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
Return of the Chuting Spree – Win a Mountain Hardwear Tent!
Between holidays, computer crashes and the excitment of a new ski season starting, the Chuting Spree contest was overwhelmed and needed to take a break… but now it is back and better than ever with a Mountain Hardwear tent as a prize! Mountain Hardwear is my #1 skiing enabler and I have spent many happy hours […]
Faith Base Skinning
While skinning up a steep, exposed slope today in a total white-out, it occurred to me that we were engaging in Faith Based Skinning. Faith Based Skinning (FBS) is when you feel nervous about a slope, but continue on anyway because, well, nothing bad has happened yet. This is not such a great idea. I consider snowpacks […]
PNW Practices Random Acts of Avalanche Destruction
One of the defining moments in my life (Ski Career 1.0) was sitting in a cabin at Alpental outside of Seattle watching it rain so hard that the windows looked like a braided river crossing. It was the middle of February and not only were the slopes barren mounds of mud, but there were gushing […]
The Wasatch PowderKeg Lives!
Snatched from the jaws of financial abandonment, I’m psyched to say the Wasatch PowderKeg Ski Mountaineering race will be back again this year by popular demand! The race was resurrected by a group of my neighbors here in Summit Park (aka Somewhat Dark, or The Alpine Slum), including Chad Brackelsberg, G and Mark Christopherson (of […]
Skiing During Wartime
The Wasatch Mountains have been getting some good storms lately and it has been dumping snow here all day. Yippy! I’ve had to plow out the driveway twice in eight hours, the wind is howling and the avalanche danger is on the rise. All of which means it is a good time to go skiing this […]
The Extended Column Test (ECT)
As much as anything, I love learning new snow stability test as I get bored doing the same old ones over and over. I use to do a lot of Reusch Block tests, but over the years they started getting smaller and smaller. Nowadays, I’m into digging a pit which is big enough to preform […]
Monday posting delay due to great skiing
Absolutely KILLER weekend of skiing in the Wasatch! Photos and details on the ECT Pit test coming later today. Andrew
Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 2
Part of the challenge of correctly identifying slope angles by eye is that they often look much steeper when viewed straight-on than they do from the side. (This is also a good photography trick – shooting straight-on, like from a helicopter or across a valley makes the slopes look lots steeper). A classic case of this is […]
Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 1
An experienced car mechanic can look at a nut or bolt from ten feet away and instantly tell you what size it is down to the 64th of an inch. It is not magic, but more a case of repetitive familiarity within a certain range. Cars tend to use bolts in the 1/4″ to 1″ […]
Bush Whacked Skiing Video
Unfortunately mankind cannot live on steep chutes alone and low angle powder skiing through the trees is a fact of life during periods of high avalanche danger. One way to spice it up is to chase after someone while filming with a handheld camera. Eighteen seconds into the little video below, I blow my line while following Dylan […]
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