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
OR Show through Sunday
The Outdoor Retailer Show is in Salt Lake City and the Sundance Film Festival is getting underway in Park City, so Utah is hopping at the moment. A bit more snow would make it even better. I’ll add some updates from the OR Show over the next day or so.
Utah Interconnect – SPOT Tracking
Alright, this didn’t work so well last time as I didn’t RTFM (Read The Fuggin Manual),
Dynafit Brake Modification
As a crusading Dynafit Evangelist, I’m loathe to say anything bad about them, but will admit that many times the brakes hang up and don’t deploy. This happens often enough that some of my Dynafit buddies skip the brakes altogether as “they never work anyway.” It seems that this is more common with skis that […]
Video – Skin Ripping
A little video we shot this morning while waiting (and waiting…) for it to finally snow in the Wasatch. This technique is a slo-mo variation on a racing strip and it takes about one and a half minutes. Out of habit, I like to strip my skins right when I get to the top of […]
“Up There” Ski Film Fest – Bozeman, MT
The “Up There” Ski Film Fest is taking place on Jan 14-15 in Bozeman, MT. It is being presented by the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation and benefits my all time favorite ski mountaineering organization, The Hans Sarri Memorial Fund (<– which happens to have a new website, check it out). Not only are they showing […]
Belayed Ski Cuts
At times when you want to do a ski cut, but there is no island of safety to ski to, a belayed ski cut comes in handy. Prime candidates for belayed ski cuts are narrow, steep couloirs with no hiding spots, or the opposite end of the spectrum, wide open faces. For this type of […]
Ski Cutting
Along with cornice stomping, I also do a lot of ski cuts before skiing a slope. Ski cuts are quite a bit dicier than cornice stomping as you have to actually get down on the slope and try to trigger a slide. Because of this, I am usually fairly confident that a slope won’t slide […]
How To Know Where To Go
A huge part of backcountry skiing is knowing where to go on any given day to find the best skiing. It might be corn, powder, chutes, long tours or quick hits, but once you have been doing it for a while, you can almost always find The Goods (well, except for last week – sorry […]
Cornice Stomping
Stomping cornices is by far and away my favorite and most used snow stability assessment technique. Test slopes are a close second, but there is a lot to be learned from dropping a big fat ol’ cornice directly onto a loaded slope and seeing what happens. I like cornice stomping as it is something you […]
Skinning Over Timber
I tend to do a lot of skinning over timber. Why, I’m not sure as it is not really that much fun, but I suppose it is better than traversing way around a fallen tree, then backtracking. Timber skinning is especially common early in the season or when it is a low snow year, such […]
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