Looks like Jeremy and the crew over at Jones Snowboards launched their site (maybe this isn’t news, but I hadn’t noticed til tonite). Noticed the tasty vittle below when browsing around.
The Solution splitboard
Rocker and camber and magne oh my!
Hybird rockered/cambered splitboard with real deal licensed from somewhere near Canuckistan Magne-traction. Specs say only available in a 158 and a 161, but down below the images it also says 162 and 165 so dunno what lengths it’ll be available in, nor the cost.
A play on 'splitboarding is the answer' me thinks
UPDATE: Just read that someone stole their ONE AND ONLY proto from their SIA booth! If you see someone riding it or trying to sell it on Craigslist punch them in the nose, take it and email chad@jonessnowboards.com
The Deeper crew swing another episode from the back seat of their Jeeps. Dunno, the more I see these teasers the more I’m thinking I just want to see quick cut scenes of people hitting a cheesewedge while MGMT (wait, the tight jeans/hipster meets hippy 80s synth redux thing is dead? Fine, let’s go old school and throw some brohymn in there…but can we get a version where the opening bass riff is played on a keytar?) plays in the background.
Pausenot.
Between the part in the Krakauer book I’ve been reading about flying around AK, to the new Surfers Journal article about scouting lines from a plane, makes me want to revisit getting my pilot’$ licen$e.
Missed this blurb on the Meadows site talking about the Sunday Wy’east avalanche.
* Slope distance travelled: 14,500 feet, 6,000 meters or about 2.75 miles from start to finish.
* Elevation lost: 5,400 feet from the crown at around the 10,650 foot level to the “toe” at the 5,240 foot level.
* Width of the starting zone: 3/4 mile wide.
* Crown height at the fracture: Ranging from 4 to 10 feet
* Deposition field is in the millions of cubic feet of debris with up to 15 to 30 foot depths.
HUGE is an understatement. Thank God/Allah/Buddah/Joeboo/whomever that didn’t happen while that area was open.
…and all the verbal pro blogzillas were at the show, checking out the new gear, while us linguistically challenged blogapers stay home and read their prose. A few new gadgets and doohickeys to enhance your mountain douchebaggery are below.
The Ortovox 3+ transceiver
Yes, I’m not kidding, someone in the blogosphere wrote about something that’s NOT the Apple tablet this week. At first glance you’re going to think Pieps Freeride. While your hips may not lie your eyes do.
Ortovox 3+, love child of the Freeride and an iPod?
A few things that stood out to me:
-Single AA battery (this sucker is small, think iPhone-ish size)
-Upgradeable firmware (coming soon open source beacons with their own app store?)
-The beacon senses when you are buried (based on period of rest/inactivity and built in inclinometer) and turns off/on it’s internal antennae as it sees fit to maximize it’s signal acquisition range. Cool stuff, wonder if the sensors only work if you wear it in it’s harness, and hope the software works when you need it…
-Under $350
Enough blog-am commentary. To get the full pro-blogger rundown of the Ortovox 3+ check out Lou Dawson or Steve Romeo’s previews.
Petzl Core rechargable battery
This falls under the category of ‘things I’d probably never drop $40 on but I think it’s cool regardless’. Petzl has released a recharable battery that works with their current products and replaces up to 900 regular ol’ batteries (greenwash marketing? Do the chemicals used in a rechargeable + the power used to charge override the footprint of traditional batteries? *head explodes*) in it’s lifetime and comes with a host of charging options (USB, cigarette lighter, household plug and solar). If you’ve ever arrived at a trailhead and discovered that the batteries in your BD Moonlight are a bit dim and you don’t have enough replacements you’ll appreciate the variety of recharging options.
Petzl Core rechargeable battery
Skiers, there was all sorts of cool new touring boots, skis, etc. for you. Seriously check out the Wildsnow and TetonAT and check out all the goodness. If you’ve ever had the desire to drop half a paycheck on boots Garmont, Black Diamond et. al. are there for you in your time of need.
Splitboarders….well, once again you’ll be left checking the splitboard.com forums for DIY options to enhance your experience (yes, I realize people were climbing mountains in wool and whatnot 100+ years ago. Suck it and let me bitch). Thankfully there are guys like the enginerds at Spark, and I’m hopeful that Jeremy Jones’ street cred will translate into something new as well, but both of those operations lack the funding of the big guys that appear to only support homely gingers and those are firing up insanely hard/technical tricks that ultimately all look the same yet lack any style (c’mon, give me a Jamie Lynn method or an old school Brushie tweak any day) with names that sound like a Starbucks drink.
Was pissing away some time this morning, dreaming of having three spare benjis to drop on splitboard bindings, when I saw that they are actually IN STOCK at Snocon. Pretty much everyplace is sold out of these (I mean hell, the guys at Spark are sold out of them themselves!), so if you’re in the market I’d say get on them now. If you’re unfamiliar with the Spark R&D splitboard bindings it’s time to crawl out from under your rock, dial into your internet provider, and get your learn on at their site.
The hawtness
EDIT: Throwing this (ugly) widget up so you can quickly/easily see who has the Spark, and at what price
(insert mini-rant about when you could get a full shred setup for $300 here…granted it probably weighed 40 lbs, the highbacks didn’t fold down, and you rode it in Sorels, but hey three hundred bucks!)
