This is one of those strips that you hope no brand new reader is going to see first thing. This one’s for you guys that seem to read my mind about the story bits and who remember tiny details about everyone in the strip. It’s been bumping along at the edges of the story for a long time, and I didn’t know where to put it. Til now. It popped up when I was trying to think of what should go into Hubris’s dream. So here you go.
Jeff Outdoors –
The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to
I was born and raised in Tennessee. Our idea of having fun in the snow was bending up an old highway construction sign and using it as a sled. Most southerners haven’t skied, because there’s no place to ski south of the Mason-Dixon line (except at Dollywood on plastic snow). Occasionally, a fellow southerner goes on vacation and finds himself on a pair of skis. You have seen them out there. They are the guys wearing jeans, hunting coats, work gloves, and a ball caps with sports teams logos on them. If you look carefully, you’ll see that they have switched their Skoal cans to their left hip pockets because they have bruised their right hips from falling on their Skoal cans several times.
About 22 years ago, I started cross-country skiing in the mountains of West Virginia. I had all the wrong gear. Eventually, I ended up on the Olympic Pennensula in Washington State where they haven’t heard of groomed trails, and a guy at Olympic Mountain Sports set me straight. I needed beefy boots and metal edged double camber skis with a waxless base (due to the varying conditions the Olympics have). This meant Fischer E-99 Crown (Inbound or Outbound Crown beginning in 2004), or Karhu Lookout skis. Fischer and Karhu have been making the best all around waxless base metal edged skis since the 70’s. There are other companies out there, but you can’t go wrong with these two. Karhu has kept with a more aggressive kickplate (scales stick up slightly above the surface of the base) for better grip, but creates more drag. Fischer tends to use a less aggressive pattern (scales do not stick up past the base), which helps with smooth speed, but reduces the angle of slope you’re able to “kick” up.
Several years ago, companies started putting more width and shape to their double camber skis. I shunned the change at first, then bought a pair of Fischer S Bound skis. The shape is not outrageous for kick ‘n glide skis, but they still don’t fit in groomer tracks. My old E-99s fit in groomer tracks beautifully. They also don’t climb as well as the Karhu Lookout (my favorite for getting in a long workout with sizable hills). The real strength of the S Bound shows up when you spot an untracked 25 degree slope. In most snow conditions the S Bound will carve a tele turn, if you have a stiff enough boot to hold the edge. In powder, the skis will drive down just like any double camber would do, but the wider shovel and shape allows you to turn in all but the steep airy powder.
There is no doubt that I’ve left my favorite logging road trails with bigger grins after buying the S Bounds. There is nothing like getting a great workout, then carving turns down a virgin slope on the same pair of skis. I still ski my old E-99s or bum my friends Lookouts when the snow conditions are horrible or when I’m skiing with a bunch of skinny skiers and I need to keep up. The S Bounds are for the days when I need my spirit to fly free and I’m not in a hurry.
Pros
Cons
If you want to cover a lot of hilly ground, stick with the narrow skis and aggressive kick plate. If you want to get nab some turns and you’re not skiing groomed cross-country trails, they’re more fun than a barrel of drunken monkeys.
Wanna shop the skis? Click on the skis.
Jeff Outdoors –
The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to
I own far too many backpacks. So, when I got invited on a Swiss Alps hut ski trip, the first thing I did was buy a new pack. The recommended pack size was 30 liters, so I narrowed my scope to two packs designed for 30 liter ski mountaineering. The Deuter Freerider Pro 30 and the Mountain Hardware Via Rapida 35. They both looked perfect for a 6 day hut trip on spring snow. I have loved my Arc Teryx Borea ski pack, but it’s a bit big and heavy for a European hut trip (no sleeping bag, stove, fuel, or dinners to pack). Eventually, I found the Via Rapida in a local shop in medium and bought it. It’s 2135 cubic inches with the lid, but it shrinks beautifully for day skiing.
So far, I’ve hauled it around the local ski hill, skied on the local trails many times, hiked up my icy road a dozen times, and skinned up a local peak with it on New Year’s Day. I’ve gotten used to the new strange features it has and have come to appreciate some of the little things.
The lid comes off easily. I’ve found that I don’t use it at all… yet. Once the lid is off, there is a little flap that acts as a top, which fastens to the same buckles that the lid snaps to. The buckles are switched so that you don’t accidentally snap the left side into the right side, etc. This seemed nonsensical to me at first, but when I started strapping all kinds of gear to the outside when I was snowshoeing with friends, I quickly came to appreciate the difference, although different color buckles would work just as well.
The drawstrings and locks are funky also. Pull on the red tab to close, pull on the yellow tab to open while pulling the collar open. You could also just squeeze the barrel lock, but once you get used to grabbing the tab, it becomes easier than trying to squeeze the little lock with gloves on.
There are two stash pockets that are accessible from the top and have zipper closures. I didn’t think I’d ever use them, but now I use them so much I don’t like using my other packs.
Even the key zipper pulls and buckles can be used with mitts on because they’ve added medial tubing so each zipper tab sticks out. There are easy to grab compression straps on the sides, which double as ski stabilizers AND they are all quick release instead of just sliders. The ski straps/loops on the sides are nice and burly and wide enough for all but the big powder skis. I though my double cambers would flop around in them, but the compression straps held them tight. There is no reinforcement on the sides to keep your edges from cutting the material (it is ripstop, though). In fact the whole pack is fairly light nylon compared to my Borea, but it hasn’t had a breech yet. The front panel is made of Dyneema (whatever that is) and is supposed to be able to handle sharp mountaineering type things without getting thrashed too much.
