‘Newsletter’ Articles

Death By Slideshow

By: Adam Riser | April 13th, 2011
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Make your photos tell a story. Here Alex Meyer and Shingo Ohkawa wait out the settling forest fire smoke with an endless chess session.

We’ve all been there: a few days after your friend gets back from a week-long trip, he invites you and the rest of his buddies over to check out a few photos. He starts up his slideshow, and you know by the third frame that you’re in trouble. By the 30 minute mark, you’ve seen at least a half-dozen fuzzy shots of the same moose, camp from every angle, and even one shot where the camera accidentally went off in the backpack.

You are experiencing the worst post-trip torture there is: Death by Slideshow. Every frame of the entire trip is in your buddy’s presentation, nothing has been edited, and although all the shots are in chronological order, there is no storyline other than the standard, “Oh yeah, I remember that” when your friend is surprised by which shot came up. You don’t want to risk subjecting your friends to this same fate after you go on an epic trip, so put a little effort into your own presentation and get them stoked instead of putting them to sleep. Here’s how….

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The Art of Car Camping

By: Adam Riser | March 29th, 2011
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There are few things better for the soul than hanging by the campfire.

It’s really hard to say how much time I’ve spent living out of vehicles. During my first season as a river guide, I lived in an old Jeep that eventually burnt to the ground. Then I downgraded to a crappy Pontiac Grand Prix with a hood that was duct taped shut. The year before I became a mountain guide, I made a huge upgrade to a $1000 ’89 Ranger with a canopy that was about six inches longer than the truck bed.

Since moving to Utah, I’ve camped out nearly every weekend during the springs, summers, and falls. Let’s see … 13 years of climbing and mountain biking with, let’s say, 25% of the weekends in the rig, plus four whole summers, is about 700 days of car camping in a little over a decade. In that time, I’ve picked up lots of tricks that can make a campfire next to the car feel like home.

Remember, the more comfortable your camp time, the more energy you’ll have to get after it during the days. Here are a few things to keep in mind…

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Backpacking 101: Learn How To Liberate Your Backpacking Gear This Spring

By: JGW | March 29th, 2011
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A reminder to “Like” less, and hike more this year. (Photo Credit: Andrew Cazier)

You spent last year’s tax return on some sweet new backpacking gear, but you’ve yet to test it beyond the unplanned St. Patty’s Day backyard sleepover .., yeah it’s time to set your sights a bit higher. Don’t get me wrong, backyard sleepovers are integral to the adolescent experience—thing is, your ultralight backpacking gear secretly hates you for consigning it to the fate of captivity. You see, backpacking gear is like a magic carpet capable of taking you to dream-like places that have the potential to restore youth, increase overall well-being, ‘cleanse’ an over-stimulated mind-state, quiet bad dreams, and increase overall epic-ness of character by at least 84%. If you’ve yet to experience the restorative and hubris-annihilating qualities of tramping through nature for an extended period with all your means lashed onto your back, it’s really time you let your caged backpacking gear run free. There’s, like, a whole new world out there, man. Read More …

New POV Camera Tech from Contour and GoPro

By: Jeb Admire | March 4th, 2011
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Today, we’re following up on recent articles on how to shoot POV footage of skiing and snowboarding and how to make a POV camera pole mount on the cheap. We’re featuring two gear videos highlighting the latest in POV action sports camera technology from from Contour HD and GoPro. If you weren’t already convinced to get into the POV footy game, GoPro and Contour just made it harder to resist. From GPS tracking to LCD screens and Bluetooth connectivity, these action sports cameras’ newly upgraded features are going to blow your mind–as long as you know how to use them.

Contour GPS Camera

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Ode to the Office Job

By: Adam Riser | February 23rd, 2011
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Drying gear and working hard (or at least appearing to) after a morning of face shots.

I have an office job. I sit in a cubicle and spend most of my day typing on a computer and looking at spreadsheets. It wasn’t always like this; I used to be a river guide. I worked rivers all over Washington and Oregon while living in my truck. I climbed 200 days during my first year as a river guide. Then I became a climbing guide on Mt. Rainier. What could be better? I got paid to climb and climbed all day. Well, in theory anyway. Really, I got paid to carry a big pack and walk slowly in dangerous places while tied to clients who were seemingly trying to kill themselves (and, by extension, me). When I did finally have a day off, climbing was the last thing I wanted to do. Eventually, and entirely by accident, I landed a “real” job. I hear a lot of people blaming their office jobs for their failure to get out and get after it. However, I find that my desk job hasn’t killed my climbing; it’s actually given me the freedom (and rest) to do more.

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Monday Q&A

By: Adam Riser | February 21st, 2011
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With seemingly endless snow pounding the Wasatch right now, everyone’s minds are pretty much stuck in powder mode. So, on that note, I’ll start this Monday Q&A with a question about my very favorite ski, the Black Diamond Megawatt.

