Xtra-Tuf Steel Toe Boots
October 6, 2009
Recently I got a little feedback about being negative about relationships in one of my latest posts. It was just a riff, honest! I love a good relationship, I really do. It’s just that they’re so rare. Most of them are crap, admit it. But when one good comes along, believe me, I know how to hold onto it. So I got to thinking about relationships that really have worked out well, and one of those is the one between me and my Xtra-Tuf boots. Xtra-Tufs have long been referred to as “Alaskan sneakers” because most Alaskans have and use Xtra-Tufs on a regular basis. In Southeast Alaska, if you don’t have Xtra-Tufs, you are not only uncool but you’re probably very miserable and have wet feet a lot.
I was headed out for another field assignment in which I got to destroy and burn things, so of course when I was packing I reached for my trusty Xtra-Tufs. I put them on and realized, “hey, these aren’t my Tufs. . . .” After a few phone calls I figured out that one of my girlfriends was wearing Tufs that she didn’t think were hers. Mystery solved. That’s how common Xtra-Tufs are in Alaska, you can’t even tell which ones are yours. We didn’t have time to switch back so I wore hers on the field assignment, and since they were the steel toe version, those are the ones I’ll review in this article.
I really did luck out with getting a pair of steel toes for this trip. They were a little warmer than the regular ones, with a thicker sole and the added safety of the steel toe. This was very handy while destroying structures and walking over nails and broken glass and having things fall on my feet. I guess all I can really say about that is that I never had any sole punctures and when things feel on my feet it didn’t bother me because the steel toes saved me. I never had cold feet even in freezing temps, which seems weird with chunks of metal over my toes, but I’ll go with it since it worked. The form-fitting uppers fit well under pants, though some of my colleagues wear their pants tucked into their Tufs – whichever you prefer. Now that I’ve tried the steel toe version, I highly recommend it – I don’t see the downside. Regular Tufs are great for fishing or walking, and I’ve even hiked in them a time or two. They do last a while, even if you ignore the recommendation to not fold them over. I wore mine folded over for six years and eventually they did wear through, but they are easily patched with JB Weld, or, in my case, by a good friend who builds and repairs rafts for a living.
Like most Alaskans, I reach for Xtra-Tufs when temperatures are moderate and there’s any possibility of wet ground. If you come to Alaska to visit, and want to fit in, grab yourself a pair of Tufs and no one will possibly know you’re a tourist. Unless you carry your regular shoes with you to change into later – that’s a blazing red “TOURIST!!!” neon sign if there ever was one. Suck it up and wear your Tufs at the office like an Alaskan.
Mountain Hardwear EV 2 Tent
September 12, 2009
Usually gear names are some crazy mishmash of numbers and letters that only have meaning to the geekiest of the geeky, but pretty much anyone who has been above sea level knows that the EV here stands for Ed Viesturs. Ed (he lets me call him Ed, or at least I’ll just assume I can call him Ed until he writes in and tells me otherwise) has detailed the specs for this tent for Mountain Hardwear, and it’s evident that he’s left nothing out. Wait, he’s left some stuff out, or else this high-altitude mountaineering tent wouldn’t weigh in at an insane five pounds. Okay, so he’s left the vestibule out – it’s built in. He’s left out the minibar and the espresso machine, which, let me tell you, go a long way in convincing me to go climb anything in winter. I had high hopes once I heard about this built-in vestibule thing, but no – the minibar is not similarly included. Ah well, sometimes a Geargal has to take one for the team.
