Your skis are killing you, and your snowboard is killing the environment.
Bold statement or understatement? Take a minute and think about your kit and the toxins used in the creation of it. The resins in your core contains VOCs. Your wax has PFCs, the production of which requires PFOA. Clothing dyes, waterproof laminates, metal zippers and plastic buckles? Yup, more fun chemical cocktails and non- and slow degrading products leeching into your water. What about durability? A more durable product may be bad for business but good for the environment as it’s less waste making it’s way to landfills. It’s mind boggling to think of all the bad that goes into the manufacture of our good times.
Thinking outside of output from the direct manufacturing process there’s the core. That wood has to come from somewhere – and odds are good that it wasn’t sustainably grown. Was it grown locally? Every mile from the factory is additional mile of carbon spewed into the atmosphere. Your snack on the lift? That wrapper is filling landfills while you’re filling your stomach.
So why is it that an industry that is dependent on winter being cold continues to use products that contribute to global warming? Outside of Lib Tech it feels as if it’s primarily smaller companies such as Venture Snowboards and Purl Wax leading the way, whereas larger companies with much larger R&D budgets merely offer a single line of greener products. Do companies with a business predicated upon the outdoors have an ethical obligation to the consumers and the environment? As consumers will we continue to blindly (ignorance is bliss, right?) purchase product without giving a second thought to it’s environmental effect from cradle to grave, or will we rise up and voice our opinions and vote with our pocketbooks?
I’m not pretending to have any answers as the problem gets more complex the more layers of the onion you peel back. Hopefully by merely planting this seed others will think about their purchase habits and who they choose to support when it comes time to open your wallet.
So this news is a little late for you frequent interwebbers, but snowboarding legend Tom Burt recently announced on his blog that he’s got a splitboard version of his pro model Tom Burt 172 slated for release in the near future. I believe this will be the first new model released post-Tom Burt buying a stake in Winterstick, and it looks like his guidance will start paying dividends to big mountain riders. (I also believe that Tom Burt may hold the official title of “oldest person to have a pro model” – which is actually a damn cool title to hold)
After his first round of testing in various conditions he claimed that it “seemed to perform as well as my regular board” – and as Tom strikes me as a no-nonsense guy not prone to spewing hyperbole I’m inclined to believe him, and that this board will kick your ass and take your wallet kill it.
Tom Burt shows off his pro model split
Details on the design 24 years in the making are below:
I’ve been working on this design since 1985, testing in conditions from ice to powder, flats to steeps, and revising it with different sidecuts, nose shapes, flexes, stances and constructions. Right from the start there were innovations – stuff no one had tried before. I had to see if it would work. The TOM BURT 172 combines everything I’ve learned over the years. Here are the features and concepts behind it, which sets this board apart from others:
Taper: I have been a backer of taper since I started snowboarding. If you look at the Wintersticks of the past, the swallow and roundtails, you see they were all about taper. Taper gives you the ability to ride powder and still be able to weight your front foot. Taper also helps with tracking and finishing turns with the board still pointing down the hill. My board is designed with 4mm of taper. This amount of taper allows my board to track well on hard pack as well as powder, but at the same time it allows it to finish a turn with the board pointing down the hill. This means it takes less energy, effort and force to roll from one turn to the next, and you can ride with your upper body stable and still. Taper also lets the back of the board sink in powder and thus more weight can be applied to the front of the board. You have more control because you are not leaning back (a position you never want to be in when you ride). Taper also shifts the center of sidecut toward the back of the board. This allows the rider’s stance to be shifted to the back of the board but still be over the sidecut, giving great control due to a positive edge. The best way to feel what taper does is to ride a board with taper, then go back to a board without it. You should feel the difference. A board without taper will want to finish its turn across the fall line, not down the fall line. It won’t let the tail sink in powder unless your weight is shifted back, and it will catch edges easily when tracking straight.
