Articles

Backcountry Magazine Post Couloir Merger

Backcountry MagazineOn April 25, 2007, Backcountry Magazine announced that it was merging with Couloir Magazine. These two magazines were the leading “earn your turns” styled magazines along with the revived Telemark Skier Magazine. Backcountry Magazine retained its brand and incorporated photographers, writers, editors, and arguably some edge from Couloir.

As a loyal Couloir subscriber for the past few years, I was somewhat concerned about this merger having never read Backcountry Magazine. Couloir subscriptions were passed onto Backcountry Magazine for which I have received my first two issues including a Gear Guide and a “White” Issues pre-season special. Overall, I am blown away by the combination and have nothing but positive things to say about the merger.

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Articles

The Ski Journal: New Ski Porn Hits the Newsstands

The Ski JournalLooking for an authentic magazine to drool over that focuses on skiing issues rather than the skiing institution? You can skip such commercialized standbys as Ski, Skiing, Powder, and Freeskier that cater more towards advertisers than readers. Fluff free and mostly subscriber driven, The Ski Journal is an amazingly beautiful production that looks and reads more like an anthology of ski literature and photographs than a typical ski magazine.

Published by the same outfit responsible for Frequency: The Snowboarder’s Journal, The Ski Journal is a new quarterly periodical that shuns typical magazine production techniques on both the front and back end. The magazine is printed on thick high quality paper that brings to life its exceptional photography and beautifully designed layout. Photographs are matched with generally well written articles that range from one page quick shots to double digit page numbered in depth articles without commercial interruption. While The Ski Journal does take advertisers on for revenue, the ads are limited to full pages and generally relegated to either the front or back of the magazine, never breaking up content or articles (sixteen full page ads out of one hundred and twelve pages in Volume Two Number One–compare that to Ski, Skiing, Powder, Freeskier, or even Backcountry).

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Gear

Quality of Spyder Products

Spyder has been a ski clothing gear provider for almost thirty years specializing in racing gear such as GS suits. My first Spyder clothing item was purchased about ten years ago in the form of a ski jacket as part of a pro form deal on a racing team. I was quite taken by the design, especially practical aspects such as pockets in practical areas and appropriate give in the sleeves for elbow and shoulder motion. When my first Spyder jacket wore out through regular usage with only very minor defective issues, I decided to stay with the brand.

Purchases to replace my ski jacket, pants, and gloves were all covered under the Spyder brand. I was distraught to find my new jacket had a rip on the inside under arm after only a few days on the slopes. Other such poor quality and defect issues soon appeared such as Velcro becoming unstitched, fraying, stitching coming undone, and general garment stress. The ski pants experienced a few product failures on functional but not essential aspects. And I found my gloves to be rather lacking in the wicking aspect which resulted in soaked gloves from excessive sweating. I have since replaced my gloves after only two seasons of use but am keeping the jacket and pants as still functionally sound despite serious quality issues.

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2007-2008 Season, Jay Peak, November, Powder Day

Major Dust on Crust at Jay Peak

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Following the Thanksgiving Day rain event, Jay Peak posted a typical read-between-the-lines styled snow report that suggested skiing conditions would be variable and icy despite the change over that provided four inches of snow. The following day Jay reported in with another four inches of fresh and pictures of white stuff flying through the air. My interest was piqued and my optimism was initialized but I retained realistic sensibilities that skiing this weekend would be in a word, interesting.

My optimism was instantly dashed, much to my chagrin, as I approach the ski racks of Jay Peak’s stateside lodge. The snow was crunchy, without much depth, and of questionable base layers. Dust on crust it was going to be!

With my back still sore from last week’s two day powder romp, I was in no condition for a full out assault on the powder stashes I knew Jay had to offer for those willing to exert themselves. Things off the Jet Triple looked pretty bleak for first chair. Interestingly enough, the groomer tracks on The Jet looked most appetizing of all since I have yet to have a great top to bottom railroad tracks groomer run this season. Or, the natural snow under the chairlift just looked that bad. Perhaps a little of both. Most other skiers and riders on The Jet had the same idea so I pounced on The Jet like it was chock full o’ powder before the hordes turned The Jet into steep frozen cat tracks which happened by around ten that morning.

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Book Reviews

Instant Karma by Wayne Sheldrake

Instant KarmaWayne Sheldrake’s new memoir is less a story about his skiing exploits than a soulful and humorous adventure about discovering what is most important in our lives and about life itself. In Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum, Sheldrake draws upon his life lessons and journeys which are tied to the mountains, landscape, and people he treasures most. This extremely well written title has passages that read like poetry while conveying both a gripping life story and its resulting soulful philosophy.

The narration begins with a history of key moments in Sheldrake’s early life and his immersion into the ski bum lifestyle. This introduction, interspersed with key skiing recollections generally involving bone breaking accidents (Sheldrake manages to break his legs three times and his pelvis once), serves as the main memoir aspect of the book as we learn about the author’s situational hardships including excessive family dysfunction. Most notable amongst Sheldrake’s hardships is a defective heart valve that sidelines him from his most treasured passion of skiing. The heart valve issue puts him in a heart surgery ward alongside people twice his age.
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