Happy New Year — Top 20 Most Commented Posts
Terrific year for Wildsnow.com. More of you visiting than ever — you’ve made this a full time job for yours truly and I’m VERY thankful to have the work.
What’s up for 2010? I’ll keep my own writing going strong, while also continuing our process of publishing numerous guest bloggers. We might add one or two more sponsors, but that’ll be it as we don’t want to clutter things up any more than necessary. By the same token, we’ll keep the commercialism out of our posts as much as possible. Not that we dislike business, in fact quite the opposite, but you guys made it clear we need to keep our content readable and uncluttered — we concur.
Our gear reviews will continue. Remember most of our gear writing is about stuff we like, so our reviews are usually positive and that’s by design. Though we do make an effort to find a few cons since virtually all gear can be improved.
In case you need some entertainment today while you’re shaking off your party remnants, following are our top 20 most commented posts of all time. Interesting what a hot issue snowmobiles are, along with environmental issues. We want to conserve the beautiful backcountry we recreate in, but we still want to use it in various ways that sometimes include machinery. That creates tension. Let us make 2010 the year we ease the tension and figure some of this stuff out. But mostly, we here at WildSnow.com wish you all to have many many days of excellent skiing! Happy New Year!
- Backcountry Skiing News Roundup – 225
- Black Diamond Kilowatt – Backcountry Ski Review – 120
- Dynafit Durability Tips and Tricks – 117
- Mount Sopris Wind and Our Dynafit Manaslu Ski Review – 115
- Write Best Funny Caption — Win Cloudveil Jacket or POC Hardhat – 115
- Actress Dies of Head Injury While Skiing – Helmet? – 94
- Ski 8,000 Meters – Everest, k2 and all the rest, who did them first? – 90
- Backcountry Skier’s Code Of Optional Conduct (humor) – 82
- Kebler Pass — Making Sled Skiers Look Bad Worldwide – 80
- Garmont Radium Backcountry Skiing Boots – OR Part 3 – 79
- Colorado Mountain Bikers Push Wilderness Alternative – 78
- Scarpa F3 is the Meow of the Cat for Big Tours – 77
- AT Boot Lacer — and Anti Blister List – 75
- Scarpa Spirit 4 — Close Look – 65
- Expansion of Crested Butte Ski Area Nixed – 65
- K2 Baker Superlight Review – 64
- Dynafit ZZeus Boot Fit & Performance – 64
- Picking a College Where Backcountry Skiing Works – 63
- Intuition Liners — Everything You Always Wanted to Know – 62
- Silvretta Pure – Strong Enough? – 61
Comments
11 Responses to “Happy New Year — Top 20 Most Commented Posts”
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Lou,
Thanks for another great year of keeping all of us crazed backcountry enthusiasts satiated with informative, interesting and pertinent topics. In my very humble opinion you set a high bar in the world of ski blogs / websites – the Gold Standard if you will. Thanks for all of your efforts and hard work! I can only imagine the countless hours of brainstorming, researching, writing, monitoring, collaborating, traveling, responding and updating that goes on behind the scenes to make your site what it is! That’s the beauty – Front of the House versus Back of the House…thanks for such an incredible “front of the house”.
My girlfriend just got back from the sports store with ankle supporters in an effort to reduce boot rub and blisters….she said “I saw it on Lou’s site”. A pretty common statement I’m sure. I love the historical insights, stories and perspectives….keep ’em coming in the new year. Let me know if you want some assistance doing any *research* in 2010 – maybe a trip to Riva Ridge…for historical purposes?
I wish you, your family and all of your readers a wonderful new year. To steal a valediction from you: may your turns be many, safe and sweet!
Happy New Year!
Carl
Carl, first comment of 2010! I hope that’s a trend, always good to hear from you! And thanks for the kind words.
Lou,
Happy 2010. I’m going to be starting the year off right with an afternoon foray to one of our local haunts.
Interesting in looking at the “hits” of 2009, the Manaslu review comes in at number 4. I’m in the market right now and looking for some feedback on the Manaslu vs. Mustagh Ata for a quiver of one for our local snowpack here in the Crystal Valley. I’m on the bigger side, at 195 lb and 6-1, but don’t ski quite as agressively as I once did. I do think it’s important to have a solid ski for spring corn/ mank/ misc as well. I also will be using the rig for accessing my cabin, which is a 4.5 mile/ 3000′ approach.
Also – what binding would you pair with – Vertical ST or plain old TLT?
Any thoughts?
You know, I was looking at our stats and saw that around 12,000 people visited us one day last week. That stunned me, and made me realize that this thing has gotten to the point where I couldn’t do it alone, so I need to thank my team who do a ton of behind the scene spam control, editing, and so forth: Lisa Dawson, Mark Worley, David Downing, Tomas Dawson, the guys at Real Web Host, all of you deserve my deepest gratitude.
And thanks to our guest bloggers as well. If I tried to list you I’d forget someone, so thanks to all of you!
Hey Lou, of topic but from a few posts ago you commented on our Canon A720. My wife needs a new small point and shoot and this camera seems to fit the bill EXCEPT she’s turned of by the idea of AA’s rather than a dedicated battery with longer power life. I explained the pros and cons of AA’s vs. the dedicated battery but would love your unput. Specifically, with the new lithium AA’s what kind of battery life are you getting with the A720?
My favorite website and all the best to the Wildsnow family in 2010.
Toby, if you use Energizer lithium AAs you’ll get super long battery life. Without flash, hundreds of shots. With flash, fewer, but no less than with dedicated battery. Lithium AAs have no less juice than any other lithium battery, and much more once a dedicated battery starts getting worn from a lot of charge cycles.
I’d say the issue is more one of convenience than battery life. Do you want to be buying batteries? Or just charging one up for day trips?
If you’re doing multi-day trips, you can get quite a bit of life out of a dedicated battery if you don’t use your flash or LCD review too much, but otherwise an AA powered camera with spares is a relaxing joy.
Hope that helps.
Perfect, thanks Lou
One more thing, can you buy a dedicated battery for that model or is it AA only?
Toby, nope, only recharge option is to use high capacity recharge AAs.
Lou,
I have been enjoying the site for quite some time now. Along with a few online newspapers, the weather report, and avi report, I read Wildsnow daily. While I have thoroughly enjoyed the BC skiing tips, reviews and trip reports, I think the thing that I enjoy the most is seeing how you and your family enjoy this great sport together. From last weeks Christmas hut trip, to Louie’s senior year in high school (which was a great snow year!), I thank you for sharing the experience, and I look forward to your future adventures!
I have a 3 year old in my house, and I can only hope that he enjoys BC skiing as much his father. I think that I have a good idea as to how to show him the way!
Thanks for breaking trail here, Lou.
Nice words Brian, thanks! Yeah, good memories of that senior year, the boy, and all that snow!
We’ll keep it going — thanks for visiting, and best wishes for your own family backcountry experiences!