The pack has a funky feature that allows for strapping your skis in a cross fashion on the front panel, but it interferes with storing your shovel, so I’m not sold on that feature. Maybe if you are a snowboarder, you could use this feature, but then, if you’re a snowboarder, I’m not going to wait and find out. If you have a shovel with big enough holes in the blade, there are these cute little aluminum bottle openers attached to little bungee cords that hold your shovel on the outside of the pack. It’s remarkably fast to remove the shovel, yet it stays put in a yard sale.
The big front Dyneema panel pocket has a zipper top, but the pack’s compression straps tunnel through this pocket, which allows snow to get in. The adjustment of the compression straps is inside this front pocket (nearly inaccessible), which I thought was a bad design, until I realized that the straps only need adjusting in unusual circumstances. And when those circumstances arise, you’ll happy to have the flexibility.
I’m not a fan of white material on anything that I use in the snow OR the dirt. It’s a stupid choice of color for several reasons. My Via Rapida has white on the front panel. Also, there is a nifty little whistle on the sternum strap that I have not been able to rip off. The whistle sticks up enough that when you have gloves on, you think that the whistle is the buckle release, so you end up squeezing the whistle for three minutes thinking that the buckle is stuck. This is a bad idea for rescue situations. I don’t think you’d get much sympathy from your buried ski buddy, when, after the rescue, you tell him he could have breathed a bit sooner if you hadn’t been squeezing your whistle.
There are a lot of little tweaks that this pack has that makes me think they asked the right people when they designed it. For instance, there are sewn patches on the shoulder straps that are burly enough to hold a King radio, as well as little rings that are great for clipping on a camera or altimeter. The waist buckle system takes some getting used to if you’ve never used one like this, but in the end, you’ll like it. And the whole waist belt comes off for the super light days or air travel. The key ring in the pocket is easy to use with mitts on, and even the shovel handle keeper is quick release and steadfast.
Lastly, the frame sheet keeps this pack light, yet strong enough to haul 30 pounds on a training hike. The 30 pounds on a steep narrow trail felt like nothing. I had excellent center of balance, no rub spots, and overall comfort.
Pros
Cons
The absolute best day ski pack I’ve ever tried.
There you go. The Jeff Outdoors has spoken.
Wanna shop the pack? Click on the pack!
Jeff Outdoors –
The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to
I’m the guy who only bought a ski helmet when my buddy told me his wife wouldn’t let me ski with him anymore until I bought one. I reluctantly left my Happy Humper Woolie hat at home and donned my new Giro helmet. On the first run, I wiped out and the tip of my ski left a dent in the top of the helmet the size of a nickel. I’ve been wearing a helmet ever since.
Last year, I bought a new Giro G-10 after trying on several brands. On the first run, I wiped out, hit a rock, and got a dent in the top about the size of a nickel. Go figure.
The Giro adjustment system is pretty much awesome. It has a dial in the back that works crazy-good. Everything about the helmet is comfortable and there are no rub spots. I wonder if they broke into my house and measured my head when I was sleeping?
The side webbing is adjustable with quick-flip buckles, the goggle retainer in the back is big enough to use with gloves, and the vent slide is easy to find and use with gloves on as well.
The G-10 does not have a visor, which I like. There is also nothing to keep your goggles from sling-shotting to the back of your head when you perch them on the front of the helmet. I have spent more than a few chairlift rides trying to find my goggles as they dangled on my back.
Pros
Cons
Bottom Line
Get a helmet that fits. There’s a pretty good chance that Giro is going to fit.
Jeff’s a pretty handy guy to have around for advice. Want to shop the Giro G10? Click the helmet below.
Well, there you go. The alternate version of Monday’s cartoon, long and tall. Whattaya think? Better? Annoying? Different Good or Different Bad?
We could even take it one step farther and stack this same cartoon onto the end of itself. Hubris could drop over endless cliffs in a cartoon loop. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll post that tomorrow.
Okay, little feedback needed here. Today’s cartoon is newspaper format. That means it’d fit neatly into the spaces that newspapers and syndicates decided they need cartoons to be.
Now, since Hubris is a webcomic, I could have (still can, I guess) redesign the whole thing to take advantage of the fact that it’s on a webpage. Instead of a series of panels running horizontally at the same height, would YOU rather see a clever use of a tall panel where Hubris can fall and fall? Remember that you’d have to scroll down to see the whole thing. Would the novelty of a more dramatic panel arrangement help or hinder your enjoyment of a webcomic?
Click on the comments section below and say a word or two about that, if you have a minute. Thanks!!
Greg
Jeff Outdoors –
The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to
I was invited to ski the last day at Alta last year. I found out when I got there that it was a tradition to dress up for the occasion. I like to fit in, so on top of my shorts and ski boots, I put on a wig, a bone necklace, a bead necklace, a coconut bra, and a grass skirt.
I learned from the experience that all coconut bras are not made equal. This particular coconut bra (I’m sorry, I didn’t get the make and model) was quite uncomfortable and not easily adjustable. Fortunately, it was below freezing, and I lost most of the feeling in the upper part of my body, so I didn’t notice the chaffing.
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom Line:
If you are going skiing at Alta on the last day, go for the Sasquatch costume… way warmer.
Shop the Coconut Bra. Click on a Nut. Y’know you wanna.
This is an old cartoon… Pre-Kara. I thought I’d share it, though. I think Hubris must be descended from Dood the Caveman.
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