TeleVision
Ratings Guide:."G": Suitable
for the entire family. "PG": may not be considered
appropriate for the kids and/or may not be safe for work.
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aionanctipNewest...
Our Tracks Run
Long
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Thinking of great
times in the early days with the Mt. Pinos boys, one particular
moment always stands out in my mind for the way it defined the
times and the total experience. I was riding off the back of
Matt's 4-Runner, feet dangling over the edge, fresh powder and
cold smoke rooster-tailing behind the truck as we made our way
up the snowy road for another run. In front, Matt and Len had
loaded up a rehearsal tape of the reggae band Matt was playing
in back then, while six-eight Ed and six three-Steve did their
best to fit themselves in with the gear, sprawled out across
the back. The sun was shining and the sky was as blue as I've
ever seen it. The crystalline snow flying through the air, reflecting
and refracting the bright early morning light... almost like
millions of diamonds.
It was another powder
morning on Mt. Pinos with the boys.
We had just finished
a nearly 3,000 vertical foot run of floaty turns in soft fluff,
dipping into low teles for face shots, and now we were on our
way up for another. We still had another car at the bottom, it
would be a three run day. To counteract five steaming backcountry
skiers the windows were down, and the reggae beat was pounding.
I looked around and everybody was smiling and laughing at our
good fortune, sharing another amazing ski day on Pinos.
That this is the
exact moment I always first think of when thoughts drift
back to those days-- more than twenty years now-- is telling.
That my warmest, most fond memory is not about some then-new
piece of gear isn't much of a surprise (though after years of
leather I guess I'll probably never forget opening the box holding
those first purple cuffed all plastic Terminators), but it really
says something about the completeness of the experience when
your greatest memory is mostly just about being there
on a perfect day with the crew, friends for life heading up for
another run.
The beginning of
a new year is always a good time to remember the great times
of the past, enjoy the present and look forward to the future.
Closing out the decade, I recently got together with Matt and
Ed for another fine powder day, this time at Mammoth. Our tracks
do indeed run long, and the turns keep coming. For that I am
very grateful. May all of your tracks run long as well. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 2:20
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aionaRecently...
Beginnings...
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Take some leftovers
from the big mid-October false start, combine with a healthy
portion of snowmaking, toss in a half a foot of natural last
week, and just like that, another ski season has officially begun
for the Telemarktips crew.
In some ways this
is my favorite time of year: The great feeling of looking forward
to another eight or nine months of tele skiing and to good times
in the mountains with great friends and family, all that still
runs pre-season strong, and yet the party is already underway.
Matt and Big Tim
were up last week. We ran some groomers, worked on getting the
old muscle memory back, and then we were gifted with a little
fresh snow, enough to get some of those floaty kind of turns
we dream about in the summer. And it's only the beginning, only
just the start. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 3:35
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t
Danny Walton
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He's one of those guys
we see at the tradeshows every year and hear from during the
season from time to time. Danny Walton is also one of those guys
who's quietly out there doing all he can to turn the rest of
the world on to the telemark turn. As director of the long running
Sun Valley Telemark Series, he has contributed much to the competition
side of tele as well. The other day I found this little video
slideshow of Danny that's been sitting in a folder on one of
our drives for some time. I decided to post it on TeleVision
in appreciation for all that Danny continues to do for the sport,
and of course to help all of us pass the time until the snow
begins to fly in earnest. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 2:58 |
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Powderwhore Productions
'09 Trailer:
"Flakes"
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Every year the question
remains the same: What can the Powderwhores do to ramp things
up in order to top their previous offerings? It's been a long
time now since they were the new kids on the scene, and each
summer it must get more and more challenging to put together
a film better than the last, and yet thus far Noah Howell and
crew have managed to pull it off. In this short trailer, it's
hard to tell exactly where they are going with "Flakes."
Does the title refer to the prodigious amounts of snow the P'whores
are known to seek out? Or is it in reference to the many of us
who have been known to throw it all off in the never-ending quest
for fresh powder and good times?
