A friend showed this to me the other day. Its old but I thought for those who haven’t seen it can still be amazed. These guys are crazy. They have gliding parachutes and go flying down the Eiger. With all the rocks its pretty amazing the control they have. It would scare the crap out of me to do something like that which makes it all the more impressive. Check it out and see if you’re impressed.
The latest thing to hit the market is video cameras to record your extreme exploits. They typically strap to your helmet or some other adventure accoutrement. They take hours of video and usually are ready to upload right into YouTube. Do you think you’re the next viral internet superstar? Make you can land that huge sponsorship with the backflip of the 60 ft cliff landing switch.
Some of the better models I’ve seen are the GoPro Hero. It isn’t as compact as some of the others but takes decent videos. They have mounts that fit onto helmets, bikes, or paddles. It records into easy to upload formats. Not only that but it is one of the least expensive ones. You can pick one up for around $140.
Another option is the VIO POV cam. It comes in at the high end. The price starts at $750. However it has tons of features that cater to people who are looking for a little higher quality video shoots. You can shoot and then tag the sections you wanna keep. The software manager allows easy sharing. It has a wireless remote so you can easily operate the camera while on the fly. It also has a mini LCD screen so you can watch your exploits immediately after they occur. So you can determine whether the mute grab is sweet enough or you have to do it again with a tail grab.
Bottom line is that you don’t need a big film crew to get some sick shots. Record yourself or your friend with a compact digital video camera.
It’s not really an important question when things like the war and the campaign trail for the president are going on but an interesting one none the less. How would you judge if you do or not? The amount of outings that you have a year. The amount of vertical feet you ski a year. I’m not totally sure. I was watching a Warren Miller film the other day and they were in Wiegle World in British Columbia. It said that one of the guides skis one million vertical feet a year. So I was thinking that it sounds like a pretty big number. I got out the Suunto X6 HRM that sits on my nightstand because I can’t figure out all the functions and decided to see what I could do.
I usually get a season pass to Snowbird since I get the student rate. I’m on the lift in about 30 minutes after I lock the front door. I like to think that I ski a lot since I have minimal travel time to get some turns in. However I have turned into a full on snow snob and only ski powder days. Which there are a lot of here. I digress. The experiment is to see how likely it is that I can fit 1,000,000 vertical feet skiing into one season. Initially I wanted to see how many vert on an average day I get in.
So I’ve been up about six times this year so far. Most of the time its a 9am to 12 pm window. (after that most of the powder is tracked out) In three hours I have come to the conclusion that I get in about 13,000 to 20,000 vertical feet. Mostly in the range of about 16k-17k. With one exception where I was there till 3 pm because the snow was so epic and got in 27,000 vert. If I average 16.5k a day it would take me 60 days to reach one million. Definitely doable but that would be more than I usually get out.
So in conclusion if you are part of the 1,000,000 vert club you ski a lot! I still think I ski a lot but I don’t think I’m getting into that club soon. As always I pray for snow. All I need is 54 more powder days and I’ll have it.
Here in the snowy mountains of Utah we are having a good year for snow. We had over ten feet of snow in the month of December and it’s still coming. Lots of snow makes for great powder skiing. Especially in the backcountry. Do you have all the necessary tools for backcountry travel. A short list of items you should have would be the following:
1. Beacon – Don’t head out without one! If you don’t have it and you are caught in a slide you’re probably dead. Know how to use it too!
2. Fat Skis – Makes skiing powder easier and way more fun.
3. Skins – A good pair of good fitting skins makes travel easy.
4. Backpack – You need a place to keep you stuff. Make sure you can put your water bladder in it. Stay hydrated!
5. Chestpack – Keep everything vital right in front of you. Holds a radio, beacon, and cell phone. Snacks too.
6. Probe – Another safety Device.
7. Shovel – Ditto above. Plus to build BC Kickers!
8. Breathable Clothing – You’ve got to earn your turns and you’ll work up a sweat. Make sure you can get rid of the moisture or it’ll be a cold day when you get to the top.
9. Good Partner – Probably the most important piece of gear. Always good to for someone to have your back!
10. Education – Know before you go. Go with someone who knows what they are doing or take a class. Knowledge will keep you out of a lot bad situations.
These items should keep you pretty comfy while traveling in the BC chasing freshies.
I wish it wasn’t so, but I found a blog stating that some of the stunts were staged. Here is the Simple Hiker article as well as the BBC News Article. Apparently he had some help and didn’t even spend all the nights he claimed in the wilderness. While I thought that the whole show was a bit on the dramatic side, I never thought that it would be fake. He is definitely more man than anyone else, but faking it is really disappointing.
The article goes on to claim that this show is not a documentary but more of a how to guide. I realize that he does have a support team with him the entire time so I never thought that if it got too hairy that he wouldn’t get bailed out. His coolness scale just dropped quite a bit due to the misleading that he is on his own battling the elements. Well maybe next season he will not compromise the show and actually make it more real. For now I will have to switch over to survivor man. He seems to be the real deal. However maybe I’ll find an article about him. Only time will tell. Maybe I could convince him to let Campman sponsor his show and make him do it for real.
Well the snow has been so bad this year that they are calling for closures on a lot of the water in the park. The water temperatures are too warm and put significant stress on the fish which catching one could prove lethal. Its too bad because late July and August are usually a great time to head up to the park for hopper fishing.
I happened to visit the park this last weekend and fish the grand canyon of the Yellowstone. The fishing was good but the water was low. Many other rivers are showing the effects of the bad snow pack. So be wary when fishing and help preserve the fish. Don’t fish during the voluntary closures or at least check the water temp and make sure the water is cool enough.
There are many rivers that are fishing well right now. The Madison, Big Horn, and Green River are just a few. Book a trip with the local outfitter today.
If you need to satisfy that fishing urge in the mountain west go find a tail water fishery and tight lines.
If you have ever wanted to climb Everest this is your chance to do a little bit of homework on what it takes. You can watch step by step as an expedition attempts to scale the mountain while re-enacting George Mallory’s 1924 attempt. Even donning replica equipment. Video logs are taken all along the way. Check it out at U Everest.
I probably should have posted this last week for the big weekend but better late then never. Its Friday so I’m sure you will find an opportunity to try them out this weekend. Here are a few educational videos that will teach you how to get your beer open when you don’t have a church key. I have tried most of them and some take some talent. However desperate times call for desperate measures. ENJOY!
My friend is heading to Cabo to help build churches, so I suggested that he hit up the Rooster fishing. Well once I opened my mouth about it, I was interested myself. Then it was time to do some research. Surfing the net to find guides, gear, and info we happened upon a video made recently called Running Down the Man. Here’s the trailer.
I went out and bought a copy of the film. Its short but really gets you excited about giving beach rooster fishing a shot.
And props to the main guy in the video. I don’t think that you can see it in the trailer, but he is wearing a Western Rivers Flyfishing shirt. It is the local shop that I love to frequent.
I found this site while using StumbleUpon. It utilizes Yahoo Maps. If your trying to set a route around town to run or ride this is a great service. No longer do you have to drive the route like I used to do or rely on a pedometer or odometer. With Running Map you can plot your route against Yahoo Maps and it will tell you how far you have gone. Its really easy to use and extremely helpful to figure out distances.
New slogan for the site as well. We had a T Shirt contest on Myspace and we had several good submissions by people. We did pick a winner but it inspired us to make a slogan for the company. “Live Beyond the Beaten Path” Hopefully soon we will have some T Shirts made up and available for purchase to anyone who might be interested.
Campman.com, how to, internet, Outdoor Activities, ski gliding the eiger
