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.
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.
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.
From Tahoe to Tioga Pass and all the way down California’s 395 to Mt. Whitney, it’s been a fat year in the Sierra. After a half decade of dismal snowfall, reservoirs are full again, valleys are green as pastures and most East Side couloirs now have passing lanes, pull-over spots and scenic overlooks. Here’s some of the gear I’ve pulled in after a winter of testing to ski a portion of the Redline Traverse.
Later this week, Editor in Chief Tyler Cohen heads into Montana’s Tobacco Root Mountains for a ski mountaineering course offered by Bell Lake Yurt and Montana Alpine Adventures. Here’s what he’s bringing along for the ride.
Sitting in the Monarch Cat Skiing yurt, seven testers laced up boots and turned on beacons when first-year tester Alex Spectorsky spoke up. “So, how’s the snow?” he asked the Monarch guides.
Despite the early wake up after three full days of testing boards, rumors of snowfall and significant amounts of cold-brew coffee fueled Monday morning’s stoke on the fourth day of Board Test Week. Twelve testers piled 18 splitboards into the sides of a decked-out snowcat before hopping in for the ride to meet up with […]
The old aphorism “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” doesn’t apply to Board Test Week—rather, it’s a marathon run at a sprint’s pace. And testers have been holding nothing back from the moment the starting gun for Backcountry’s annual splitboard test went off late last week in Crested Butte, Colo.
Gear Test Week 2018 has come to a close, but remnants of the blazing sun at Powder Mountain, Utah still kiss testers’ cheeks. As we start to reminisce, we take a look at two more testers and their picks from the host of skis, boots and bindings for this coming season. Here is their slopeside account of what […]
It’s Gear Test Week 2018, and as the sun blazes down on Powder Mountain, Utah, testers charge through the latest and greatest skis, boots and bindings for this coming season. To get a preview of some of the exciting sticks and kicks for winter 2018, we will be catching up with testers slope-side to hear […]
DOUG STOUP: THE ICEMAN
From playing NCAA soccer to a successful modeling and acting career to being the top polar explorer of his time, Doug Stoup is an enigma. Host Adam Howard recently journeyed to Antarctica with Stoup and their conversation ranges from Doug’s personal training of A-list Hollywood actors to near death experiences; adventures with Doug Coombs; and taking novice skiers to the South Pole.
Listen Now »
TELE MIKE RUSSELL: TURNS FOR ALL
Tele Mike Russell grew up as a sharecropper’s son in Delaware before attending college and becoming an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Then he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center and decided he’d better follow another path, this one to skiing in Colorado, where he’d go on to find a family in the National Brotherhood of Skiers and help found its backcountry program.
Listen Now »
ERIC BLEHM: MEET YOUR HEROES
Eric Blehm’s roots in snowboarding run deep. He started riding during the sport’s infancy, and after college became an editor at Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. Years later, he was in a lift line when a fellow rider saw the “Craig Kelly is my Co-Pilot” sticker on his board, and asked Blehm: “Who is Craig Kelly?” He was floored by the notion that there were snowboarders out there who didn’t know who Craig was. And this inspired him to write The Darkest White.
Listen Now »
We’ve compiled a database of U.S. resorts with a little about each individual policy—where and when skinning is allowed, whether or not it’s free during operating hours and the link directly to the resort’s guidelines.
While ski and snowboard boots are our bread and butter, we all have to get to the trailhead, ski hill or bar … [Read More...]
Transporting skis and boards to the trailhead or resort and home again is a necessary, but not always … [Read More...]