Black Diamond Megawatt Ski

Black Diamond Megawatt Skis

Q: I would consider myself to be somewhat close to an expert skier. I demolished a pair of 2009 BD stigmas last year, skied a few days on a pair of BD ethics this year and was unsatisfied in the pow. I just ordered some 188 mega’s, I do a lot of backcountry skiing but Im more into the boot packing than skinning. I live in Colorado and it seems that every day I want to go backcountry the avie conditions are bad so I end up going on piste and boot packing past the ropes. What would be a good binding to drive this ski knowing that I really dont need the AT setup. Thanks!

By: Brian Sims
January 25, 2011

A: First off, good choice on the Megawatt. Given the pow-specific size of this ski, the situation you explain occurs a lot. You want a binding that will let you skin if you absolutely have to, but usually, you’re riding lifts or just booting up a ridge and want something as close to a standard step-in binding as you can get. My suggestion is to go with either the Marker F12 or the Fritschi Diamir Freeride Pro. Both give you a healthy 12-DIN maximum setting if you need it and provide the ability to release the heel if it’s necessary. Most skiers could argue all day about which one is better, but I’ll leave that to them. Just make sure you get brakes wide enough to clear the 125mm underfoot dimensions of your skis.

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In Case You Missed It: Return of the Newsletter

By: Justin Mool | February 2nd, 2011
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After a six month (!) hiatus, the Backcountry.com Newsletter is back on track. Man, has it been that long? Yup … the last one we wrote was way back in July. Yikes.

Not to worry: a week ago, the newest edition of the Newsletter went out to millions of readers. So just in case you missed it, here it is again: January Newsletter: Greg Hill, Winter Training, Slack to Back.

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While you can read all the articles in the newsletter on the Beacon, you usually also get special promo codes and insider deals. It’s an easy way to score a hook up.

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Backcountry.com’s Interview with 2-Mill Greg Hill

By: JGW | January 25th, 2011
8 Comments »

Photo credit: Tommy Chandler

You could say Greg Hill is a numbers guy. The Canadian ski mountaineer just vanquished the ridiculously daunting goal of ski-touring 2-million feet of vertical in a single year. For you visual learners, that’s the equivalent of 36 trips up and down Mt. Everest. Now, consider the fact that Greg was only counting the feet on his way uphill, and you have a new appreciation for this man’s dedication. We recently got a chance to talk to Greg post 2-Mill, and the dude is in high spirits. We recommend you read the whole interview–Greg’s stoke is contagious.

What motivated you to get up every morning? Well, I like adventure, and pushing myself–I guess that’s really the goal of life: to live life to the fullest. And that was my goal for the year–to do the most backcountry skiing ever–and that’s exactly what it was. Read More …

Slackcountry to Backcountry

By: Adam Riser | January 25th, 2011
5 Comments »

How to step away from the lifts and come back in one piece

No one is looking out for you here. Learn to make your own decisions.

Let’s face it: if you ski enough, you’ll eventually reach the point where the resort just won’t satisfy your powder jones anymore. Even on the deepest days, runs get tracked out too fast, and you find yourself venturing into the slackcountry. You duck the rope, traverse for 15 minutes, drop in on the 400 feet of untracked snow that you find, and then traverse back at the bottom. So, what do you do when those few hundred feet of fresh are no longer enough? You leave the lifts and crowds behind and get into the backcountry.

The backcountry is not the resort or even the terrain on the other side of the boundary ropes. No one has tested these slopes or determined if they’re safe. You need different gear and a different skill set to avoid trouble and move efficiently. This is a quick-and-dirty guide on the basics to get you from the sidecountry to the backcountry without gambling your life on avalanche conditions. Read More …

Curing Cabin Fever: An Intro to Gym Climbing

By: Joe Ballent | January 25th, 2011
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With the new year comes a steamy new pile of motivation to get fit, but the outdoor world is looking a tad frozen-over. There’s too much cold, white stuff outside for you to throw on your running shoes, and your bicycle calls to you, but it isn’t outfitted with snow treads and anti-yeti mace.

All your pent-up energy is starting to fog up the house (and your brain)…. But wait: there’s new climbing gym in town, and it’s time to give it a shot before your front door becomes barricaded by what Inuit refer to as a “good foundation.”

You head out the door, enlist a friend to be your climbing partner, brave the tundra of city roads, snap the icicles out of your nostrils, and enter the climbing gym. Where to start? Read More …

In Case You Missed It: BC.com Newsletter

By: admin | July 28th, 2010
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If you were wondering why we published three articles yesterday, the answer is that they were part of the July Backcountry.com Newsletter.

Each month we feature three articles that go out to millions of readers. Subscribers to the newsletter also get insider deals, sales, and news.

If you’d like to sign up for the newsletter, enter your email address in the box on this page.

We’ll resume posting regular articles tomorrow.

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