PaulB

I tour on BD Havocs which have a slightly turned up tail. My G3 skins work perfectly fine without any modifications to the skis (they don't have a notch) or the attachment system.

It depends on what you consider acceptable skiing conditions, but you can typically start in Nov and go until May without doing a lot of hiking. Otherwise, if you're willing to put up with a high ratio of hiking to skiing, you can ski pretty much year 'round. Check out Turns-All-Year.com

305836 is the UTM grid reference on NTS mapsheet 92J07.

Yep, that's the spot. Have you been through there before, Matt? Edit: I just looked on your TR page, and saw that you went around clockwise a couple of years ago. Did you have any issues skiing down that slope?

As the last one in line, I hadn't started up the bootpack when the first crack sounded, so I immediately ran down our uptrack to the last switchback to get out from underneath whatever might happen. I turned to look back just in time to see the slab cut loose and the boys start to go for a ride. All I could think was to try and keep an eye on where everyone went, and how hard it would be for me to dig out four people. Luckily, GROC had been able to anchor himself at the crown, the other three stayed on the surface and no one was injured. The aftermath from my vantage point: After getting dug in for the night, re-hydrated and fed, we analysed what had happened and discussed what we could/should have done differently. Given the opportunity to walk away, best to try and learn something from the experience.

Get in touch with the ACC section in Prince George.

I have found that the nicer the Hotel, the fewer complimentary services there are. You pay for *every* little thing; Meanwhile, just about every budget chain motel next to an interstate has free in-room wireless and complimentary fresh baked cookies at the front desk. I don't think the Hilton family actually has anything to do with the hotels anymore.

For a visitor on their way to/from Whistler, if the weather is good, I would recommend an evening of skiing at Cypress. The view of Vancouver on a clear night can be quite spectacular. This picture (not mine, btw) was taken from Mt. Seymour, another of the North Shore ski hills.

I use 3-pin Hardwire CRBs for touring and they work great. No pre-release problems and they release both laterally and backwards. I figured that was a good thing since I'm usually carrying a heavy overnight or multi-day pack when I'm skiing on them. The 3-pin also allows for less resistance when climbing (but still much more than the free pivot tele bindings) because you don't need to keep the heel bail latched onto your boot. They are about half the price of 7tms once you factor in the cost of brakes, climbing heels, etc. They look godawful ugly, but they work and are good value for the $. If you do have any problems, Voile customer service is top notch. Rottefella's New Telemark Norm (NTN) binding was released this year and is being marketed as releasable. It isn't compatible with traditional 75mm duckbill tele boots, so you gotta be ready to throw down about $1,100 to get the boot & binding combo. As seems to be the norm with first gen tele bindings, there have been some issues. Most notably with the bellows in Scarpa's Terminator X boots being too stiff. Get on TTips.... there's more binding discussions on there than you'll be able to absorb.

This video has some footage of a long line rescue off Mt. Stephen in the Rockies.

When standing in a lift line at Whistler, it doesn't take long to see that A'T has taken over from The North Face as the fashionable brand of choice. Not that I can point fingers when I'm standing there in my Alpha SV jacket. Get on eBay... you can buy the "international" edition of many textbooks for less than half of their price here in North America. I'm taking a course right now and the school bookstore sells the textbook for $170. I bought it online for $70 including shipping from Singapore. The kicker is that book was printed in Canada to start with!

Perhaps, but a good instructor will help you out far more than any book ever will. Check around and I'll bet you can find an outdoor club, or even a guiding outfit, that offers backcountry ski clinics specifically for folks in your situation.

On a related note, the film Steep started playing here in Vancouver today. I think it's been playing for a month or so south of the border. A point that apparently comes home watching the Doug Coombs' interviews in Steep.

On a related note, has anyone heard/seen what condition the Ramp is in these days?

You can order Sinners direct from Bill Heath using this link. It doesn't seem to be accessible from the main site. At only $25, support the independent filmmaker rather than burn a copy.

G3's sizing recommendations would put you on either 177 or 184 Barons. I tend to prefer a shorter ski, but a lot depends on your style of skiing. If you can, demo both sizes and see how they feel. FYI, G3 is having a factory sale this week and as of yesterday morning they had 177 Barons for $300. You'd have to call or email them to see if they have any 184s.

Sure looks like an Intuition liner to me, and I'm pretty sure you can find those online for a lot cheaper than $168. They're only $120 direct from the "factory" here in Vancouver.

I've gone in along the riverbank a couple of times and it wasn't that bad. Once, we even shepherded a guy with a dislocated shoulder back to the bridge by headlamp, and he was able to move along easily enough.

Approach skis are essentially replacing snowshoes so that you can glide back down from the base of the climb that you skinned up to. You shouldn't expect to do any real skiing on an approach setup using climbing boots (it's tough to do much more than snowplow). My approach skis are an old pair of relatively skinny 160ish Atomic Tourcaps. For comparison, I'm 6', 165lb and my regular tele skis are 173 & 181. Lots of folks use their regular AT setup for approaches and just climb in their ski boots. You compromise a bit on the climbing side, but the skiing will be much more manageable and you only need to have one set of ski gear. If you're just slogging up logging roads, climbing boots and any short ski will do the trick.

Reasonable speculation.... a guy who works on the mountains in some capacity posted this on TGR:

The author, "AT Anonymous" is Andrew McLean, a well known ski mountaineer, randonne racer and gear designer. While he loves to bash tele, I suspect that he could still rip it up if properly incentivized. A few offers have been made on Telemarktips, but he's never stepped up as far as I know.

It's worth noting that Bill C-307 the "Phthalate Control Act" was recently passed by the House of Commmons to limit the use of "bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate or dibutyl phthalate" in cosmetics. These compounds have similar detrimental effects as the bisphenol A found in polycarbonates. With this precedent, it's not a big stretch to think that a similar bill might eventually be passed for bisphenol A. The cynical might conclude that MEC is anticipating the future and voluntarily pulling polycarbonates from their shelves before they're forced to. Smart PR move.

Check out "Sinners" by Bill Heath (apologies if that's what E-rock suggested, YouTube is blocked here at the office) and I've heard good things about his new flick "Nine Winters Old".

My Havocs have served me well as an all around in-bounds and backcountry ski. I've also had K2 Super Stinx and Atomic 10EXs, both of which I've sold as I found the Havocs more enjoyable to ski in a variety of conditions. I still have a pair of World Pistes that I use when I'm doing more touring than turning, but the Havocs are now my day-to-day ski.

Too late.... they've already got it covered. From the 2010 press release: