holiday shopping with fresh ideas - all for under $100. Thermos $20-40 Ok, we're supposed to call it a vacuum bottle, but we call it a thermos anyway. Bottomline, skiing without a thermos is like skiing without your favorite hat. You can do it, but it's always better when you've got at a hot drink at the ready. Thermoses come in all sizes and shapes; most cost around $30. We recommend a 1-liter version. Here are some Thermos options. Leatherman CX Skeletool Multi-Tool $65 Never let your favorite skier head into the backcountry without a proper multi-tool to…
Gear
Osprey Soelden 32 Snow Pack – A Dedicated Backcountry Ski Pack
Osprey Soelden 32 Backcountry Ski Pack Skins. Shovel. Probe. Layers. Goggles. Food. Water. Check. Packing for a ski tour isn’t rocket science, but dialing in your ski pack for easy access to the gear you want when you want it takes practice and a pack with thoughtful organization. The Osprey Soelden 32 backcountry ski pack balances a quick-access main body… Read More
Multi-Tools for Skiers
Multi-Tools For SkiersThree Leatherman Multi-Tools with Bit Drivers My backcountry repair kit is on the thin side when compared to many skiers, but I do always carry a multi-tool in my pack. In my experience, the highest use tools for addressing boot, binding and unforeseen backcountry issues are a scewdriver of one sort or another, pliers and a good blade…. Read More
Rocker Ski Racks
Rocker Ski Racks Skis have a way of cluttering your garage, hallway, closet or wherever it is that you happen to store them. We all know what happens when you simply lean your skis against the nearest available wall – if they don’t fall over right away, they will fall over eventually, often taking a few other choice items with them on… Read More
DPS Lotus 124 2.0
DPS Lotus 124 2.0 – Alchemist Edition For the most part, backcountry ski waist widths have settled into the 100-115mm zone the last couple of seasons. You can confidently grab a pair of skis with a waist in the low hundreds for just about any day of touring. Between rocker, sidecut and lightweight core materials, these skis are agile, light,… Read More
G3 Minimist Climbing Skins
G3 Minimist Climbing Skins I’m a minimalist by nature. Less is more has proven to be a solid motto for most things backcountry skiing. Well, maybe not when it comes to the width of my skis, but today’s wide skis help fuel the less is more mantra, because if you’re gonna slide around on 110-130mm underfoot, you better lighten your… Read More
What’s in Your Pack – Backcountry Ski Packing List
Backcountry Ski Packing List What’s in your ski pack? It’s a good question, and one that I occasionally ask myself as I heft the weight of my pack to my shoulder in the morning. There’s no sense in carrying more up the hill than you need to, but there are key items that you should always have with you in… Read More
Features
Gifts for Skiers
Gifts for Skiers Holiday gift ideas for the skiers on your Christmas list We’ve put together a few of our favorite gifts for skiers to help seed your holiday shopping with fresh ideas – all for under $100. Thermos $20-40 Ok, we’re supposed to call it a vacuum bottle, but we call it a thermos anyway. Bottomline, skiing without a… Read More
Ultralight Synthetic Insulation – Patagonia Micro Puff
Ultralight Synthetic Insulation Down vs Synthetic A puffy or insulated jacket is essential gear for backcountry skiing. Ask a skier if they prefer down or synthetic, and you’ll find less consensus. While synthetic insulation is more durable, stays warm when wet and is better suited to the repeated stuffing and re-stuffing that a puffy experiences in the life of a… Read More
Adventure Ride Essentials
GORE SHAKEDRY™ – 7Mesh Oro Jacket
GORE SHAKEDRY GORE set the standard to which waterproof, breathable outerwear is measured, and their latest innovation, GORE SHAKEDRY™, takes everything GORE-TEX is known for to a higher level of performance – waterproofness, breathability and lightweight construction. SHAKEDRY’s distinct design uses a 100% GORE-TEX membrane as the face fabric and a 100% polyamide fabric as a backer. What does that… Read More
Outdoor Research Helium Jacket – Ultralight, Packable Rain Jacket
