Austin Holt

Full-time copywriter at Backcountry.com and part-time photographer everywhere.

Friday Video – Full Mental Jacket Part II

By: Austin Holt | February 11th, 2011
1 Comment »

Happy Friday; only a few short hours exist between you and your weekend. Be strong, push through, and while you’re killing time, check out the videos featured below.

In follow up to Wednesday’s Full Mental Jacket: Finding Your Ideal Touring Shell article, we’ve included a series of videos below. Each video outlines a different portion of the article, with the first being an introduction, the middle three being overviews of the respective jackets, and the fifth and final video representing a conclusion and overview of the Outdoor Research jacket I finally decided on.

Special thanks to Sam Peters of the Backcountry.com video department for shooting, and editing the videos below.

Part I. Introduction

Read More …

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Posted in Gear Guide, How To |

Full Mental Jacket | Choosing Your Ideal Ski Touring Shell

By: Austin Holt | February 9th, 2011
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Full Mental Jacket: Finding Your Ideal Touring Shell

Conquering the Quest for a New Piece of Kit

Pulling the trigger on a new jacket can feel like a daunting mission to gear newbies and veterans alike. Maybe you’re new to ski touring and looking for your first, truly “bomber” shell, or you’re a old pro upgrading from your withering old shell jacket. Either way, the options are seemingly endless. To add to this needle-in-a-stack-of-needles feeling, these days, even the cheapest technical jackets offer a surprisingly high level of protection matched with well thought-out features.

Dave Kelly touring in the Utah backcountry, photo: Austin Holt

Fear not, though; I recently embarked on a quest to find exactly the right hardshell jacket for my own personal touring needs, and here I explain, step by step, what I learned about narrowing down the options. Read More …

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Posted in Gear Guide, How To |

Monday Q&A: Brakes, Boots, Armada, Skins and Helmets

By: Austin Holt | February 7th, 2011
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We trolled around our community and found a few unanswered questions to tackle for our regular Monday Q & A. Maybe we’ll help you out by answering a question you were curious about, or maybe you can chime in and add your experience to the conversation.


I’m planning on buying the 173 cm Shoguns. I have Salomon

I’m planning on buying the 173 cm Shoguns. I have Salomon Z12 bindings that were on my old X-Wings. I know the brakes are too narrow so if I buy some 100mm wide brakes will it fit on the 173cm (99mm waist) Shoguns? or will I have to get the 110mm?

By: kkamo1

Brake width is a common concern these days. Sizing up to 100mm brakes gives you 1mm of space at the side for the arms to swing down, which isn’t much, but you can easily give each of the arms a slight bend to get past the edges. Any shop worth its salt can give your brakes a little clearance when you take the bindings in to get mounted. 110mm brakes would give you more than enough clearance, although if you’re looking to lay your Shoguns over hard on groomers, they could cause a bit of drag. So go with the 100mm brakes, even if they need a bit o’ modification. Read More …

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Posted in Gear Guide, How To |