TOP GUN: The 2 Award Winning Snowboard Boots of 2015 Nothing beats a powder day on a snowboard. Slashes, cutbacks, floaters, ollies, and pig-dogs. Powder on a snowboard is nothing but pure pleasure. Snowboarding has been given a lot of the credit for the new freeskiing movement. Snowboarding influenced freeskiing’s style, tricks, and ski shapes and it’s true. Snowboarding has always been progressive and cutting edge and it’s made everyone better as it rolls along. The snowboard boots listed below will help snowboarding continue to influence and up the ante of the snow sliding world. […] Gear SnowBrains | December 16, 2014 0 Comments
Japan Conditions Report: Bottomless Powder at Cortina Yesterday What a start to the season at Cortina! With 50cm today and 50 cm yesterday, it was truly bottomless, by any definition. Snow quality was quite good, and face shots were plentiful. As the lifts opened, the clouds parted and gave us a few hours of beautiful light before it started to snow again. Despite weekend crowds and limited terrain due to only Chairs 2 and 4 being open, the resort did not track out too quickly. This last storm has done […] Conditions Report Lee Lyon | December 15, 2014 0 Comments
TOP GUN: The 3 Award Winning Goggles of 2015 Goggles are one of the most important pieces of gear in skiing and riding. Without good goggles, you aren’t seeing as well as you potentially could and if your vision isn’t as good as it could be, your riding won’t be as good as it could be. So clearly, you want good goggles. Goggles are also the single biggest cool factor in skiing and riding. A sharp pair of goggles will get you a lot of fun comments on the hill and make you look like you know what you’re doing. There’s something exciting and mysterious about mirrored goggles, isn’t there. It’s like that guy/gal knows something that you don’t… […] Gear SnowBrains | December 10, 2014 0 Comments
TOP GUN: The 3 Award Winning Snowboards of 2015 Nothing beats a powder day on a snowboard. Slashes, cutbacks, floaters, ollies, and pig-dogs. Powder on a snowboard is nothing but pure pleasure. Snowboarding has been given a lot of the credit for the new freeskiing movement. Supposedly, snowboarding influenced freeskiing’s style, tricks, and ski shapes and it’s true. Snowboarding has always been progressive and cutting edge and it’s made everyone better as it rolls along. The boards listed below will help snowboarding continue to influence and up the ante of the snow sliding world. […] Gear SnowBrains | December 2, 2014 0 Comments
Atomic Outerwear Review | Ridgeline Ski Jacket & Ski Pant The Ridgeline jacket and pants are as light, breathable and comfortable as a thin mountaineering soft shell; but are also waterproof, windproof, warm and durable like a heavier resort skiing hard shell. This outerwear combination can handle long hikes, varying temperatures, and heavy wind and precipitation, all in the same day. It is perfect for the skier who hikes, rides lifts and skis hard every day, in every condition. Test: 40 days between Nevados de Chillan, Las Leñas, and Cordon del Plata. Trip reports available HERE and HERE. The Ridgeline 3L Jacket and 2L Pants make use of Pertex Shield+ and Pertex […] Gear Lee Lyon | November 25, 2014 0 Comments
TOP GUN: The 4 Award Winning Women’s Skis of 2015 In case you haven’t noticed it yet, girls are different than boys. Thank god. Not only are they better looking and smarter, but they ski different, move different, and are built different. For years, the ski industry tried to address these differences by painting pretty pictures on men’s skis and calling them women’s skis. That didn’t work. Now, some actual science has come into this and women’s skis have evolved brilliantly. Women’s skis now have women specific flex patterns, shapes, and sizes. All this adds up to women’s skis that help women rip even harder than ever before. […] Gear SnowBrains | November 25, 2014 2 Comments
evo.com Black Friday Sale | Up to 60% Off Gear You Need: You need gear, evo.com has gear up to 60% off right now. Why pay full price when you can get a huge discount? Click here to check out sale items on evo: Black Friday Sale at evo.com This sale ends on November 28th, so make your move now and get snow to the face soon. Utah, Wyoming, Washington, and Colorado all just got over 20″ of snow this past weekend. Might be time for a big board […] SnowBrains | November 23, 2014 0 Comments