Sidecut: I use an 11 meter radial sidecut. Why such a straight sidecut compared to most boards? Two reasons: The ability to do both large- and small-radius carving turns, and control at speed. For turning, sidecut dictates the carve. If a board has a short sidecut, say 8 meters, a carve with this radius is the biggest turn it can make. If you try to do a longer turn you will have to release your edge and slide it, thus losing edge control during the turn. Besides, one reason you go for a longer turn is to keep speed up, and if you have to slide the edge that kills your speed. Starting with a straighter sidecut allows a long turn while carving. Tighter turns while carving are possible by flexing the board. You control the radius of the carve by adjusting the way you flex the board. A board with an 11 meter sidecut can be bent to carve an 8 meter turn, but a board with an 8 meter sidecut can never carve an 11 meter turn, only eight or smaller. Finally, control at speed is a big factor of a larger sidecut. A short sidecut makes a board edgy and abrupt, so there’s a danger of catching edges when you try to cruise fast.
Flex: I put a stiff progressive flex on my board. This stiff flex is designed into the core with a longer softer flex in the front of the board and a shorter stiffer flex in the tail. The front of the board thus initiates turns easily but will not fold or overflex during a turn. The stiffer tail holds, and doesn’t overflex, coming out of the turn where you develop the most power to drive into the next turn. Because it’s a stiff board, the rider will have to put more energy into a turn at slow speeds, but as the speed increases the flex allows you to relax more because the speed creates the energy needed to flex the board. Thus the flex gives you control, and power.
Construction: I chose a full length, white aspen wood core and trapezoidal UHMW polyethylene sidewalls for my construction along with the Winterstick carbon matrix system, Durajet high carbon race base and oversized full wrapped edges and dampening foils. The wood core is the heart and soul of the board, providing its flex and life. The UHMW sidewalls stabilize the edges — they are incredibly damp and chatter-free, especially at speed. The carbon systems are added to increase torsional rigidity, strength and damping. Then the damping foils are added to reduce chatter and harmonic vibration. The base and edges, along with the sidewalls, are bomber to stand the punishment of hard riding. Putting it all together, the features give the board a damp, strong, chatter-free ride, which gives great control at speed and in all types of terrain.
Nose and tail shape: I designed the nose and tail for overall riding. The nose is 23cm long with a long flat rocker, which is great for lift in powder and crud. This allows for weight to be shifted forward while initiating a turn, giving edge control throughout the turn. The nose shape leaves the effective edge fairly straight for 10cm, thus forcing the nose to help initiate turns especially on steeper terrain. The tail is 17cm, with similar rocker to the nose. It is there to ride fakie, and to extend the tail length to give stability in landing airs.
Put all these features together and that is the Tom Burt 172. It’s designed for speed and control. Try it, and compare it to your current board. You’ll feel the difference.
It will be cool to see what other designs Winterstick puts out now that Burt is part owner.
Tom Burt clocks in for work at a job far better than yours or mine
Ingrid Backstrom has been up in Whistler filming with MSP, and recently wrote about an avalanche they set off while checking the snow that day.
We got on top of a fairly small zone that we’ve skied before, just to test snow, dig a pit, and make a general assessment. Our guide, Wayne, went down a little ways to dig a pit, and at this point we pretty much knew it was going to be sketchy–we had felt a whoomp and were already considering our options for mini-mini shredding and safety. Then, literally two feet below where Wayne was digging the pit and Petit was watching, the whole slope broke away, and massive chunks started sliding–then it propagated to the adjacent slope skiers’ left and skiers’ right, simultaneously with a massive settlement right under our feet that dropped us all down a few inches.
Full story and additional can be had at her blog. This picture is nuts though, the crown was 9 feet high, and notice how it propagated across the entire image! How much do you think that much snow weighs, and do you think your backcountry partners have the stamina to dig you out of something that deep?
Good chunk of snow up and left
I like how she ended her blog post.
The moral of the story–take your time, don’t rush, and make good decisions.
Usually wouldn’t post things like this as they reek of spammy B.S. (just sign up for this deal, and 10 others, and get a free Xbox!!), but as I just got a call from a lady friend who was at their store, used it and it’s legit.
