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2022 WWSRA Ski Reviews

Cornice Bowl - Mammoth Mountain, California

After the forced hiatus of last year, I very happily attended the 2022 WWSRA on-snow demo at Mammoth Mountain this past week, testing skis in the All Mountain and Touring (more)

WWSRA 2020-2021 Ski Reviews

WWSRA 2020-2021 Ski Reviews

Available now for your viewing pleasure are my 2020-2021 ski reviews (that means these are currently next season's skis!) from the WWSRA on-snow demo event at Mammoth (more)

Marmot Front Range Jacket

Marmot Front Range Jacket

For cold but fair-weather Alpine skiing, I love wearing a windproof fleece jacket. But I'd gotten tired of looking like a fuzzy black puffball in my Patagonia R4. When my old (more)

Sony A7S

Sony A7S

Here is what I remember most about film: not the waiting, to get your slides back, but the anticipation. Film added something to every shot, a twist of scene or color or light, a (more)

Salomon X Ultra Mid

Salomon X Ultra Mid

Salomon is well known for cutting-edge trail runners, but can they make a Mid? Yes—and it's a good one. The X Ultra Mid GTX is rugged, stable, and very light. I admit I (more)

Mountain Hardwear Optic

Mountain Hardwear Optic

Let's call Mountain Hardwear's Optic 3.5 a car-camping tent with backpacking aspirations. The Optic isn't light, but it is abundantly livable. You get 45 square feet of floor (more)

Sony RX100-III

Sony RX100-III

Is it possible the closer we get to perfection, the farther away it seems? The updates to Sony's third-edition RX100 digital compact are practically a wish list of the impossible. (more)

Tecnica Mach1

Tecnica Mach1

New for the upcoming 2014-2015 season is Tecnica's Mach1, which employs what Tecnica calls a paradigm shift in ski boot construction: designing "from the inside out." By this, (more)

GoPro Hero3+

GoPro Hero3+

GoPro's Hero3+ is one of those vexingly-horizontal iterations that make it almost impossible to know whether it's worth it to upgrade. Still, GoPro is making a number of claims (more)

Scott Cosmos

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There's a bit of a leap of faith involved in buying a pair of Scott Cosmos ski boots. Just a year ago, the Cosmos was made by legendary but now-defunct Garmont USA. Garmont's (more)

Look Pivot

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Where Alpine equipment is concerned, I generally believe nearly all modern bindings are safe and effective. That said, there is still variation in performance and durability. (more)

La Sportiva Xplorer Mid

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La Sportiva's lightweight Xplorer Mid is not at all the shoe I was expecting. In terms of weight, stiffness, and structure, the Xplorer is almost an anti-boot. The Xplorer Mid is (more)

Trust Issues: Steripen Freedom

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I've been twice burned by Steripen's Adventurer hydrophoton water purification device, so forgive me if I'm a little less than glowing in my comments. No, the problem wasn't that (more)

Salomon X-Race

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Not one ski but several, Salomon's X-Race varies its sidecut radius by length, allowing skiers to match the ski to their preferred turn shape. So for example if you pick the (more)

Volkl Code L

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New for the 2013-2014 season, Volkl's Code Speedwall L offers performance skiers a fun and lively alternative to both the RTM and RaceTiger lines. I'm not big on the RTM skis (more)

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When there is snow, SierraDescents is Andy Lewicky's California backcountry skiing and mountaineering website. Without snow, sierradescents becomes an ill-tempered hiking and climbing blog.

Pray for snow.