Tag Archives: skiing

PNW Winter is Here

After telling myself continually to wait it out through early season conditions, I managed to get a day in on the Friday before my birthday. One of Catherine’s co-workers, Sean, offered to drive up for the day, hoping to catch the projected two feet of snow on top of the recent back to back storms we’d had.

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I’m happy to say I’ve returned to skiing injury free. A few months ago, back in August, I injured myself during my usual fall season workout, on a normal day, due to a number of factors, but mainly not recognizing my own fatigue. After several months of PT I’m now back to about 90%, and not looking to get hurt and miss what is shaping up as a great winter, with a long touring season ahead. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that strength training is useless without mobility and a good foundation.

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It was a great day, and because of the two feet of relatively dry powder by PNW standards, a good time to feel things out. Here’s one of Sean, with video to follow.

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Montana in High Def

Montana in High Def is the HD companion to the Ziehl’s excellent Montana Lodge Life and my own Glacier Revisited series of posts.  All video and photo by Andrew Ziehl, Kelly Howie, and yours truly.

Gear List:

GoPro HERO4 Black Edition One Color, One Size GoPro HERO4 Black Edition One Color, One Size

If you take a look at the tech specs of the new GoPro Hero4 Black Edition camera, and then give us a call to point out some mistakes we made in the numbers, because you simply don’t believe them, we won’t be entirely shocked. The new Hero4 Black is the most advanced camera GoPro has made, and it boasts capture capabilities that rival cameras that cost ten times as much. The 4 is an eye-popping evolution of the already-impressive Hero3+ camera, and that’s where engineers started when they really wanted to knock it out of the park, and then some. The Hero3 and the 3+ were incredibly capable cameras, indeed, but the new Hero4 generation takes things to the next level. A lot has changed, but some basics haven’t, such as the overall dimensions of the camera. Exterior dimensions of the camera itself and its cases are all virtually unchanged. The Hero’s fantastic, wide-angle, six-element aspherical lens (f/2. 8-6. 0) also remains unchanged, ensuring the same stunning clarity and scope of your photos and videos, at virtually any light level, as we came to expect from the 3. Three field of view settings — ultra-wide, medium, and narrow — grant you an unmatched selection of perspectives. And for those lower light conditions, GoPro introduces new Night Photo and Night Lapse long-exposure imaging modes. Those mesmerizing time-lapse pictures of the stars trailing through a dark sky, or the rivers of headlights and taillights that form when capturing an urban scene at night? They’re yours to take now. Customizable settings for exposures of up to 30 seconds — whether taken individually or in Time Lapse mode for successive hours or exposures — mean you can capture an almost unlimited range of time-lapse events with the utmost precision. Also new to the Hero4 is its sound-capturing abilities. GoPro fielded feedback from audiophiles and everyday users alike to fine-tune the Hero’s microphone, which now captures far greater fidelity and boasts almost double the dynamic range of ..






Black Diamond Verdict Ski One Color, 172cm Black Diamond Verdict Ski One Color, 172cm

Before they sentence you to two years’ hard labor for excessive funtimes, make sure the Black Diamond Verdict Ski is safely hidden away so it’ll be ready to ride when you get released early for good behavior. It’s certainly a ski worth protecting, with its amazing combo of high-speed stability, low-speed comfort, and all-snow performance. Black Diamond designed it with traditional camber underfoot and a rockered tip and tail, so you can hold an edge on hardpack but float easily through powder, and built the ski up around the 3D CNC-machined paulownia wood core for a light, maneuverable feel that’s quick and nimble when you’re skiing tight tree lines or chutes. The Verdict’s inspired by easy-turning “fun-shape” skis, so it’s a breeze to handle at low speeds, but has been hooked up with a pre-preg fiberglass laminate, Titanal stringers, and a triple-ribbed Formula One design to keep it stiff, solid, and torsionally rigid when you’re mobbing through chop and chunder. All together, this creates a ski that’s more playful than Black Diamond’s bigger Zealot, but narrower and more directional than the Amperage; a solid do-it-all board for east- and west-coast rippers alike. It’s tough, too, with 8mm ABS sidewalls, Power edges, an ABS tail protector, and rocks a P-Tex 4000 sintered base that’s crosshatched for better wax retention and higher speeds, because who doesn’t like to go fast?






