Category: Tech
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Review: Climbing Skins Direct v. BD Ascension
Climbing skins: if you ski the backcountry you gotta have ’em. As nifty as fishscales are, and as good as kickwax can be under the right conditions, if you’re off in the woods you will find hills steep enough to require skins. So, what to get? Skins are not cheap. They’re also one of those…
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Essenshell, examined
Amber dropping a knee last weekend. I should also note that today, below 5300′ or so, was the very first breakable crust day of the year. Fairly mellow icey rain crust, which I’m happy to report the Marquettes made absolutely inconsequential. Rocker is the shit. My quest for the best shell for ______ continues. Early…
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Marquette Backcountry ski review
Are the Marquette’s real skis? In many ways this is the central question, because the answer dictates the criteria against which they are judged. If we take them at the face value of the marketing schtick (70% ski, 30% snowshoe, 100% fun) success only calls for an idiosyncratic and fun tool for bushwhacking. The performance…
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Mounting tricks
As has been explored previously here, my tastes in ski gear (well, most gear, actually) is rather idiosyncratic. Driven by an overvaluation of simplicity and aesthetics, and at the moment, a strong need for affordability. I say all this as a sort of disclaimer: take my advice, and you may consider yourself misled down the…
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Testing…
My mom, who got me into this whole outdoor adventure thing in the first place, worries about me. So, my holiday gifts this month consisted of a MEC Reflex down parka and Patagonia Micro Puff pants, the better to stay warm and safe out in the cold, and the better to extend our Western Mountaineering…
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The question of laziness
After getting my ass kicked the last 4-5 times out skiing (or at least not feeling like a powder slaying god), moral has been low. One result is that I’m going through a period of nostalgia for summer. Thinking about mountain biking on dry dirt, or catching trout in clear water. The other result is…
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2010: in review
Running through all these Christmases is the sense of an emotional cadenza at the end of the year, a braiding of feelings like hope, renewal, nostalgia, love, joy and exhaustion. Yet in the stories about this holiday, it’s surprising how often we’re reminded of a darker life, full of isolation, penury, greed, despair and the…
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Marquette Backcountry ski: out o’ the box
Enter the clown shoes. Those are 185 Guides. Inserts make mounting dead easy. I did need a longer screw for the front, to use the Voile wedge. Fine threaded, takes a 3mm allen. Big fishscales. They have a bit of camber. They’re also very stiff, by any standard. Not plastic noodles. Lots of tip rise.…
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Karhu Guide ski review
ExecSum: This neo-classic ski, currently living after the demise of Karhu as the Madshus Annum, is the proverbial jack-of-all-trades, master of none. If you want one ski that will work for 40 degree powder fields, 20 miles of rolling trail breaking, and everything in between, this is the ski. The facts: My Guides are 185…
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What I wore this past Saturday
As has been acknowledged here and most everywhere else, dressing for ski touring is a challenge. Strenuous, slow ups, fast and cold downs, and rapidly changing exposure to sun and shade and calm and wind make maintaining a safe level of warmth without sweating quite the puzzle. I had a pretty good setup going this…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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