Either way, it appears
as though Flakes will have plenty of both. Many new names and
faces pop up in the trailer, along with an impressive list of
locations from around the world. I also noticed an artful, even
innovative approach to filming and editing that went beyond what
I've seen from the Powderwhores to date. As an example, take
a look at the short night shot and the way it was lit, with a
ball of cold smoke swirling, hanging in the air and moving towards
the camera. Simply beautiful.
On this unseasonably
cold, mid fall-like summer day here in Mammoth, with a light
dusting in the high country in tonight's forecast, the anticipation
for the coming season has begun, and this new trailer has got
us super stoked, not just for "Flakes," but also for
the many great days ahead. |
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Come and Get It
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Spring has sprung and
soon the corn harvest will begin, but first we had a classic
two-fer last week to kick off the new season, a powder day at
the area and another the next day, this time out along Sherwin
Ridge, above town. It was an awesome couple of days, and a reminder
that the powder season is winding down. If you still want it,
head into the mountains and go get it, 'cause it's definitely
not going to last. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 2:26
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ncapcaption
Catch Your Dreams,
Before They Slip Away
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It was just one of
those days last Friday. One of those very special days-- sunny
and gorgeous, with an entire mountain of most excellent windbuff
before us-- and as I filmed Big Tim and Gwen in Wipeout Chute
1, below Chair 23, I had my music on with Jagger and the Stones
belting out what seemed like the perfect anthem for a perfect
day. If days like this are the dream, and for so many of us they
truly are, then go catch your dreams before they slip away. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 5:48
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no
Back to East
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Matt calls up and
suggests we head up for some local turns on Sunday morning before
the Super Bowl. Now I don't spend much time following football,
and I wasn't even sure who was playing, but the Super Bowl is
always fun to watch with family and friends, and I was looking
forward to being home for the game this year, but I was also
feeling the need for some turns. So, I went by the Mountain High
website to see if our old stomping grounds-- the part of the
ski area known as "Mountain High East"-- was going
to be open, and lo and behold there was my old friend Mike Elliot,
in full tele form, right there on the opening page. Wow, how
things change. I remember a time, ten or twelve years ago, when
a pro photographer friend of mine offered the Mountain High marketing
crew some super sweet tele powder shots for their site at no
charge, only to be told, "we don't market to those guys."
I didn't hold it
against 'em... they were right, it wasn't their market... hell,
just ten short years ago ninety percent of the people I'd meet
there didn't know telemark skiing existed, and the patrol director
wasn't even sure he wanted to let one of his veteran patrollers--
a then-recent tele convert, and my future wife-- work in freeheel
gear. That is until he and his managers watched from the bottom
one morning as Laurie, in her brand new tele rig, skillfully
brought a sled down the bumped-out, hard as a rock bowl, without
a tail, or even the slightest moment of sketch.
Anyway, when I saw
that picture of Mike, it all came flooding back-- so many stories
and memories-- and I knew it was time to go home to that old
local mountain for some thigh burning turns. Sixteen hundred
feet of smooth and fast groomers served by a high-speed quad:
I would be reminded why and how I used to get so worked way back
when, and that was just part of what turned out to be a true
nostalgia-fest, as well as a plain old, uncomplicated good time.
Perhaps Glen Plake
is right when he says that little areas like this are the heart
and soul of skiing... one thing I do know for sure though, this
particular little area will always have a special place in my
heart, with memories that nourish my soul. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 3:51
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Laurie in all
her Laurieness
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Skiing with my wife
is really a blast. Laurie took a few years off when our daughter
was very young, but she's come back to skiing in a pretty big
way the past couple of seasons, and over the holidays we had
lots of big phat fun tearing around the mountain together. The
dynamic is a lot different, and umm Laurie and her Laurieness
are umm, never boring, but I'm a really lucky guy to have a wife
who rips, and it's really good to have her back on the hill.
With much respect to all of the couples out there charging the
mountain together, here's a look at one of our days together
last month. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 10:03
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Breaking (in?)
