First Turns in Alberta, Pretty Faces and the Marker Kingpin

Alberta Skiers and Riders Get Early 2014-’15 Turns

While the rest of us are only seeing untracked snow in our dreams, a lucky few in Alberta are already skiing the real thing. This week, backcountryskiingcanada.com’s “Trevdingman” escaped low elevation rain in Canmore, heading high in search of the freezing line and found the first reported runs of the ’14-’15 season. Trevdingman and a friend arrived in the 2200-meter Highwood Meadows parking lot to find 20 accumulated centimeters. “The snow was wet, boot-top deep, and in places just below the knee,” Trevdingman explained on backcountryskiingcanada.com of the bootpack up. “Much better than most years in later October.” Read the full forum post here.

‘Pretty Faces’ Trailer Released

On Wednesday, Unicorn Picnic released the official trailer for the all-women ski flick, Pretty Faces. According to Unicorn Picnic, although 40 percent of the skiing population is made up of women, a mere 14 percent of ski film footage portrays women. The film, which is Lynsey Dyer’s passion project, strives to close this gender gap. “Every girl that has skied, just like every guy, has envisioned herself crushing it and wanted to see herself represented in movies, and I don’t think they’ve really had that opportunity yet,” Dyer said in an interview with Backcountry. Click here for more on the project.

Marker Releases the Kingpin

On Tuesday, Marker released the Kingpin, the first DIN ISO-certified tech binding on the market. Available this December, the binding has a traditional tech-style toe and features an alpine-inspired heel with lateral and vertical release. “We had targets we wanted to reach in the end: we wanted DIN certification; we wanted a stronger heel; we wanted the handling [to be] at least as good as existing bindings; we wanted it lightweight,” Marker’s binding product coordinator Michi Buechers said in an interview with Backcountry. “To pack all these points into a concept without creating a new boot standard was a big challenge and took us a long time.” For more on the Kingpin, visit marker.net/kingpin.