FreeTouring with Black Diamond Equipment in the North Cascades

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Now, repeat after me:

“We are not a tele skiing company. We are not an alpine skiing company. We are not a backcountry touring company. Black Diamond Equipment is a SKI company, comprised of passionate SKIERS dedicated to making a unique collection of trusted, award-winning gear — from skis to boots, skins to poles, packs to avalanche safety essentials — that enables us to choose any line, any time, anywhere, that makes every skiing day an epic day, that empowers us to break away from traditional boundaries and SKI OUTSIDE THE LINES.”

No, this wasn’t something that we made the everyone memorize during the group’s “welcome” program, but it was our mantra as we got prepared for our first ski day in the North Cascades.

From the left clockwise: Dave Waag (Off Piste), Thomas Laakso (Black Diamond Equipment Ski Category Director), Larry Goldie (North Cascades Mountain Guides), Tracy Ross (Backpacker), Frederick "Rico" Reimers (Freelancer), Berne Broudy (Outside/Freelancer), Drew Pogge (Backcountry Magazine), John "jLd" DiCuollo (Backbone Media) and Sam Bass (SKIING Magazine). Photo courtesy of David Waag.

 

As part of Black Diamond Equipment’s new Touring Series for 2012/13, BD is introducing nine new FreeTour and Tour skis — from rockered sidecountry skis to ultra-efficient tools for big, faraway objectives that will serve today’s skiers, helping them to define what is possible beyond the ropes.  In addition to skis, skins (featuring redesigned plush construction with dramatically improved glide), ski poles (highlighting BD’s new FlickLock® Pro design) and the new AvaLung Series packs incorporating Active Form Design were all put to the test from editors/freelancers from such publications as: Backcountry, Backpacker, Off-Piste, Men’s Journal, Outside, Popular Science, Ski, and Skiing magazines.

While most of the west is suffering from lower than usual snowfall totals, the mountain snowpack in the North Cascades of Washington as of April 1 is 137% of average.  Plenty of snow in the Cascades offered up a perfect testing conditions for our group, but we couldn’t have done it without the help of some local Methow Valley aficionados.  Thank you to the North Cascades Mountain Guides, North Cascade Heli and North Cascades Basecamp — as you all made our stay in PNW a memorable one.

North Cascades Mountain GuidesNorth Cascade Heli (Courtesy of Frederick Reimers)North Cascades Basecamp (Courtesy of Berne Broudy)

Time for some skiing…

Courtesy of David Waag

Bluebird days were perfect testing grounds for trip sponsor REVO's Headway sunglasses (their first nylon frame to feature the Crystal Water lens).

Heading for some more turns off of Amy's Peak.

Frederick "Rico" Reimers looking for "Justice." Photo courtesy of David Waag.

Taking off...Setting up...One photo seems to be missing...after the landing.

Courtesy of North Cascade Heli, every day began with a “bump” to a summit leaving us with an untouched powder palette to brush our ski signatures.  Always good to start the day off skiing down, but even more rewarding to know you have the whole day ahead ski touring with a great group of people in such a spectacular setting as the North Cascades.  We will back again one day…

FreeTouring with Black Diamond Equipment in the North Cascades

BD’s new F12 Touring Series skis include:  FreeTour Category>  Carbon Megawatt (153-125-130), Justice (140-115-125), Drift (138-100-123), Revert (121-95-109) and women’s Starlet (136-100-122).  Tour Category>  Aspect (130-90-117), Current (118-86-106), Stigma (125-80-109) and women’s Crescent (128-90-115).  Look for them to arrive at a local ski shop or an outdoor specialty store near you later this summer.

 

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Client News, Skiing, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ski Here Now

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Black Diamond just announced a new web video series coming this winter titled Ski Here Now. The three episodes will be released one each in December, January, and February and feature BD athletes Ptor Spricenieks, Tor Eggeboe, Nicolas Aubert, Martin Webrant, and David Pitschmann skiing in France and Switzerland.

