backcountry skiing Dynafit Trip Reports resort Misc Gear Reviews Louie weather Black Diamond safety Binding Reviews avalanches skins backpack climbing skins video snowmobile snowboard food clothing Fourteeners Boot Reviews camera huts Fritschi alpinism Utah avalanche safety photography alpinist guidebook Cloudveil Europe Silvretta Rando Racing Guest Blogs Technique kids Gear Mods Elk Mountains training Aspen automotive Wyoming computer Chris Davenport music backcountry skier Christmas 10th Mountain Enviro Rants bicycle North America Avalung TGR Austria GPS Mountain Culture north face Movie Reviews Everest Canada Book Reviews gloves batteries Aspen Mountain lightweight gear History News Backcountry Alps Andrew McLean Salewa Alaska Carbondale Maps Dave Downing first aid helmets Bob Perlmutter pastry Denver Google Aspen Highlands Montana Forest Service Sean Crossen Televangelism snowboarding Eulogies rock climbing Mount Sopris hunting Diamir Greg Hill Ortovox Craig Dostie Mike Marolt Aspen Skiing Company Boot Fitting thermo liner New Zealand

Portahut, We Have Walls

By Lou

Progress report on our backcountry skiing portahut. Walls are up and the roof framing has commenced. We’ll be moving the gypsy wagon; caravan; mobile home; trailer house; caravan; portahut to the backcountry within the next few weeks and finishing it onsite. The neighbors will be happy.

Conventional stick framing has its advantages. Easy to build now and modify later, for example. But we could have built using insulated wall panels (SIPs) as well.

Another view of the framing. Sheathing is 5/8 CDX plywood, which will act both as interor walls and substrate for siding made from mineral roll roofing material.

Another view of the framing. Sheathing is 5/8 CDX plywood, which will act as interior walls and as substrate for siding made from mineral roll roofing material. So far our framing material costs have been reasonable, but we ordered a decent set of windows and a steel entry door -- that stuff ate up some money. Solar system and wood stove are also pricey if done well, but hey, it is a backcountry skiing cabin, not a tent.

Posted by Lou on September 6, 2010 | Filed Under Mountain Culture, Portahut | 15 Comments

Scramblin’ weekend – Sloan Peak and North Twin Sister

By Louie

Reporting from Bellingham, Washington: a bit of summer fun before the snow flies and the skis glide. We did a nice double hit of some good old Cascade scrambling this past weekend. Sloan Peak on Saturday, and then an attempt on the North Twin Sister the day after.

Sloan Peak, often described as the Matterhorn of the U.S., is a cool rock horn a few hours from Bellingham off the Mountain Loop Highway. It has everything: a long hike through deep timber, a big glacier, and fun 3rd and 4th class at the the very top. Andrew Yasso, Matt Signore, and I left Bellingham at 6:30, surprisingly found the trail head without getting lost, and started up the trail at a good pace.

The views were beautiful once we got above the forest.

We hiked through the woods for a few hours, and then ascended some fun granite slabs up to Sloan Glacier. The glacier was nice summer snow, and thanks to our late start some other people had already kicked steps so we were able to make good time to the saddle where the scrambling begins. Here Matt decided to take a nap, and Andrew and I continued on towards the summit. Fun scrambling and some slippery snow covered heather led us to the summit, where we enjoyed great views of Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, and a bunch of other mountains rising around us. Perhaps someday I’ll be in this area doing some backcountry skiing. Read more

Posted by Louie on September 3, 2010 | Filed Under Backcountry Skiing, Louie Dawson, Trip Reports, Your Guest Blogs | 7 Comments

Portahut — The Foundation

By Lou

Sometimes it takes half a six-pack, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s been my motto while transforming the beater car-hauler trailer into the “foundation” for our portable backcountry skiing hut. Operating a cutting torch in the hot sun, then crawling around on the ground with my welder? Those activities chew through the sixers like that torch punches mild steel. Strapping on the tool belt and cutting up nice fresh 2×4s? That’s when I’m a friend of Bill. Check out the first stage of the project. Lucky for my liver, the steel phase is over with.

The double axle car-hauler before hacking on it.

We cut and otherwise removed nearly everything from the trailer, leaving the bare frame. I then boxed the L-metal frame with the L-metal from the upper rail. I've worn out three sawzalls in my life, this is the fourth, a monster Bosch that's pretty dang impressive.

