November 2015 archive

Pt. IV: Taming the Impatience Dragon

Continued from Taming Your Avalanche Dragon, published 17nov15. Impatience Impatience is characterized by needing to have something now and the phrase “Don’t get in the way” depicts how single minded we can be when consumed by this dragon. People with the impatience dragon are stricken with the fear that if things are not happening quickly, …

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Waxless Metal-edged Ski Roundup

  It was over a decade ago that Fischer broke the mold with waxless metal edged skis when they introduced their S-Bound series. In the interim, Karhu pushed the envelope with their 78mm wide Guide, then Voile picked up the ball where Karhu left it, and kept expanding the waistline to 115mm with their Charger …

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Pt. III: Taming the Self-Deprecation Avy Dragon

  Continued from Taming Your Avalanche Dragon, published 17nov15. Self-Deprecation If self-deprecation is our dragon we do not feel worthy. We suffer from a lack of self-confidence and feel that our contribution is not of value, so we do not speak up and share what we know. If we have this dragon and are paired …

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Pt. II: Taming the Arrogance Avy Dragon

  Continued from Taming Your Avalanche Dragon, published 17nov15. Arrogance There is a big difference between confidence and arrogance. A confident winter backcountry guide or enthusiast also has an ear to listening to other people’s input. There is a willingness on the part of the confident individual to welcome new information from anyone in the …

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PR: AvaTech launches crowd sourced AvaNet

Editors Note: The following press release comes from Backbone Media, Avatech’s public relations firm. Ordinarily I’d rewrite the information a bit, but this is a fairly straight forward announcement of a software platform that has the potential to dramatically improve the understanding of the snowpack in regions that we like to ski. The key to …

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Taming Your  Avalanche Dragons

Over the last ten years there have been fantastic advances in the field of avalanche safety through research and technical development. Additions made to snow stability evaluations like ‘fracture character’ during the ‘compression test’ deepen our awareness of what is happening with the snow. There have also been the developments in terrain assessment tools, which …

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Inserts: Weak link of the 2-Pin Tech System

  What started out as a simple test of the Meidjo, a telemark binding with a 2-pin toe and NTN clamp, turned into an investigation of tech toe inserts and what makes them good or bad. Tech systems are an interaction of components on a petite scale, so small variations can have big consequences. While …

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