Comments on: What I Took to Europe — Louie’s Take

By: David P

David P — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:28:24 +0000

Dr. Popsickle is Prof. Gordon Giesbrecht (U. of Manitoba). He gave a great talk on hypothermia at last year’s Wilderness Medical Society meeting. I can’t locate my syllabus notes right now, but I think the 80% heat loss from the head is exaggerated. It comes from this, however: Your extremities will vasoconstrict in response to cold to conserve core warmth, but the vessels in the scalp cannot do that effectively. Your brain is also an amazing generator of heat due to its high metabolic output (in those of us who use it anyway!). Here’s a link to Prof. Giesbrecht’s website:http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/physed/research/people/giesbrecht.shtml

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:19:04 +0000

Big Lou here (Louie is traveling). Last time I skied naked I didn’t need a hat, at least not on my head (grin), Seriously, I think that 80% heat loss from the head that gets talked about is based on the assumption that a person is well clothed, with a bare head. Even so it’s probably exaggerated as others mentioned… though good for jokes.

As for safety straps, yep, sometimes they’re nice to have on a glacier so you don’t loose a ski in a crevasse, and we’d heard that guides sometimes require them. We were planning on some glacier skiing and there was a possibility we were going to end up in Chamonix on a Dynafit trip with a guide (the weather nixed all that).

Michael, we remove the plastic tips by just backing out the screws and pulling them off. Doing so definitely voids the warranty and could cause durability issues. When we do it, we spread epoxy on the exposed portion of the tip. We’re not recommending this mod because of durability questions, but we’d be remiss not to mention that we feel the blunt thick plastic wad can sometimes interfere with the tip smoothly slicing the snow, and by removing them we were testing if this was so. You’d only notice this effect in deep, denser powder while skiing aggressively and burying your tips on occasion. Another solution to this is to simply grind away some plastic off the outside edges of the tip protector, rather than removing it.

Another issue with the Dynafit tip protectors is that they make it tough to use conventional skin tip loops. Removing them fixes that.

I see the need for the tip protectors and like the Dynafit skin attach system, but would like to see the protectors be more minimalist rather than so big and bulky.

By: Eric Steig

Eric Steig — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:02:56 +0000

Since 80% of the heat escapes through the head, then if it warms up by 20%, you can ski buck naked if you keep your hat on.

Seriously though: Louie, why did you say “I brought safety-straps in case we were doing glacier travel”? I don’t get it. Are you worried about losing a ski down a crevasse?

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:34:32 +0000

Louie, how did you remove the plastic tips on your ft 10’s without causing the materials underneath to delaminate? I have the same skis and would love to remove the plastic tips so my skins fit better, but I’m reluctant because I tried to do the same thing with a pair of Volkls and the entire top sheet peeled off the next time I skied.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:06:05 +0000

Thanks for the gear update, it's obviously solid gear if that's what you're using. Just though I would pass along some interesting information I heard on NPR regarding Nalgene bottles. I'm not typically one to get caught up in media driven health scares, but it looks like this one could be legitimate.