allsetcobrajet

Just like last weekend!

Hmmm...I seem to remember kinda of liking mtnphil until reading his last few posts. And yet you continue to inspire me to get out there, if only to avenge yesterday's experience!

PM sent

I'm interested in doing a tour in the Alpental area on Sunday if you guys are putting something together.

I agree with crazy_t on this one. It's a basic responsibility to have the right gear and know how to use it. The probe is not something that is just there to show the ski patrol when you leave the access gates at Baker. It's intended use is as a potentially life-saving tool.

I sent you a PM.

hey, is this still for sale? the link you posted says "no longer available"

I agree that further questioning of the random passerby is necessary. However, I'm relatively new to backcountry skiing and sometimes worry that if I ask a somewhat basic beta question to an experienced skier out there, they'll say "Dude, if you don't know, you shouldn't be out here" or something like that. But in reality, every experienced backcountry skier I've talked to this season near Baker has been very helpful.

Definitely compare the fill-weight and overall bag-length when factoring in the temp rating. An interesting thing I noticed comparing the Moonstone bag with a comparable Mountain Hardwear bag was that the Mountain Hardwear bag had an extra 6 oz. of Polarguard Delta fill for the same temperature rating, and the MH bag was only 3" longer. I've found Mountain Hardwear bags to be very conservative with their temp ratings. I've used my 20-degree MH bag in the low teen's and been very warm.

Nice vid, man!

I'd factor in the terrain you'll be on most of the time. Certain areas or resorts have a lot of fall-line terrain that is great for snowboarders and then certain areas/resorts have terrain that involves a lot of traversing, which bums out a lot of snowboarders. So I would factor that in, especially if you'll be at one area a lot.

hey, i went out and skiied the shuksans sat and sun at baker and i have to say they were great, both touring and pointing downhill. of course, all that powder helped me feel good about pretty much everything. Sorry I couldn't meet up with you, RocNoggin. Maybe I'll see you up there later this season!

Too bad she's not looking for a pass to Baker.

Wow, what a great story. I always hope that I will be that composed if I ever find myself in a situation like that.

I ended up skiing an entire winter in Utah on AT gear (k2 shuksans, garamont mega-ride boots, fritschi freerides) and they held up really well in all kinds of conditions. I even used the AT boots for a 3-week mountaineering expedition in Alaska, and they worked great for glacier travel and ice climbing (though I didn't like them on rock at all). There are some trade-offs, plenty of times I wished I had a beefier setup for lift-serviced skiing, but I didn't really have the money for a 2nd setup. I paid about $700 (plus tax) for the whole setup at 2nd Ascent. The skis were demos that were only used a few times. I think 2nd Ascent is a good place to check out for a good combo deal on an AT setup.