ctowles

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So wait, I’m not allowed to like a jacket that I own and have found works well for several years now because it’s wind stopper which you and several other deskchair mountaineers have deduced (mabye without use) to be inferior…

Fwiw the wind stopper seems to breath a billion times better than any of the high denier nylon gore tex hard shells I…[Read more]

So wait, I’m not allowed to like a jacket that I own and have found works well for several years now because it’s wind stopper which you and several other deskchair mountaineers have deduced (mabye without use) to be inferior…

Fwiw the wind stopper seems to breath a billion times better than any of the high denier nylon gore tex hard shells I…[Read more]

Soft shell, soft shell, soft shell.

I’ve never understood why people wear hard shells in the winter. Especially in the Rockies. I’ve been using soft shell exclusively for 10 years of backcountry snowboarding 100+ days a year and I can literally only remember 2x where the snow was just wet enough and warm enough to make the jacket feel wet inside.…[Read more]

Wow! That plum interface looks really slick. Looks light, solid, great mechanism for locking the board halves together. Transitions look fast. Looks like it has a really solid heel lock for split skiing adjustable on the fly. Im really impressed. Leave it to those at guys to come out of nowhere and kill it. Nice work. Im gonna hold off on new…[Read more]

Conditions are prime right now. Yesterday was the deepest day of the year and another foot in the next 24. Sketchy avi conditions but that could change. The pass is riding good right now and there are touring options in gtnp as well. Forget discount or free tickets. Almost impossible to come by. Employees get 50%.. No more vouchers. Tickets are…[Read more]

Well, i ended up just buying a set of 140 ascension nylons. I was all hot on the glidelite, but the guy at the store convinced me that with rocker, steep skin tracks, and dry coarse snow nylon was the answer. In my experience thru 9 winters if using the nylons, he was correct, and it was hard to argue. The glidelites weighed 1/2 lb less, packed…[Read more]

Looks cool. May have to try it. I like the hooks, like a combo of the best things of all the systems. The tip clips look cool. And i dig the saddle puck setup although its hard to tell exactly how it works. Only thing i see that looks like it could use improvement is that the parts are bent, and the clips and hooks seem to stick up tall. I…[Read more]

Gimmick! Anybody that thinks you could reach down and simply unclip has obviously never actually taken a ride in an avalanche. I unfortunatly have once, and it was a life changing experience. let me tell you when you are in the washing machine getting tumbled out of control at 50 mph you arent gonna be able to grab ahold of anything, especially at…[Read more]

Double post

Also re: skintracks, yes skintracks around jackson are notoriously steep. Crazy rando geeks around here like to go straight up, and i usually just claw my way up stuff rather than set a new track. In addition, there are a few canyons in the alpine around here with big steep headwalls. You need to claw your way up these to get to all the upper…[Read more]

Re: climbingskinsdirect i tried but those guys are jokers. They are right here in jackson. I didnt like their goofy graphics cause they look like clipart to me so i emailed them to see if i could get any of the older plain blue material….no answer, so then i called, called again and left a message, called a differant number and got voicemail for…[Read more]

I ride solo alot. I can never move as fast as when i am out on my own. All that being said, i tend to keep it pretty mellow when i am solo. If you get slid you are toast. If you hurt yourself badly in the middle of nowhere you could be toast. If you tumble down some rocky chute and nobody is there to see you could be toast. So i tend to stick to…[Read more]

Chris_towles

Shots of Jackson, teton pass, grand Teton national park, and biking, ww kayaking, fishing, hiking in the summer

what about splitting your board and skiing out instead of wallowing. our average approaches here in the tetons range from 2-3 miles of flat on the way in and out. walking that distance would be hell, but we make it in an out quickly by splitting to skis and kicking and gliding with no skins on. i think part of being a splitboarder is being quick…[Read more]

heres my setup, since someone asked. if you notice, i have pretty much followed the light is right mentality whenever possible, and since i counted the ounces, the pounds followed:

board: 165 BC split w/ spark LT pins and brackets
bindings: spark Blaze
boots: burton Driver X
poles: Black diamond alpine carbon cork
Pack: Black diamond outlaw…[Read more]