Randonee Rental?

[archenemy]

Where is the best/most affordable place to rent Randonee gear near Seattle? I've never tried it before and would like to go somewhere that is comfortable for a newbie. Suggestions?

[robert]

Marmot rents randonnee packages. They are 45 for skis and boots. I am not sure of the best place as I have only rented from Marmot. Throw in skins for another 10 and a transceiver for 17 and you are set. Renting AT gear makes a lift ticket look cheap.

[archenemy]

Thanks!

[DirtyHarry]

Usually you can put the rental prive towards purchase if you ending up going that route.

[Weekend_Climberz]

I've been getting my boots from Feather Friends downtown to make sure I have the size right before I throw $700 down the drain. They are super cool. I accidentally forgot to take my boots back and they didn't even charge me the extra day. I'm pretty sure they have skiis and I used to rent a beacon from them before I bought my own.

[rbwen]

I've rented from Cascade Crags in Everett in the past. The used to rent AT boots, skis, and poles for $25 for the weekend, pick up on Friday, take back on Monday. Didn't include skins though.

 

rbwen

[robert]

Usually you can put the rental prive towards purchase if you ending up going that route.

Marmot will give you half of up to three rentals towards your purchase. It sounds like cascadecrags has much better rental prices though, so that might make up the difference. When it comes to buying gear it is hard to beat the prices you can find online. I saved about $400 on my package over the best prices locally.

[Nick]

Second Ascent in Ballard also rents AT and Tele gear.

 

I was teaching avy safety recently and one of the students showed up with a rented beacon (a tracker, from Feathered Freinds I believe) that was defective; this beacon was still sending, but in search mode it no longer indicated the distance from the target (it read 40M even when 1M from the target beacon).

 

The moral is, test your rental gear carefully in the store, before you head for the hills. This beacon would have passed a cursory check at the trailhead, but if it was needed for a search it would have been wortheless.

Edited January 19, 2006 by Nick

[archenemy]

Second Ascent in Ballard also rents AT and Tele gear.

 

I was teaching avy safety recently and one of the students showed up with a rented beacon (a tracker, from Feathered Freinds I believe) that was defective; this beacon was still sending, but in search mode it no longer indicated the distance from the target (it read 40M even when 1M from the target beacon).

 

The moral is, test your rental gear carefully in the store, before you head for the hills. This beacon would have passed a cursory check at the trailhead, but if it was needed for a search it would have been wortheless.

Thanks for the advice.

I live in Ballard, so this would be convenient. I will call them to see if they have any deals going that sound as good as some of the other great suggestions people mentioned.

 

Anyone in particular you suggest I ask for at 2nd A?

 

Again, thanks for the help everyone!!

[sill]

I would stick with feathered friends or second ascent if it is conveniant. Marmot is always a bit of a cluster.

[archenemy]

second ascent rents the skis, but not the boots. Is that lame, or common?

[featheredfriends]

Feathered Friends rents AT boots (Scarpa Matrix and Garmont Mega Ride for men, Garmont She Ride for women). We also have brand spanking new Atomic skis (Janak, Kongur, Pumori) mounted up with a variety of bindings (Naxo NX21, Fritschi Freeride, Explore, and some tele mounts, too) as well as skis from Black Diamond and K2, a few of which also have Dyna Fit bindings. We also feature a "try before you buy" program where you can apply rental costs towards purchase. Plus we rent skins, shovels, and poles.

 

We did have a problem with two of our rental Tracker beacons, but those have been removed from the fleet and replaced with brand new 06 Trackers. We also rent Barryvox, SOS, and Ortovox beacons so you can try out a variety of different models.

 

Our skis rental gear is in particularly high demand this season, especially AT gear, so if you want to rent some you should call ahead of time. We can take reservations up to a month in advance.

 

Let the snow fall!

[Figger_Eight]

Regarding beacons. FF does rent them, but remember that these things are highly sensitive and not designed to be kicked around a bunch. They also do have a shelf life and the more they're used, the less accurate they become (over a number of years). If you go into the backcountry at all, you should really get your own.

[archenemy]

Feathered Friends rents AT boots (Scarpa Matrix and Garmont Mega Ride for men, Garmont She Ride for women). We also have brand spanking new Atomic skis (Janak, Kongur, Pumori) mounted up with a variety of bindings (Naxo NX21, Fritschi Freeride, Explore, and some tele mounts, too) as well as skis from Black Diamond and K2, a few of which also have Dyna Fit bindings. We also feature a "try before you buy" program where you can apply rental costs towards purchase. Plus we rent skins, shovels, and poles.

