Rossignol Alltrack Pro 130

Man has it been awhile since I've posted. I guess between being a husband and a father, and having a fulltime job, time kinda gets away from me. Today I want to talk about one of my favorite pairs of ski boots and why I think they were perfect for me at the time. After my ski racing career I wanted a boot that was stiff and yet comfortable, seeing as race boots are far from comfortable. The first pair of boots I skied in, after race boots, were a pair of Nordica SpeedMachine 110s, and I never really fell in love with the boots. I didn't think that they were very comfortable, and I didn't think that they were stiff enough for me to enjoy them. I'm sized for my feet at a 26, so I usually end up in a 25.5 since no-one makes full sizes, simply half sizes. The Nordica SpeedMachine's were a 26.5, which was perfect after not skiing for 2 years, but that meant that I spent that ski season looking for boots that I would want to ski in and be a 25.5. As luck would have it, the Rossignol rep hooked me up big time and I got a pair of the Rossignol Alltrack Pro 130s for a screaming deal. They were the first pair of ski boots that I not only felt comfortable touring in, but also felt were stiff enough to really enjoy charging in them.

The Rossignol Alltrack Pro 130s offer a great ski boot, that has a decent touring mode. I will agree with many other reviewers that the boot isn't the greatest touring boot on the market, but at the same time, it isn't meant to be. This boot is fun to ski in, it has a more upright and comfortable stance than most high performance ski boots, a fairly wide last for a boot of this stiffness and all in all these things make this boot great for hard charging skiers that want a boot they can tour in and be comfortable in. To be completely honest I don't know what else to add about these boots. There are things that I would have liked more, but as a hybrid boot goes the Alltrack Pro 130 is amazing. I used these boots for 2 seasons of skiing and put 160 days of skiing into them before I ended up breaking the shell and needed to move on to my next boot, but to this day, the Rossignol Alltrack Pro 130 is probably my favorite boot I've ever skied in.

Black Diamond Boundary Ski Poles

You may look at the topic of this post and think to yourself, "Why would I want to read a review about ski poles?" and in the case of the Black Diamond Boundary ski poles, you want to read a review about them because they are absolutely amazing. They may not be the lightest ski poles on the market, they aren't made from carbon, and they don't pack down very small, but they have handled the abuse of being my ski poles for 3 years now, and they haven't bent on me yet. For me, that is a big deal.

I grew up ski racing and so I would either ski with pre-bent GS poles or with slalom poles that would end up bent after just a few days of training. So for me, having a pair of poles that haven't been bent after three years is amazing. Now, the reason that my slalom poles got bent is because I would overreach when I was cross-blocking, blocking the slalom gate from hitting you in the face, and the ski pole would bend after the constant abuse of the gates hitting the poles in the same place, run after run. However, after I stopped racing, my poles would end up bent after a month of skiing with them. Sometimes they would get bent from tree skiing, sometimes they would get bent from me falling on them, sometimes they would get bent from me being an idiot on the chairlift, but they would always end up bent for some reason or another. But the Boundary ski poles are different. I have been an idiot with them on the chairlift, and they have gotten stuck under my leg when I'm suppose to be getting off of the lift and they are still straight. This same mistake has broken a few pairs of lesser poles in half. I have smacked these poles on trees on accident as I go skiing by them and they still manage to just have a few scratches on them. I have rolled over these poles a few too many times, just ask my body, it hasn't handled the crashes nearly as well as these ski poles. I have even bent a pair of skis to have a cambor they weren't suppose to have with a crash in the time I have been skiing with these poles, and yet the poles still don't have a bend in them. I have traveled with these ski poles and everytime I get off of the plane and check my gear the poles are still in great condition and are just as straight as they day I got them. These are a durable pair of ski poles, and I absolutely love them. I didn't think that having a durable pair of poles would make me as happy as these poles have made me.

I could now go into the different features of these poles, like the fact that they are adjustable height backcountry ski poles. Or that the adjusting mechanism is made out of metal instead of the flimsy plastic clips that I always seem to break, which very well might be one of the greatest things Black Diamond has done for ski poles, but what's the point? My favorite thing about these poles is that they still haven't bent after 3 years of abuse. Here's to hoping that these ski poles last in the years to come.

Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 short

There are so many options out there these days when it comes to choosing a framed freeride touring binding and it can be incredibly hard to decide which bindings you want to pick to help get your fix of sidecountry and backcountry skiing. When it came time for me to select a binding, I looked at Marker (Barons and Dukes), Salomon/Atomic (Guardian/Tracker) and Tyrolia (Adrenaline and Ambition). In the end I decided to go with the Tyrolia Adrenalin bindings for a few very specific reasons. They are lighter weight than their Marker and Salomon/Atomic counterparts, they seem to be just as durable and more functional (in my opinion). I didn't like the Salomon/Atomic bindings because you have to adjust the riser bar so that your bindings don't clip back in each time you step down, and I didn't like the Marker bindings because you have to pull your boot out of the binding to transition from ski mode to hike mode and vice versa. In the end I purchased the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 bindings since they were less expensive than the Tyrolia Ambition bindings and had a higher Din rating. I have used them for around a hundred days of resort skiing and have probably twenty days of backcountry skiing on them. In this review I will write about skiing with the bindings, touring with the bindings, my setup experience with these bindings, and traveling with these bindings.