Basically, print out this coupon (you can also find it on Facebook, which is how I heard about it this morning), bring it into a North Face store, and they give you a $25 gift card. No purchase necessary, so you can basically cop some free shred socks, a tee, a Sigg bottle or other small thing. Yeah, it’s not much, but hell the price is right.
It says non-transferrable so you may want to photochop the email address out, but the friend I spoke to used this same coupon with no probs. I have no affiliation with The North Face whatsoever, but due to a modest upbringing I’ve got a strong affinity for free.
This vid cracks me up as they get dropped off by a real heli with their poor man’s helis (splitboards/touring gear), and they “left the sleds back at the house in revy”, but still cool that a big name team is getting after it by (mostly) human power.
Yup, it’s that time of week again, BEER FRIDAY (if you’re confused as to what beer has to do with skiing or snowboarding view the previous week’s beer friday, or any of the how-tos). You’ve spent all week at work watching and waiting for the minutes to turn to hours, it’s time to reward yourself and find that special bottle of ale or lager and take the edge of another week.
Avery IPA is like a powder day for your mouth. Not two feet of fresh blower pow (their Ale to the ChiefIS two feet of blower though, but as it’s borderline impossible to find it’s not getting nominated), but I’d say at least a foot with no crunchy bottom. It’s got a smooth, mellow, floral hops taste without any over the top bitterness for the sake of hophead street cred. Seriously, it’s good.
Avery IPA
So there it is, another week down, another beer nominated. Hope everyone is able to get after it this weekend.
I know it’s no secret that most ski and snowboard gear is made offshore (the subject of a future post I’ve been got brewing…), but I’m still not real sure what to make of this find on Alibaba….
Are these snowboards factory overruns or counterfeits? Better yet, can I convince one of these factories to send me a sample “to test before I place my order”? My first assumption was that these were overruns (or factory theft, but they do list their monthly capacity, unless that’s just the monthly capacity they can steal) til I saw the Mervin product on there. If they are indeed counterfeit it makes me wonder how much of this makes it into the local markets.
I’ve been sleeping on giving my reviews since posting a few teasers, mostly due to lack of time and mental capacity to write a long-winded and thought out review, and I apologize. This post nails the long-winded part, but it’s a bit lacking in the thought out side of things. Also, I’ll update this post later this evening with some photos I took last week that didn’t make it to my computer to show the cuffs, belt and thigh pocket.
Marketing speak
The Westcomb Rampage HX pant is part of the ‘HX Series’ of clothing from Canadian outerwear manufacturer Westcomb. I’m not real sure what the HX stands for, I’m assuming the H is for hybrid as they are a mix of eVent for the bulk of the pants, with Schoeller Dynamic from about the knees up on the front of the pants for enhanced flexibility and breathability. The Schoeller is treated with their “Nanosphere” finish, which the company claims is a naturally self-cleaning fabric. I’ve yet to test that claim.
Fit
I purchased a pair of the pants in a large tall, which should fit someone with a 37″ waist and 33-1/2″ inseam according to their sizing chart. I would say that’s spot on, and maybe a touch short on their inseam measurement (a good thing!) as I have to tighten the pants down in the waist but the length isn’t too short, which was my initial worry as I usually wear a 34-36″ inseam depending on the garment. The fit is a happy medium between an athletic (read: tight fitting mountaineering cut) and a slightly baggier fit. The only bother on the cut is that I’d like the legs to be a little wider to more easily fit over my boot/bindings, but that’s only because I’ve been wearing them a lot inbounds this year since my Four Square’s met an untimely fate against my crampons. For OB work the leg size is perfect.
One thing to take note of is that I’ve heard anecdotally is that their quality control across the same line of product is inconsistent and they are prone to size fluctuations for the same make/model/size of a particular garment. I haven’t fondled enough of their product to confirm/deny these rumors, but it’s worth keeping return policies in mind if you’re ordering any Westcomb product from an online vendor.