Here is a preview, or as they call it on the internet, webisode #0:

SKI HERE NOW — webisode #0 from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Posted in: Gratuitous Client Plug, Skiing \ Tagged: ,

Meet Fielding

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Fielding Miller, the man with two last names and newest member of the Carbondale office, comes to Backbone after some time at Freeskier in Boulder where they probably made him do stuff like eat dog food and drink beers out of his shoe. Fortunately, here at Backbone we eat fresh baked scones and sip beer from a keg of New Belgium. He was, however, subjected to this Freeskier-style interview during his first week on the job.

Talking about taking park tricks to the backcountry is so 2003. How will you take your park swagger to the office?
I like to be as well-rounded as possible, so I plan on soaking up lots of mountaineering knowledge from my colleagues and hopefully I can contribute on the freeskiing/surf/skate side of things. That being said, don’t expect to see me on tele gear.

Dude, it’s all about the progression. Where do you see the sport of skiing going?
The danger level has been pushed to unbelievable levels but style has always been most important to me. I get more excited over a stomped AK line or a perfect grab or shifty than an out of control dub cork or ski BASE jump.

One Backbone employee gets chosen to be the January 2010 Gear Girl. Who would you pick and why?
Mavis, because I think she has unique style.

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(Mavis’ unique style)

Account Manager Setup: As you have probably gathered, Backbone doesn’t have any tall tee manufacturers as clients. What gear will you be rocking this season?
Whatever I get for free in XL! (take note, fellow employees)

As seen in countless urban rail film segments, night shooting is where it’s at. How do you feel about pulling dusk patrol shooting off pitch emails on a regular basis?
I pulled some dusk patrol hours in the office last evening, so I’m cool with working hard as long as I believe in what I’m doing.

Lastly, who would win in a fight: Matt Harvey or Penn Newhard?
Matt Harvey is a man of many talents. I’m always impressed with whatever new activity he has successfully immersed himself in (it’s rally car racing at the moment), but I don’t think fighting is one of them… Penn has an undeniable size advantage, so I’d put my money on him.

Welcome Fielding, we are psyched to have you!

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Trains, Trams and T-Bars

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Location – Reichenbach and Davos, Switzerland

Team North America – Howie, Schnitz, Ogle, Adam, and 2mas.

Team Europe – Thomas, Davos Dan, Erlend, Audun and Juju.

Thomas Hodel ripping it

Thomas Hodel ripping it

Goal – We have come to Switzerland to make good Freeride, visit Fritschi, Black Diamond Europe, ski and have editors talk about skis, boots, bindings, trends and how the markets differ globally.

Highlights: Day 1 – Tour of the Fritschi factory with Stefan Burki and Stefan Ibach. Introduction of the new Diamir Eagle AT Binding. Touring on BD Voodoo and Guru skis with the new Diamir Eagle to the summit of the Gehrihorn. Trad fondue dinner.

Reflections at Fritschi: Tracks and the Gehrihorn

Reflections at Fritschi: Tracks and the Gehrihorn

The New Fritschi Diamir Eagle

The New Fritschi Diamir Eagle

Day 2 – Train to Davos. Ski off piste pow on new BD Megawatt and Justice skis in Pischa. We make good Freeride yah!

Day 3 – More ski testing on Rinerhorn and Jakobshorn. Davos Dan educates us to an emerging Freeride dialect that is similar to Swiss German. “Dude, he dry docked it and went Peggy Fleming-ing.” We witness the new school Howie-hawk and visit the legendary Wallhalla Telemark Freeride Bar.

Tram up Jaakobshorn

Tram up Jaakobshorn

Day 4 – A bit snowy and flat light for the absinthe-minded. We hit Parsenn on the all-mountain BD Zealot, Verdict and Kilowatt skis. Also visit the SLF – the Davos based Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.

Tee-ing it up in Parsenne

Tee-ing it up in Parsenne

Day 5 – Visit Black Diamond Europe and talk trends with Christian Jaeggi. Be very wary of the Baseler Festival.

The Baseler - a century old Swiss tradition

The Baseler - a century old Swiss tradition

All travel by public transport – complements to Michelle Krantz at Swiss Board of Tourism. Thanks to Cloudveil and POC and all for their hard work and planning.

Oh yeah, it was nothing like this at all….

