Reviews
Reviews of the lastest gear
Friday, 19 October, 2007
Review of inexpensive ski touring gear
I got a call from Ian, PisteHors.com’s Pyrenean correspondent, last week. He wanted to know what were good ski touring pants for next season. Decathlon Bionnassay, 49.90 € in my local store. Stunned silence at the other end of the line. Ian had expected me to suggest some technical Goretex VCR pants retailing for five times the price. Okay, I continued, you could go for the Bionnassay 700 which has a breathable but waterproof membrane. What? The pants I suggested weren’t even waterproof? Had I gone completely barking mad?
Primark Fleece & Decathlon’s Bionnassay salopettes and ruck-sack
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Wednesday, 11 July, 2007
Retrospective on the 2006-2007 ski season
It would all have worked out fine if it hadn’t been for those pesky journalists - to paraphrase the comments of a spokesman for the Compagnie des Alpes (CdA). According to the CdA’s quarterly financial report the admittedly poor snow conditions got mixed up with the story about global warming and it was this that frightened skiers away from the slopes. The spin doctors even claim that the season was better than average above 2000 meters. Once again we are sifting through 12 months of weather data in an effort to find the truth behind the 2006-2007 ski season. Our primary focus is on off-piste and ski touring not on snow that comes out of the end of a canon.
Fresh Powder in July
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Friday, 29 June, 2007
Avalanche airbag wins design award
The ABS Avalanche Airbag has saved dozens of lives since it was launched. The system works by inflating two gas filled sacks in the event of an avalanche. The extra volume keeps a victim on top of the slide. Statistics show that there is an exponential risk of death depending on burial depth. The ABS Airbag doesn’t solve two problems: protecting a victim during a fall and secondary avalanches.
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Monday, 30 April, 2007
Ortovox S1 hits the streets running
It has been a long wait for the Ortovox S1 but it seems to have been worth it. Supplies of this revolutionary avalanche transceiver are slowly making it into the shops. Original slated for the start of the 2005/2006 season the S1 is 18 months late. Development beset by a number of problems and Ortovox’ desire to get things right. When we tested a sample of the S1 in January 2006 it seemed to live up to its promise of simplifying the search process, especially when there is more than one victim.
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Monday, 09 April, 2007
Ski Peru
Ski Peru is the story of two skiers’ dream of descending the untamed slopes of Huascaran, although maybe “Ski Peru and die” would be a more appropriate title given the tragic climax to Peter Chrzanowski’s Peruvian odyssey. Filmed long before today’s adrenalin charged ski videos on heavy 16mm movie cameras there is no heavy rock soundtrack, no helicopters, no roboskiers mainlining powder at Mach 5.0. It is a slow moving film that explores man’s relationship with the mountain and what it is to ski into the unknown.
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Thursday, 05 April, 2007
New Tracker finds avalanche victims in real time
After a decade of loyal service Backcountry Access are updating their Tracker beacon for the 2007/08 season. The new Tracker 2 beacon is gaining a small third antenna and getting a processor upgrade. The third antenna gives the beacon a 3D view of the search area. Some manufacturers have used this extra information to provide a more advanced user interface. Backcountry Access are sticking with their tried and trusted direction arrows and distance design. Instead the upgrade will allow real time searching (see video) and a multi-victim indicator has been added.
Tracker 2 Avalanche Beacon
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Wednesday, 28 March, 2007
Reboot for Dynafit
Dynafit has gone back to the drawing board with its new selection of ski touring boots available for the start of the 2007/8 season. Reflecting a redesign from the sole up the range has been aptly called Zzero. While Scarpa and Garmont are focussing on the sidecountry market with heavy touring boots that owe more to alpine designs Dynafit is keeping the accent on light weight.
Dynafit 2008 boot range
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Thursday, 15 March, 2007
Silvretta FR800/Pure Freeride First Look
Last weekend we took a pair of Silvretta Freeride 800 skis for a test drive. These skis were equipped with a pair of Pure Freeride bindings. The FR800 is the top of Silvretta’s 2007/8 line-up. It is a mid-fat freerando ski built using a wood core and honeycomb construction. The graphics are very pleasant, a pair of burgundy stripes with a translucent top sheet. The FR800 has identical dimensions to the Atomic Sweet Daddy, 118-80-106mm. This gives plenty of float underfoot for powder. The ski remains light - in 175cm a pair weighs around 2800 grammes, 200 grammes less than the equivalent Sweet Daddy but the FR800 gains 3cm in length.
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Saturday, 10 March, 2007
Barryvox PULSE potential design flaw
The off/send button on the new Mammut/Barryvox PULSE tranceiver can be knocked to off, due to a very poorly designed and implemented on/off switch. I’ve just purchased two of the spankin’ new Barryvox PULSE transceivers, and both have the same major design fault! To turn them on the on on/off button is pulled sideways, and is meant to lock into ‘send’ and can then in theory only be turned off by pushing it AND the off button down together and then moving the whole switch to off.
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Tuesday, 06 March, 2007
Discovering the secrets of snow
One of the big variables when starting ski or snowboard touring or going off marked and open ski runs is the snow. Is it safe? Will the conditions be skiable? Many, quite reasonably, leave such decisions to a guide or instructor so they can focus on the pleasure of riding acres of powder or gliding perfect spring snow.
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