Most of the Geargals have taken this tent out at one time or another. None of them, I have to point out, were doing anything particularly epic so we all feel a little sheepish about toting around the Ed Viesturs name when it’s a balmy 20 degrees out and we’re only at 300 meters. But then we realize that we only have to carry five pounds of tent even in winter, and we feel better. We do find that lots and lots of people want to borrow this tent when they do anything in winter, and the Head Geargal gets a little shifty-eyed when anyone but her takes it somewhere without her when it’s below 50 degrees. She is well known for her lack of tolerance for cold, which is pretty funny for someone who lives in Alaska and runs an outdoor gear blog, so she never likes it when she doesn’t have the warmest tent in the arsenal at her disposal. [Nice. Way to blow my gnarly persona. -HG]
We have mixed feelings about the built in vestibule thing. I suppose if you really are in some sort of desperate situation (and I find 90% of all mountaineering a desperate situation, I admit) you probably would really like having your stuff in the tent with you instead of outside getting assimilated into the snowpack by driving wind and blowing snow. I have to say that personally I don’t mind having all my gear in the tent but you can really tell that Ed is a dude by the way the built in vestibule takes up most of the doorway. It just reminds me of the way I have to step over 8 pairs of dude shoes just to get in the house – a chick would have put the gear space AWAY from the door. Now, I’m sure there is some sort of fancy mountaineering reason why it’s better to have the gear near the door, but I don’t know what it is and as you’re probably gathering from this post, I really don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to mountaineering. One thing that I understand about mountaineering is that people who do it really like each other a lot; if they didn’t there is no possible way they could tolerate being in a tent this small. For a two person tent these are some cozy accommodations. But that’s OK because I suppose if you’re in an extremely cold environment, close quarters help preserve body heat. And speaking of preservation, this tent is so windproof that it has all kinds of warnings printed on the inside about how you HAVE to open the vents or you are risking suffocation. Eeek! It feels all kinds of bizarre to be opening vents on your tent when it’s really cold out. But I follow directions and was afraid of waking up dead, so I opened the vents as ordered. The tent still stayed pretty warm and for a single wall tent didn’t frost up too badly – but even if it did, there is a cool little zipper in the floor for “frost management.” Now I am dying of curiosity – do high altitude mountaineers really bring along little brooms to help with the frost management? I must know. I mean, is that a luxury item or what? Also I have to mention that it’s hard enough to get dudes to sweep the floor in a normal house, do they really put any time into sweeping the floors of their tents? I just can’t see it.
Well, I don’t know about dudes, but my winter camping trip with the EV2 really proved that chicks don’t mind a little tent maintenance – we swept out the frost like there was no tomorrow. Though admittedly if that cool frost management zipper hadn’t been there, we probably wouldn’t have bothered. So kudos to Ed Viesturs for promoting cleanliness and making dudes think about sweeping. If only I could install a dirt management zipper in my kitchen floor. [Readers, I present to you a winter gear review written by my least winter-ish writer. Well done! Now give me back that tent. - HG]
Mountain Hardwear Wayback Pack
September 12, 2009
FINALLY this pack is available to the masses. Wait – damn, this means I’m no longer going to be the only one who has it. I’ve been using it since last fall and it has quickly become my go-to for just about everything. I love it for backcountry skiing because the avy gear pocket is big enough, the main compartment has tons of room, and the fit is good even for smaller skiers. I have ample space for skins, snacks, water, camera, extra clothes – everything you need for a full day in the backcountry. And, best of all, the pack has rear-panel access, which is the only way to go, really.
The Wayback is tough, really tough, which it needs to be to tote around shovels, probes, saws, and other avy gear. The fit is the new-ish style that carries the load down lower than we’re used to; but we like it because of the resulting low-pro fit and the stability of the pack. What really makes me favor the pack, though, is the combination of the roomy avy gear pocket and the bottomless main compartment. It’s a rare pack that can hold a 15″ shovel plus a 300″ probe and leave any space in the main pack to put things, but the Wayback has space to spare. I carry a good deal of stuff when I ski and I’ve yet to max out the pack. Two top pockets and two waist belt pockets round out the pocket selection, including a padded fleece google top pocket. The waist pockets can actually be accessed while you’re wearing the pack so no more pesky dislocated shoulders from trying to reach your camera!
Technically this isn’t a women’s specific pack but it seems to recover well from this deficiency by fitting well, thanks to MHW’s careful attention to detail. The waist belt can cinch small enough for us wee folks and most importantly, the chest strap can be adjusted high up for comfort. Chest straps are supposed to be higher than most people think, but for women this is even more vital for what should be obvious reasons. Evidently the pack comes in “regular” and “long” so perhaps the varied sizing helps fit a greater range of bodies. I’m pretty sure mine is the “regular” size which works fine for 5′5″ me.