 

We did have a problem with two of our rental Tracker beacons, but those have been removed from the fleet and replaced with brand new 06 Trackers. We also rent Barryvox, SOS, and Ortovox beacons so you can try out a variety of different models.

 

Our skis rental gear is in particularly high demand this season, especially AT gear, so if you want to rent some you should call ahead of time. We can take reservations up to a month in advance.

 

Let the snow fall!

 

Thank you!!!

[jaee]

Regarding beacons. FF does rent them, but remember that these things are highly sensitive and not designed to be kicked around a bunch.

Umm, that's exactly what they are designed for. To go thru an avalanche and still function. They'd better be able to rattle around in the back of your car or pack for a few dozen days.

 

They also do have a shelf life and the more they're used, the less accurate they become (over a number of years). If you go into the backcountry at all, you should really get your own.

 

True dat. Ortovox have a little sticker in the battery compartment with the expiration year on it. The current crop is supposed to be good for 5 years from date o' manufacture. Then you need to send them in for a test/calibration.

[archenemy]

Again, I thank you for your advice. You guys are a goldmine of info.

Is buying a used beacon a really stupid idea, or are there some good deals out there? If new ones are the only way to go, where can I order/purchase from?

[sexual_chocolate]

Ummm, I think Feathered Friends sells such gear.

[jaee]

Go pro. Swing a pro deal or find someone who can. Pretty much 1/2 price. That's one of the benefits of working with some volunteer organizations that get a bad rap on this board. Our Mazamas ski mountaineering instructors and climb leaders qualify for some decent deals on some gear.

 

Mount Hood has a volunteer ski patrol. Dunno if there's anything like that up there. Free lift tickets and training plus a few pro deal bones to boot.

 

Otherwise it's still not a bad price for insurance.

[archenemy]

Go pro. Swing a pro deal or find someone who can. Pretty much 1/2 price. That's one of the benefits of working with some volunteer organizations that get a bad rap on this board. Our Mazamas ski mountaineering instructors and climb leaders qualify for some decent deals on some gear.

 

Mount Hood has a volunteer ski patrol. Dunno if there's anything like that up there. Free lift tickets and training plus a few pro deal bones to boot.

 

Otherwise it's still not a bad price for insurance.

exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. Thanks!

[Figger_Eight]

Umm, that's exactly what they are designed for. To go thru an avalanche and still function. They'd better be able to rattle around in the back of your car or pack for a few dozen days.

 

Okay - let me rephrase. They're definitely tough enough for that, but for something that costs that much and does a pretty important job, I would be reluctant to let it rattle around in the trunk of anything.

[cj001f]

You can get as good/better deals by paying attention to sales. I wouldn't reccomend the NSP basic courses for BC travel or Avy skills.

[JoeMack]

quote] I wouldn't reccomend the NSP basic courses for BC travel or Avy skills.

 

Care to elaborate?

[cj001f]

Care to elaborate?

Nothing particularly nefarious, just that the basic NSP courses like Avalanche, in my experience, spend as much or more time on being a rescuer, rather than on avoiding rescue. The latter is necessary in the backcountry, proper probe line technique isn't, and there are other outfits that aren't much more expensive and require less time that would give you better BC skills quicker.

 

Join ski patrol if you want to help people and learn firstaid skills or improve your existing firstaid skills, would like to meet interesting people, and like skiing & the outdoors. It'll probably benefit you in that order, it did me.

[jaee]

I think the pattern of focusing on beacons and rescue is a result of the american level 1 sort of course. These weekend courses tend to offer just enough snow science to overwhelm the average joe then take them outside to practice pits and rescue scenarios.

 

A new sort of course is emerging focusing on avy avoidance.

 

I think this will help, but the bottom line is folks spend thousands on gear and travel but can't be bothered to take more than a weekend avy course.

 

I've heard anecdotes supposedly supported by data (which I can't produce) that shows the most dangerous people in avy terrain are moderately experienced 25-35 year old males with the weekend avy 1 courses.

 

That being said, if you're dropping in in avy terrain, someone should know how to organize a probe line.

[cj001f]

I guess I wasn't clear. My weekend courses focused on companion and party self rescue. NSP Basic, in my experience, focused more on large (>20 people) rescues for groups of unknown/unsure size. Different skills - and companion rescue is proven the most efficent means of BC rescue, so probably a better use of time.

 

Neither spent a terribly large amount of time on routefinding etc, but the other courses were, again, more oriented towards a BC participant.

 

My .02 having taken both.