How do we cram a season’s worth of splitboarding into Board Test Week? It’s an admittedly imperfect science, a chemistry of constant tinkering. But after a week in and around Crested Butte Mountain Resort, these splitboards, boots and bindings won out over the rest.
2018 Editors’ Choice Awards: Apparel and Accessories
When it comes to buying softgoods, there’s a lot to wade through. But we’ve done the work, choosing the half-dozen best, lightest or warmest in every category, from shells and puffies to packs and avalanche gear. Last winter, we seeded the gear with testers and gathering feedback on what really matters—like fit and functional utility. These are the standout Editors’ Choice softgoods.
2018 Editors’ Choice Awards: Bindings
We’re living in a tech-binding boom. In fact, only 14 of nearly 200 skis came to this year’s Powder Mountain Gear Test Week mounted with frame bindings—a small enough set (with no new products) that we’ve exclusively gone tech in the 2018 Gear Guide.
And while we’ve reviewed the dozen best bindings in the issue, these are the ultimate standouts, the 2018 Editors’ Choice winners.
2018 Editors’ Choice Awards: All-Mountain Skis
These are the happy-medium skis; the one-quiver boards; the jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. They’re neither the widest nor the narrowest (106 to 93 mm underfoot), forgoing deep-snow flotation and svelte touring weights for well-rounded, all-conditions prowess—inbounds and out, uphill in down, in sickness and in health.
Arc’teryx Announces Procline Boot Recall
Announced yesterday, Arc’teryx has issued a recall of their Procline AT boot. The recall affects all models of the 2016 Procline, which includes roughly 3,900 boots sold in the U.S. and 500 in Canada. Procline owners should visit recall.arcteryx.com for information on how to return boots for the required repair.
Photographer Adam Clark tracks the sun
Salt Lake City’s Adam Clark knows that it pays to be patient, even if it takes two weeks to learn how the sun tracks across a certain slope so that he knows his subject will swoop in at the exact right moment.
Photographer Oskar Enander isn’t afraid of the dark
For photographer Oskar Enander, getting the shot is all about timing. If the sun isn’t in the exact spot on the horizon, shadows don’t form in the right places.
Jeff Cricco takes perfect pow shot, everyone quits to go skiing
Getting pitted makes even the grumpiest curmudgeon happy, and when deep powder is combined with cobalt blue skies, it is hard to think of an activity that is more mood-lifting than shredding through an untouched field of snow.
Photographer Zoya Lynch dives in to the ethereal
Zoya Lynch of Revelstoke, B.C. is drawn to the etherial qualities of winter. Sunbursts and halos grace many shots, and her images bring a more conceptual quality to her backcountry photography.
Jason Hummel captures Mt. Baker’s Golden Hour
Bellingham, Wash. resident Jason Hummel spends most of his time in the nearby Cascade and Olympic Mountains, where his love of ski-mountaineering often takes him to the slopes of Mt. Baker. There, he navigates and photographs the long approaches, glaciers, and complex avalanche terrain in hopes of doing this rugged landscape justice.
