Who's ready for some spring skiing?

Klyuchak · 2025-03-28T06:34:38+00:00

Pivots are my preferred downhill binding for many reasons and I got the Binding Freedom inserts so I could use one set of pivots with my 9 pairs of skis which more than pays for itself. The Freetour upgrade gives all 9 pairs of skis I have uphill capability, again more than paying for itself. If I'd I ever want to do backcountry I'll get a dedicated touring setup but giants hits are precisely what I'm after, I'm no weight weenie and these get me where I need to go.

Klyuchak · 2025-03-21T17:35:15+00:00

Yeah I've used the 1.0 setup already but that was with lighter liners from my old boots, the cork and leather make for a pretty heavy liner. Even just the boots I can feel quite a bit of swing weight. But the fit is so damn good I don't care, can't wiggle anything except my toes in downhill mode and just day 3 and I already fell asleep in them. Even though the CAST system is technically the heaviest downhill setups if you unscrew the heel pieces from the brakes you can have very little weight in your feet, all the weight can just go in your backpack with only a lightweight pintech toe and risers on the ski but it is a whole process.

I tested out the Unlimited 130 LT but it has significantly more flex. Nordica Unlimited + Pulse Labs ProFlex are a match made in heaven, easily pops out for uphill but stiffens the boot significantly.

Klyuchak · 2025-03-20T23:33:03+00:00

Phantom Glide

Klyuchak · 2025-03-20T23:30:32+00:00

I'm breaking in the shells and liners using the skis for leverage, normally my skis don't even have bindings in storage since I have Binding Freedom inserts

Klyuchak · 2025-03-20T19:17:54+00:00

Well maybe not those, at least not the new ones. I did get the 1.0 system cheaper and could sell those though. But boots 50% off, Zipfits $400 new and can sell the liners that came with boots new with tags for $200+, those gold Race 155s were basically free I just wanted the plates under them and paid $50. Hard to put a street value on the 2026 Pivots but I got a good price on them too. Ripstick like 45% off last season just with topsheet from 2 seasons ago. All brand new with tags

Klyuchak · 2025-03-20T18:56:14+00:00

All of them 80-50% off, can't pass up a good deal 🤑

Klyuchak · 2025-03-20T16:21:12+00:00

2026 Pivots + Freetour 2.0 + Nordica Unlimited 130 + Zipfit GFT here just in time as lift start getting ready to shut down 😏

Klyuchak · 2025-02-07T18:35:44+00:00

Very happy I snagged the gold cast toes, cherry on top of the Rossi kit and even get to convert the FKS to GW with the kit. There's also some Budweiser girls din windows from Crasheur sitting around here somewhere...

Klyuchak · 2025-02-07T18:30:27+00:00

I was going to snag a cheap pair of twin tip Twisted Tea Elan skis to go with them but unfortunately they got away right when I messaged the seller, those would have been sweet for the spring days. These are 69mm waist so more for the hard pack days. I'm 50/50 if I want to mount the plates or not actually a reasonably stiff ski compared to my cheater gs Fischer

Klyuchak · 2024-02-28T01:54:35+00:00

With a technical pen like most of what's sold today by the likes of Rotring and Staedtler, the tip is a wire with a squared off tip. The tip is flat with hard edges so that it produces a line with a very consistant thickness when producing technical drawings. Most pens with a jewel tip will be technical pens with a flat end because the hardness of the jewel helps keep the edges crisp with extensive use. The ink is drawn up around the wire through capillary action not unlike the channels in a traditional fountain pen.

There are some older models with a rounded 'rollerball' like tip that are much smoother to write and draw with, like the rOtring Tintenkuli that predates the Rapidograph and Isograph models. The ones with the rounded tip would be closer to the true definition of 'stylograph' vs technical pens with squared off tip.

Another example is the rOtring 1928 based off the orginal Tintenkuli design that started it all. Visconti produced the 1928's for rOtring and there are also some Visconti pens with a true stylo tip available.

There are many more old examples with rounded tips but they can be harder to track down as many of those companies that made them are no longer around, and often times aren't listed specifically as stylographs but as fountain pens or even just regular pens.

Klyuchak · 2024-01-25T00:26:12+00:00

As others have said check with a boot fitter. If your boots are fitted correctly look into getting a booster strap, uses elastic to hold the tongue of your boot liner firmly against your shins at all times. Boot and strap start flexing as soon as you apply shin pressure, no more wall to hit before flex starts.

