Andrew McLean
Andrew McLean lives in Park City, Utah and is a gear designer, writer, photographer, ski mountaineer, climber and Mountain Unicycle rider. He and Polly Samuels McLean are the parents of two very loud little girls.
Andrew McLean's Latest Posts
Ski Touring Set Up For a Six Year-Old
After trying a few other approaches, I finally pieced together a touring set-up for our six year-old daughter, Mira. It turned out to be more complicated than I expected, but in the end it seems to work well and was cheap. We originally tried just having her “tour” in her alpine set-up with the buckles […]
Touring with Toasty Digits
It’s been so cold in the Wasatch lately I thought I was in Montana. We’re not use to temperatures in the teens, let alone the single digits, and it makes my tanning butter congeal, which I just hate. But at least my hands are warm due to two basic touring tricks. 1) Mittens. A thin, […]
Backcountry Safety Strategies Presentation – 1/3/2014
I’m giving a presentation on backcountry skiing safety strategies tomorrow night, Jan 3rd at 6:30 at The Sports Loft (4678 S. Highland Drive). The bulk of it is on avalanche avoidance and includes some lowlights from my past, as well as some of my current thoughts on living to ski another day. As most Wasatchians […]
Wasatch BC Conditions 12/29
Wow. Do we need more snow. The past week, and the forecast for the upcoming week have been bone dry, which makes for some tough turning. All of the great little pockets have been hammered, and some of the more popular BC area are starting to get moguls. This isn’t so bad in itself, except […]
Wasatch BC Conditions – 12/22/2013
Executive Summary – Good and getting better. Starting yesterday, every run I took was “the best of the year” with each new one topping the last. We’ve finally started to get some base in the Wasatch, and in celebration, I took out my new skis (BD Carbon Aspect) and only got one little scratch on […]
New G3 Tech Binding
Aside from a website address, http://www.genuineguidegear.com/2014-ion/, I don’t know much about this binding aside from it looks very sexy in photos. According to G3, it features “Game changing forward pressure, wide mount and refined toe jaw dynamics plus unique step-in and brake features yield superior freeride performance in the lightest set up you can ask […]
A Few of My Favorite Things
Just in time (with expedited shipping) for the holiday season… Sharp Pointy Metal Objects Leatherman Juice Knives and multitools are my weakness, and although I shamelessly admit to having at least 100+ of them, the Leatherman Juice is one of the only ones I actually use. It is clean, simple, compact and hits a perfect […]
Skinning Tricks – Crabbing
Here’s a skinning trick I use all the time, which for lack of a better term I call “crabbing” as the idea is move sideways like a crab. This technique is useful for getting around short, slick, firm areas such as you might find on a ridgeline or when trying to contour around a rib […]
Wasatch BC Conditions – 12/10/2013
Executive Summary – Pretty good for this time of year, but not great yet. B- at best. In terms of fishing, right now the central Wasatch is like catching endless 6″ trout. It’s fun in a pinky-dink kind of way where you make 6-12 great turns, then eat shit in rocks, logs and bushes. If […]
Park City Gets a Climbing Gym
Park City has no shortage of Blue Ribbon this and World Class that, but until yesterday, it had one major gaping omission – a climbing gym. This seems like a natural for Park City as a lot of climber types live around here, yet the closest outdoor climbing is 20 minutes away and marginal, or […]
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