The one detail lacking is the emergency whistle buckle that for a while seemed to be standard on chest straps. I like this detail mostly for whistling for my dog, but it would also be great in an emergency so it’s a nice thing to include. Not sure if they’ve just fallen out of favor or what, but I endorse them so it’s obvious no one asked ME before making this vital industry decision. Other than that, the Wayback is all I ever wanted in a ski pack – and a hiking pack, a search pack, a climbing pack….
GSI Outdoors Bugaboo Hiker Cookset
July 13, 2009
So I run in a social circle full of people who climb mountains, swim in muddy lakes and freezing rivers, and grub around in the dirt sleeping in tents for fun. During a big party weekend, where are we? In the woods, in tents, swatting bugs, and cooking on open flame. What could be better? But there’s always that one girl who has to wash her hair in the creek and put on her makeup before she’ll be seen in public. Huh, I don’t really get it. Getting AWAY from societal expectations is what makes camping appealing. Aside from her, I knew that my camping partners were my kind of people when they had more questions about the camp cookware I was using than about what I did for a living. I fielded more “How do you like that GSI pot?” and “How does that handle work, it looks cool!” than I ever expected. Of course, I was camping with over thirty people, so that alone will result in more questions than average.
Still, when I got the Bugaboo kit to check out I wasn’t expecting it to be much different than any other camp pot I’ve ever used. I was even a bit stressed about how to write a feature article about it; I mean, it’s a pot, it holds water, as long as that part is successful that’s pretty much what you need to know, right? So I was relieved and delighted to find that the Bugaboo is actually a very clever cookware kit, complete with multipurpose, er, holdy things that can be used as cups, bowls, or food storage. They’re super cool; they even have lids that help keep your drink warm while keeping campfire ash out of your drink. There are four containers shaped like Trivial Pursuit pieces, and they just snug back into the pot for storage and transport. The removable handle clips onto the pot securely and easily; no more balancing a heavy pot of boiling water with one of those pincer-type handles.
Best of all, the pot really did help boil water faster! Strange, but true. I’m used to leaving a pot of water on my stove for 20 minutes, waiting for it to boil, but the Bugaboo did the job in less than 5! And yes, I was using the same stove. Now I understand why all my camp partners were so interested in it. One of my partners even said he knew a guy who had a friend who used the Bugaboo on Denali. Which is not really that big of a deal considering all the stuff people haul up there, including toilet seats, lawn chairs, blenders, you name it. But it IS pretty cool for GSI to be making a name for itself; it was certainly recognizeable by many. And it’s definitely a hit with me; finally cookware I actually get excited about using! This is a first. Even at home I don’t use my cookware. Hmm, maybe if I use the Bugaboo at home I might be more excited about cooking…
Mountainsmith Modular Hauler 3 System Deluxe
July 1, 2009
How much do I love my Mountainsmith system? So much that I designed the gear racks for my car around the Mountainsmith bag. I never go anywhere without it. I like to keep my stuff organized and this is a CDOers dream. CDO is much like OCD except that all the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be. But anyway, back to the Hauler. It’s basically a big bag with three smaller bags inside it, but it’s so much more than that. The three smaller bags are different colors so you can easily access whatever gear you want, and it still stays organized easily. You’d think it would get too heavy when full, but it never does. Those zippers hide portals to another dimension, I swear. It’s easily hoisted out of the car and back again, and since everything has its place, it’s a one-step operation.
The big bag has a rubber-reinforced bottom so it can be set on rocks, dirt, what have you. Why you would want to do that if you’re going to put it back in your hyper-clean car is beyond me, but maybe others aren’t quite as worried about their perfectly clean carpet. Each smaller bag has its own haul straps if you need to grab just one, and they’re all made with great construction and padded sides to protect your stuff. The big bag zippers shut over the smaller bags, giving others the illusion of organization even if you are secretly a cube slob. Whether you’re folding carefully or wantonly stuffing, the Modular Hauler has a place for everything.
One of my favorite features is the interchangeability of components. I took out one of the regular inner bags and substituted the K-9 Cube to make sure my dog not only had all his gear but that it was organized as well. It fit just perfectly, and since there are lots of specialty cubes to be had, you can customize the hauler to carry whatever you want! If I were to design the perfect cube combination, I’d take the K-9 Cube, the Bike Cube, and the Boot Cube. Oh, and the Cooler Cube and a Basic Cube for good measure. Hmm, guess I need a bigger hauler.
