The Goat

The fleece makers at Polartec are once again offering grants to adventurers who can either take the time off work or got sent on extended recession vacation. Last year they paid the way of 82 frugal travelers to kick their way through 16 countries. Hopefully this year they’ll be paying out that $10k in Euros or Baht so people can have fun without resorting to hiding in their neighborhood woods for 11 days. In the socialist spirit of spreading the wealth around that seems to be so popular these days, each person or group gets only a little bit of cash to live their globe-trotting dreams. You may as well fill out the application—it’s more fun than writing cover letters.

Outside Magazine rolled out their Top 15 Ski Resorts list ensuring that the marketing people at Snowbird won’t have to change their New Hire Powerpoint Presentation for another season. Alta and Snowbird took the first spot based on snow quality, and Vail beat out Jackson Hole likely because it’s insanely cheaper to get a season pass in Colorado. Solitude, my favorite resort, made it into the Top 15, ensuring that its namesake is permanently a thing of the past.  

1. Alta/Snowbird, Utah

2. Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia

3. Vail, Colorado

4. Jackson Hole, Wyoming

5. Snowbasin, Utah

6. Fernie Alpine Resort, British Columbia

7. Silverton Mountain, Colorado

8. Aspen Highlands and Snowmass, Colorado

9. Squaw Valley, California

10. Steamboat, Colorado

11. Mammoth, California

12. Telluride, Colorado

13. Solitude, Utah

14. Alyeska Resort, Alaska

15. Taos, New Mexico

via Outside

Thanks to some enterprising computer guys with a passion for bikes these Goldsprints are popping up in bars across the country. The Gear Junkie has a story about a biker bar in Northeast Minneapolis called Grumpy’s that features the gut-twisting event on Friday nights. Basically, guys who’ve been standing around drinking beers for several hours hop on some stationary bikes and figure out the bar pecking order without resorting to fisticuffs. The 20-second pedalling sessions show the energy output of each rider as they race around a track pictured on a plasma screen above the bar. It sounds like an awesome night except for all the throwing up.

via Gear Junkie

Ultimate Survival Technologies put together this Aqua Survival Kit that comes with their SaberCut Saw so you can cut your kayak in half and fashion a shelter. It also includes some WetFire Tinder, a firestarter, whistle, and signal mirror, so I’m a little confused on what exactly makes it an Aqua Survival Kit. I guess everything could be operated underwater, though you’d have a hard time sparking the one-hand firestarter. Maybe it would be good for cutting off your seatbelt after you drive your Cadillac into the lake and then sticking some WetFire in the gas tank to torch the evidence.

Ardica Technologies will have a new heating product out this season that’ll be integrated into at least one Mountain Hardwear jacket. The machine keeps your core warm on low off one charge for up to 9 hours and can also be used to charge your cell phone or digital camcorder. Any Ardica jacket would be a killer setup for a camera guy working on a new Teton Gravity Research who’s standing in knee-deep snow in the freezing cold for 10 hours carrying a camera everywhere. Of course, we’ll likely see more of them at the ticket window at Deer Valley asking for refunds because the snow’s too deep. The Ardica tech will add an additional $35 to $50 to the jacket, and extra battery packs are available in case you’re the odd combination of a person who skis longer than 9 hours and also buys things like battery-heated jackets.

via Gizmodo

The North Face is back with their electronic-minded ETip glove that designed so you can be the annoying guy in the liftline talking loudly on the phone about how great the après ski’s going to be. These would actually make nice liners under mittens on bitterly cold days, and they come with grippy palms so you’re slightly less likely to drop a $300 phone off the chairlift. The North Face Etip Gloves cost $40.

I was no great fan of middle school, but this kid really stood for what he believed in. The 13-year-old took to the woods in a Muir-style escape to try to make his way from Washington State to New Jersey to attend an alternative outdoor school. The adventurous young guy made it about 11 nights before packing it in to head home.

Clark said the first day away from home was the hardest. He’d stuffed a backpack with a sleeping bag, tarp, matches, two packs of cookies, trail mix, tortillas, honey and four bottles of water. He didn’t want the weight of a toothbrush or toothpaste. He didn’t bother with soap.

Heading out for adventure and giving up bathing is a dream that loses its luster after awhile. Maybe this kid will lose a bit of that idealism early, or maybe this is the beginning of a great scofflaw career. Of course, he’s lucky he didn’t end up dead. The odd thing is that the Sheriff’s office didn’t do anything until he’d been gone 11 days, and then they only put out a press release. Things must be pretty busy out there in Snohomish County. I’m also curious as to where he was going to school before this little incident—another victim of home schooling perhaps?

via Going Prepared

It’d be nice to have some battery-heated gloves in case you ever need to dig out of this car and don’t have a shovel or 30 liters of beer handy. Outdoor Research has rolled out their Prima Volta Gloves with built-in lithium-ion battery heaters. These will be a boon for people with terrible circulation, but I imagine they’ll mostly be bought by normal people who don’t know any better. The reason hands get cold is because they get sweaty—pick up some glove liners and 95% of skiers will be fine. The Prima Voltas cost an ungodly $260.

Ever wanted to kick the sheep that made your long underwear after you got lost in the backcountry due to its inferior Merino wool? With Icebreaker’s new baacode you can go online and trace your clothing back to the sheep that gave up its coat so you could hike in luxury. It would be cool if the baacode put you in contact with the exact sheep, and then that sheep would send you monthly letters about its progress in school and what it’s doing with $1.25 (for the price of a cup of coffee) a day you send for its medicine and clothing. Instead the baacode shows you the farm where it came from, and you can watch videos of the sheep hanging out and not getting manhandled by shepherds.

If I ever have a lot of money (highly unlikely) and a lot of space (likely, since I’ll be living in a successful friend’s basement), I want to collect old bikes. I’d collect old guitars, too, since I think they’re on the same level in terms of ascetics and craftsmanship, but I can’t play the guitar (even Mr. Big’s More Than Words is too hard) so I’d finally have to come to terms with being a total poseur. It looks like this guy is putting together a museum in his basement. A lot more pics on Cycling Weapons of Mass Destruction.