New Boots
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After a few days of
use late last month, Big Tim's TX-Pro boots cracked along the
toe-box welt, and on up to the bellows. It was not an unexpected
event. We had been following reports
on our TelemarkTalk Forum of
problems with the 08/09 production run of Scarpa's second effort
at building a tele boot to the New Telemark Norm. And those reports
had been very discouraging. In the decade that has passed since
we first began to report on Rottefella's effort to establish
a new standard means of connecting a tele boot to a ski, not
once did we ever imagine that the hardest part to get right would
turn out to be not the complex and innovative bindings, but the
duckbill-less boots made to work within the new system. And yet
that's exactly how things have played out. For the second year
in a row the NTN boot makers have failed to provide an optimized
for NTN boot that can be counted on to even begin to deliver
on the promise of this new system. And this has occurred while
the actual maker of the binding has progressed the hardware to
an impressive degree. What the hell is going on here anyway?
Our prototype TX Pros-- pried at least somewhat willingly from
Scarpa's hands last winter at the OR trade show-- were nearly
perfect in every way. Amazing, even revolutionary for their soft
and easy bellows flex, in combination with a torsionally rigid
boot and binding interface. Why they didn't just make this boot---
this prototype I successfully skied nearly one hundred days last
year-- remains a mystery for now. Stay tuned for more.... |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 03:13
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The 7th Day
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December 9,
2008--
With last year's NTN boot debacle still fresh in our minds--
and with the subsequent quick and classy recovery executed by
Scarpa having kept the promise of the NTN very much alive-- we
were more than a little anxious to get the 2008/2009 versions
of the NTN binding and TX-Pro boots out on the snow this month.
Going in, Rottefella reportedly made a number of refinements
and improvements to the binding for this season, and this time
around Scarpa assured us they had stayed with the basic formula
that worked so well in last year's prototype TX-Pros.
So how did the initial
testing go? For now I'll let the skiing and my comments in this
little video from my 7th day on the 08/09 system speak for themselves,
while Big Tim catches up (he's just begun to get to know the
new, beefier boots). This 7th day was particularly fun. Just
Andy (Tim's brother) and me tearing around a nearly empty Mammoth
Mountain, mid-week after the Thanksgiving holiday madness. Finding
some good snow off the top, and fast and furious groomers down
lower, we had a blast.
And we brought home
a little footage that I set to a sweet and uplifting little number
that could pretty much serve as the perfect showtune for the
play of my life last season. Mad bull lost its way. So far, we're
off to a much better start, and the skiing, well, the skiing
has never been more fun. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 03:13
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Cirque
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October 3,
2008--
After watching Cirque there will be many who will say, "that
right there is what it's all about." And they won't be wrong.
On the continuum
of skiing there are many approaches of course, and just about
all of them are a hell of a lot of fun, but even the most diehard
resort-only types among us would be hard pressed to argue that
what we see here is not the heart and soul of the sport. Memorable
days on the snow come in many forms, and yet the best most memorable
always seem to be those times we spend alone or with a few good
friends deep, or not so deep in the backcountry. There's nothing
quite like it, and in Cirque longtime forum member and video
contributor Ryan Hayes captured a bit of this, brought it home
and cooked up some very fine preseason stokage.
Enjoy, 'cause yeah,
this really is a huge part of what it's all about. And it's almost
that time again. Bring it. |
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 05:08
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Size Matters
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Looking back through
the years, and to our lives as telemark and backcountry skiers,
I would guess that many, if not most of us, have one person to
whom we can point to as having had the most influence on our
approach to the sport. For Big Tim and me, that one person is
Bob Mazarei. BT has known him since Junior High, and Tim was
there at the beginning, a long time ago, when Bob won the door
prize at a So Cal Warren Miller show: a Mountain High season
pass. It was a fortuitous start to Bob's lifelong, life changing,
love affair with the telemark turn.
I've known Bob for
nearly twenty years, and it was a chance remark he made riding
up Chair Two while visiting us at Mammoth one spring, not long
after he had chucked it all and moved to Verbier, that changed
my own life forever.