Dynafit TLT Vertical Ski Bindings w/Comfort Brakes
April 22, 2009
(uh, brakes not shown in picture above. Sorry.)
It didn’t take many backcountry ski outings before I realized what I chump I was to not have Dynafit bindings. I got really sick of plodding and wheezing in my 8 pound Densomatic boots with bindings heavy enough to be made from the scraps of the Schwarzenegger-era Terminator, trailing at the back of the pack as my Dynafit-outfitted ski partners scampered blissfully to the tops of our target peaks, condescendingly patting me on the head as they shot past me on the uptrack, time and time again. There was just no way these guys were more fit than me, so there had to be something to those tiny bits of metal they were using as bindings. These bizarre contraptions look like they were pounded together in someone’s garage, but they are the ski binding of choice if you eschew the resort. They’re MY ski binding of choice even at the resort, but with 50+ backcountry days and 2 resort days each year, it doesn’t matter much what I do when I’m there (although the ski patrol may disagree).
Dynafit bindings work by clicking your boots into two spring-loaded prongs on the toe piece, which naturally require a special Dynafit compatible boot. Many manufacturers are making their boots compatible these days, so if you have a little metal divot on each side of your boot toe, you’re golden. If not, get some Dynafit-compatible boots, because you need these bindings, believe me. The skin track will be faster and more fun! You can take cruel enjoyment out of blowing past any poor Dynafitless struggler you can find. Of course, the day that someone in alpine boots laps you despite your Dynafits and lighter-than-air Dynafit-compatible boots, you will be humbled. But that hardly ever happens. Well, it happened once, and it still stings.
Anyway, because of the different click-in action and a few extra steps required to secure your boots to these bindings, it might be a frustrating first outing. As one of my partners put it: if you have trouble at first, it’s not the bindings, it’s you. With a little bit of practice, you’ll be in and out of these in no time. To get into tour mode, click into the toe piece and pull up on the little lever until you get a series of clicks. Then you’re locked in. You can raise and lower the heel riser by twisting the heel piece. When you first get them, chance are you’ll try to tour in ski mode and fall out of your bindings all the time, or twist the heel piece too far and end up locked in. All I can say about that is “Ha ha! Newbie.” For ski mode, you have to push down on the toe lever and completely release the toe clips – sounds cumbersome, but once you practice, it’s really quick – and then step back in WITHOUT pulling up on the lever. Click your heels in, and you are now in releasable ski mode. Easy!
Speaking of releasable, if you fall and your skis come off, which they should, you might want them to come to a rest relatively close to you. Anyone who has seen a ski rocketing down a mountain free of the cumbersome load of a skier will know what I mean. So suck it up and get some brakes for your Dynafits. I know, you won’t look as cool on a day to day basis, but think of how much MORE cool you look than that guy trying to use his one remaining ski as a scooter to chase his other ski down the mountain. And if you ever do go to a resort, you will be required to have brakes or retention devices on your skis, and Dynafit brakes are much more cool than those HORRID leash things they come with. Serious dork alert, those leashes. Not only do they look stupid, but if you need them to release, say, when you’re caught in an avalanche, you actually have to reach down and manually unhook them. If anyone thinks that is actually possible in the turbulence of an avalanche, I’d like them to show me. Not in a real avalanche of course, because digging for buried people sucks, but perhaps these folks would be willing to stand in the bed of my pickup as I drive down a potholed, washboarded logging road at 50 mph and demonstrate the ease of leash release. Also, “Comfort Brakes”, what the hell? I don’t understand the name at all. They’re not Dr. Scholls insoles, they’re just brakes. Unless the name refers to the comfort you feel while you are tumbling down the back side of a booter, feeling your skis torque off and thinking “it’s such a comfort that I have brakes to stop my skis from sliding down the slope without me.” Or something.
All that said, Dynafit brakes are not the most awesome things ever. I mean, they work as brakes, but they make the whole Dynafit experience kind of annoying. First you have to compress the spring to get your bindings in tour mode. Sigh. Then it’s just that much harder to swivel the heel piece if you need the riser. If you turn them the wrong way or turn them too far accidentally, click! You’ve deployed your brakes! Now you have to compress them again. Then, if you are dork enough to need to take your skis off to remove your climbing skins, you’ll have to manually deploy the brakes to get any use out of them whatsoever. Worst of all, the brakes will make the heel piece rotate if you’re in tour mode on uneven ground, which is surprising to say the least. HikehikehikeCLICK “ack!” *crash* has happened to me more than once. It’s annoying, but less annoying than losing a ski. I guess.
