July 2014 archive

Climbing Skin buyers guide

  Now that the Sun is heading for the horizon, and with it the excitement of getting out in the snow, thoughts that tend toward getting ready for those coming days lead to gear. One of the three basic BC essentials are climbing skins. Experienced skinners know that good skins can make a difference in …

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Technique: Range set up for testing avy beacons

  How do I test avy beacons, more properly known as avalanche transceivers? What follows is my range set up, some notes and illustrations for newbies to understand basic terminology and concepts, and my general procedures. From an overall perspective, I’m just going through some predefined motions to test limits. In terms of the real …

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Technique: Dealing with bouncing avy beacons

Anyone who has practiced even a smidgen with their digital avalanche transceiver has noticed a bit of digital bounce. What is meant by this term is the error in the distance reading of an avalanche beacon. It shows up as the distance reading changing with each update, up and down around a number that, at …

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Is the NTN’s butt too big?

There is a fly in the ointment, brewing in the background with the New Telemark Norm system. It hasn’t gained much recognition because there aren’t that many people telemarking anymore, and of those who still are, not that many have switched to NTN. Depending on what size boot you have, and the binding you pair …

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Good Grub: Killer Cole Slaw

  Here’s a quick recipe that combines two foods rich in cancer fighting ingredients for a new taste on an old classic dish – coleslaw – but with the zing of wasabi added. The main ingredient, cabbage, is rich in the naturally occurring phytochemical indole-3-carbino. This compound helps the body produce detoxifying enzymes that expose …

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Review: G3’s District ski

  One of the sleeper skis of last season was G3’s District. It wasn’t that it didn’t get good reviews – Backcountry Magazine considered it one of their Editor’s Choice picks. Outside of that the ski didn’t garner much attention because it wasn’t one of the ultra-light carbon-fiber enhanced backcountry skis. Rather, it was a …

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Technique: Getting the right volume boot

  One of the issues with getting the right size boot for skiing is knowing what a good fitting boot is supposed to feel like. It should be obvious, ideally it will feel snug like a tall, worn, leather hiking boot, only stiffer. Except ski boots never feel like that. Ever. Because of the inherent …

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