TOP GUN: The 3 Award Winning Ski Bindings of 2015 As ski technology and shape changes – and it’s been changing fast – bindings have to morph and evolve to keep up. Wider skis means wider bindings. Wider bindings leads to more control and more power transfer to your ski. You’ve got to have ski bindings. There’s no other way to attache yourself to skis. Always make sure your bindings are mounted and adjusted correctly. Bindings are the one fundamental piece of ski equipment you have that is truly safety gear. You don’t want them to come off too early and you don’t want to them to stay on too long. Both situations can lead to hard falls and bad injuries. You need a binding you can trust. […] Gear SnowBrains | November 18, 2014 2 Comments
TOP GUN: The 3 Award Winning Ski Jackets of 2015 Lets face it. Your ski jacket is the gear that will be noticed most by your friends and passersby. So, you want it to look cool. Dig down past a ski jacket’s skin deep appearance and you’ll realize that this is the one piece of gear between you being cold, wet, and miserable and you being warm, dry, and happy. A quality ski jacket is a must in the mountains and it certainly doesn’t hurt if drags some style along with it. Check out these award winning ski jackets for an ideas of what’s hot – both literally and figuratively – in 2015. OnTheSnow.com gave their Editors’ Choice Award to 10 Ski Jackets skis this year, but the Patagonia Women’s Snowbelle Jacket got […] Gear SnowBrains | November 11, 2014 0 Comments
TOP GUN: The 6 Award Winning All-Mountain Skis of 2015 The one quiver ski? The everyday ski? The ski that can do it all? Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? In this day and age, it isn’t. There are some beefy all mountain skis out there that you can ski everyday. Especially if you go a bit shorter in length, these things will even hit the park. The only conditions these ski might not be perfectly perfect for is extremely deep powder. For those riduculously deep days, it’s good to have an obnoxiously large powder ski. Unfortunately, those stupidly deep days only come so often and for just about all other days, these award winning all mountain skis will do the trick. […] Gear SnowBrains | November 4, 2014 1 Comment
You Need Gear, evo Has Gear at 60% Off Right Meow | 13th Anniversary Sale: Winter is almost here. You planned on buying new gear last Spring, but you didn’t… Now, you need gear and it’s almost opening day and everything is expensive – except at evo.com. evo is currently having a 60% off sale right now. You need gear, evo has gear for cheap. Done. Get Gear at evo.com: 13th Anniversary 60% Off Sale Eevo.com 13th anniversary sale Even if you don’t need […] SnowBrains | November 3, 2014 0 Comments
Top Gun: The 3 Industry Award Winning Ski Boots of 2015 Question: “What is the most important piece of ski gear in skiing?” Answer: “Your boots” Why are ski boots the most important piece of in skiing? Because your boots are the only thing that actually touch your body. They are the adaptor between you and your ski. If your boots are low quality, your skiing will be as well. If you boots are loose, your feet will be moving and your ski will not. That foot motion won’t translate to ski motion and your sweet moves will be lost in translation. So, […] Gear SnowBrains | October 27, 2014 3 Comments
Top Gun: The Six Industry Award Winning Powder Skis of 2015 2015 has already brought us a plethora of big, fat, burly powder skis. There’s literally dozens of these things, so how do we know which are the best of the best? The most efficient way to know which Powder Skis are the best is to compile all the Powder Skis that won awards from reputable sources who put in the energy to test every 2015 powder ski out there. Just Freeskier alone tested over 350 skis last year. We’ve aggregated the 5 best powder skis of 2015 according to the industries highest awards for you and displayed them here. These are the best of the best. The top guns of […] Gear SnowBrains | October 22, 2014 3 Comments
