On the Fritschi Tecton & Vipec Evo
Today we are talking about two new alpine-touring bindings from Fritschi, the Tecton 12, and the Vipec Evo 12. We’ve just put up full reviews of both the Tecton 12 and the Vipec Evo 12, and we wanted to go deeper with Blister reviewers Brian Lindahl and Cy Whitling about their experience with these new products, and how they would rank them against some of the the other most popular alpine touring bindings on the market.TOPICS & TIMES:Brian's extremely memorable tour on the Tecton (1:35)How Brian first got interested in the Fritschi Vipec very early on (3:00)A/B-ing the Tecton with the Marker Kingpin (8:15)A/B-ing the Tecton with an alpine binding (17:40)On the Fritschi Vipec Evo 12 (22:39)Updates to the Vipec Evo (24:43)Fritschi Vipec Evo vs. Dynafit Radical 2.0, G3 ION, and Marker Kingpin (27:38) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 Des 201740min
The New Salomon S/LAB SHIFT MNC
The new SHIFT MNC 13 from Salomon & Atomic represents a significant leap forward in binding design. Check out our conversation with Salomon's Cody Townsend Chris Rubens, and Benoit Sublet, and our initial on-snow impressions.TOPICS & TIMES:Introductions — Cody Townsend, Chris Rubens, Sam Shaheen, and Ben Sublet (1:58)What does this binding do, and what makes it different? (5:45)Which boots work with this binding? (11:15)"No compromise" safety (14:23)How & when did the idea originate, and why was it controversial? (15:10)How long has the current version of the binding been tested? (23:33)The big breakthrough: carbon-infused plastic (27:09)Downhill Performance: Salomon STH2 vs. S/LAB SHIFT (29:20)What was the most difficult element of this binding to design? (34:23)How the toe works (37:10)How often and in what scenarios will Cody & Chris use this binding? (39:40)Uphill performance (and why "touring steep is stupid" (47:48)Icing Issues? (52:08)Durability & the question of consumers as Beta testers (55:30) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8 Des 20171h 1min
The Making of Our 17/18 Winter Buyer’s Guide
We discuss the making of — and our takeaways from — our 17/18 Winter Buyer's Guide, including our "Best Of" awards, our Blister Spectrums, our ski quiver selections, and some of the strangest claims we saw in some of the other buyer's guides out there.TOPICS & TIMES:A very cool thing we did recently at marblebrewing.com (2:16)The blurring of ski categories (3:15)What we talk about when we talk about “Frontside” (8:56)The pros and cons of the growing category of “50/50” Skis (13:57)17/18 Season -- the year of the binding? (22:15)“Stated Range of Motion” numbers on AT boots & the Scarpa Freedom RS (23:07)Head-scratching claims we saw in other buyers guides about the Blizzard Rustler 10, J Skis The Metal, and ON3P Billy Goat (29:03)Our “Blister Spectrums” (35:37)Our Ski Quiver Selections in the Buyer’s Guide (38:19)The rationale behind our Blister “Best Of” Awards + some specific winners: Patagonia MicroPuff; Scarpa Maestrale RS; and K2 Ikonic 84 Ti (42:52)Almost “Best Of” Award winners: G3 SENDr 112, The North Face Ventrix (51:46) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
30 Nov 201759min
Hoji on the new Dynafit Hoji Boots
Dynafit is introducing today their new Hoji series of boots, so we went very in-depth with Hoji himself about the boot, what makes it unique, and what's potentially still to come. (And there's more information in the show notes to this podcast episode on our website.)TOPICS & TIMES:Welcome to our new GEAR:30 podcast (0:00)When and where the idea of Blister was born (1:10)What were the design aims of this boot, and what is unique about it? (2:52)The “PDA” design of this boot (15:42)The various iterations of the “Hoji” boot (18:07)Weight of the Hoji (23:32)The width of the boot + Hoji’s sizing recommendations (27:18)Fit of the Hoji Pro Tour vs. Fit of the Dynafit Vulcan (31:15)The buckles & ankle retention (35:30); Crampon Compatibility (39:58)Range of Motion - Forward & Rearward (42:05)Durability - Bushings & Cables (44:33)Hoji’s approach to boot testing (53:20)Where would you locate the Hoji among the Vulcan, Beast, and TLT 7? (1:00:15)Where would you locate the Hoji among non-Dynafit boots? (1:02:31)Flex of the boot (1:07:17)Why Eric thinks you should try skiing with your boots unbuckled (1:12:58)Any plans to work on a new AT binding? (1:16:05) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8 Nov 20171h 22min
Introducing: GEAR:30
Welcome to GEAR:30. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6 Nov 20171min