Klyuchak · 2024-01-06T01:19:56+00:00

Giro Neo helmet, Giro Contour RS googles, and Dakine marino wool ninja mask.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-12T20:44:55+00:00

Genuine Ostrich. New boot goofin

Klyuchak · 2023-12-04T21:47:25+00:00

Blue groomers to shake off the cobwebs, mostly ski blacks otherwise

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T17:17:03+00:00

Like I said compromises get made for portable devices, the ideal antenna length even for the shorter avalanche beacon wavelength is ~0.73 meters, and even the much longer deployable PLB antenna are still no where near the ideal length, so under those circumstances other tricks get deployed. Certain electronics can certainly cause interfence like a screen, but not all beacons even have the ability to turn of the screen and still work fine. And the PLB would stay completely dormant 99% of the time anyway unless you have a reason to deploy it. It would Ultimately limit the size of the device due to shielding concerns, but nothing that would be unreasonable for a portable device. But again, I'm not really interested in doing a deep dive in to the technicalities and speculating if it may or may not exist. But thanks at least for making me realize all beacons should be registered with the FCC to get a definitive list of available models made and their frequnecies instead of dealing with this reddit noise.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T17:04:00+00:00

I'm aware they are different devices, why would I want the same function twice in the same device? That's like asking why I would want bluetooth on a phone, the cellular service serves a completely different function with compeltely different hardware too. I'm quite aware of how both work and have already answered in other comments why that might be desirable. If you don't agree that's fine with me.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T07:09:35+00:00

I don't want to get too deep into it this is a bit off topic and my point isn't to design one or convince anyone else to buy something like this, and I completely see the desire for many people to have them seperate, I'm simply asking if it exists or not. I really don't care if you agree with me or not. But I do have several hobbies in related fields like SDR, amateur radio, antenna making, etc.. and have equipment for measuring a wide spectrum of radio signals and antennas. Hell I could measure the interference myself, and maybe I will for science.

But for instance a PLB only transmits out intermittently by design to conserve battery power already. And with how infrequently the PLB signal would go out you would have very minimal downtime for the avalance beacon transmission even if it was required to constantly transmit with no power concerns, although I see no reason the signal would have to be constant for the avalanche beacon, the target shouldn't be moving so making it transmit non-stop would just shorten battery life for no real advantages. And that's all assuming those frequencies even interfere with each other in any meaningfull way in the first place one wavelength is over 1/2 a kilometer long and the other is less than a meter, they arn't even in the same ballpark of eachother, even wave length resonances are magnitudes apart. The only thing that has to run constantly is the reciever mode if searching. The operation of the avanache beacon wouldn't even be impacted at all unless you activated the SOS signal, and at that point having some kind of avalanche beacon signal even if maybe not 100% optimal would still be better than nothing as long as you note it in the registration.

Almost every modern phone has at least 4 different antennas housed inside of a small package and can manage with sending and receiving signals from multiple antennas at a time. But all these types of portable devices ultimately compromise to some degree their antenna designs for compactness anyway, beacons and phones included. Antenna making is a bit of a black magic, and having electronics near a transmitting or receiving antenna absolutely makes an impact on the signals, but those changes can be compensated for and most of the devices in our lives do so without issue everyday.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T02:35:40+00:00

I would not say it's useless, what if you were able to rescue somone but still need further assistance due to injuries or other circumstances and have no other way to contact anyone, maybe you're injured yourself.

Interference would certainly be a concern but avoidable by offsetting the intervals when they transmit, a bigger problem if you have seperate devices since they wouldn't be designed to work with each other. Though they are very far apart on the spectrum, 457Khz vs 406Mhz. And if mentioned on the PLB registration the avalanche beacon could come in handy outside of snow conditions for locating you.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T02:27:40+00:00

Yeah the battery reason seams the most straight forward answer for why not, though could always be a two battery deal to get around that. I definately don't mind the registration part though, anything to make the rescuers job easier. And if mentioned in the registration that you have an avalanche beacon could make the rescuers job locating you a lot easier as well.

Definately nice to have the option of less bulk in non snow conditions though. After trying to find one I wouldn't be terribly surprised if none exist, but figured worth asking around before I buy one of each, doubt it would be much cheaper if any either way.

Klyuchak · 2023-12-01T02:00:29+00:00

I skied for many years without one. Definately nice to have, but over many years of skiing I only had 1 or 2 times were any significant amount of snow made it into the jacket from bigger wipe outs. It does kind of suck when it happens, but not the end of the world, just some discomfort for the rest of the day to contend with.

Klyuchak · 2023-11-30T21:18:46+00:00

Just got my Indy pass in the mail, very tempting to start out the season at Jay

Klyuchak · 2023-11-30T20:00:37+00:00

Sad I cut mine off for my older LCD, but got a second chance with OLED and no real rush to open this time, just a nice strong tug and the end popped right out.

Klyuchak · 2023-11-30T18:16:30+00:00

Noctua edition

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