"Today is my
100th day of skiing this season," Bob said casually.
"Wow, 100 days,"
I marveled to myself. Silently my thought process continued:
"I live in the mountains and ski out my back door. I probably
have 60 days right now, I could do that some year... get 100
days in a single season."
The next year I
tallied 115. And while this goal I got from Bob was certainly
inspiring in and of itself, there's more to the story. You see,
Bob's main approach to skiing has never really just been about
being a hardcore gnarly ski dude (although his resume includes
many climbs and ski descents from above 4,000 meters) or about
attaining lofty personal goals. It's been about good times in
the mountains, skiing hard and playing hard, traveling and meeting
people, friendships and memories, a passionate sort of lifestyle
most notable for being heavy on what the French call "Joie
de Vivre," a cheerful and hearty "joy of living."
More than anything else, this attitude, this idea of telemark
and backcountry skiing as part of a positive way of life, is
what Bob passed along to Tim and to me, and no doubt to many
others as well.
And so it is that
today we have this "Size Matters" video to share with
you. For as long as I known him, Mazarei has been mounting up
and skiing tele on alpine racing DH boards. It seems like the
more we turned to short and fat, the more Bob chose to ski the
long and narrow. He's got his reasons, and he has written a long
and interesting story about his history of telemarking on downhill
race skis that we will have on Telemarktips very soon, but to
me this DH board thing has always just seemed like an extension
of Bob's basic approach to just about everything.
Watching Bob throw
those long boards around while skiing with his usual style and
grace has always been fun. What a remarkable thing it is to finally
see it on the screen. Whether his DH rig of the day consists
of T-Races with three pins, or the production model NTN boots
and bindings he's using in this video, Bob tears it up. And yet
to me, the really great thing about "Size Matters"
is the way in which it captures the pure, passionate Joie
de Vivre that Bob Mazarei brings to his skiing, his countless
friendships. and... well... to living every day.
For us, this is
what it is all about, and we have Bob to thank for showing us
the way.
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Favorite
Things
Friends and family,
fresh powder, and "silver white winters that melt into springs...
these are a few my favorite things." It's pretty magical
when it all comes together, as it did last Monday morning here
in Mammoth.
This was one of
those days when you want to make sure your skis are waxed and
ready the night before. And of course you want to crack it early.
Big Tim rolled into town just in time to catch one of the first
gondola cars to the top with me, while my 14 year-old step-son
J.T. (making his TeleVision debut here) was already aboard one
ahead of us. Six or seven laps later, through "snowflakes
that stayed on my nose and eyelashes," we hooked up with
Chris Lohman and John Brodie for a little more.
In late summer when
I'm missing winter and feeling sad, I'll put a little Coltrane
on and this will be the day I'll remember, and then I won't feel
so bad...
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TeleVision
rating: "G"......Length: 04:17
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...o
Capturing
The Essence of Icefall Lodge
Three accomplished
professional photographers and a talented videographer visit
British Columbia's newest backcountry lodge in this latest TeleVision
offering from Scott Rulander's Hot Shot Productions of Sandpoint,
Idaho. Their mission: to capture the essence of a visit to Icefall
Lodge.
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caption
Anonymous Perspectives...
it's plural now...
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We named him Mr. Anonymous
a couple of years ago when his cool first-person "anonymous
perspective" videos started showing up at the Telemarktips
World Headquarters without any indication who had sent them,
not on the box and not in his short films. Apparently he likes
it this way, and the latest even came with a return address headed
"Mr. Anonymous." You gotta love it... and we love to
bring you the stoke he shares, especially as the final countdown
to the heart of the ski season begins. |
A Few From The TeleVision
Archive...
A Conversation
With Steve Barnett
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May, 2008-- Earlier
this month, at the invitation of Karhu's Charlie Lozner and Graham
Gephart, I had the pleasure of joining a few other folks for
some XCD-style touring in Washington's North Cascades. XCD-style
as in skinny skis, three-pin bindings and old leather Snowpine's
disguised to look like Excursions. Okay, not really, they actually
were Excursions, but they felt like...
