PaulB

I'd recommend putting most of your cash allocation into boots. You won't care how good your bindings & skis are if you've got cold & cramped feet all day. Scarpa has some new boots out this year, which means that you might be able to score a pair of the discontinued ones (e.g. the Laser) for cheap. Also consider if you'll ever want to use Dynafit bindings, as not all boots have the required inserts. For an all around setup, look for a pair of skis with a 75-80mm waist. It should be easy to find a used pair with Fritschi, Dynafit or Silvretta bindings. Don't forget that to get into the BC you'll need skins, and most importantly a beacon, shovel and probe.

Was thinking of heading down there tomorrow, but am not familiar with the terrain and need some local advice. Are there safe slopes that could be skied even with this much new snow? There's lots of other places to go for a tour if snow stability around Baker is gonna be sketchy.

I use G3 skins on my Havocs and don't have any problems with the tail attachment.

Do you need a NW Forest Pass (or any other pass) if you're going into the backcountry around the ski area?

I just put together a tele setup with 78mm skis because I don't want to do multiday tours on my 88mm skis. The fat skis are fun for day tours and hut trips, but not so fun for long slogs.

If you want a stout that's a bit smoother than Guiness, try a Murphys sometime. Yummy! Sadly, it's hard to find here in Vancouver, but I've bought it in cans in gas stations in Washington.

The Genesis ropes are available as either classic (non-dry) or superdry. Details here.

From a similar thread to this one on TTips, it seems that while Arc'Teryx still makes their technical outerware in Vancouver, some of their more "urban" ware is made in China and Mexico, while some of their packs are made in Vietnam. The global economy is a bitch to compete in, so you do what you gotta do to stay financially healthy and (hopefully) keep your customers happy.

I have a pair of Salomon SM9s that were made in Italy. When I started looking at some of Salomon's current products as replacements, I'm pretty sure I found that at least some of them are made in China. Obviously, one boot manufacturer has made the change already.

You just need to move the heel piece to where you want it. The relationship between ski turning performance and binding location is primarily dictated by the relative location of the binding "pin line" to the chord centre of the ski. The location of the heel piece is simply decided by the length of your boots. For most people, mounting the bindings with the pin line on chord centre is fine. Others like to move it forward or back depending on the type of ski, boot size and various other considerations.

"A little small" as in it doesn't fit you very well, or as in it isn't big enough to hold all your stuff? Either way, you may just need to get a bigger pack. I have an Arc'Teryx Khamsin 38, and it works great for me. It gets a bit overloaded while all my gear is in it, but once I'm wearing my harness and racked up, it's perfect for carying my belay jacket, spare gloves, water, food etc. on long routes.

Go here on the Black Diamond website, and click on "Tech Video" on the right side of the screen to see a demo of how to trim skins.

JoJo gives a good endorsement for Grivel screws in this thread: "For what ever it is worth; we had both Grivel and BD screws and in the future I will take only Grivel screws on a climb like this. The BD screws were by far harder and slower to place. The Grivel screws, despite taking up more room on the rack, were far superior."

Will Gadd has a piece in the latest Gripped magazine which deals with this very subject. His take on it is that climbing is a dangereous activity, and that "If you climb regularly for long enough you're either going to get seriously hurt or killed.". It's an interesting read.

Unfortunately, for the half dozen or so days of ice climbing I manage to get in each season, there's no way I can justify the $400-$600 this upgrade would require, so I'll continue to climb with my bent shaft Prophets. Leading grade 4 is plenty fun, and 5 is a good challenge. I don't think I'll ever need to worry about grade 6, no matter what tools I might have.

While I haven't walked from the Kain Hut to the Vowells in one go, I have travelled all of the relevent terrain on seperate trips. From the parking lot to the Kain hut to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col is straight forward. From the col it's pretty much all downhill to Bill's Pass. The upper Vowell glacier is easy travelling as long as the snow isn't too sloppy. Slots are easy to avoid, but a rope is a good idea. If I were doing it I'd give myself at least two and a half days to get everything to Bill's Pass, and three if heading to a camp further west. The first day to carry loads to the Kain hut or Applebee campground, where I would spend the night. Most of the next day would be spent getting everything up to the col. Since you can't camp at the col, I'd cache some stuff there, and head over to Bill's Pass to set up camp. Once that was done, depending on the time of day I'd either head back the col for another load, or wait until the next day (more likely). For the latter, anything left at the col would have to be stashed in a snaffle proof manner. BTW, I stumbled across these photos of the area. Again, this was a fly in affair. This picture gives a good view of the terrain between the col and Bill's Pass.

If I had to carry three weeks of supplies from the Kain Hut to a camp in the Vowells in two days I would probably need a week to recover. Depending on the style in which you want to do the trip and the size of your group, consider flying in from the end of the Vowell Creek FSR. There is a recent TR on Bivouac.com from the Kootenay Mountaineering Club's trip to the Vowells this summer.

The catch here is that while the G3 skis mays have been made in the same molds as the Movement skis, the internal construction and materials are likely different. They may look the same, but they may ski very differently.

I've had a pair of the older style Ferratas (bellows thigh pocket and elasticized cuffs) for four or five years and they've been great for all my non-winter alpine adventures. I'm not too keen on the new styling, but as far as the fabric itself goes, they're just starting to get some pilling in high wear areas, and should be good for at least a couple more years.

There was recently a report in the Vancouver Sun that the Indo-Canadian population in the Lower Mainland has a signifcantly higher percentage of diabetics than the rest of the population. The cause is thought to be high levels of butter and sugar in their diets.

Having made two trips to Tricouni (E. Ridge & N. Ridge) in the last month, I would highly recommend this as an objective. The approach from the end of the Chance Creek road is about as casual as it gets. Recent reports are that a gate at 4.5 km on the Black Tusk microwave road is currently open, but new BC Parks signage indicates that only authorized motor vehicles may proceed past that point. Other much less convenient access options are via Cheakamus Lake or the Garibaldi Lake trail.

I've had a pair of Salomon Super Mountain 9s (predecessor to the Pro Ice) for about six years, and have been very happy with them. I've used them ice climbing, glacier slogging and alpine climbing, and they've performed well in all situations. Salomon even resoled them for $30 a couple years ago, which was way cheaper than I could find anyone to do it in Vancouver. It took about a month, but they came back with a factory sole. My concern about buying Salomon these days is that the SM9's were made in Italy, but I think all their boots are now made in China. I may be mistaken on that though. I'd choose leather over plastic for just about anything that didn't involve many continuous days in sub zero weather.

I telemark, so I have no first hand experience with AT gear, but among my regular ski partners that do, the consensus seems to be that the Dynafit system rocks for purely backcountry use. Two have switched from Fritschi Diamirs to Dynafits in the last couple of years, and both wish they had done it sooner. On the other hand, if you plan to use your AT setup in bounds on a semi-regular basis, and are an aggressive skier, most agree that Fritschis, Naxos, etc. are a better choice. Look for an old "binding issue" of Couloir magazine (they do one every year) which will compare all the offerings and detail the pros/cons of each.

I've got 404s mounted on an old pair of 160cm Atomics (Tourcaps or Tourlights or some such name) that I bought used for $50 including skins. They've been fine for slogging up and cruising down snow covered logging roads, but I wouldn't try to do anything more advanced than a snowplow turn with them while wearing climbing boots.

I tried out a Tikka XP this weekend, and while it is a neat design, I decided that for around camp and in the tent, it wasn't really much better than my old Tikka. At mid distances it's defintely better than the Tikka, but I figure for an extra $7 I might as well get a BD Vectra for when I really want to see what's up ahead.