Gear of the Century, Part 1 (Ep.375)

7 comments on “Gear of the Century, Part 1 (Ep.375)”

1. In no particular order and other than skis, bindings or boots: Snickers, Pine Grease Cream for fast tanning, blood flow and against nasty windchill (simply “Latsche”, people who wander into the backcountry without any have to be called out as losers!), Petzl Irvis Hybrid, Radline 30m (or 60 sometimes if required), Blue Ice Yagi 28L or 35L, Swiss Army Knife Mountaineering version (countless field repais with it, e.g. last time a walkmech had to be greased to properly work, so Latsche had to be applied with one of the longer tools!), well greased Flylow Tough Guy glove (Latsche does the job here too;), basically all pomoca skins (especially since the last cleanup of their hardware), Dissent ski socks (cannot ski anything else!), personalized Sidas footbeds, Black Crows Duos poles (extreme durable, basically an ice dagger!, can safe your life in the mountains, those who know know!!!)

   Rather a Ski Mountaineering 10 items list here, but I guess for inbounds skiing the list is rather lame so…
   For the centurial backcountry survival item of “Latsche” or translated Pine Grease Cream i can recommend 2 major products here….either Kaiseradler Latschenkiefer out of Kössen , Wilder Kaiser Tirol, or BANO Latschenkiefer from St.Anton am Arlberg, Tirol….there is no other single thing that is that crucial for having a good day in the backcountry, there is countless use cases it covers and its highly recommended for starting a convo in a chair or so…it can bring people together and once they are together the application goes even deeper………

2. I have to agree with Paul on the smart phone comment ( I have both Apple and Android phones, Apple is not as good).
   * information
   * camera
   * sos

   I am surprised you do not have “action camera” in the mix. Go Pro started in 2004 with 35mm and 2006 Digital. When I Iearned to ski in 80’s there was minimal ability to get 1 picture, let alone video for the average person to document a day skiing. I have zero photos of me skiing as a kid, and 1 of my father.
   Today action cams provide pics and video in 4k almost instantly. Creating content for the masses to use as: instruction, social media, and lifetime memories.

3. Y’all seem a little confused about what gear did and didn’t come out in the 21st century.

   The ZipFit liner came out in 1989 in more or less its current form. I tried a pair in the mid 90s, but at the time I was obsessed with 92 mm racing boots and injected liners (with extra accelerator to stiffen up the foam, of course, because that’s what you did back then), and I didn’t come back to ZipFit until much more recently. Admittedly it was a very niche product for literally decades – It had decent distribution in the Sierra. I was exposed to it because I rode in Mammoth and had my boot work done at Footloose, which was founded by Sven Coomer and still very much influenced by him back then. What has changed is that Sven handed over operations and (most importantly) marketing to much more savvy people several years ago, and that has led to ZipFit’s recent prominence.

   The Scott Team ski pole likewise dates back to at least the early 90s (which is when I first definitively remember using them for racing). I’m pretty sure that the Scott pole is _not_ a badge-engineered Komperdell BTW. Scott built their own factory in Italy back in the 80s and still makes most of their poies there. Komperdell is Austrian. They were originally 7075T6 Aluminum but moved to Titanal in the 90s.

   • “Admittedly it was a very niche product for literally decades” …………………………………………………

4. BTW I totally agree with Luke about air-permeable membranes being a huge deal. I sweat a lot, and they were life-changing for me in bad weather where I couldn’t switch to a soft shell. The best stuff in the last few years is _way_ better than anything from 1995 in terms of breathability IMO.

   Luke, do you know why Gore-Tex Active went off the market? I have a Helio shell and I think it represented a very nice tradeoff.

   I think that the Contour skins in particular deserve an honorable mention as an improvement in technology. I still have a preference for full-Mohair skins but 70/30 is nice for pointlessly steep US skintracks.

   Vacuum skins were just appalling. I don’t understand why Volkl put their name on those things. It’s like they signed the marketing agreement without even trying them.

5. Enjoyed this conversation and agreed with most of the top 10 discussed.
   Two comments…
   1. Re ski goggle tech. I have never found a photo chronic ski goggle that did the job until just recently, in particular on low light days because as mentioned, the goggles can’t seem to get the VLt high enough. I bought the Revo solstice lens before Christmas and am very impressed so far. Even in during heavy snowfall, the goggles maintain contrast. They included a low light yellow lens, but I actually prefer the photochromic lens while snowing. I previously tried julbo photochromic and did not like them in low light. I have not yet tried Revo on a foggy day yet.

   2. I agree with Luke and Jonathan in regards to utility and not ability of hybrid bindings ie the shift. I think these bindings are really revolutionary! I really do not like the feel of pin bindings on crappy or variable snow. I also dislike the ramp angle of dynafit bindings. I have skiis with both the marker alpinist and the atk raider mounted, and these are great, light setups for good powder days or long tours. But the atk raider is crazy expensive to put onto too many skiis… And it also limits the ski to purely backcountry usage. I have several pairs of skiis that I like skiing at the resort and for backcountry, ie black crows atris 108. I have the original shift binding on this ski, now? 5 seasons old, probably skied 20-25 days a year on them and have never had any issues skiing either resort or backcountry, either in terms of the brakes or pre release or durability. I also regularly will climb 1200-1500m elevation for touring, and yeah a bit heavier, but I like the safety and feel going downhill.
   Maybe I’m lucky? But in sum, I think the shift is a fantastic product and they have changed the ski game.

6. Thanks for this, some really interesting perspectives and a bunch of things that I would not have thought of, though admittedly I did fully expect Scott Team Issue poles to make an appearance.

   The only one I would not really agree with is magnetic lenses, sure they are fine but don‘t find them that important. The previous generations where you had to peel the frame off the lens to swap it were crap (had a couple of pairs of Oakleys like that), but the Sweet Protection system (and others) is out and in in seconds. Yes not quite as quick, but so what?

   I could make an argument for CARV, think that‘s genuinely helping a lot of people improve their skiing.

   Loved the discussion on shapes, have wondered about this for a while, think I even asked JLev in an ‚ask JLev anything‘ pod you did. What‘s next? Back when skis were straight presumably plenty of people thought that was the pinnacle of ski design and couldn‘t be improved – luckily some folks thought otherwise. Somewhat feels as if that‘s where we are now and there‘s nothing else after shapes and rocker. Admittedly there are only so many things you can do and maybe it is more likely to be construction and materials that takes centre stage for the next leap forward? Or maybe we just look to whatever snowboarding is doing and copy that (again)?