Of course, having the word “desert” in the name is a dead giveaway that the Danner Desert Acadia GTX boots were not originally designed for snow use, but the Gore-Tex liner kept my feet dry and warm with just regular mid-weight wool hiking socks in -10C weather. My feet were warm even standing for extended peroids of time in deep snow. The Vibram Sierra sole worked fine in loose snow and on packed snow, but on freshly snowplowed roads where the black ice had been exposed, they were crazy slippery. Granted it’s ice, but my Danner 453 hikers actually had more traction on the same surface. I’m not going to even get into whether siping the sole blocks like snow tires or using a harder/softer compound would make them work better in a winter environment. I’ll be looking into whether Lowa or someone else makes a snow/ice Gore-Tex boot. Continue reading ‘Slippery Boots of Death’
Archive for the 'Travel' Category
Page 18 of 32
OK, it’s been a month and I figure I should talk about some of the stuff from our latest Salt Lake City, Utah snow trip. Guess I should start off with this image. What’s going on here? It’s for what we have come to call the MJ gloves.
Seirus Therma-Lux Heat Pocket Liner Gloves
For years I’ve been using a pair of polypro stretch gloves I picked up at a convenience store in Japan under my main snowboarding gloves. Reason being is that I often have to take off gloves to work my camera gear, but without any type of covering the hands quickly get frozen. Liners that come with gloves are warm, but too bulky and/or too loose fitting so don’t stay on hands. My Japan liners started to get a bit ratty with holes starting to appear, so I got a pair of USA made wool stretch gloves that work well too. On our latest trip spotted these liners in REI. Yes, the universal intial reaction was, “oooo, shiny!” This model was touted as this companies warmest, with the metalized gold fibers woven in supposedly spreading and reflecting warmth back to the user. It features a pocket on the back of the hand to slip a chemical hand warmer pad too. Continue reading ‘SLC Reviews & Dirt Bag Tips’
Okay, landed fine. The pilot clarified that the level of snowfall in itself wasn’t preventing operations at the airfield, but cloud cover and visibility might make him abort landing. Visibility was fine, and turbulence actually not bad. THe runway was a bit rough from the compacted snow, but other than that, the landing went off without a hitch. Hooray!
(0)Whoa! The ANA flight to CTS before my JAL flight was cancelled “due to snow”! Oh krapp! OK, JAL is only saying that they will take off and return to NGO or reroute to HND only if they can’t land due to the immediate conditions.
(0)Flight to NGO was actually a Triple-7-200. Older aircraft, but a lot nicer (and cleaner) than the retired 747SUD’s and old 767-300’s that JAL usually uses on the Hawaii runs. Not sure why it was upsized from the usual 767 – maybe marathon season? Most people had whole rows to themselves, which actually worked out better than getting upgraded to business class, since I could fold up the armrests and lay flat out across the three seats.
(0)At HNL. Glad it’s breezy and cool for a change. Maybe I actually won’t be stinky by the time I reach Sapporo. No – the trains will be sauna-hot.
(0)The JMA forecast is usually pretty spot-on. Derek says they have some crazy supercomputer that yields far better results than whatever the NOAA uses. I fly out to Sapporo via Nagoya tomorrow and will be in Niseko on Friday. It should be smack dab in the middle of five days of snow. If all goes according to the forecast, there will be a day-and-a-half of new base and several more continuing days of snowfall in store. Will I finally be able to ride Niseko on something other than Krunk? Just so long as the winds stay moderate, I may actually luck out… finally.
Now at SLC airport waiting for flight to Denver. Of course the forecast is for 2-4″ of snow throughout today and more tonight. Is there a way to have your trip end on a certain day but magically not end that day? It seems every snowboard trip ends leaving the final day as its dumping snow!
Summarizing his trip, considering the earlyness, the snow was pretty decent. Sure we added some more good battle scars to our boards, and Derek went full pro and destroyed his board ripping about a foot of his edge off and leaving a couple inches of it somewhere on the hill. Learned a bit more on which slopes to hit. Discovered a couple more decent food choices & revisited some favorites. Spent more than a couple hours at outdoor stores REI and Cabellas. Did donuts with a fullsize SUV. Made our own fun on the side of he road after the sticker shock at Snowbird.
Bodies are tired & bruised. Equipment is likewise bruised with a tear in my pants, numerous new scratches & dings in my board and Derek’s pretty much destroyed. But all in all a good trip. Will post up details later!