Tips & Technique
Anti-Glomming Tutorial Video
I had my first serious springtime glomming session over the weekend, which prompted this 3:36 minute video on how I remedy this wretched malady while on a tour. I wrote a post about glomming almost a year ago to the week and it is one of those things where doing a half-assed repair job usually […]
Kick Turn Fun & Games
After many thousand kick-turns, sometimes it’s fun to throw some challenge into a few of them. This was a good one. Starting out in your high pegs (of course…) after 2,800′ of breaking trail, surmount a wind-lip and insert your Whippet into a woodpecker hole in an old growth tree. Pull up on the Whippet […]
Customizing Your Climbing Skin Fit & Finish
Skinning in the Wasatch Mountains is a unique experience and unlike almost anywhere else in the world. First off, most approaches to the hills can be measured in minutes and/or inches, so miles of miles of kick & glide do not apply. Second, we get a lot of deep, dry snow, so trail breaking is […]
Snowbasin Freeride Avalanche Workshop, Jan 26 -28
I took this workshop last year at Snowbird and am excited to be returning this year as an instructor. I’ll be giving two classroom presentations, teaching a ropes & knots mini clinic and partaking in all of the on-snow activities. My first presentation should be titled “Mental Case Studies in Avalanche Stupidity” as it covers […]
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, […]
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 […]
Happy Hooking
Drying gear out before putting it away is one of the best and easiest methods of preventative maintenance. This is often easier said than done as the last thing you want to do after getting back late at night from a wet weekend is spend another hour finding places to hang your tent, sleeping bags, […]
Antarctic Peninsula Gear List
I must be getting excited about skiing as I spent the day compiling a list of 30 gear recommendations and accompanying photos for the upcoming Ice Axe Ski Cruise to Antarctica this November. A lot of this gear is just variations on a general backcountry theme, but having been down there four times, I’ve developed […]
Bunching
It’s hard to say which is worse – bunched up skiing, or bunched up underwear, and although both are unpleasant, bunched up skiing is definitely more dangerous. You usually hear about the dangers of bunching up in two scenarios; either in an avalanche course where the instructors say to avoid it, or when there’s been […]
Mega Stoveboard Revelation
I’m almost embarrassed to think of how long it took me to realize the significance of using a huge stove board for heavy winter camping, but now that I’ve been enlightened, camping will never be the same. There are many different styles of winter camping and ski mountaineering expeditions, but for those which involve flying […]
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