Stuff I like - Scarpa F1 LT

Over the last 20 years, or so, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering equipment has seen a ton of innovation. I’ve been both an observer and consumer of much of it. Aside from the development of the tech binding in the 90’s, boots have been the recipient of some of the most profound improvements in material, design and performance. Much of this innovation has been driven by the skimo race segment of the sport and the trickle down effect of boot design from race to touring boots.

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Blown - Life after my ACL rupture - 6

This post should conclude the Blown series of posts over the last 17 months. If you’ve been reading all along then you know my experience with my ACL reconstruction of my left knee has been bumpy, at best. The purpose of this final post is to report on my ultimate outcome as well as some thoughts for others facing a similar prospect now that I have hindsight in my favor.

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Blown - Life after my ACL rupture - 5

Although I’ve dismissed all superstition in my life as I’ve gotten older, there’s a curious tendency for health care workers to suffer complications following procedures performed ON them. I honestly doubt that the incidence of routine complications in this population is any higher than the general population but the phenomenon is, nonetheless, something we talk about often. And so it seems that I’ve become one such statistic feeding dubious credibility to this observation. 

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Alaska Spring and Type II Fun

Unlike other places I’ve lived in my life, Alaska is not known for consistently fine weather. The windows tend to be short and, if you’re a skier, you need to pounce on opportunities when they present themselves. For the traditionally employed, this can prove to be a problem when good weather materializes during the week and the shit comes back in on the weekend. 

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The Bomber Traverse

The early days of the Grand Teton Speed Project, Lycra required.As most readers know, I've been playing the speed game in ski mountaineering for several years. It was a natural distraction for active Teton and Wasatch skimo racers who wanted to take their race-honed fitness and ski skills to the higher peaks. For those of us who toyed with this sort of masochism, we enjoyed pushing each other, setting standards for others to pursue and generally enjoyed testing ourselves in the mountains. We coined it the "Grand Teton Speed Project". Granted, this stuff is not for everyone. The fat and baggy crowd could care less about going fast and covering lots of ground in a day. For them, the focus is on the down. Fair enough. For sure, our skiing was not pretty but we got more of it each day and this made us happy. We still like powder skiing on fat boards but Lycra and race sticks still capture our imagination.

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