As summer comes to an end, the mornings start to cool off, and we start thinking about the peaks we want to summit this winter, some of us might glance down and notice that all of those backyard margaritas and barbecue have found a new home in our waistline. That doesn’t bode well for our ski touring performance this season! Luckily I’m here to give you some tips to prep your body for some backcountry adventures. Maybe you haven’t been…
Being comfortable and familiar with the people you spend time with in the backcountry is important from an enjoyment and a safety perspective. There’s nothing worse than a bluebird, stable day in the backcountry that gets ruined by the schlub your buddy brought without telling anyone beforehand. You know the type: talks a big game but has a transceiver that’s older than dirt, wears headphones the whole tour, and has to stop for smoke breaks every 20 minutes to ‘catch…
A growing segment of the touring boot market, ‘freeride’ touring boots are light enough that you don’t kill yourself on the way up but are still stiff enough to ski hard on the way down. Tech fittings are becoming pretty much standard. These aren’t ultra-light touring boots, but rather boots that are more suited for a 50/50 touring/resort season or for people that tour and like to ski hard. That’s not to say you couldn’t use these exclusively for touring. You definitely…
Updated Feb 8, 2022 to include the Look Pivot GW One of the problems with having only one pair of boots for both touring and resort skiing is binding compatibility. The best touring boots have fully rockered rubber soles that don’t work in most alpine bindings. The best alpine boots are heavy as bricks and tour like crap. To further complicate things, there are all kinds of different boot sole standards and they aren’t all interchangeable. You may not know…
When you’re ready to buy your first backcountry skiing setup, you might be wondering whether you should you get tech bindings or frame bindings. Each style has its pros and cons and is better suited for different skiers with different needs. We’ll go through each and help you decide which is right for you. When you’ve finished this, you should read our article that breaks down the best touring bindings on the market – it covers both tech and frame…
A question that many skiers ask at some point is ‘Should I get touring boots or use my alpine boots for backcountry skiing?’ I know when I first started exploring the backcountry I asked myself this question. I used my alpine boots (which were freaking heavy) for the first 5-10 days of backcountry skiing. Once I got a pair of touring boots (the original Tecnica Cochise in my case – check out my review of the new one), I never…
Update: check out the updated 2019 versions of the best bindings for backcountry skiing: The Best Bindings for Alpine Touring in 2019 Part 1 – 50/50 Bindings Part 2 – Tech (Pin) Bindings As the backcountry skiing industry keeps heating up, more and more manufacturers are making high quality touring bindings. The number of choices of bindings for backcountry skiing is a bit overwhelming. Hopefully this guide to the best alpine touring bindings will answer some of the questions you…
Is anyone else starting to drool over all of the new gear that’s coming out this year? I know I sure am. It seems like every year there is at least one new piece of gear that is unlike anything that came before it. This year there are at least 3 that fit that category! Boots and bindings seem to be where most of the innovation is happening these days, so that’s the theme for this 2019 gear preview. Here…
There is nothing that can replace practice in the field and learning first hand from avalanche experts, but it doesn’t hurt to read as much as you can about avalanche safety. This list of the best avalanche safety books range from covering the basics to pretty advanced topics. There is something here for everyone. Personally I find it helps to do a bit of reading at the start of each season to refresh my memory. After a long summer of…
It’s a bright summer day as I write this, but I’m finding myself thinking about powdery days in the mountains. ‘Tis the season for teasers from this years big ski and snowboard movies, and this will have to be enough to keep me entertained until the snow flies again. It’s only a few months away!!! Matchstick Productions MSP has brought us classics like Seven Sunny Days, Claim, In Deep, McConkey, and last year’s big hit Drop Everything. Their newest release, All In is sure…