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
StraightChuter.com Raison d’être – Part I
Note: I’ve got posts scheduled over the next four days, but physically I’ll be in Crested Butte crushing wildflowers with a 3″ Mountain Unicycle wheel and have limited computer access. In 1999 I went on an ill-fated trip to Tibet which was sponsored in part by MountainZone.com. On the trip, we used digital cameras (which were […]
Photo Gallery – Shishapangma 1999
After discussing avalanche avoidance for the last few days, it seemed like a good time put up some photos from one of my worst avalanche experiences – Shishapangma 1999, where Alex Lowe and David Bridges died in a massive slide while scouting a route near the base of the line we were hoping to ski. […]
Avalanche Avoidance – Salvation Through Education
It would be ideal of avalanche education was like driver’s education, where you studied and learned about the activity before physically doing it. But alas it is not, and some skiers go their entire lives without taking a class. Bad idea! A lack of avalanche education should not be considered a backcountry badge of honor. […]
Avalanche Avoidance – Part III
Snow is stable roughly 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% is often the most desirable time to go skiing, like right after a big phat powder dump on a bluebird day. Avalanche safety takes years of practice and as much as anything else, it is about developing avalanche eyes for what will slide, […]
Sunday Photo – Orient Express, Denali
This is one of those cases where the actual skiing was crap, but the location was so amazing it didn’t matter. Doug Byerly skiing the Orient Express on Denali (Mt. McKinley) around 10:30 at night. 1995 Having never skied above 11,000′, Mark Holbrook and I decided it would be a good idea to try skiing […]
Avalanche Avoidance – Part II
Avalanche safety is a blend of art and science. The artful part has to do with route finding and safe travel protocol, while the science aspect is concerned with testing the snowpack and tracking the weather. Both elements are important and ski mountaineers mix and match them according to their own personal interests. Professional Avalanche […]
Avalanche Avoidance – Part I
You know what an avalanche is, huh? It’s what’ll kill ya. Gabe – Alta Ski Patrol The avalanche path and the skier can never truly be friends. In the backcountry, the skier wants what the avalanche path has (steep & deep) but the avalanche could care less about the skier and always has the upper […]
Equipment Design
“Weight, strength, cost. Pick any two.” Joe Skrivan, Black Diamond Design Manager on designing outdoor products. Equipment design is a series of trade-offs between function, weight, strength and cost. Hitting any two of those is easy, any three is difficult and getting all four is what constitutes a “classic design.” A super-strong, lightweight set of […]
New Forum (ohhh laaa la…)
StaightChuter.com now has a sleek, sexy new phpBB forum! It still needs some tweaking, but the basic structure is there and it appears to work. If you get a chance, please stop by and check it out. It supports avatars, photos, etc.. The forum can be accessed by clicking on the “FORUMS” tab on the […]
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