Black Diamond for everything climbing and skiing.    Dynafit -- Speed Up!    Tracker beacons, Stash packs, shovels, more more more.    Terrific deals on randonnee AT rando backcountry skiing gear.    K2 has the skis that stay true to earning your turns.    Garmont boots -- excellent choice for backcountry skiing.

Outdoor Retailer – Day One Continued – Dostie on Dynafit, Hang Stove, NTN, More

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

Outdoor Retailer tradeshow today is an open air demo held at Brighton resort in Utah. A variety of companies set up booths and lend out their gear for use on the ski area or for taking short hikes into the backcountry. It’s a nice low-key event that had a good buzz this year because of all the excellent new product coming on the scene. The Scarpa, Black Diamond and Dynafit booths were mobbed. Scarpa’s boots are beautiful this year, in my opinion the F1 and Spirit 4 are the line’s leaders, but then, I snub any boots that don’t have Dynafit fittings. (Oh, what bias!) BCA’s demo of the new NTN telemark binding was a scene, and other folks seemed to be doing a brisk business as well. I enjoyed seeing ski writers Andy Dappen and Brian Litz. Those two guys were instrumental in the start of Backcountry Magazine, with Brian as co-publisher and Andy providing quite a bit of excellent content in the early years. Other luminati were the boys from Telemarktips.com of course, covering things in their indomitable style. Let me tell you, when a product manager sees Big Tim and Mitch coming at them with a microphone and video camera, they’d better think fast! And it was nice to see Couloir Magazine publisher Craig Dostie as well. “Hey Lou,” Craig said, “It’s time for me to make my first turns ever on Dynafits.” Well, what a historic occasion!

Craig Dostie testing backcountry skiing gear.
Craig Dostie’s first (or was it the third?) turn on Dynafit bindings. He usually telemarks or snowboards, and after snapping into the Dynafits for the first time in his life kept criticising the binding because the telemark mode had limited heel lift and was too neutral. Oh well, he is a pretty decent skier so we’ll just let that go. In all seriousness, I’ve got to hand it to Craig for doing some fixed heel skiing. He’s an excellent telemarker and snowboarder, so I’ve always thought it would be cool if he would add randonnee and thus flow with all three glisse disciplines. Heck, how many other magazine publishers do that? As for me, I’ll master snowboarding first then perhaps try telemarking. By then, they’ll probably have a telemark binding that does the turn for you, judging from recent developments in tele equipment such as NTN in photo below.

NTN backcountry skiing binding.
This is the much ballyhooed NTN telemark binding, as in it’s been talked about and written about for SEVEN years and is just now seeing the light of day. Good things take time? In terms of backcountry skiing we’re wondering just how revolutionary this is. But is seems to be creating quite a bit of excitement, and several telemarkers I respect told me it skied downhill well — really well. Since telemarking is as much a lift served branch of skiing now as it is a backcountry technique, perhaps NTN will easily find a niche at the resort. And it’ll no doubt be in service as a backcountry rig for those who want an ever more radical boot/binding connection for their free heel skiing. As always, interesting to watch.

Check out Craig Dostie’s detailed review of the NTN, easily the best review out there so far other than his weird subtitle about the binding having even “more edge control than randonnee bindings.” I mean, is that a non-issue or what? How many times a day are you out on your randonnee bindings thinking, wow, I wish I had more edge control? Are those guys up there skiing the Grand Teton on randonnee gear going to switch to NTN telemarking so they have more “edge control?” Is Chris Davenport going to switch to NTN telemarking so he has more “edge control” while cranking out Colorado fourteeners?” Rediculous.

Jetboil backcountry stove.
Jet Boil is introducing a nice looking hang stove system. Hang stoves are excellent for ski mountaineering, as they don’t require a stove platform and are self leveling. We’ll probably have to give this thing a test.

Nike snow shoes.
New Balance (woops, not Nike) had a demo going for these spiked snow runners. I really like this idea, as one fall on ice can take you out for the whole winter. The perfect shoe for beers at the trailhead parking lot?

Posted by Lou on January 27, 2007 | Filed Under Misc Gear Reviews 

previous post: Outdoor Retailer Trade Show – Day One
next post: Outdoor Retailer Day 2 — The Duke, Scarpa and More From the Temple of Gear

Comments

10 Responses to “Outdoor Retailer – Day One Continued – Dostie on Dynafit, Hang Stove, NTN, More”

  1. ray b. January 27th, 2007 8:20 am

    looks to be good for those that peet the scottsman, as well. keep us posted on all the goods. PEACE!

  2. Tim Carroll January 27th, 2007 9:40 am

    I noticed that Dostie probably got his idea from bumpmeister Mike Hattrup who is the K2 product manager… Hattrup said the NTN has better edge control than any AT binding.

    It’s definitely an overstatement (if not an outright lie) but probably one that needs saying to those people who are on old-school 3-pin binders with no heel cable setup and who have been reluctant to get any more modern in their binder setup than their oldschool touring rig.

    But that’s not a very smart pitch if you ask me. Having one’s heel off the ski cannot possibly make for a better edge control scenario than having one’s heel fixed, unless one’s AT binders are not installed or adjusted properly, or are broken.

  3. Chris January 27th, 2007 10:25 am

    Maybe Bode Miller should run his next downhill on an NTN ;)

  4. tim January 27th, 2007 7:44 pm

    Lou,

    Thanks for the update. I would love more info on the new Dynafit compatible Scarpa boots, esp. the new F1. Can you provide more?
    Thanks, (Thanks too for the informative and entertaining blog!)
    Tim Whalen

  5. Scott Nelson January 27th, 2007 8:04 pm

    Hi Lou- The shoes look like New Balance. Any idea if they’re selling them yet? Just curious, as it might save me from experimenting with putting screws in my current trail shoes, which would be more fun, but… Thanks for the report.

  6. Jhawk January 27th, 2007 10:33 pm

    Hi Lou, Those trail runners are indeed NB – NOT NIKE!! They are selling them. Check Eastern Mountain Sports, or a local specialty shop.

  7. Mark Worley January 27th, 2007 10:52 pm

    Garmont has sold a shoe line called Ice Bug for a few years that has carbide studs. They look similar to those Nikes.

  8. Lou January 27th, 2007 11:10 pm

    Tim, more info in today’s blog for OR day 2.

    Chris, LOL.

  9. Lou January 28th, 2007 8:47 am

    NB or Nike, I guess I should stick to writing about ski boots!

  10. Tony June 10th, 2009 4:15 pm

    Trainers, still a cracking article, makes me pine for Heavenly

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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