Regardless of what you use or what you call it, being able to measure slope angles is one of the best avalanche defenses available.  I’ve been skiing around for the last week in considerable, high and even extreme avalanche conditions without seeing or triggering any slides as I’ve been keeping my angles loooooow.  Like in the 20-30 degree range at the most.

For years my goniometer (I usually call it an inclinometer) of choice has been the classic Life-Link plastic card with a dingle-bob on it.  After a few seasons, the plastic breaks and you are left with a shard of plastic and a stuck dingle-bob.  Still, they were kind of cheap, lightweight and compact enough that you could whip it out, pull an angle and get on with life. With this in mind, I was overjoyed at the recent Outdoor Retail Show to see that Pieps had come out with a bitchin’ new digital unit that mounts to your pole and also includes a thermometer.

Called the Goniometer PIEPS 30 Degrees Plus, this unit velcros to your pole shaft and is activated by pushing a button, which turns it on for 10 seconds.  The thing I really like about this is that it is always there and ready to go, so you take more measurements.  The more measurements you take, the better you get at reading slope angles.  The better you get at reading slope angles, the easier it is to make quick slope assessments.

I got a laugh out of the instructions (which I read this time) as they suggested you make a game out of taking angles by having everyone guess before you take the measurement.    I like doing this as it makes you realize if you are consistently over or under estimating angles, or in George W’s case, misunderestimating them.  Guessing slope angles reminds me of mechanics who can tell a bolt size from across the room with a quick glance – it’s not so much magic as repetition and familiarity.

Polly pulls an angle with the Pieps 30 Degrees Plus.

At $100, this little Pieps ain’t cheaps, but it is by far and away the best unit out there and fun to use.  You can get angles by setting the pole on the snow, sighting down the pole shaft from the top of a slope, or lining the pole up with a slope’s skyline profile.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and strap your Pieps 30 Degrees Plus to a pair of Black Diamond Carbon Probe Ski Poles from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

This is how my glue job turned out because I yam sofa king we ta did. Sad.

But, my faith in Glue Renew (strips of skin glue that you iron on) was renewed over the weekend when I saw the factory-perfect job that Ron Smith was able to do.  Check this out:

Now we're talking! Ron shows off his glue job.

Aside from reading the instructions and being patient, Ron had some excellent little tricks of the reglue trade.

1. Take your skins to a Dry Cleaner and have them remove the old glue for five-ish dollars.  This is a brilliant trick and the skins come out looking brand new and apparently unharmed.
2. Before applying the Glue Renew, lay down a coat of Gold Label adhesive using a scraper to get a nice, thin, even coat.  This soaks into the backing and helps the Glue Renew adhere.
3. Ron got the Glue Renew cold, then cut it into strips so that he could put a strip down each side of the skin and leave the center blank (except for the Gold Label).  This eliminates the need for a piece of nylon cloth and also allows you to get two complete skin reglues out of one set of Glue Renews.
4. Ignore the recommended heating temperatures and keep the iron “just ahead of the bubbling point” which is hotter than it might seem.

I can’t wait to try it again, or maybe I’ll see if Ron wants to do a another pair while I watch.
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and lay down a sticky base with Black Diamond Ascension Gold Label Skin Glue from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Courtney releasing some pent-up powder frustration by skiing deep snow with no rocks for the first time this year.

Doc Brock rockin' out in deep pow. Go dog go!

And another of Doug Brockmeyer in mere knee deep powder. Hardly worth the effort to track it up. :)

Starting the day with a beacon showing “00″ on the power level was not very inspiring, especially on a high/extreme danger day, but it ended up working out fine for two reasons; the first was that we knew it was a dangerous day, so we skied very conservative terrain, and the second was a conversation I had with Michael Schober from Pieps a few days ago at the OR Show in regards to batteries and interference with beacons.

Ooops...

The conversation with Michael started by discussing the “E04″ error that at times shows up on beacons.  I use a custom-made chest pack, and as it turns out, placing a metalic item right next to your beacon can interfere with the power of the transmitted signal.  Items like a cell phone (regardless of whether or not they are turned on) can cause problems, but even worse is a dense chunk of metal, like a Leatherman, which is what I often carry.

The topic then turned to battery power, which is one of the main “complaints” about the Pieps DSP.  When you first load a beacon with batteries, it will read 99%, but by the end of the first day it might be down to 85% or something, which seems like it is gobbling through the power.  But, this is not really the case.  Plotted on a graph of power over time, alkaline batteries show an immediate drop in power, hold steady in the mid ranges for a long time, then taper off at the end of their life. Rather than trying to disguise this, Pieps  shows the real power of the battery, but what is not apparent is that even in the single digit ranges (or 00 in my case), per beacon regulations, a beacon needs to run for 24 hours in transmit mode and then be able to perform one hour of searching at a certain temperature.

I usually change out my batteries when they get down to about 40%, although today I skied all day with 00 power and at the end of the day we did a beacon check and it was working fine.  I hopefully won’t do that again, but it was interesting to see that it really does work and having battery power as low as the teens is nothing to panic about for a day tour. YBMV (Your Beacon May Vary)

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and go deep with a Pieps DSP Smart Transmitter from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Gerber Ripstop Knife – $16.12

Maybe not the fanciest or most high-end knife out there, but an excellent value at $16 and no great stress if you end up losing it.  The blade holds an edge and it fits well in your hand.

