Recent Articles

Little Cottonwood Canyon – Hurry Up & Wait

| February 25, 2013 | 29 Comments

This line of stopped cars heading up Little Cottonwood Canyon road looks, smells and feels like a traffic jam, but there’s far more to it than just that. At the heart of the problem is that the Little Cottonwood Canyon (LCC) road is a narrow, winding, steep, two-lane  mountain road which is threatened by 36+ […]

Continue Reading

Look Who’s Back…

| February 23, 2013 | 0 Comments

Winter! A very intense and unusual storm rolled through the Wasatch today and delivered a much-needed blast of new snow.  In the Park City area, it started at about 9:00am, and by the end of the day I had snow-blown my driveway three times to clear it all off as the precipitation rates and wind […]

Continue Reading

Cleanwaste Waste Bag Kit Review

Cleanwaste Waste Bag Kit Review

| February 20, 2013 | 2 Comments

The only thing more exciting than actually using these is the golden opportunity to write a crappy internet review about a product that, when properly used, is full of shit. I originally bought a 12-pack of these as “wag bags” were a required item for a river trip, and in that regard they command immediate […]

Continue Reading

How to Skin Argenta

How to Skin Argenta

| February 18, 2013 | 6 Comments

… in 3,246 not so easy steps. I think I enjoy skinning up Argenta almost as much as skiing down as it’s a fun challenge and a very efficient way to gain vertical. With the track shown below, I start out with no climbing pegs, immediately go to high peg, stay that way for a […]

Continue Reading

Baffin Maple Boot

Baffin Maple Boot

| February 15, 2013 | 0 Comments

Baffin Maple Boots – I bought these boots as a replacement for some ancient Sorrels and now wish I’d done it years ago. The true beauty of the Baffin Maple is that you can leave it loosely tied and wide open such that you can slip your foot into it like a slipper, then go […]

Continue Reading

Black Diamond Redux

Black Diamond Redux

| February 15, 2013 | 16 Comments

After a seven year hiatus, I am back working with Black Diamond Equipment in Salt Lake City. But, unlike 1991 when I started there as a gear designer, this time I’m involved as a ski mountaineer, which in itself shows how far the company and industry has come. Twenty-two years ago the idea of being […]

Continue Reading

safecss

safecss

| February 14, 2013 | 0 Comments

WP-Clear

Continue Reading

Tuning Bench Tie Down

| February 13, 2013 | 7 Comments

Most of my hasty ski tuning jobs end up resembling a Quentin Tarantino movie with lots of blood, slow-mo howls of pain and severed appendages. Even though I have ski vises, they have a hard time clamping onto skis with narrow profiles, tapered sidewalls, rocker or extra width, which covers about 95% of the current […]

Continue Reading

Wasangeles Silver Lining

| February 4, 2013 | 3 Comments

The silver lining of touring in a popular area and competing for first tracks is that there are also a lot of potential rescuers around if things should go wrong, as happened yesterday.  As we were coming around for a second lap in Silver Fork, we saw a major debris pile and crown line right […]

Continue Reading

Enlightening Avalanche Video

Enlightening Avalanche Video

| January 31, 2013 | 2 Comments

Ideally, the first thing you would do in an Avalanche Level One class would be to go out and have everyone get caught & carried in a big slide. Assuming there were any students left alive afterwards, you’d then have their full and undivided attention. If you can live through it, there is no better […]

Continue Reading