Today is the first day of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market and if you’re a Black Diamond sales representative for the Rockies, it can be pretty challenging…if not impossible, to meet with all your accounts and show them the line in between the unending amount of socializing, posturing, partying and down right full schedule at […]
Gear Reviews
About a month ago, I was doing some spring cleaning and ended up tossing about 15 pairs of running and hiking shoes into the dumpster. Yeah, some were pretty trashed, but others were still in pretty good shape, but the cushioning had been worked over from miles and miles on the trail. It bugged me […]
In past years, I’ve rolled with only one pair of AT boots for the season, for 07/08 it was some Dynafit ZZeros, and the year before that it was a pair of Scarpa Spirit3s. This past season, I decided to try using two pairs of boots, some Dynafit ZZeros for longer tours into the high […]
Bigger and Banana flavored Nuun hydration tablets! I don’t know about you, but whether its summer or winter, I have the hardest time drinking water and staying hydrated. I even have trouble drinking enough when I’m not skiing or running. I’m not sure why, but I just forget to drink a lot of the time. […]
La Sportiva Wildcat. It’s getting to be that time of year again…what I call “transition season”. Basically its’ the time between spring…and winter. Some people refer to it as summer, but I’m allergic to that word, so I made my own season…transition season. As the snow quickly disappears and grey clouds fill the sky, I’ve […]
Dustin Lemke rappels the Stettner Couloir on the Grand Teton. So, I saw this thread on the TGR Forums last week and at first I though, “whatever, trick photography, no biggie!” But after reading the entire thread, learning about Tilt-shift, and finding out there is a website to modify your own images with the flare […]
I felt like a private investigator or detective at Outdoor Retailer a few weeks ago, hunting down the Stratos, a new full carbon fiber rando race boot offered from La Sportiva next year. My phone buzzed with it’s late arrival to the trade show and I was ushered into a cramped closet full of cardboard […]
Images courtesy of Teton Gravity Research. Once again, the internet proves to be a very small place and updates on new gear from our friends across the pond at ISPO are starting to role in. The latest looks to be a new alpine touring binding from SkiTrab called the TR-1. The Tr-1 looks to be […]
Yes…I am a confessed CamelBak addict. (Actually, I prefer the MSR Hydromedary bladders, modified with CamelBak accessories.) Whether its summer or winter, I find myself always sucking out of a hose for hydration when I’m in the mountains. In the summer, its’ easy. Just fill up your bladder, plop it in your pack…and you’re good. […]
I sure thought this email I got CC’d on yesterday from the National Ski Patrol was very interesting, and I wonder how many ski patrols, guide services and SAR units are scrambling, trying to get their radio and transceiver combos up to par. Basically their saying that the magnets in certain Motorola radios can switch […]
New and improved Black Diamond ski poles and straps. My one full day at OR was action packed, running from booth to booth, trying to see all the new gear. Besides all the ski improvements from Black Diamond, they also have totally reworked their ski pole line, separating 7 models into the Power and Efficiency […]
Backcountry Access Sales Representative Steve Christi demonstrates (in real time) the Float 30 Avalanche Airbag at the 2009 Winter Outdoor Retailer. Though not the first ones to introduce an ABS (airbag system) in a backpack to the backcountry skiing community, Backcountry Access hopes to make them easily available and user friendly in fall 2009 with […]
Rolled into the Winter Outdoor Retailer Backcountry Basecamp around noon yesterday and only had a few hours to check out the new ski gear, so I headed straight to the Black Diamond tent. BD was running a demonstration of the effectiveness of the AvaLung by burying OR show director Kenji Haroutunian and it was pretty […]
I’m headed down to Salt Lake City today for a couple days at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, where vendors from all around the world show off what’s new for Fall 2009. I’ll do my best to inform you of what’s hot…and what’s NOT! After debuting the hot new Dynafit DyNA rando race boot a […]
Check out this hot new Dynafit DyNA rando race boot coming out for next season and scheduled to debut at Outdoor Retailer next week in Salt Lake City. Click photo for larger image. Weighing in at under 2lbs (920gr) for size 27, The DyNA is sure to be one of the lightest and best skiing, […]
I got an email from Black Diamond headquarters yesterday, enlightening me on some of the additions and tweaks to some of the ski gear for next season…so I thought I’d forward it to you all. BD says they have redesigned all of their Power Series skis, but it seems like most of the hype is […]
Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to have the pick of the litter from the Black Diamond ski and Dynafit binding line up. Like all products, some perform better than others in particular conditions and terrain. For fat powder days I like big and fat skis with bindings that can handle […]
Good news for all you ski patrollers, SAR personal and avalanche rescues, RECCO has a new detector that has more features and is much smaller. Hopefully the general public won’t see these units put to work very often, but many skiers and snowboarders out there are increasingly seen with RECC reflectors highlighted on their clothing […]
The Ortovox Up-Box can update your S1 to have the most current firmware. Well, technically version 1.2.2690, but who’s counting. Honestly though, ever go shopping for an avalanche beacon and wonder if the current technology will be obsolete (like your computer) in the next year or two. Fear not, because the Ortovox S1’s firmware is […]
I don’t know about you, but I’m the worst when it comes to carrying extra stuff, like first-aid and gear repair kits, in my ski pack. However, I don’t completely roll the dice and there are one or two items (besides a shovel and probe) that I do carry to stack the odds in my […]