GEAR REVIEW – Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket I get cold. Whether it’s winter, summer or somewhere in between seasons, I always have some form of insulation with me. For years I had a Patagonia Nano Puff pull over and it served me well. A super compressible, windproof primaloft sweater that weighed next to nothing and could fit in even the smallest of packs, I loved the Nano. But my beef was always with the fact that it did not have a full length zipper. When the Nano Puff Jacket came out a few years ago, my old pull over was still going strong but finally, this past summer, that old rag became just that – an old rag. So I ordered myself a full zip Nano Puff Jacket form EVO. […] Gear D’Arcy McLeish | January 7, 2014 0 Comments
Hestra Seth Morrison Pro Glove Review Hestra has been making leather gloves for a long, long time. In 1936 Martin Magnusson founded the company in Sweden, where the gloves are still made to this day. For perspective Vail Resort spun their first chairlifts in 1962. Along the way they have learned a few tricks to make durable and insanely dexterous gloves. Tricks like inverted and double stitched seams help make these gloves insanely durable. The Seth Morrison Pro model glove lives up to the Hestra name and is designed for warmth and durability. The Seth Morrison Pro Glove is made from Hestra’s most durable leather, army goatskin, intended for use and abuse in harsh conditions. […] Gear Chaz Diamond | January 2, 2014 0 Comments
10 Big Mountain Gear Essentials If you want to go big, there’s a few pieces of gear you’ll need to help get you there. Here is our quick list of 10 big mountain gear essentials to get you out and down in the safest and most stylish manner possible: 1. Marmot Freerider Jacket When you’re in big mountains, you are going to want gear that can hold up to the elements. The Marmot Freerider jacket is a perfect fit featuring GORE-TEX and fully seam taped zippers. […] Gear SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 0 Comments
10 Gear Essentials for Surviving Early Season Conditions As Tahoe and most of the lower 48 (excluding the PNW) continues to lack any signs of significant snow in the forecast, we want you to stay safe and happy while out snowsliding on the white ribbon of death at your local resort. Here are 10 gear items to keep you safe, happy, and on the hill: Stay warm and steezy out there with The North Face Free […] Gear SnowBrains | December 20, 2013 1 Comment
Patagonia Men’s Untracked Pants Review Patagonia Untracked Pant available at evo.com Words: Eric Behn | Photos: Jaycee Clarkson Overview: Patagonia is one of the largest manufacturers of outdoor recreation clothing providing high quality products to climbers, skiers, fly fishers and more; and the Untracked snow pant is no exception to the type of quality that can be expected from this well known brand. The Untracked Pant is a GORE-TEX® […] Gear Eric Behn | December 18, 2013 0 Comments
BCA Float 22 Avalanche Airbag Backpack REVIEW Pack Tested: BCA Float 22, Avalanche Airbag Backpack (color: blue and gold) Reviewer: Miles Clark, Height: 6’1” (185cms), Weight: 170lbs (77kgs) Number of Days Using Backpack: 32 Where Pack Was Used: Hakuba, Japan There’s really no argument anymore. Before you go into avalanche terrain you need knowledge, a partner, a beacon, a probe, a shovel, and most recently: a backpack […] Avalanche Miles Clark | December 11, 2013 6 Comments
GEAR REVIEW: Arc’teryx Vertical SV Gloves The Arc’teryx Vertical SV glove is the short cuff version of their big gauntlet glove, the Alpha SV. With a full leather palm, beefy fleece interior and a Gore-Tex membrane to keep you dry, these gloves just look burly. After wearing them on most of the colder, wetter days throughout a whole winter season, I can safely say, they stand up as well as most things Arc’teryx makes. They were bomber. At first glance, these gloves are a little strange and chunky looking. Thick, anatomically curved fingers gave me pause as to how they would perform doing anything that required a little dexterity. While they struggled with finer movements at first, […] Gear D’Arcy McLeish | December 5, 2013 0 Comments
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