Stuff I Like - Black Crows Furtis Poles

Fixed poles, choking up, Euro styleLike a lot of essential back country ski gear, pole choice is nearly completely dictated by the popular brands seen at every gear store. In the US, Black Diamond seems to dominate the field with a variety of offerings.  All them are adjustable and BD has developed numerous incarnations of the adjustment mechanism because, well, they often suck at some point. More on that later. In Europe, there are more options, some adjustable, some fixed. If you can break the spell of the former, you may be tempted by the latter.

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Stuff I Like - Patagonia Ascentionist 35L Pack

A Brief History

I’ve been ski touring and climbing in the mountains for most of my life. I’ve bought and used countless packs for a variety of outings. The size, style and shape of each pack reflected the type of trip and the era. The early 70’s were dominated by external frames from Kelty and Jansport.

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The Essential Climbing Skin

Recently, a good friend of mine decided to finally upgrade his ski set up after many years on a pair of early carbon fiber Dynafit skis. He’s the kind of guy who can ski on anything and he just didn’t see the point of getting something new. But, I finally convinced him that there’s more fun waiting to be had with modern boards so he relented. I mean, who doesn’t want to have more fun?

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B&D Ski Gear Leashes

When I first started skiing in the backcountry on Alpine Touring (AT) gear in the mid ‘90s, like many Americans, I used a step in binding, the Fritschi Titanal. Dynafit was out but everyone I talked to seemed to think it was sketchy and fragile. It certainly looked like it so I did the Frankenstein plod up the skin track for nearly a decade on heavy step ins. When I moved Jackson full time in 2005, I was immediately swayed by the locals and fellow Exum guides to switch over to Dynafit tech bindings. Hell, if they worked for Doug Coombs, they’d work for me.

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Binding Freedom Mounting Tools Update

I'm fighting it with every fiber of my being but the ski season is slipping away as the long days of the Alaskan summer arrive. I was back in Seward last weekend for a solo rematch on Mt. Ascension with a mountain bike and race gear. I rode from Lowell Point this time and was able to do nearly the whole trail approach on wheels. But fog and an isothermic snowpack shut me down. The whiteout was vertigenous and I was fearing some sort of epic if I continued. Of course, it cleared later but....

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