As an avalanche instructor, I spend a lot of time calling out directions to my students: “Zig-zag until you find a signal! Follow the arrows! Make sure the numbers are going down! Get lower to the snow! Now pull out your probe!” Well, imagine a world in which I don’t have to yell those things, because your beacon is doing that for you.
Gearbox: Goggles
Editors’ Choice: Anon M4 Backcountry skiing often requires sacrificing style for functionality. Luckily, Burton’s goggle and eyewear company, Anon Optics, finds the balance between the two with their M4 goggle. The next iteration to the M2 and M3, the M4 hit the market in 2019 with an upgraded frame shape that features a slightly deeper […]
Gearbox: Helmets
Editors’ Choice: Petzl Sirocco They say the best helmet is the one you’ll wear. And for skiers who climb and climbers who ski, the dual-certified Petzl Sirocco gives no excuses to leave your helmet behind, even on the longest tours. “This helmet is uber light! You might just for-get that this thing is strapped to […]
Gearbox: In-Vesting in Off Season Training
It’s no secret that ski touring is physically demanding. More fitness equals more fun—both breaking trail uphill and cranking powder down. Because the best ski tours last for at least a few hours, your body needs to adjust to that duration of exercise—sub-one-hour workouts don’t induce the needed adaptation. Trail running provides one of the […]
Gearbox: The Finer Points of La Sportiva’s Skorpius CR
There’s an old K2 Telemark poster of a skier doing an inverted grab with the tagline: “Take something hard, make it harder, then make it look easy.” Surely that poster wasn’t on the minds of La Sportiva’s designers when developing the new Skorpius CR. But the boot pulls off complex engineering with such simple and […]
New Heights: Scarpa enters a new orbit with their Alien RS
Last year, Scarpa took that tried-and-tested Alien and reformed it for improved downhill capacity with the Alien RS. It retains many of the original Alien’s touring-focused attributes, including a scant weight of 3.9 lbs.—making it the lightest boot at our 2019 Gear Test Week. But other updates mean it can better handle descents and mid-fat skis.
Going the Distance: Six travel and camping essentials
Multiday traverses, winter-camping trips and travels to far-flung destinations might sometimes seem like adventures you only experience vicariously through Instagram and Facebook. But there’s plenty of gear available today that makes ambitious pushes into the mountains more accessible. To push you toward that skintrack walkabout or remote vacation, check out these camping and travel selections that can help get you out there and back safely and smoothly.
The Friendly Frankenboot: With their new Hoji Pro Tour, Dynafit builds a more accommodating monster
If pro skier Eric Hjorleifson’s first Dynafit boot, the Vulcan, went by the nickname Frankenboot, his newest model, the Hoji Pro Tour, falls more in the image of the hairy, blue Monsters Inc. character Sulley—big, strong and hardworking, but with a friendlier side. Dynafit’s Vulcan, launched in 2012, earned its sobriquet from Hjorleifson’s work cobbling together parts […]
Gearbox: With their Procline and X-Alp boots, Arc’teryx and Salomon rethink walk-mode mobility
Certain technologies have a way of interrupting the status quo. Such disrupters are often so simple that consumers wonder why nothing like it existed earlier. They change the way we work and play, often solving a problem we never knew existed.
Gearbox: An Editors’ Choice powder setup
For many, sliding through endless, untouched slopes of powder is the ultimate motivation behind ski touring. It’s what fills our autumn dreams and validates any amount of sweat, distance or effort. And when it comes to consistent, smooth conditions, almost any setup will do, whether it’s heavy, narrow, planky or stiff. But if powder skiing is the Holy Grail, shouldn’t a setup for the pursuit enhance the experience to its fullest potential?
