Andrew McLean
Andrew McLean lives in Park City, Utah and is a gear designer, writer, photographer, ski mountaineer, climber, Mountain Unicycle rider and father of two very loud little girls.
Andrew McLean's Latest Posts
Avalanche Science Project
I’ve always wanted an excuse to make an avalanche board, and my daughter’s recent school Science Fair seemed like a perfect opportunity to try it out. Avalanche boards are pretty cool as they can show all of the elements of an avalanche (layers, triggers, slope angle, terrain) in a confined space and time, plus you […]
Cheap Core-Shot Base Repair
After getting a cavernous core-shot repaired, I was so impressed with the quality of the repair I asked how much a good base-welder costs. “About $1,200.” Hmmm, I probably don’t need one that badly, but I do often rip moderate gouges in my bases that I’d like to repair, but aren’t worth the time and […]
Self Belayed Cornice Stomping
Cornices often present a backcountry conundrum – is it safer to stomp them and risk going for a ride when they break behind your feet, or is it better to not stomp them and thus give up a valuable piece of avalanche insight? I’m firmly in the pro stomping category and while most of the […]
Skin Glue Touch-Up
Blown out skin glue is a very common malady and with our recent snap of cold weather, I’ve seen at least one skin track casualty per day due to *&^%’ing glue. I think this is especially common in the Wasatch where it is very easy to get a dusting of snow on your skins while […]
The Sound of One Skin Slipping
Although I worry about it all the time, last weekend was the second time in my skinning history that I actually lost a skin while skiing, which creates a dilemma; do you posthole back uphill through deep snow in the hopes of finding it, or accept the loss and sacrifice your lone skin to the […]
Chute Me – Please
Despite my best efforts to keep StraightChuter.com as simple to update and maintain as possible, the evil computers have won again and I’m in the process of updating the format. This was prompted by all of my tabs/pages mysteriously vaporizing into the Ethernet. Like childhood memories, they were nothing really important and perhaps it is […]
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