Posted by Lou on September 2, 2010 | Filed Under Backcountry Skiing, Portahut | 11 Comments

Working on the Backcountry Skiing Booklist

By Lou

Figured I’d better finish the formatting and updating before Christmas gift buying season! So you can ever so subtly refer it to your loved ones, or use it for your own exercise of generosity (grin)?

If you guys know of any new books I should add, now is a good time as I’m in there working on it over the next few days. Thanks in advance.

Backcountry Skiing Booklist

This is part of my greater project to refurb many of our back-end content pages here at WildSnow. Time consuming but worth it.

Posted by Lou on September 1, 2010 | Filed Under Backcountry Skiing, Book Reviews | 23 Comments

Apple Computer and Black Diamond, Brothers in Quality?

By Lou

Ancient history, now Black Diamond.

Just in case I feel like doing an El Cap route one of these days, I’ve kept a bundle of Chouinard carabiners from my brief career as a wall jock stashed away and ready to rock. I was looking at those musty biners the other day and it occurred to me just how big the ride has been for Black Diamond Equipment, them having evolved out of Chouinard back in 1989 and now being a somewhat large, publicly traded corporation with a full line of backcountry skiing gear along with a ton of other stuff.

You see a corporate history like that, and you can’t help but wonder how the values that brought the company success can remain in place during such huge changes.

You can read about this sort of stuff and hear the rumors, but sitting down with the man in charge is always valuable. So, to get business philosophy from the source, a few weeks ago at Outdoor Retailer Lisa and I got together with Black Diamond CEO/President Peter Metcalf.

I’m not anti-capitalist or anti-corporate, but I have to admit at a smidgen of cynicism as to how ‘core’ a company can remain once it’s publicly traded and has to stay as profitable as possible in the short term.

That said, I’m also aware of huge companies such as Google and Apple that seem to do pretty well in terms of quality and innovation. So how does that happen?

Metcalf explained that first, we needed to know that with a business such as Black Diamond it was pretty much essential that they eventually go public. He explained that CEOs come and go, key employees come and go, and that it can tough to institutionalize the things those individuals provide, to “institutionalize the future” as he put it. He explained that doing what BD has done in going public is not necessarily perfect, but is the best way to accomplish consistency of management and values in days to come.

Conversly, Metcalf explained that “Just because a company is privately held is no guarantee it’ll retain its core values.”

I hadn’t really thought about that, but Metcalf is obviously correct. Read more

Posted by Lou on August 31, 2010 | Filed Under Mountain Culture | 36 Comments

Hilleberg Adds A New Tent — Saitaris Dome

By Lou

Another report from summer Outdoor Retailer trade show:

We chose Hilleberg tents for our Denali backcountry skiing trip last spring, mainly because all Hilleberg designs provide an incredible mix of wind resistance and lack of mass. Most Hillebergs are of the “tunnel” variety, meaning you have to stake out the ends of the structure during setup (a minor inconvenience once you get used to it). We used a couple of Hillberg’s tunnel tents in Alaska. They were superb, though we did experience common tunnel-tent issues such as not being able to hang much weight from the ceiling.

Instead of a tunnel tent during WildSnow Denali, Caleb and Jordan opted for for the Hilleberg Saivo dome tent as they’re both large guys and wanted the roomy interior and two-door configuration the Saivo provides. While adding a bit of weight to our overall expedition load, the Saivo worked well and was nearly as wind resistant as the tunnel tents. I was impressed.

New Hilleberg Saitaris tent model is a jumbo version of the Saivo dome tent we used on Denali.

Posted by Lou on August 30, 2010 | Filed Under Backcountry Skiing, Misc Gear Reviews | 8 Comments

POC Goggle and Synapsis Helmet Review

By Louie

I hardly ever ski without my helmet — at the resort or while backcountry skiing. That is partly to keep my parents happy, but I also just feel more comfortable while I’m skiing with a helmet as opposed to just a beanie (maybe that’s a bad thing). I had my last helmet for quite a few years; the vents had to be closed with a multitool and the earflaps recently fell off. Time for a new head shell. Luckily a POC Synapsis helmet and Iris X goggles showed up at my doorstep. My roommates up here in Bellingham immediately dubbed it the “space helmet” and they are right, it is white with chrome inlets and looks like it should be going a million miles an hour.