Wait, that's for
Part Two. I've got a better way to begin this report.
In a van on our
way up to the trailhead on the first morning I rode shotgun with
Steve Barnett (left), Powder magazine's Matt Hansen (right) and
Justin Nyberg from Outside (in the way-back). Published in 1978,
Steve Barnett's book "Cross-Country Downhill" played
a huge role in re-introducing the world to freeheel skiing. It
is a book filled with tips for the "wilderness skier,"
but it was the ten pages of photos illustrating the sequence
of movements in the tele turn that were the sensation, for even
back in 1978, as Barnett was already noting, "telemarking
is such fun that some people become fanatics about it and try
to use it everywhere."
"What exactly
does XCD stand for," I asked later that day while skinning
up, and Steve said, "cross-country downhill, of course."
Get it? X-country? Well, I didn't, and it was just one of what
would be many little reminders that I was way out of my comfort
zone on this trip. "Yes, Karhu jumped on that pretty fast
after the book came out," Barnett continued with a laugh.
Leaving aside the
fact that Barnett turned out to be a great guy, a fascinating
character with a lot to say, and a terrific touring partner,
what better way to begin an XCD-style trip report than with a
chat with the man himself? And, no less, filmed in a van on our
way up the North Cascades Highway! |
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A Week On The
NTN-- Day 5
Mammoth Pass
backcountry, 3/3/07
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On Day 5 we decided to
take Mammoth Mountain's gondola to the top and head out of the
ski area and down to Mammoth Pass. After days of stormy weather
the sunshine and warmer temperatures were welcome. It was also
perfect conditions to test the NTN for icing and snow buildup
issues (more on this in our wrap-up next week).
As mentioned in our last
writeup below, our friend Lee has been a guide and avalanche
course instructor in the Sierra for many years. Not surprisingly,
Lee was very interested in the new Barryvox "Pulse"
transceivers we recently received for testing and review from
Mammut. So we skied down to McLeod Lake
and set up a single burial scenario to give Lee a chance to check
out the Pulse and to get his feedback. |
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As he says himself in the
video, Lee was "blown away" by the ease of use and
accuracy of the Pulse. After we finished filming the scenario,
Lee expressed some reservations about the way the search had
gone down. He was concerned about the fact that he had found
the buried backpack and transceiver on the very first probe attempt,
and he was worried that it might seem unrealistic or contrived
to our viewers. We pointed out to him that he had done the same
thing on a couple of warmup searches, and we also recalled how
much trouble he had had earlier in finding the same buried pack
in roughly the same spot by simply probing. Without the beacon
he had probed well more than a dozen times, even becoming a little
exasperated along the way by his lack of success. We feel that
the single burial scenario depicted in this video accurately
reflects the real-world performance an experienced transceiver
user can expect from the Pulse. In Lee's specific case, this
was the kind of speed and precision search he was able to pull
off after little more than an hour of practice. The video speaks
for itself but suffice it to say, we were all very impressed.
Oh, and we got some nice
turns in on this tour as well. As a bonus, we made it out of
the backcountry in time to make a 6:15 dinner reservation (barely)
with Dan-o Cruz, his wife Lori, and a few other friends. It was
a very good day out on the pass. |
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A Week On The
NTN-- Day 4
Virginia Lakes,
3/2/07
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With three days on our
NTN bindings and boots in the bag and the fresh powder at the
area totally played out, it was time to head into the backcountry
on Day 4. Our old friend, one time roommate, and Sierra Mountaineering
International guide
Lee Frees had been
skiing with us all week and he suggested the three of us pay
a visit to the Virginia Lakes area. It was a good call. With
all the new snow and plenty of ongoing wind loading to contend
with, Virginia Lakes provided a lot of route options.
Every ski season has its
share of memorable days, this was one of them. Blue skies, fresh
powder and very good friends, all in what the late Right Reverend
Bardini of the Church of the Open Slopes called the "Backside
of Beyond."
A day at the office doesn't
get much better than this.
