human powered adventures
When the skiing is entirely forgettable – think isothermal corn turns – it’s good to have something else to fall back upon.. Fun day out there. Hope you had one too!
The 'ole between the legs shot.
A blue playground..
Picks that stick... dreamy.
Das boot plus das crampon.
Loitering.
Ah, the humble avalanche shovel. Probably the most boring, least interesting piece of gear involved in ski mountaineering. Virtually everyone carries one, but does anyone ever think about these tools? I think most people buy one, toss it in their backpack because it’s required avalanche rescue equipment, and forget about it for the most part. Today is as good a time as any to re-evaluate that single piece of gear.
A good shovel design - the shaft is kept inside the blade sleeve, eliminating fumbling.
Efficiently cruising about in the mountains on skis involves more than simply utilizing the lightest gear. Light gear is important, but perhaps more so is the design of that gear.
Avalanche shovels offer up Continue reading ‘Avalanche Shovel Dynamics’
Dynafit has offered the TLT Speed Radical binding design for 2011/2012. By now, many of you have seen – and some even bought – these tech binders. Rather than solely spinning the heel piece to achieve different heel lifts (or locked in, ski mode) as past generations of Dynafit bindings required, the Radical design offers a speedier, easier riser height adjustment.
Two risers mesh together and await the user employing their services. One riser position – attained by flipping one lever – for more moderate skin tracks, and a maximum height selection – attained by flipping the second riser into place – for even steeper skin tracks. Voila, all was radically designed.
The news has been out for several months about the TLT Radical series requiring a technical upgrade. The reason for the upgrade is that a weak pin sometimes breaks on some users in the field. Dynafit calls this a non-critical upgrade, and it sounds like it’s probably not a huge deal.
A bigger deal involves the Radical binding failure I witnessed today. The upper plate on the Dynafit TLT Speed Radical’s heel piece is presently made of plastic. The two risers are attached to this plastic plate. Put too much stomp into your step while the risers are employed, and you’re looking at what my ski partner experienced today: risers that completely break off and fall into the snow. Ouch. After he noticed the issue and I sifted through some snow, I found the pieces. The plastic had Continue reading ‘Dynafit TLT Speed Radical Failure’
If you’ve ever wondered what the latest breed of lightweight skis looks like on the inside, your curiosity can now be satiated. With a variety of manufacturers offering their incarnations on the lightweight theme, different terms have popped up to describe the interior construction methodologies at play.
One company may refer to it as a multilayer, Woodcore Superlight ski, another might refer to stringers, whilst another can choose a term such as Air Channels to describe the guts of a pair of planks. Ultimately – the variety of terms ignored – the lighter a pair of skis, the less material there is to absorb your skiing abuse. So much so that the interior might just have some hollow bits, and be arranged to take advantage of I-beam style construction.
Like skiing on a half dozen skinny I-beams made of light wood, plus two 'squares' on the outer edges.
The tip and tail sections merge down into solid, albeit thin, wood.
A lot of dried adhesive is visible; this holds the ski base material in place.
Since I’ve never peeled off Continue reading ‘Taking a Look at Ski Innards’
It’s no secret at Garmont or here at Tetons and Wasatch that the original incarnation of the lightweight Garmont Masterlite ski boot suffered from some flaws. However, version 2.0 of the boots was on display at the Outdoor Retailer show. It appears that Garmont has addressed most of the former, common areas of complaint by making substantial changes to the updated version of the boots.
Garmont has substantially reworked the original Masterlite ski boot.
Of largest importance to me, the weak ski/walk tab has definitely been replaced with the beefier version Garmont came up with in response to multiple boot breakages in field testing. No more Continue reading ‘Garmont Masterlite gets Revamped’
Maybe way back hundreds of years ago when cameras needed to be loaded with film to operate, they contained less electronics. I’m not sure: taking apart a camera wasn’t on my agenda then. (I didn’t really have an agenda back in Abraham Lincoln’s time, it’s true.)
However, I dropped my Panasonic Lumix the other day when carrying a bunch of gear to the car. With each of four fingers on one hand holding a separate object, all hidden from sight by the coat then draped over my hand, I let go with the wrong finger when trying to release my car keys. Whoops.
A solid thud ensued.
It was no surprise Continue reading ‘Cameras are Computers, Too’