Backcountry
Gear Review
Despite the fact that the Swiss have been involved with serious ski mountaineering for many years, they continually push the envelope on what is possible. Sometimes they even try to invent new trends that they think will be cool- for example the backcountry snowblade. Maybe in idea it seems alright, somewhere of a hybrid between skiing and snowshoeing for someone that doesn’t want to do either. But they seem highly impractical, as you are only able to use them in minimal powder and on piste. Even though you have your choice of riding with a ski boot or a snowboard boot, neither really seems an ideal choice for this mode of transportation.
Perks of ripping blades in the backcountry:
The weight savings must be fantastic- and same with the base of the blade that is able to flip from skin mode to p-tex for skiing WITHOUT EVEN TAKING YOUR BLADES OFF! What a time saver, holy moly. Also as demonstrated at 1:52 you can ditch your poles and go face first into a euro-flip of coolness, psych…
If you want to waste your money- buy these immediately from the CrossBlades website.
Respectfully disagree with the author, who probably has never used the Altai Hoks.
The Hoks are very good for a narrow application. However, with their fixed climbing skin, do not ski downhill very well. These snowshoes, with their ingenious interchangeable climbing skin and downhill ski base, solve that problem. Will order a pair.
I contacted the company. They plan on having this product for sale in the USA for winter 2016-2017. The product has two very interesting features. First, as I wrote above, the interchangable climbing skin/downhill base allows for good uphill climb and downhill glide. Second, the boat shaped design of the snowshoe/ski has a flat bottom and flared sides. A great idea to increase the float and/or stability (?) in soft snow. The author, an intern, presumably young, inexperienced, and obviously arrogant, and perhaps technologically illiterate, needs to learn how to write a meaningful review. First, what is the objective that the product is trying to accomplish? Second, how does the product perform relative to the existing products? The video shows what the product is trying to accomplish. One of the existing products is the Altai Hok. The Altai Hok is a a gliding snowshoe that is more ski than snowshoe. In my experience, the Hoks excel when you have to traverse sections of deep and steep woods, where snowshoes maneuver better than skis, and open country (e.g., above timberline), where skis work better than snow shoes. In that case, I appreciated the benefit of snowshoes with the benefit of a short fat (100 mm underfoot) powder ski.
Shane would have loved this notion.
Why r peeps so afraid of pushing the concepts of what
is possible?
Put a few in a beer commercial w kooks ducking boundary ropes w out avy gear and u got a few less kooks.
I got no prob with a bit of over population control.
Get off ur high horse yo.