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A Week On The
NTN-- Day 3
Mammoth, 3/1/07
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Despite a very late night,
we still managed to crack it this morning and get to the mountain
in time to catch one of the first gondola cars to the top. It
was a bluebird day with surprisingly few people out after this
latest storm, one which dumped more than four feet before finally
moving out of the area for good.
It was a fine day, made
even better by the fact that we made a new friend on that first
ride up. Turns out Aimee once worked as an intern at Backcountry
Magazine. She leads off the video with a message for Howie and
the crew.
Testing Rottefella's NTN
in cold, fresh powder snow has been a lot of fun the past three
days. Tomorrow BT and I are going north with Lee Frees for a
little backcountry tour... perhaps we will head out to Virginia
Lakes, or maybe Tioga Pass. Stay tuned for more....
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A Week On The
NTN-- Day 2
Mammoth, 2/28/07
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Our week of testing Rottefella's
NTN continued yesterday with a second day of in bounds skiing
at Mammoth Mountain. Despite a forecast of clearing, the storm
clouds lingered and the gusty winds were butt cold, yet we still
managed to find some love. The top remained mostly closed so
tomorrow morning we will be in line for one of the first gondola
cars to the 11,200 foot summit. We'll try for some fresh tracks
in what patroller friends assured us is blower pow, then we'll
head out with our friends Lee Frees and Urmas Franosch for a
little backcountry fluff in the late morning. The nearly four
feet of new that fell in this latest storm should have settled
out nicely by then. We are trying to make the most of this terrific
opportunity to test the NTN in cold, fresh powder condidtions...
stay tuned for more.
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A Week On The
NTN-- Day 1
Mammoth, 2/27/07
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A couple pair of Rottefella's
NTN bindings appeared on our doorstep last week, along with a
couple of pair of Scarpa's NTN boots.... so we mounted up some
of our favorite skis with NTN subplates and headed out for a
week on the road. Our first stop, Mammoth, where nearly four
feet of fresh snow has fallen during the current storm. We skied
down to the Chair 9 area, and with 9 closed we enjoyed some easy
fresh tracks, then we skied back to the open lifts via the Lake
Mary road. Later we took a chair ride onto the side of Lincoln
Mountain and boot packed up to the top. The ride down was awesome
and it was a great opportunity to try out the NTN in fresh powder.
Here is our first video from what looks like is going to be an
epic road trip... and one for the memory banks.
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Testing The
NTN
Alta, UT, 1/24/07
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It's 2:30 in the morning
here in Utah and the report on today's NTN test I had planned
to write up to accompany this video will have to be put on hold
for a few hours or so.... I'm going to bed.... check out this
little movie though, you might just be able to get a pretty good
idea of how our day went after all.
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Perfect Ponder
(really
something remarkable to think about)
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From the classic song "Sweet
and Dandy" recorded in 1969 by Toots and the Maytals:
"It is no wonder...Is
a perfect ponder....While they were dancin' in dat ballroom las'
night."
In Jamaican Creole a "perfect
ponder" is something really remarkable to think about. Our
recent daytrip to Tioga Pass put things in perfect perspective
for us prior to heading out to the tradeshows last week.
Go get it y'all... give
yourselves something really remarkable to think about all next
summer.
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Big Sunday
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Sunday, January 15th, 2006
will go down as pretty much one of the best days ever for a lot
of Cali-based folks it would seem. After we posted our "..one
of the best days ever" video below, Rich Steele (Steeleman
on our Forum) wrote in to tell us about his crew's time on Tioga
Pass that day... here is their powderlicious video...
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Pretty much
one of the best days ever....
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Eighteen or so inches of
nearly trackless Wasatch-like powder... a bluebird sky... no
wind... good friends... among them being longtime Mammoth tele
instructor and PSIA Telemark Demo Team member Urmas Franosch...
So great a start I couldn't
even stop to get the camera out for the first few runs..... that
was just the way it had to be on a day that was as good as it
gets.
Pretty much one of the
very best days ever...
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