Build
The Westcomb’s seem well built for the most part. They are a stripped down, no nonsense pant – don’t buy them if you’re looking for something with internal gaiters and a million bells and whistles. A thin strip of velcro and toggles around the leg are your options for tightening around your boot, full zip legs, a magnetic clasp with built-in belt around the waist, and a single pocket on the right thigh is all you get.
Belt buckle with magnetic closure
Fancy looking leg tightening innards
Thigh pocket with waterproof zipper
It’s initially shocking how light eVent is, especially when you’re used to a heavier weight/old school North Face cordura-esque fabric on technical garments (yeah, it’s been awhile since I’ve bought tech outerwear). Westcomb claims reinforced high impact areas, which I assumed meant a heavier weight fabric, but it must mean reinforced stitching as the reinforcements aren’t outwardly visible. This was one my only real concern with the pants on first open as there is no reinforcement on the inside of the legs to fight off crampon and edge scuffs. As I assumed these would be used primarily by backcountry skiers/snowboarders, as well as climbers, I found the omission a bit odd.
Performance thus far
Thus far I’m mixed on the pants. I will say outright that I love eVent thus far though! It’s seriously more breathable than anything I’ve ever used. I’m typically a heavy sweater (as in open your pant legs or jacket and watch buckets of water fall out) and have yet to get more than ever so slightly damp while doing heavy climbing (and in that case I was wearing a heavyweight underlayer, wrong tool for the job that day), and I’m usually able to get ahead of the damp curve by unzipping the vents when I see a steep climb coming. The only downside I’ve experienced with these pants to this point is the insides are already starting to shred and I’ve yet to use them with crampons. Merely the occasional edge nick (it should be noted I never tune my boards…) while touring has caused a lot of surface tears, and even one tear fully through the eVent membrane that you may/may not be able to see in the mediocre photos below.
This could be preVented at the factory
Will these last a hard season?
I emailed Westcomb to see if they can put a reinforcement on the cuff for me as I didn’t want to bring it somewhere locally and void the lifetime warranty on the pants, and to their credit they responded (albeit it took 2+ weeks) saying that not only will they do what they can but that they’d even pay for the shipping back to them! Pretty good customer service, I’ve yet to send them though as I have some spring descents planned – will obviously update once I do send them in and see what they do.
Summary
Overall the pants are almost exactly what I was looking for when I ordered them, except for the lack of cuff reinforcement. As Westcomb is a newer company, and doing all their manufacturing in Canada (that’s right, their product is NOT manufactured offshore, amazing in this day and age), I’m willing to give them a bit more leeway than I otherwise would. I should add that I picked these up for $110 (screaming deal!) on closeout, had I paid full price my tone would be slightly different. I’m hopeful they’ll make it through the spring without too much more damage, after which time I’ll take up Westcomb on their offer to modify the pants.
Also, if there’s anything you’d like me to include/exclude in future reviews let me know either via email or just leave a comment.
If not available to you locally you can pick up Westcomb products at a few online vendors, though neither have a terribly deep selection. Backcountry.com and Oregon Mountain Community both carry Westcomb and are good retailers, though like always I suggest trying to give your local shop the biz first.
We’ve all heard the phrase “the devil is in the details”. Here’s a little detail that will make a difference in the color of your toes over the winter and help you avoid six months of black toenails, than losing the toenails sometime midsummer. This little tip comes in extra handy if, like me, you buy your boots down a size or two.
Seriously, how can you not like this guy? Besides the fact that he drives his poor man’s Prius up to use his poor man’s heli (splitboard) and slays the bejeezus out of any line, he’s down to earth and trying to bring snowboarding back to it’s roots. Love it. Sadly ESPN won’t let you embed in HD/widescreen, so the 4:3 version is below.
It just seems like things have gotten too soft and fluffy and perfect. The last trip that really killed me, I did this heli trip and like we’d get off the heli and there’d be like a lady there serving us sushi in the boot room with like cocktails mixed up