————

Bridgedale Endurance Summit Heavyweight Sock – $18ish

Eight years after getting my first pair of Bridgedale socks, I’m still using using the original pair and now buy nothing but Bridgedales.  They are semi pricey, but very warm, comfy and incredibly durable.

————–

Patagonia Active Classic Boxers – $32

The Gold Standard of men’s underwear.  Comes in many colors, last forever, and as a certain friend says “You can wear them for weeks without washing them.”  You can’t go wrong giving these as a gift and they are much more useful than a tie.

———–

GSI Outdoor Fairshare Mug – $9.90

For someone who does a lot of outdoor camping, this is the Cadillac of mugs.  The large size ensures you will get more than its namesake fairshare, unfinished food can be saved by screwing on the lid and the material is seemingly indestructible.

———–

Black Diamond Venom Ice Axe w/hammer – $140

A fitting high-end gift for someone you want to help reach summits, stop falls and cover technical terrain.  I like the hammer version, but it comes as an adz as well.  My “go to” ice tool for ski mountaineering.

————

Black Diamond Slider Leash – $15.95

A nice stocking stuffer for the BD Venom Ice Axe.  Simple, lightweight, strong and basic.

———–

Snow Peak Titanium Spork – $7.12

The ultimate “I give up – this person has EVERYTHING!” gift.  Nothing shows you care more than a titanium spork.  This one by Snow Peak was one of the first titanium sporks on the market (yes, there are quite a few out there…) and the clean, simple design has stood the test of time.  Fork it, spoon it, or spork it.  Lightweight and easy to clean.

Now these are some truly weird feet. Madjeed from Iran, who lost his toes while searching for a lost friend in the mountains. He was happy with any boot as long as it was within a few sizes of his actual foot.

The custom made footbeds didn’t do squat for my racing, but I did love the perfect fit I got out of them. When they finally died, I was psyched to find that the off-the-shelf Superfeet insoles were at least as good, if not better.  They were definitely cheaper.  A nice feature of Superfeet is that they come in a variety of sizes and shapes so you can most likely find something to fit your foot.  Between these and thermoforming liners, I haven’t had a blister from my backcountry boots in years.

Some BC boots come with high-end insoles and some don’t.  I’ve heard that the BD boot insoles are almost carbon copies of the Superfeet, which is great if they fit your foot, but a bummer if not as you then have to pitch them and get new insoles anyway.

You do a lot of walking in touring boots, so you want an insole that is comfy and durable. James Alexander Valahos walking in Iran's Alum Koon (spelling?) range.

Unlike Alpine skiing where your foot is mostly static, in the backcountry you are doing a lot of striding, stomping, skiing, walking, etc., so you want a durable insole.  I usually buy the green Superfeet insole, but recently they came out with a skiing version, which is not only a sexy red color, but it also has foil on the backside to help reflect heat.  I’ve found I can get many (six or more) seasons out of a pair of insoles and usually swap them up whenever I get a new pair of boots.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and slip into some sexy, red Superfeet Premium Insole from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

I was first introduced to the 512 by its co-creator, Conrad Anker.  Conrad is a 5-star expedition planner, note taker and world traveler, but he seemed most excited about the booklet being named the 512 (5.12) which is a classic rock climbing rating.  The 512 covers everything from team member’s blood type to emergency contact info, a calendar, weather charts, map scales, elevation data, expense report and ground-to-air signals.  The overall booklet is 48 pages long, which is perfect for a single expedition or trip – any longer and you end up with a bunch of white space, any shorter and you are writing on top of other details. It also has a variety of blank page formats, including ruled pages (good for an expedition diary) and blank pages (good for sketching new tent designs).

The 512 calender page. The booklet allows for two months of calenders, so you can cover some big trips.

Measuring in at 4 5/8 inches wide by 7″ tall, the 512 is slim and trim enough to fit unobtrusively into a pocket.  If you carry it in your back hip pocket, it even takes on the shape of your butt (<– big plus).

As perfect as it is, of course, it needs to be modified.  For starters, the cover accepts stickers very well.  After that, two slits can be cut in the backcover to form a pen carrier so you are never without something to write with.  Being a small, obscure item, the 512 is hard to find in stores, but can be ordered directly from RITR here, as well as lots of great waterproof paper, astronaut pens and travel journals.  A highly recommended source of cheap fun.

To make a pen holder, cut two slots in the back cover.

As a nice touch and dose of good karma, a proceed of the sales of the 512 go to help support the Khumbu Climbing School Program.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and stay dry while you are writing in the rain with a Mountain Hardwear Epic Jacket from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Three little skiers climbing up the Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

The premise of The Black Book is simple – a collection of high quality photos of skiing lines in the Grand Teton National Park.  The Tetons are a complex range and it can be difficult to pick out lines as they often twist & turn such that you can only see part of them at any one time.  Even when you are actually on the mountain, route finding can be tricky to the newcomer as your view is limited and the physical descriptions often sound the same.  “Climb up a snowfield until it turns to a narrow couloir with a chockstone at the top” could describe quite a few lines in the Tetons.  Years ago, Teton climbing guidebook author Leigh Ortenburger said “I’m not going to publish any new routes where people just got lost trying to find something else!”  The same goes for skiing – it can be difficult, if not dangerous, to find your way around in the Tetons.