Outdoor Research Helium Jacket – Ultralight, Packable Rain Jacket The wet weather has arrived. It’s not quite ski season, so full-on GORE-TEX ski wear is not really necessary. But if you want to head for the hills during shoulder season, you need some sort of waterproof jacket. The Outdoor Research Helium jacket sets a high standard for ultralight rain… Read More
Adventure Ride Essentials – Gravel Tires
Adventure Bike Gravel Tires Reviewed So many choices, so little time. Choosing the best gravel tire is a bit like picking the right shoes for the day. It’s all about the terrain and surfaces that are on the agenda. And when adventure riding is on the table, maximum volume/width is key. Tread is important too. But volume is directly related to overall… Read More
Adventure Ride Essentials – Camelbak Chase Review
Camelbak Chase Bike Vest Review One of the big limiting factors when setting out on an extended adventure ride is water carrying capacity. It takes a lot of water to stay hydrated on a 100+ mile ride. The obvious solution is a hydration pack. But when traveling light is your goal, most hydration packs are overkill. The Camelbak Chase bike… Read More
Avalanche Safety
Avalanche Canada Webinar – Recognizing Avalanche Terrain
Recognizing Avalanche Terrain Avalanche Canada has a webinar series this season covering a variety of avalanche safety topics. Recognizing Avalanche Terrain and Trip Preparedness provides a good introduction to or refresher on avalance hazards. It includes info specific to Avalanche Canada’s website, but more it’s a solid overview for anyone looking to broaden their backcountry knowledge.
Avalanche Rescue Probe Technique
Avalanche Rescue Probe Technique Aside from trying to understand the hazard and avoiding avalanches, most backcountry skiers focus their snow safety efforts on efficient transceiver use. Proficency with your beacon is definitely important. However given a burial, shoveling and probing can easily be the most time consuming piece of an avalanche rescue. Backcountry Access (BCA) offers a number of educational… Read More
Movies
Salomon Freeski Collective Ski Movie Trailer
Salomon TV Freeski Collective 2020 Movie Trailer Each day is one day closer to getting on snow and skiing . . . Get ready to make the most of it when it gets here. Salomon TV has some motivation for you with their fall/winter 2020 Freeski Collective Movie Trailer
Huck Yeah – Ski Movie Trailer
Huck Yeah Ski Movie Trailer The 2020 Matchstick Production Ski Movie Trailer Huck Yeah.The shot on location list reads like a skier’s bucket list: Jackson Hole, WY, Whitewater, BC, Whistler, BC, Alaska, Rusutsu, Japan, Idaho, Mt Baker, WA, Verbier, Donner Pass, CA, Mt Cain, BC, Troll Mountain
The Vault
ENSO – La Niña, El Niño and Your 2020-21 Ski Season
La Niña is in the Air You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, but it’s the season to prognosticate about winter weather and snow. From the height of the beargrass and the plumpness of the squirrels to the study of analogous years and the science of large scale climatic forces, there are plenty of theories… Read More
The Art of the Uptrack
The Art of the Uptrack Larry Goldie – Owner, Lead Guide at North Cascade Mountain Guides First, there was the epiphany. It was a deep day, sixteen inches of new and still snowing. The hookup began as many do, spontaneously meeting at the trailhead with the same objective in mind. I was with my two most regular ski partners. Our… Read More
Dream Job – Avalanche Forecaster
Dream Job – Avalanche Forecaster An Interview with ChugachNational Forest Avalanche Center Forecaster Wendy Wagner by David Waag We all appreciate the value of our regional avalanche forecast centers and, let’s be honest, who hasn’t dreamed of working as an avalanche professional. It’s all face shots, field observations and free gear right? Well, it turns out there’s a lot more… Read More
Darkside Calling – Telemark vs AT
Darkside Calling – Telemark vs. Alpine Touring by Paul Butler Right before the end of the year, I went out skiing. After a week of torrential and monumentally depressing rain turned Christmas into Slushmas, cold from the east brought December back to the way it should be in these parts. Two friends and I began making our way up “the… Read More
