Climbing skins are required equipment for backcountry skiing ’cause you gotta get up to get down. While all climbing skins work on the same principle, skins vary by plush type, tip and tail connection systems and material type. Choosing the best climbing skins for your ski touring needs depends on snow conditions, type of tour, experience level and personal preference. Let’s take a look at plush types, attachment options and how they align with different applications, plus other considerations when selecting the best climbing skins. Climbing Skin Plush Material For simplicity, let’s say ther ..read more

A Clean, Functional Ski Pack for Day Tours   “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman’s Odyssey Testing ski packs is a little like backseat driving; It’s easy to be a critic. In an effort to come up with fresh designs or innovative features, it’s common for backpacks to be more complicated and feature-rich than necessary. Many backpack designers would do well to follow the aforementioned advice from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and focus more on stripping away features rather than adding ..read more

To the Hills & Back is not your typical ski movie. It’s a story of risk and consequence. What is risk? Risk is the likelihood of something bad happening and understanding the consequences. The new Sherpas Cinema film explores the consequences. It’s a story of loss, humility and resilience. No one heads to the mountains thinking about the worst that could happen. We go to the mountains for the fun and rewards. To the Hills & Back offers a heart-wrenching look at the worst that can happen. The film shares the tragic stories of two backcountry skiers who navigate the aftermath of separa ..read more

PFC-Free GORE-TEX GORE-TEX has been setting the standard for waterproof, breathable outerwear for more than 30 years. Now, they’re designing the future of waterproof, breathable outerwear, and it’s PFC-free. The GORE-TEX fabrics we all know feature a combination of materials laminated to a thin membrane called ePTFE (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) — read more about the different types of GORE-TEX. PTFE is a fluoropolymer, and it’s waterproof, windproof and breathable. While the membrane itself is inert and of limited environmental concern, its manufacturing process releases harmful PFC (p ..read more

Ski Industry News Updates Norrøna møre octa Zip Hood and møre flex1 Bib-A softshell bib Blown-In — A semi-regular look at the latest ski industry news bits — is a collection of press releases, new products, and interesting stuff circulating on the interweb that catches our attention.  This week’s edition of Blown-In features fresh outerwear news from Norrøna, PHANTOM Glide for Nordic skis, new backcountry gear from HEAD/Tyrolia, a new AT ski boot from Dynafit and Hoji, a chance to win a $7.5K film project grant plus news of a proposed ski resort in British Columbia New Outerwear from ..read more

The latest Matchstick Productions ski movie, Land of Giants, features some incredible footage of skiing the Chilkotan Range near Haines, Alaska. This teaser clip of the Haines footage should whet your appetite for skiing . . . or watch the full-length Land of Giants on Red Bull TV The post The Land of Giants – Matchstick Ski Movie appeared first on Off-Piste Magazine ..read more

New to backcountry skiing? Looking for basic avalanche safety tips? Short of identifying and avoiding avalanche terrain, staying safe while backcountry skiing begins with understanding hazard basics. Backcountry Access (BCA) has a series of no-frills avalanche safety tips geared toward backcountry skiers of all levels. BCA’s latest avalanche safety video offers five red flags to keep an eye out for while out ski touring. BCA Avalanche Education Series – Five Red Flags  Check out more avalanche safety tips from BCA. BCA founder Bruce Edgerly and expert guests break down key avalanche safet ..read more

The Arc’teryx Alpha SV in One Word — Refined Prior to 1998, Arc’teryx was a niche Canadian brand making climbing harnesses and backpacks. When they stepped into the outerwear world 25 years ago, they did so with an all-or-nothing attitude. As a company founded and run by dedicated climbers and skiers, Arc’teryx set out to build a jacket that could stand up to the harsh environment of their Coastal BC home and the demands of ice climbing and mountaineering. Driven by the desire to make a better jacket, the team created the Arc’teryx Alpha SV in 1998, a purpose-built GORE-TEX shell that would ..read more

Skiing is not art, and skiers are not artists. Unless, of course, skiing is art and skiers are artists? Abstract, Faction’s fourth feature film, exhibits pure creativity through a series of freeski sequences—from the vibrant streets of Japan to the powdery pillows of British Columbia to the finely manicured terrain parks of Switzerland and Italy. Each location provides a blank canvas for the team’s artistic expression because nothing screams “artist” like sending large cliffs and grinding the side of buildings. The post Is Skiing Art? Check out Abstract appeared first on Off-Piste Magazine ..read more

The newest Scarpa Maestrale (and Gea) ski boots have many updated details We’ve skied just about every generation of the Scarpa Maestrale Ski Boots — and its predecessor, the Spirit Three. In 2023, we likened the Maestrale to the Toyota Tacoma of alpine touring ski boots — a utilitarian backcountry ski boot that gets more capable with every generation. The new 2024 Maestrale turns up the performance with a lighter, stiffer, and more adjustable design than ever before. All while maintaining a walk-friendly feel on the uptrack. The 2024 Scarpa Maestrale (and the women’s Scarpa Gea) AT ski bo ..read more