To sum up: Dynafit bindings good. Dynafit brakes meh. But you must have both, grasshopper. Unless you weigh a billion pounds and really do need a mega DIN, of course. In that case, I give you leave to use non-Dynafit bindings, but I’ll still pity you. Until you lap me on the skin track, of course.
Dust Mask
March 29, 2009
Lightweight, portable, and great for filtering out volcanic ash particles when a volcano erupts and dumps ash on your head while you’re out skiing!
Yakima High Roller Bike Rack
March 11, 2009
Get a start-of-season deal at REI.com – the High Roller for $179. Click here!
If your bike is your most treasured possession, chances are you’re riding it most of the time. At least I am – but when I’m not riding it, I like it to be riding on my car, so I can take it with me to ride later. Until this year, my bike had to ride IN my car, because I didn’t have an external bike rack that would carry my fancy pants full-suspension bike. Then Yakima hooked the Geargals up with the High Roller bike racks, and now my bike can ride in style.
The High Roller installs in a snap onto any type of crossbar. Mine went on my Yakima crossbars and, naturally, that worked really well. The High Roller has three mount points and just screws on, and has a cable lock to lock the rack onto the bars when there’s no bike in it. It took about ten minutes to put the High Roller on my car since I already had the crossbars on, and I’m pretty picky about getting everything even so you could probably install it in five minutes if you are less fussy. Putting the bike in the rack is super easy too – just put it in the gutters, push it against the front hoop, turn the knob until the back hoop tightens, and then ratchet the back wheel strap down. You’re done! Of course, if you’re not tall or if you have a tall car, getting the bike up there can be kind of a hassle. I struggled with it for a few minutes and ended up standing on a bucket (and bringing the bucket to the trail head to stand on as well) to get the bike up and down before remembering that my car has an adjustable suspension and would politely lower itself for me if I asked it nicely by pressing the “down” button (no, really, it really does have an adjustable suspension, it’s quite handy). When I first put my favorite bike up there, I was a little nervous driving off – it doesn’t really LOOK super secure in the High Roller, but trust me – if it’s properly mounted, it’s not going anywhere.
The High Roller is designed to not touch the bike frame, so if you love your bike, you’ll love the High Roller. My favorite thing about this type of rack is that I don’t have to take my front wheel off – that just makes for extra hassle and less bike time. I’m not crazy about the cable lock – it’s kind of a pain to lock and unlock it all the time, but if you don’t lock it to something, it will just flop around and bang up the top of your car. I’d much rather have some sort of wheel hoop locking mechanism or something. There’s probably a reason Yakima didn’t go for that option, but I don’t know what it is.
I also don’t quite understand what’s keeping someone from simply unscrewing the mount points and walking off with my bike rack with my bike attached to it (other than the fact that it’s probably a big hassle to carry a bike attached to a bike rack and then try to get the bike off it), but the “pain in the ass factor” is probably a significant one for most thieves so I’ll take my chances. The cable lock, like all locks Yakima, works with the standard Yakima SKS lock cores, which is handy if you’ve been sufficiently forward-thinking as to buy enough lock cores that are all keyed the same. I didn’t, so I had to use a different key for my bike racks, but there’s probably a way to buy more lock cores keyed to your existing lock cores. But it’s bike season now and I’m too busy biking to go look that up for you, so you’re on your own.
