EarnYourTurns

Been going through the old slides, trying to whittle down the amount of celluloid taking up space in our cramped abode. You can’t take it with you, and lugging it around is a major pain in the arse. Besides, if you’re not using all your stuff regularly, it’s just clutter. Who needs more of that?

Serendipitously the mad Josh Madsen, le editor for Telemark Skier Magazine, asked me to be on the lookout for images from when interest in telemarking was first catching fire in America. In Europe it was ski mountaineering A.T. style but stateside we had to come to it our own way. Nordic skiing had just experienced a boom in the 70s so America’s backcountry began courting converts with the telemark dance.

Pictured below is William Wilson, surrounded by the state of the art in backcountry technology in 1992. Cell phones were finally small enough to carry in the backcountry; this beauty only weighed 4 pounds and the battery lasted two, maybe three hours. Coverage wasn’t so good, but being perched over the Los Angeles basin didn’t hurt , nor did a full 5 watts of power (notice the full size antenna). Kazama Outbacks defined the classic shape and width of the day—straight and narrow. Bindings were usually 3-pin, but the Rainey SuperLoop, the original with elastomer tubing for spring tension, had just raised the bar on how much control a tele binding could deliver. Plastic tele boots were only a half-baked dream, but we could feel their presence in the not too distant future.

Ramer self arrest grips gave added confidence where the leather subtracted it. Leather work gloves gave protection from the abrasiveness of fast corn snow, weren’t too hot for use above 8,000′ in Los Angeles or Riverside counties, and had a superior anti-theft veneer that never washed off. White climbing skins were a known aberration and those straps dangling from the SuperLoops were safety straps that wrapped around your lower leg and could be yanked off with a single deft pull, but hold otherwise.

Can you guess where this was shot?

Last fall Exped’s US marketing manager Kaj Bune sent me an email with a YouTube link. I’m a big fan of Exped’s down sleeping mats, but not a big fan of YouTube links and recommendations in emails, especially when there is a known marketing message involved. So I decided to call and harass him for cluttering my email with that junk. Kaj laughed but insisted I “check it out.” He admitted it was completely off the wall, but worth a few minutes time. So I did.

What a bunch of kooks! In this short vid Kaj Bune and Ted Steudel show up at a ski resort, then proceed to make turns and turn heads dressed in their Dreamwalker sleeping bags. Okay, it’s comical and he got my attention.

When I swung by the Exped booth at the recent summer OR show I had to ask Kaj to give me the real lowdown on the nutcase sleeping bag. It turns out this isn’t a new idea for Exped. The original concept was first introduced in 1998 as the Wallcreeper, something obviously aimed at adrenalin crazed climbers but not for more normal people. Or so I thought until Kaj took the time to explain.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the absence of winter product at the recent Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City there were still some items worth a closer look. Black Diamond introduced a new line of trekking poles. When I heard the word trekking I tried to avoid them but my friends at BD insisted on showing them. As soon as I saw them broken down for storage my skepticism vanished. These are not an adaptation of their popular Flick-Lock series, but rather an ingenious implementation of the Z-folding design of avalanche probes. The result is a line of poles for trekking called Z-poles that break down into a three section pole about 16” long.

There are three models; the carbon-fiber Ultra-Distance (MSRP $150), the Distance (MSRP $100), an aluminum economy version, and the Distance FL pole (MSRP $120), with an aluminum shaft and a Flick-Lock™ upper section to provide 20cm of length adjustment. The grips are made of EVA foam rubber which is super comfortable with a grippy, spongy rubber with a nice round top for palming and a strap that is easily adjusted with Velcro. At first look it would seem that these poles could be easily adapted to backcountry skiing, especially splitboarding, except for two gotchas. First, BD says they aren’t tough enough to withstand crashing on them sideways, an inevitable occurance with skiing or snowboarding. Secondly, the teeny baskets they come with would need to be replaced with a ski basket. To do that requires replacing the entire tip, not a trivial procedure, nor one BD intends to offer or stand by. Bummer for now, but who knows if/when this concept will migrate to the skiing realm.

The z-pole design allows for compact storage.

By the second day it was apparent that there was nothing new to report on for core ski mountaineering equipment from the Summer Outdoor Retailer show last week (03-06 aug10). Not in 15 years has there been this little evidence of winter at the Summer Outdoor Retailer show. According to Lou Dawson, “it’s because the show is sold out. There just isn’t any room for winter equipment.”

By and large Lou was spot on. The exceptions were Scarpa and Garmont who had their full line of ski boots available to view and fondle, but true to the summer focus, those boots were largely ignored.

The most intriguing news of the show must remain a rumor, but it does indicate that there is hope for the long term survival of the New Telemark Norm boot/binding system.

It appears that at least a few people have been thinking of alternative ways to implement use of the new sole of NTN boots with a binding that may or may not violate Rottefella’s patent on use of the second heel. As ever, this is another combination of existing concepts that threaten to provide power on par with Hammerhead, true free-pivot touring and all for less than the current tele benchmark of three pounds per pair. If these ideas are successfully developed there may be an alternative NTN binding available in as little as two years.
Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like it’s that time of year again, when the outdoor industry gets together to show their wares, party, and get psyched for the coming season of snow and selling goods. I’ll be making the trek again, but in scaled back form, just moi representing the EarnYourTurns perspective. It IS the summer show, so the focus is on paddle sports, hiking, backpacking, trail running and nothing about snow.

Even though summer activities will be the focus of the majority there will be plenty of companies there with a year round focus and I’ve always found a nugget or two of information for the coming ski season to be had in the air-conditioned safety of the Salt Palace. If there’s anything worth passing on, I’ll try to start doing so in a timely manner. Until then, stand by…

While there are many people who have contributed to the growth of ski mountaineering in America, few were more instrumental than Paul Ramer. It was his vision, more than any other single man’s which accurately defined, perhaps prophesied, the current landscape of the sport. Some of you reading this became aware of backcountry skiing through more contemporary voices, but they all stood on the developments and ideas first promoted in America by Paul Ramer.

Against America’s tidal wave of enthusiasm for Telemark, Paul was adamant that Alpine Touring (AT) was the way, not Nordic. It was an uphill battle all the way. Steve Barnett’s book “Cross-Country Downhill” distilled the enthusiasm for backcountry skiing in 1976, and his choice of telemark gear cast the mold for those who followed. He was just following Ric Borkovec, who chose Nordic as a rehab option to a ski injury, and then found exhilaration in the freedom it provided. Others, like Doug Robinson, Paul Parker, and Alan Bard began to wax eloquent on the telemark turn and the die seemed cast. When the first all-plastic telemark boot arrived, the Terminator, American interest in AT practically dissolved.
Read the rest of this entry »