Tips & Technique
Creek Crossings
I first got into crossing streams with my skis on by accident when I was trying to cross over a slender snowbridge which collapsed and dumped me in the stream. I was mainly worried about scrapping up my bases and edges, but on the other-hand, my feet stayed dry and it was fairly secure, so […]
150lb Crusts & The Alpine Crawl
One of the more frustrating booting scenarios is when you encounter crusts which are almost supportable… but not quite. Since I weigh in at about 165lbs with all of my ski gear, I think refer to these crusts by the amount of weight they will support. One-hundred and fifty pound crust is my nemesis as […]
Tuning Bench Tie-Down
Trying to clamp down the latest generation of wide skis for a tune-up is like wrestling an eel in a vat of Crisco. Forget it. Because they are so wide, yet have a thin cross section and rounded topsheets, traditional tuning clamps will hold skis only long enough to look secure, yet the first time […]
Arches and Avalanches
One of the cruelest avalanche tricks out there is the old “I was just minding my own business skinning up a nice valley when suddenly both sides collapsed thousands of feet above me and I was buried 20′ deep.” It is a mean spirited trick as the skier may be on flat ground far away […]
Glue Renew Guru
I love the idea of regluing skins, not just because it is all eco earth friendly and vegan approved, but because a pair of moderately worn nylon skins have such a nice feel to them – they glide, climb and fold-up like butter. With this in mind, I stripped the old glue off of a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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