Skimo Race Tips - Helmet and Goggles

Kim Young - 2013 US Skimo Champs photo: Mark GockeWhen I first started skimo racing several years ago, eye wear was a dilemna. Should I bring goggles? Do I need sun glasses? Should I go with nothing and keep it simple? Over several races I tried all those ideas. I also combed European race photos to see what the pros were doing.

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Trab Skin Attachment Mod

It's one thing to carve up your own gear but entirely another to permanently modify someone else's. I recently took a Dremel Tool to a brand new pair of skis which I purchased for a friend last spring. He lives in Europe much of the year and wanted me to pick out and buy a pair of skis for him during one of the end-of-the-season sales we have in Jackson. So, I found a pair of sweet Trab Stelvios for about 40% off. Although nice right our of the box, they still needed some refinement. 

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Making It Better - Gear mods for the obsessed

Disassembling the Petzl QuarkDane Burns is a machinist with an unquenchable thirst for cold and scary alpine and ice climbing. He writes about it frequently on his blog, www.coldthistle.blogspot.com. Bloggers in the climbing world seem to find each other with some regularity. I read Dane and he reads me. Not too long ago, he commented about my Petzl Quark ice tools which he noticed in some pictures of me climbing the Black Ice Couloir. He implied that my set-up was less than ideal and he could offer me an upgrade of his own creation. Cool.

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