UPDATE 10/14/11: As this post is still getting traffic but is from an old sale I put a gear finder search box up on the top right rail to help you find any items on sale. Just go up there, type in what you’re looking for and click search and a list of items and prices matching your criteria will show up. Should help you quickly find what you want and at a price you want it at!
Alrighty, it’s been a long time since I’ve written up an actual beer friday post – though as my burgeoning belt line and pepperoni moobs will attest to it’s not for a lack of drinking new beers. Figure I’ll start this out with a recent one that sticks out in my mind, though not necessarily for a good reason.
Chatoe Rogue Wet Hop Ale
So I picked up the Chatoe Rogue Wet Hop while at the Rogue garage sale they had just after Christmas. Wasn’t actually looking for the Wet Hop, was actually hoping to pick up a case of the juniper pale, but that wasn’t to be had. The bright label called to me, and as the case price was a deal relative to the price of buying their 22′s seperate, figured what the hell and picked up a case.
The beer:
The beer pours hazy orange with a thin head. Medium body with the slighest aroma of hops and warm malts. An easy drinker (you can quaff it with ease), but the taste is far less than I anticipated, just a slightly malty/hoppy taste to it. Flavor opens up a bit as it warms, but to be honest there just isn’t much to this beer in my opinion, and left me a bit disappointed. I expected a ‘brighter’ hop taste a la the wet hop ales Deschutes put out, but it wasn’t to be had from the Chatoe Rogue.
Drinkable? Yes (though outside of pilsners I rarely come across a beer I won’t drink)
Desirable? Not so much, especially if you have to pay the standard Rogue $6/22 oz. bottle.
So there it is, beer friday. Go get outdoors this weekend and chase your trips with a beer. Oh, and if you’re in California I hate you right now! You’re getting dumped on while we get the shaft end of an El Nino season.
your enthusiasm sparked by some glossy coffee-table book picturing snowcapped peaks under perfect blue skies, you would do well to keep in mind whence that glorious snowpack came. It is the nature of mountains to wring from the winds what moisture they happen to be carrying. This you already know, of course, if not from high school science classes, then from sodden vacations in the Adirondacks and the North Cascades. But optimism is dangerously immune to simple facts and the hard lessons of experience. It can be difficult to admit that spending time in the unspoiled wilds, more often than not, means doing time within the walls of a dank nylon cell, tentbound.”
This video wasn’t even funny, but as I’m 1) a UW fan and 2) a Seahawks fan I’m posting it. Gotta think he’s getting out of USC right as it’s about to get hard what with the NCAA finally investigating all their alleged recruiting violations. Umm….to bring it somewhat on snow topic I’d say if you were buried in an avy Pete Carroll wouldn’t stop to dig you out but just ride by making pow turns.
OK, and one snow vid to keep it on topic. Ski vid this time that my buddy Alex sent last night (side photochop content on that pic of him w/ the chompers showing anybody?). The line doesn’t look anymore gnar then most vids you see, but the commentary by the skier Joe Vallone made the vid.
6 years of waiting till this line was right, I had a one day window and it all came together, Didn’t set out to do it but it was just one of those days were everything was right and if you snooze you loose, the worst part was post holing up there. After watching the line and the exit all year, I was totally fooled when in the line as to what the exit would be, Very exciting and exhilarating , the run is blind until the exit, every role in the line keeps you wondering if you are were you want to be. Steeper than it looks, three years ago someone from France skied this line and the whole thing slabbed and killed him at the first role. You want to do your homework for these. The Frenchies used to not have the air at the bottom and it used to snow enough to ski right through it. The air is probably 3 times as far out is it is down to clear the slab. I wanted to do it again, but the next day it was too wind loaded and the day after that stripped and gone for the season. I hate waiting for snow to stick to rock slabs, but this one was worth it. Pretty wild. Enjoy and come visit me in La Grave if you like what you see!!!
Saw this article over on discovery.com today. Snippet below, click here to read in it’s entirety.
The use of live animals in scientific research has long been a testy subject (right out the gate with a pun, hm?), but ongoing experiments on lab mice don’t seem to grab too many headlines anymore. No, it takes a particularly controversial or cruel-seeming experiment to get animal rights activists into the papers these days.
Take for instance, the most recent study that’s stirring the ire of animal lovers everywhere: European researchers have planned an experiment in which 29 live pigs are to be buried under snow, and where they will essentially be observed dying. The experiment was set to begin last week, but has been postponed due to a firestorm of protest.
The study was an attempt to determine what factors make it possible for humans to “survive an avalanche in an air pocket until rescued without suffering permanent brain damage,” according to the Canadian Press. The researcher’s goal is to better understand how exactly air pockets are used to aid in survival, and in the long run, be able to present better guidelines on how people can survive avalanches.
While I’m not a scientist, and without knowing exactly what they are hoping to learn, I’ll say their methodology sounds odd – I mean hell, I’m not typically anesthesized/sedated when riding, and I’m guessing they aren’t going to layer the pigs up before burying them. However, if sacrificing pigs leads to saving human lives I’m all for it. Guess that makes me just another heartless bacon lover in the eyes of PETA.
