A break from a cold, wet spring in SLC is always welcome, so a couple backcountry creative types and pro athletes headed down to Bishop, CA to climb on boulders, ride bikes and test out some new camping gear. They had one blissful day of SoCal warmth before a Pacific tempest barreled over the Sierras and ensured a very comprehensive gear test. See the reviews below.
‘Outdoor Articles’ Articles
A Day in the Life of the Utah Avalanche Center: An Interview with Bruce Tremper
By: Beth Lopez | April 20th, 2011
photo: Tommy Chandler
It’s April already, and the ski touring season is winding toward its close. (Of course, after over 600 inches fell in the Wasatch this winter, we still have a hearty base for the die-hards who prefer to keep on skinnin’.) Many tour-ists are deeply indebted to their local avalanche forecasting centers for another season of life-saving information provided on a daily basis.
We Utah skiers are spoiled by more than fantastic snow and terrain; whether we plan to dash out of the resort gates for a glory lap or we’re plotting a hut-to-hut trip in the Uintahs, all we have to do is consult our local Utah Avalanche Center’s website (or podcast, or phone recording, or radio announcement) for an in-depth avalanche forecast and analysis. On the site, easy color-coded charts explain what types of danger exist, how high each type of danger is, and where to watch for each type. This information is a daily complement to one’s own snow safety education and experience. Everyone, from the newbie to the expert, can find invaluable beta to use while planning a tour. Read More …
The Cutting Edge: 2011 Piolet d’Or
By: Jeffrey Miesbauer | April 19th, 2011We’d like to congratulate Ben Ditto and company for winning the 2011 Piolet d’Or this past Friday in Chamonix. His crew, The Wild Bunch (Ben, Nico Favresse, Olivier Favresse, and Seán Villanueva), share the honor with Katsutaka Yokoyama and Yasushi Okada because “these climbs truly represented the spirit of alpinism,” said Jury President Greg Child to Alpinist.
The Wild Bunch received their award for numerous first ascents they named while on an exploratory sailing trip around the coast of Greenland. Captain Bob Shepton convinced the team to help sail his 10-meter vessel, Dodo’s Delight, after he promised the crew a surplus of unclimbed big walls. That’s what they got for the next three months, along with many days on a tiny boat, which made for lots of Wild Bunch bonding time. Read More …
Monday Slam Sesh
By: Adam Riser | April 18th, 2011Why do I love backcountry skiing so much? Because it means I never have to deal with people like this… (go about about :30 for the goods)
Angry Skier Freaks Out After Crash – Watch more Funny Videos
2011/2012 Ski Gear Guide Teaser
By: Sam Peters | April 15th, 2011We’ve spent the last few months testing next years finest skis in preparation for our Backcountry.com 2011/2012 Ski Gear Guide. Check out our teaser vid and keep an eye out for the 2011/2012 Ski Gear Guide coming later this summer.
And don’t forget to get rad while the getting is rad, friends.
2011/2012 ski previews:
K2 ObSETHed
Liberty Mutant
4FRNT Renegade
Folding Skins In The Wind
By: Adam Riser | April 14th, 2011Andrew McLean has forgotten more about backcountry skiing than most people will ever learn. His knowledge is deep like the ocean and vast like the sky, or maybe even the universe. Or, well something really really vast. Here, he shows how to, with the speed and precision of a Jedi master, do something that may seem impossible for most skiers. Folding skins in the wind. Watch and learn from the man himself.
Death By Slideshow
By: Adam Riser | April 13th, 2011
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….
The Cutting Edge: The Impossible Wall
By: Jeffrey Miesbauer | April 12th, 2011Last week, I had the honor to meet and interview climber and expedition photographer Ben Ditto in Bishop, California, where he currently lives. He (along with Sean Villanueva, Nico, and Olivier Favresse) has been nominated for the IXX Piolet d’Or award for completing ten big-wall first ascents on the coast of Greenland. Traveling on Captain Bob Shepton’s 33-foot sailboat, the climbers began their ascents directly from the deck, as you can see in this amazing video of their first ascent of the Impossible Wall. (It’s part two of a five-part video series sponsored by Patagonia and shot by Ben and his crew.)
Monday Slam Sesh
By: Adam Riser | April 11th, 2011When it comes to going down hard, it’s pretty tough to come up with a human-powered sport that gets you broken off more often than freeride mountain biking. For ten years, the crew at Freeride Entertainment gave us the New World Disorder series. NWD was the filthiest hardcore of the bike porn world. If the Collective brought us classy, artsy work that you could “read for the articles,” then NWD was the super twisted stuff that you would not admit to owning even if you were caught red handed. And when you popped it in the VCR, there wasn’t any plot. The opening credits flashed by and then you were in the middle of two people…………. sorry my editor just walked by.
Anyway, NWD 10 was the last of the series, and the trailer has some of the best mountain bike crashes ever caught on film. Enjoy.
2011 Redlands Classic – Realcyclist.com Pro Cycling Team
By: Jeb Admire | April 8th, 2011Last weekend I got the chance to hang out with the Realcyclist.com Pro Cycling Team and shoot video during their impressive effort at the four-day USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (NRC) event in Redlands, Calif.
The Redlands Classic is the first major race of the NRC season and this year’s competition for the top podium place in the General Classification (G.C) was tight throughout the prologue and the following three stages. Despite being formed only this year, the Realcyclist.com team Pro Cycling Team took home the General G.C. overall win thanks to impressive individual and team performances. Team leader Paco Mancebo, the 34-year old Spaniard with an already impressive pedigree and overall winner of the 2011 Redlands Classic, and Cesar Grajales (second overall in the 2004 Redlands Classic) led the team and commanded the course strategy throughout the four-day race, while impressive young gun Cole House threw down the hammer to win the Stage 3 Sunset Loop circuit race. Strong challenges from BISSEL Pro Cycling and Jamis were enough to concern team Director Gord Fraser, but helped to galvanize the Realcyclist.com Pro Cycling Team and focus every member on the task of seeing Paco finish at the top of the podium.
Click below to play the video of some of the action from the Realcyclist.com pro cycling team’s win at the 2011 Redlands Classic:
Crossing Snow Without Snow-Crossing Gear
By: Adam Riser | April 6th, 2011
Even the middle of summer can necessitate a snow crossing. Ben Sukow finishing the last few hundred feet to the rock in Loan Peak Cirque during a warm July day.
Crossing snow is pretty simple. Put on your crampons, grab your ice axe, and start walking. But what if you don’t have either of those things? Large, steep snowfields often guard the entrance to alpine rock climbs. And it’s not unheard of to leave your ‘poons and axe behind for one of several reasons; maybe you didn’t expect snow, or you didn’t expect the snow to be as steep as it is. Maybe you didn’t want to carry the extra weight, or maybe you simply forgot to bring the right gear.
So, what do you do when you get to the bottom of a couple hundred feet of a 40-degree snow pitch with nothing but a boulder field waiting to catch your fall at the bottom? You improvise. Read More …