Marker Baron Ski Binding
February 12, 2009
OK, so I’m not a resort skier. I don’t even own a pair of resort skis. Chairlifts are boring, groomers are lame, and any powder stashes get tracked up by the masses so fast it’s not even worth the price of a lift ticket. Downhill boots are uncomfortable and the bindings are heavy. Alpine touring is where it’s at; you get a better workout, don’t get cold on the lift or stunk out on the tram, and (if you’re doing it right) you don’t have to endure crowds of fratty snowboarders. Best of all you get untracked powder all over the place with just a little good old fashioned effort. So of course when I demoed some new powder skis this year, I requested that they have A/T bindings on them so that I could take them to the powder. They came with Marker Barons, which are billed as alpine touring bindings, and to that I say “bunk”. These are big, heavy alpine bindings. They are big, heavy alpine bindings that ski really well, are stable and powerful, and deliver some serious edge control; but as alpine touring bindings? No, no, and no. They are a giant hassle to switch from ski to tour mode and back again, and they’re so heavy I honestly can’t imagine trying to slog them around all day on a tour. I cringe and whine every time I have to carry skis with these bindings on them, because they are so heavy they mark up my delicate shoulder and make me puff with effort, which I usually don’t mind as long as there’s a 2000-foot powder run at the end of the effort. When the effort just gets me from the parking lot to the bottom of the chairlift, I get a little disgruntled. So, while these bindings ski really well, I just cannot cosign with the idea that they are A/T bindings.
And not just because of the weight. Alpine tour skiers usually ski in alpine touring boots. Alpine touring boots have slightly thicker soles than downhill boots because they have Vibram soles for grip. The Marker Baron binding is not designed to accommodate the thicker sole, and as a result they are really difficult to click into with A/T boots. Worse yet, the undue pressure on the heel of my A/T boots has damaged the rubber sole of my precious boots. Grrrrr, do NOT ever mess with my boots or you’ll find a bad review of yourself posted on the Geargals site. So here it is, Marker Barons, you messed with my boots and now you must pay. Go back to the resort where you belong.
SteriPEN Journey LCD Water Treatment System
January 14, 2009
Get the SteriPEN at REI.com for only $99.95. Click here!
It’s that time of year again – when I get to brag about my tropical vacations under the guise of “product testing”. Hey, it’s not all ice and snow all the time, folks. Last week a few of the Geargals packed up and flew off to Mexico for some sun and surf and stomach cramps. Just kidding. I’ve never actually had a problem with the water in Mexico but a few of the gals were concerned about it (sissies) so we brought along the Steri-PEN Journey LCD water purifier. Um, actually, I got that wrong. Dear IRS, we went on a business trip specifically and solely for product testing purposes. Here are all our receipts including the ones for our completely necessary first class upgrades. And please keep reading for the results of this ardous work trip.
We used the SteriPEN to treat all of our water, and reasoned that if no one got sick, we could consider the SteriPEN a success. No one got sick, so there you have it. Best of all, though, the SteriPEN is super easy to use, convenient, and light. It’s much more pleasant than iodine tablets, faster than boiling, safer than just taking your chances, and lighter than hauling all of your own water. What’s not to like? Basically you press the button once to treat one liter of water, and twice to treat a half liter. If you want to treat more water, just use more than one cycle of the SteriPEN. After pressing the button, put the bulb end of the SteriPEN into water, and wait until the LCD screen displays a little happy face to tell you the water is safe. There is also a countdown timer for impatient people who haven’t yet gotten the hang of zen. My SteriPEN sample kit even came with an official SteriPEN Nalgene bottle and a coarse filter for those truly appalling water sources. On this trip we didn’t need that, but it is pretty neat. You can fill your Nalgene directly from your water source just by filling it through the filter. Then the SteriPEN screws into the bottle for a watertight seal while you’re treating the water. Very gadgety. I can’t wait to take this on a camping trip and feel smug while my companions grimace their way through their iodine water or spend forty minutes bringing a liter of water to a boil. The SteriPEN made it through airport security with no problems and dutifully survived ten days of heavy use in Mexico, treating enough water for four people. Evidently the battery is good for 10,000 cycles so this trip probably didn’t even make a dent in the battery life.
Easily squicked-out types might want to skip this next part, but the way the SteriPEN works is by rendering bacteria sterile rather than killing it. So the bacteria are actually still in the water, but they can’t reproduce and therefore can’t harm you or make you sick. I will admit that usually I don’t ever treat my water, mostly because I’m lazy, and have thus far been extremely fortunate to have never been sick and therefore have never been properly motivated to treat my water. Now that I have the SteriPEN, though, I will definitely conform to outdoor safety standards and treat all of my water with this simple, lightweight device. Who knows what future gut-wrenching unpleasantness I’ve been saved from? Plus I get to look cool and techy while other people fumble around with stoves and filters, and you all know how much I like that.