The North Face Patrol 24L ABS Winter Backpack - 1465cu in Graphite Grey/Zinc Grey, M/L The North Face Patrol 24L ABS Winter Backpack – 1465cu in Graphite Grey/Zinc Grey, M/L

When you’re getting into more high consequence terrain, it’s nice to have the peace of mind that if something should go wrong The North Face Patrol 24L ABS Winter Backpack will be there to help keep you on top. Taking The North Face’s athlete-tested Patrol backpack and outfitting it with one of the industry’s most trusted avalanche air bag systems yields a winning combination of proven technology in an athlete-approved package that will perform well in the backcountry.The bag comes equipped with the ABS compressed nitrogen system, which activates with a quick pull of the handle located at the left shoulder strap. Two Bombastic auto-airbags deploy at either side of the bag and are high-vis to make your more visible in the event of a rescue. The pack is a fully functional backcountry backpack with a large avy tool pocket for your shovel and probe, and it features The North Face’s simple and straight-forward tuck-away ski or snowboard carry system for quick attachment of your planks or board for that final bootpack to the top. The Patrol 24 is hydration system compatible,and the it features dual hip belt pockets to keep your small essentials close at hand on the skin track.






Overkill!

For everyone who has ever asked, “Didn’t you just go [hiking|skiing|biking|rafting|kayaking|insert outdoors sport of choice here]?”  Well here is my response.  And you may (in fact I encourage you to) quote me on this.


This represents the first ‘lengthy’ video I’ve done in quite a while.  After roughly a year of considerable slacking, and the associated accumulation of interesting footage, I decided enough was enough.  No point in owning two GoPros and two expensive point-and-shoots without ever doing anything cool with the footage.  In the end, this video uses on the the Hero 3 Black and HD Hero footage – the rest of the stills I’m saving for subsequent projects.

One of my goals for this project was to collect up all of the clips which were cool but did not really warrant a standalone treatment.  Additionally, I really wanted to focus on quality over quantity.  I settled on a thematically appropriate soundtrack which was only moderately long and lent itself to the ‘story’ being told.  With the intent of producing what is essentially a mashup of miscellaneous old footage, a moderately long soundtrack should let me cram in a lot of random stuff without feeling the need to add filler or fade out the music after I’ve run our of exciting footage.  The numerous ‘false endings’ provide the ability to naturally segment the clips and offer some periodic changes in tempo.  Also, it’s Motorhead.  Seriously, there is not enough classic heavy metal in action sports or pop culture, or really anywhere…

…To Those Who Wait

While many New Englanders hunkered down and prepared for the worst, there were those among us who geared up and prepared for the best…

…well at least the best we’ve had in a while.  All the hype surrounding Nemo gave us hope that at least the resort skiing scene would get back on track, and in many ways it did.  The storm tracked further south than would have been preferred by some skiers, but pockets of the North received a healthy dose of our favorite natural resource.  Determined not to miss a single ounce of the precious stuff, and not to be marooned in the soon to be paralyzed Boston, we hit the road at the crack of dawn Friday morning.

The Clipper components  of the storm arrived over Northern VT early on Friday, delivering a good refresher dose to the ailing snowpack.  We skied Jay for the day and then followed the weather southeast toward the center of the storm.  For the arrival of the Nor’easter we wagered that Wildcat would have the best ratio of slope-angle to snow.  We hit the jackpot and were greeted by upwards of two feet of dense snow which filled in  all but the largest nooks and crannies in the Northern Whites.  For day one, we hit the slopes armed with insulating layers and GoPros.  Stay tuned for some highlights!  Day two brought a spectacular blue-bird day with temps mercifully approaching the 20s and almost no wind.  We decided to take advantage of the  great conditions and pull out the point-and-shoots, just so we’d have evidence of the shredding that was perpetrated once winter finally returned…

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Thusly rejuvenated, we returned to Boston to get back to work so we’d be ready for the next time Old Man Winter decided to come out of hiding.