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceyQnYMP2EY]

Posted in: Musings, Skiing, Trip Reports, Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Monday Morning PR Quarterback

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Busy times at Backbone.

Last Thursday saw Greg and Lindsay attend the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Nate was in Cali on biz and the rest of Backbone hosted the second annual Kickball World Championships in Boulder.

TW rolls in style

TW rolls in style

At Kickball casual, fun times with over 50 in attendance saw Skiing Mag trounce the Team Freelance/Freeload in the first round to meet “The Sons of Pitches” Backbone squad who dismantled the defending Champs Backpacker Magazine. For more pics go to our flickr page .

Pinch hitter and avid baserunner Jake Peruzzi

Pinch hitter and avid baserunner Jake Peruzzi

In the finals, Skiing prevailed with some rumored fuzzy math score keeping and impending darkness. Congrats to the Snow Warriors who take home the king sized trophy. Over the weekend events varied from installation of the new kegerator at Backbone World HQ, the American Alpine Club’s Craggin’ Classic in Golden and the 24 Hours of Moab, where Jess Smith reported Wyoming worthy wind and sand and grit that had a stucco like adherence to any exposed skin.

is this a victory or pray for snow dance?

is this a victory or pray for snow dance?

Champions from last year, Dennis Lewon presents to 08 Champs Skiing mag's Jake Bogoch

Champions from last year, Dennis Lewon presents to 08 Champs Skiing mag

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Fact or Fiction: Backbone truths, near truths and not exactly the truth.

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Dennis Lewon to head up new Glamping Magazine

Word on the street is that Dennis Lewon may leave his post at Backpacker to head up the recently launched Glamping magazine. Glamping is a form of glamorous camping as reported on in the USA Today, ABC News and the LA Times. Dennis was quoted saying, “I have always considered camping sort of glamorous and over the years have grown sick of sleeping on the ground.”

Perhaps the best SWAG ever

Swag is loved and disdained. It has been described by one infamous gear editor as “a river that flows through my office.” So, who might be qualified to rate swag as the best ever? How about a PR person – Nate Simmons, who has experience giving out over a decades worth of swag. In an unequivocal statement today Mr.Simmons exclaimed, “this is the greatest swag I have ever received, ever.”

The object of his affection?

BD’s new Custom telemark boots.

Comfy enough for all day wear

Comfy enough for all day wear

Posted in: Client News, Outdoor Industry News, Skiing \ Tagged: , ,

Win a free pair of Black Diamond Skis

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Teton based, rando-racer, always motivated skier Steve Romeo, is giving away a FREE pair of BD skis on his blog TetonAT.com

The winner will get to choose the skis of their choice by entering a contest centered around the Best Trip Report submitted by December 1, 2008. The winner will be selected on 12/15.

Rando Steve atop the Prong looking at the NF of the Grand

Rando Steve atop the Prong looking at the NF of the Grand

So, either get out there or get busy writing up the greatest, worst or most hilarious recent trip and share it on TetonAT.com

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Skiing \ Tagged: ,

MSP teaser – Dav and Stian skiing Classics in Europe

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With frost on the windshield this morning this seemed appropriate.

Here’s a link to Chris Davenport and Stian Hagen from Matchstick Productions new film capturing their 08 project of skiing the Matterhorn, Eiger, Monte Rosa and Mont Blanc last spring.

Once loaded, click on Chris, Stian and the project first, then watch the Matterhorn video.

Posted in: Skiing \ Tagged: ,

Shell Game

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I learned to ski as a kid at a little hill in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia called Wintergreen. It’s a classic East Coast ski resort where the lodge is on the top of the mountain and they hand out trash bags at the base of the lifts so you don’t get soaked by the snow makers on the way up.

In 1985, the height of ski fashion at Wintergreen was a CB Sports jacket, jeans and gaiters. And you better believe it, that’s the outfit I was rockin’ along with my prized chicken-heart Dynastars.

At about the same time, GORE-TEX hit the scene and and was quickly adopted by the ski industry with its unique claim of “waterproof” AND “breathable.” I especially remember coveting one of those sweet yellow and black TNF Steep Tech getups that Scott Schmidtt always wore. Of course, who could afford it?

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Skiing \ Tagged: , , ,