Skiing with the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13

Most people that have skied on a pair of framed freeride bindings know that you often times get a dead spot in the flex of the ski where the binding is. The Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 does not have this issue. One of the things that Tyrolia did with the Adrenaline is that they made it a "floating" binding, this allows the binding to move as the ski flexes, which in turn allows the ski to flex where it would otherwise have a dead spot. Having come from a racing background I found this an incredibly nice feature for this binding. Most of my skis have a racing plate, or a riser plate, that allows the ski to have a consistent flex throughout the body of the ski. It also adds extra height that allows the skier to get the ski "on edge" easier, but can be hard on your knees. The plate on the Tyrolia Adrenalin has a similar effect on the skis that you choose to mount them on. They allow the ski to have a more consistent flex, and while the height of the plate is not nearly as extreme as a racing plate, it still makes it easier to get your skis on edge while not as hard on your knees. All in all these features make the Tyrolia Adrenaline one of my favorite bindings to ski on in resorts. With this being said I do like to have a much lower profile binding (to keep my boot as close to the ski as possible) on my fat skis so that my knees don't kill me at the end of the day. The reason for this is because the fatter the ski the more forces that are on your knee, and the higher the binding is from the snow the more forces that are on you knee. So, my super fat 127mm underfoot skis get the Tyrolia Attack bindings so that my boot can be as close to the ski as possible. With all of this being said, if you have a ski that is 110mm underfoot or smaller I would recommend that you look at the Tyrolia Adrenaline bindings for day to day resort skiing, especially if you are considering going into the sidecountry or backcountry.

Touring with the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13

As touring bindings go, the Tyrolia Adrenaline 13s are really heavy, that being said they are still lighter than the Marker Barons, and the Salomon/Atomic Guardian/Tracker 13s. So, if you want to use a framed freeride binding the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 is a great binding to use since it is the lightest of the framed freeride bindings. That being said if you want to use a binding that is a little more touring oriented you may want to try the Tyrolia Ambition 12s, or the Fritschi Diamir pro bindings. Anyhow the point of this review isn't to give you other options when it comes to bindings it's to let you know my thoughts on the binding when you are touring. Now that we have gone over the weight of the binding you can see why I choose the binding I did, at least from a weight perspective. The next reason that I chose this binding was due to the way that the binding releases into hike mode, and the different climbing angles that the riser bar can go to. While you are using your ski pole it is incredibly easy to transition from ski mode to hike mode, and hike mode to ski mode, as long as you don't get too much snow built up in the bottom of the framing plate. This makes it easy to transition when you have some short downhills in your hike. The next thing I really like about this binding is the different angles that you can hike at. It has three climbing settings and they cover most of the slopes that you will be hiking on. That being said I would like another higher setting for when I climb steeper slopes. I think that the worst part about using these bindings is that after a climb, where you have been cutting the trail, snow and ice builds up in the base of the plate because it has a honeycomb structure that packs snow and ice in. This is a small price to pay for the benefits of this binding over the other bindings that I could have chosen. The thing to remember is that every binding has it's pros and cons and that you need to select a binding that fits your needs and for me the Tyrolia Adrenalin meets my needs. 

Setting up the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13

Setting up the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 is slightly more difficult than setting up a normal binding. The reason for this is that it is both Alpine Din compatible, your typical ski boots, and Alpine Touring compatible, your walk to ride rockered ski boots. This means that you need to adjust your toe piece for the boots that you are using. The toe piece does have markings for where you should adjust the binding to for Alpine Din soles, which does make it slightly more simple. Everything else is really easy to set up, the Din setting is changed just like most bindings and the heel piece adjusts just like a demo binding does. Over all these bindings are easy to setup, and even come with a plastic mounting jig but if you are not accustomed to setting bindings up you may want to take these to a ski shop to mount. 

Traveling with the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13

Traveling with these bindings can be a pain, I flew with my skis this last season and when I got to where I was going the airline company had adjusted my toe piece and I needed to readjust them when I got to where I was going. The problem, I didn't notice until I was already skiing and noticed that I had some slop in my bindings. Luckily there are always screwdrivers that you can use at resorts, and I always carry a screwdriver when I go into the backcountry. 

Conclusion

All in all I am very happy with these bindings and highly recommend them to anyone that is looking to use a framed freeride binding. Anytime that I want a ski that can tour but will mostly be used for resort skiing the Tyrolia Adrenalin 13 is what my skis will be mounted with. 

RTIC 36 Oz. Bottle

This week I thought that I would spend some time testing the RTIC vacuum insulated 36 Oz. Bottle. I got it a few months ago because it was so much less expensive than the other bottles I have used in the past. I've had the chance to use the Hydro Flask bottles and they are fantastic but they cost around twice as much as the RTIC bottles do. So, I pulled the trigger on the RTIC bottle and I am so glad that I did as it has ended up being one of my favorite water bottles.