The Southeast face of Teewinot. Go there, ski that.

One of the great things about The Black Book versus a climbing guide is that the photos were taken from a skier’s perspective and during the winter when the lines are filled it.  Conor also caters to the inner workings of a Ski Mountaineering mind by using big pictures and small words which is really all you need.  Just remember the sharp end of mountains should be pointing up and you’ll be able to figure out the plot of The Black Book.  As an added bonus, many of the lines that Sparky over at TetonTele.com refers to are shown here, so you can figure out what the hell he is talking about.

Yummy.

Another cool aspect of The Black Book is that it is printed on-demand through Blurb.com, which means it can be easily updated and when you order one, you’re assured it is the latest version.  Contact Conor directly at consmiller@gmail.com to order a copy.  I’m not sure what the price is, but considering the cost of getting lost and blowing a weekend trip out to the Tetons, it will seem cheap.

___________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and go nuts at the Semi-Annual sale with up to 70% off at Backcountry.com! Click the banner below:

I’ve been collecting knives for a while because I like how they often embody the cultures who created them.  Swiss Army knives are tight, compact and high quality, just like Switzerland.  American Buck knives are big, simple and durable – a bit like America. Italian switchblades are flashy and sexy… when they work.  The classic No. 10 Opinel knife from France is beautifully functional and dangerous.  I’m stereotyping and digressing, but within my knife collection I have a bunch of multi-tools as well.  I’ve always been loyal to the Leatherman brand, in part because I once saw Mr. Leatherman speak, and he was explaining how he started the company out of his frustration of having to carry a whole tool kit with him when traveling in Europe so he could fix the plumbing in hotel rooms.  It would never, ever, occur to me to try to fix the plumbing in a hotel room, but I admire his obsessive nature and the fact that he created an entire industry out of it.

I own the original Leatherman, a Micro (nice, but a hassle with TSA types) and a Juice.  I recently ordered a Skeletool based on pure sex appeal alone as they are little works of art.  But, as soon as I got it, the bottle opener and wire-gate clip gave me some buyer’s remorse as they kind of cluttered up an otherwise elegant design.  I was ready to just suck it up, but Leatherman came out with the brand new Freestyle model, which is a streamlined Skeletool sans bottle opener, and perhaps unfortunately, the screwdriver.  These are very nice little units as the knife blade can be opened with one hand and the needle-nose pliers are surgically precise.  In general, both the Skeletool and Freestyle are much smaller than they appear in photos.  For reference, I can almost hide an entire Skeletool in my closed hand.  Still, I like’m a lot.

The Skeletool with the bottle opener.

The Freestyle tool - basically a Skeletool, sans bottle opener.

Having just fallen in a river yesterday and short-circuited my cell phone and camera, I could have, should have, been protecting them with a Loksak bag.  These are basically burly Ziplock bags with U.S. Navy approved seals.  Very basic, very cheap and very reuseable.

Every time summer comes around in Utah, I think about moving elsewhere as it is so damn hot here.  It is no coincidence that “heat” can be anagramed into “hate” and “summer” rhymes with “bummer.”  As such, I was thrilled to find Blubandoo Cooling Headwear. These hats provide shelter from the Great Oppressor (the sun) by having a wide brim, mesh panels and a nice neck protector, plus, the have “magic beads” in the headband.  These aren’t really all that magic, but they are some sort of little gel crystals which absorb and hold water for up to 2-3 days, even in the dry heat of Utah.  I’ve been using my hat for the last few days, and although it doesn’t give me the desired brain-freeze I was hoping for, it does keep my cranial cavity a degree or two cooler, and every little bit helps.

Bad photo... great product. (ps - this is not me or anyone I know.)

On a semi ski related note, Tim Kelley, the guy who championed Dynafit bindings in the US for the last fifteen years both through LifeLink and more recently, Salewa USA has now moved over to I/O Bio Merino in Boise.  I/O Bio specializes in Merino wool garments and Tim had a nice selection of everything from t-shirts to ski shirts and hoodies.  I’m a newcomer to the Merino wool craze, but Tim claims I can now ski in the same shirt for a week, then spend a night in a smokey bar and the next morning just shake all of the stank out of it and start over again without washing it.  I’m going to have to test this out next winter.

Merino wool shirts from I/O Bio.

While the design is nothing new, SMC is making mini Figure 8 rappel devices which are neat as they are small, lightweight, and most importantly, work with the thinner diameter ropes which many Ski Mountaineers prefer.  SMC also makes a nice line of rescue pulleys, which is an appealing option for those who can’t remember how to rig a Z-drag system when their partner plunks into a crevasse

SMC Escape 8

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and slice through the gear clutter with a Leatherman Skeletool Multi-Tool from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…