Sometimes when it’s Christmas you’ve got to take matters into your own hands. Toward that end, I’ve picked up a set of Grivel’s Air Tech Light aluminum crampons.

The Air Techs sneak below the already skinny Stubai Ultralight Universal by nearly five ounces, though they’re definitely the pricier of the two.

Obviously we’ll have to bash these up a bit in the field to get a feel for them, but here are a few first impressions if you’re curious.

If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that avalanche information is conspicuously absent on SierraDescents.com’s pages. This is certainly not because I don’t take avalanches seriously.

Avalanches worry me more than any other objective hazard in winter mountaineering. I’ve therefore been thinking very carefully about what I’d like to say about avalanches.

As a start, I’ve added an Avalanche Resources section to my links page. The first site I’m linking to is the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center. The ESAC’s mission is to “advise and educate the public on avalanche conditions in the backcountry of the Eastern Sierra.”

Currently, the ESAC is the only organization providing public avalanche forecasting for the Eastern Sierra (note: the Mammoth Mountain ski patrol post local snow pit info on the Mammoth website).

The Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center is new, with a volunteer board of directors, and one full-time avalanche forecaster. They operate in conjunction with the US Forest Service, and they are funded (like PBS) via private donations and membership.

You can help fund the ESAC by purchasing hats and t-shirts from their website, or by becoming a member. They also welcome regional observations of conditions in the field.

Having current, professional avalanche information for our region is a rare and priceless resource. Take advantage of it—and if you can, offer your support.

The Sierra Ski Season is off to a less-than-outstanding start, with generally minimal snowfall thus far, and some nasty instability setting up due to shallow coverage.

While we’re all waiting for the snow, I’m trying to get the rest of my gear reviews up for the season. The newest entry is “>Voile’s XLM Shovel, a compact model that may be the lightest aluminum shovel available today.

Up north (for me), the always-reliable Mammoth Mountain is open and running 16 lifts. I foresee a Mammoth run in my near future, as soon as I shake the over achieving cold I caught over Thanksgiving.

Locally, I’m hoping for a big season in the San Gabriel Mountains, so that I can ski the infamous “Girly Man” chute, and see for myself if it really rates a formidable D14 on Lou Dawson and Andrew McLean’s proposed D System Scale.

For purposes of comparison, that would rank the Girly Man Chute more difficult than the Messner Couloir on Denali, and one step below the Mendel Couloir in the Sierra (!). I’m a bit skeptical, though Southern California skiing can be challenging—witness the dreaded “405/Sepulveda Pass” route, which is particularly nasty at rush hour.

That’s all for now. Think Snow!