The Ski Gear Blog

Wide Waxless Backcountry Skis

Posted on by Harvey

It’s funny how a piece of equipment can change the way you think about a sport. Skiers in the forum are excited about wide waxless backcountry skis for powder in rolling terrain. In theory, I got it.

backcountry ski boots

But then I was in the Garnet Hill Ski Shop in North River NY, and actually saw for the first time, in real life, the Scarpa T4s pictured above. I’ve seen that photo many times, but had never seen them for real, in the plastic.

Because they don’t have thermo-moldable liners you can try them on and see how they fit.  I’m a 27.5 Mondo and the shop had multiple pairs in my size and other average mens sizes. Adam the ski shop guy said “they’re tight as hell getting your foot in but if that is your size they’ll feel great when they are on.” He was right.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Backcountry, Powder, Ski Gear12 Comments

Search for a Ski Camera: Sony RX100

Posted on by Harvey

For three seasons, I’ve wanted a durable camera that would fit in my pocket, deploy quickly and take great pictures at the same time. I’m talking about sharp images that can standup to close scrutiny. And while the most famous skiers can get down the hill with a full-on digital SLR, I simply can’t. I can’t manage the bulk, and those cameras can’t handle the impacts they’d be likely to encounter in my parka.

When I last tried to solve this problem, there were plenty of compact, tough, reasonably fast cameras out there, but none of them were delivering sharp, crisp images.

But things are changing. It seems that the proliferation of smart phones, and the reasonable decent cameras they contain, has all but killed the point-and-shoot market.  Sales of compact inexpensive camera have dropped like a stone, and that’s pushing camera manufacturers to up their game in the portable camera sector. I came across a camera review in the New York Times for the Sony RX100 entitled Tiny Camera to Rival the Pros.

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Tagged: Ski Gear15 Comments

Worth Skis, Middlebury VT

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

We became aware of Worth Skis while “lurking” in Teton Gravity Research Forum’s East Coast Roll Call thread. A group of passionate TGR skier’s seem tied to the brand and I wanted to see what I could learn about the company. Worth owners, Dalton Harben, Adrian Kostrubiak and Jason Duquette-Hoffman agreed to bring me up to speed.

NYSkiBlog: Tell us about the genesis of Worth Skis.

Dalton: Worth Mountain Designs was incorporated in September of 2011. We first imagined the company in the spring of last year and incorporated once we had our ideas and business model refined. We wanted to create a company that designs skis for eastern skiers wherever they ski. There are some great indie ski companies out there, but for the most part they’re designing skis with western skiers in mind.

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Tagged: Interviews, Ski Gear, VT21 Comments