0800hrs - Salt Lake City, UT 

The last couple of days the TSM staff went skiing at Brighton, located in Big Cottonwood Canyon. With all the hype that Little Cottonwood Canyon often garners, especially from telemark skiers, the gem that is Brighton is often overlooked, and not for good reason.

Around this time every winter, myriads of telemark skiers from across the midwest emerge from their respective hidden corners of the ski world and gather on Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.).  Downwind Sports hosts the Midwest Telefest each year on the Keewenaw Peninsula, which protrudes from the U.P.'s northern shore into the middle of Lake Superior.  The Keewenaw benefits from cold lake effect snow cruising off of the Great Lake and dumping an annual snowfall of 300 plus inches on the region.  The hilly and rocky terrain retains a very unique appeal.  Many of the Telefestivalers will meet up a few days before the festival to ski at Mount Bohemia.  The rocky resort is situated at the very tip of the Keewenaw and boasts just under 1000 vertical feet.  With skiable aspects all the way around the compass there is good snow to be found often.  The terrain is steep, treed, ungroomed, and untamed.  No beginners allowed.  Most beginners don't last very long if they even try.  

2.6.12

We split the crew up after the trade shows for some needed R & R. I've been on the road since mid-September with Alex, and Kjell hopped in the rig over a month ago. Those two are getting ready to do a tour of duty on the jump at the Teva Mountain Games this week and needed to get their air time dialed. So they are doing their thing at their local ski hills. I spent a couple of days in Winter Park with the Rottefella crew during the SIA on-snow demo.

We are back with one final blog update from the SIA show in Denver, CO. Here are a few more highlights showcasing a grip of new gear for the upcoming season.

CW-X

CW-X has some of the most innovative base layers on the market. The compression tights with built-in reinforcements mimics kinesio taping to provide support right where skiers need it. They support the knees, IT band and lower abdominals. The 3/4 length boot cut is ideal for being worn with ski boots, and they made of a material that tightens above 77 degrees and loosens below 77 degrees to regulate heat.

0800 hrs - Winter Park, CO

The last two weeks has been a whirlwind between the two trade shows we attended. It’s the time of year where most of the skiing stops, and we jump into 2013 headfirst — in terms of gear, that is.

We did manage to meet up with one of our friends, Christopher Ewart, in Eagle County, CO for a quick urban session. It was the perfect break from driving and running the floors of a convention center.

SIA Highlights Day 2

After we had another great day on the floor at SIA in Denver, we put together a little list of some of our favorite new items for the 2012/2013 season. Enjoy!

Rocky Mountain Underground Skis

RMU has been supporting telemark since its first year pressing skis in a Summit County garage back in 2007. This year they have a number of new additions to their growing line of hand-built skis, made right here in the US of A.

The Blue Light Special, or BLS for short, comes in at 110mm under foot and has traditional camber, early rise in the tip and a flat tail for hard charging versatility and big mountain prowess. It’s available in 10cm increments from 155cm all the way up to a stout 195cm plank.

Also new for next season is The Whole Enchilada, RMU’s biggest ski to date. With a five contact point profile and a 132mm waist, this ski has a surprisingly short turn radius at 16m, which gives it the versatility of a narrower all mountain ski and the float of a true-blue pow ripper.

We are back at it bringing you updates on the best new gear on the block. Here are the highlights from Day 1 at SIA in Denver, Colorado.

Klint Skis

Klint is a pretty new company, but they have already established themselves with some great skis. Joining the Krypto on the powder end of the spectrum is the KryptoLite. It still has camber underfoot and tip and tail rocker, but it is slimmed down a bit to 114mm at the waist to increase versatility on hard snow.

Here we go again, checking in from day 3 at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Volkl

Volkl is jumping into the backcountry market headfirst. Their touring line has several skis that are lightweight and have notches for skins in the tip. Also available are skin-pin precut skins for each model that easily snap into the hole in the front of the ski. They also have a new line of touring poles available in aluminum, carbon, or hybrid models. 

On the more inbounds end of things, they are still offering the classic favorites, the Katana and the Mantra, with metal topsheets to increase binding retention. The Shiro gets a new look, but is otherwise unchanged as a playful powder ski with a full-length rocker.  The newest addition to the line is the Kink, a midfat rockered twin with camber underfoot. It is 89mm at the waist, and it has a directional sidecut making it a nice choice for an all-mountain park ski.

**NOTE - This was written prior to the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in Salt Lake City, UT. It has snowed significantly since then. The snowpack is shaping up.

We woke to another beautiful bluebird day in Salt Lake City, UT with a couple of days to kill before the hustle and bustle of the trade shows. With minimal overnight snowfall and less than ideal coverage in the backcountry, we decided to go for a tour to get the legs going and to incorporate a little beacon practice to keep our skills sharp for when it gets good. And it’s bound to get good — right?

Here is a recap of some of the highlights from today's Outdoor Retailer On-Snow Demo at Solitude, Utah.