This week I decided to do a test with the RTIC bottle, I needed some ice during my day at work and so I went to my freezer and filled my bottle with ice and hoped that the ice would last all day. It was an interesting test since the bottle ends up having a lot of extra space in it and isn't filled fully with ice. After 8 hours in the bottle and me using some of the ice in a drink the bottle was still mostly full.

I then decided to see how much water was left in the bottle and ended up only having a gulp of water in the bottom of the bottle. When I noticed how little water was in the bottle I chose to see how much ice would be left after 12 hours in the bottle.

After 12 hours in the bottle I still had a few full cubes left, but a majority of the ice had melted and I was left with around a half a cup of water. In the end of the little test I was super impressed with this bottle and I was so glad that I had pulled the trigger to purchase it. All in all I highly recommend the RTIC bottles and will probably purchase them in favor of their more expensive counterparts. Maybe one day I will purchase one of their coolers and then I will be able to review that as well.

Rossignol Experience 100 - 190cm

I figured that for my first review I would start with one of my favorite pairs of skis. I have had the chance to ski on quite a few pairs of skis including the Rossignol Soul 7s, the Volkl Mantras, the Blizzard Bonafides, the Head Venturi 95s, the Head Collective 105s and a whole lot of other skis that fall in the range of 95 mm under foot to 106 mm under foot. But each day, when I get up to the mountain, the skis that I go for are almost always my Experience 100s.

There are a few reasons why I almost always pick the Experience 100s, the first being that they are fantastic all mountain skis. The next reason is because they feel a lot like a World Cup GS race ski, and lastly they are a good ski in the powder. I can pick this ski on any given day and will more likely than not have a good time.

 I can ski on these in almost any conditions that the mountain has to throw at me, and I know that they will be fun in those conditions. The only exception to this rule is moguls. I was at Heavenly Ski Resort and decided to ski down the "Gun Barrel" and while it was a lot of fun the Experience 100s in a 190 cm length are really heavy, a bit fat for being a good mogul ski and really long. Because of this, I was gassed about halfway down the run. Luckily for me it was the last run of the day and I could take breaks every once in awhile. Though that meant that my wife, who took the chair lift down, was stuck waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. The point being, if I am uncertain of the mountains conditions this is the ski that I will pick.

The Experience 100s feel a lot like my World Cup GS race skis and they are so much fun to make fast, full speed turns on. They are a lot softer than my World Cup GS race skis, which makes them easier to ski on when I'm with others that don't have a racing background. With that being said I haven't had any problems keeping up with others that do have a solid racing background.

Lastly, while I said that they are fun in almost any condition, they are a lot of fun in the powder. They are 100 mm at the waist and 140 mm in the tip. To put that into perspective, the Rossignol Soul 7 is 106 mm in the waist and 140 mm in the tip. While the Experience 100 is 140 mm for a much smaller section of the ski they are still a great powder ski. They don't float as well as dedicated powder skis and the tip may sink more often then the Soul 7, but I know that if I go find some deep powder they will be a blast and, as long as I ski with good form, I will enjoy them.

All of this being said, the fact that they can ski in almost any condition makes them my go to skis, and not necessarily because of how floaty they are. I can ski in cut up powder (crud) and know that they are going to be stable, if I do hit a larger pocket of untouched powder I will still have enough float to enjoy myself. If I hit the groomers, I will be able to make nice large GS turns all of the way down the mountain.

Many people say that the Rossignol Soul 7 is Rossignol's "Quiver of 1"; I disagree. I think that it's the Experience 100. The Soul 7 gets a tip flap in the crud, and they don't do well at high speeds. As a powder ski, the Soul 7 is an amazing "Quiver of 1", but if you are looking for a true all mountain ski that does it all, I would highly recommend the Rossignol Experience 100.

Who Am I

Having worked in the outdoor industry in the past I have decided that I would like to do some "work" in the industry once more and I figured that it would be fun to review the gear I love to use during my lunch break, in the evenings and on weekends. But, who am I, and how do I have the knowledge to do gear reviews? Well, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up skiing for the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation, or the Snowbird Ski Team. I skied around 100 days a year and competed all around the west. During the summer months we would do other activities such as mountain biking and rock climbing. Two sports that I latched onto and now love almost as much as skiing. I also grew up as a Boy Scout and learned to love camping, but more importantly backpacking. I was able to participate in multiple 50-100 mile backpacking trips as a scout and loved every minute of it. It is something that I have continued to do now with my friends and family. While I was in college I worked at an outdoor shop called Out N Back, check out their site if you get a chance, it's not the best site in the world, but the guys at the shop really know what they are talking about. One of the best things I could have done for my knowledge of outdoor gear was to work at that shop. They have clinics with the gear reps once a week during spring and fall where they do nothing for a few hours except learn about the gear. The guys that work in that shop are some of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met when it comes to outdoor gear, and remember, I use to have clinics once a week with the gear reps. While I am now a sales/systems engineer I will always love the outdoors and I hope that by reviewing gear that I use that I'll be able to help others find good quality gear, and that I'll be able to do some "work" in the outdoor industry once again.