Reviewer Reports: Big-Mountain Ski Showdowns, Powder-Touring Setups, & Much More

Luke Koppa & Jonathan Ellsworth report on the new skis they’ve been reviewing from Black Crows, Salomon, Dynastar, Wagner, RMU, Moment, & more.TOPICS & TIMES:CB's closing day, Luke's diet, & more (0:00)Black Crows Mirus COR (8:35)Salomon Stance 96 (13:14)Dynastar M-Free 108 (19:31)Wagner Blister Summit 97 (22:40)RMU Apostle 3.0 106 (25:46)Moment Commander 98 (26:55)Pit Viper jeans (32:55)What We’re Celebrating (35:15)RELATED LINKS:Blister Summit Videos Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 Apr 202140min

Our patron saint of GEAR:30 is back on the show today, and we talked to Hoji about the new Dynafit Radical Pro; how it compares to the Hoji Free boot; the evolution of the “Hoji Hole” testing prototypes; and more.TOPICS & TIMESThe new Dynafit Radical Pro (2:06)Updates to the Hoji Lock walk mode? (6:21)Radical Pro tongue update (10:12)Radical Pro vs Hoji Free (13:12)Hoji Hole & Skiing in the Future (15:55)Whistler lockdown, testing prototypes (19:06)More on the Hoji Hole (20:55)Hoji’s podcast recommendation (25:22)RELATED LINKSGEAR:30 ep.138: Escape Route director, James Reddy on the Radical ProBlister Summit Videos Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 Apr 202134min

Sascha Anastas and Jonathan Ellsworth discuss a couple of new liners they’re reviewing: the Zipfit World Cup liner, and the Atomic Mimic Professional liner that Matt Manser and Jonathan talked about on episode #132 of GEAR:30.And be sure to check out the Blister Summit Panel sessions that we’re rolling out on our BLISTER YouTube channel. We just posted a conversation about Rossignol’s 21/22 lineup — and Rossi’s decision to retire their “7 Series” and the Soul 7, and what they are going for with the Black Ops series that replaces it.TOPICS & TIMES:Blister Summit Panels & Product Lineup Videos (1:20)Blister Recommended Shop: Escape Route (3:35 )Sascha: Zipfit World Cup liner (10:37)Jonathan: Atomic Mimic Professional liner (19:56)What We’re Celebrating This Week (28:50)RELATED LINKSEp. 138: Escape Route director, James ReddyEp. 132: Matt Manser: Atomic Mimic Professional LinerEp. 35: Zipfit founder, Sven CoomerBLISTER YOUTUBE CHANNEL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Mars 202132min

MADE is a new company that’s setting out to make custom technical apparel. Their 3 co-founders are all veterans of the technical apparel and outdoor industries, and Luke Koppa and I talked to Cheryl LeBarr, Capri Philip, and Dustin Butcher about why they started MADE and how they are making this happen. (And, of course, we argue about anoraks, too.)TOPICS & TIMES:Co-founder backgrounds (04:63)How did you all meet? (06:26)MADE’s mission statement (09:46)How do companies decide what’s a S,M,L,XL, etc? (10:23)MADE’s measuring process (13:49)Modular designs (15:16)When does MADE launch? (17:18)Who is the MADE customer? (19:34)Industry sizing standards — or the lack thereof (21:27)Materials (22:43)Feature Sets (26:43)Anorak Fight! (30:49)Sustainability (37:03)Time from placing order to receiving product (39:34)Circularity (43:22)Inclusivity & removing the concept of gender (44:50)The present & future of MADE (47:07)What We’re Celebrating (50:36)RELATED LINKSMADE’s Indiegogo campaignBlister Recommended Shop: The Ski MonsterBikes & Big Ideas: Cassie Abel, Wild Rye Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19 Mars 202153min

Today we’ve got another Shop Talk episode for you, where we speak with folks from one of our Blister Recommended Shops to get their perspective on a mix of topics ranging from broadly applicable to all of us, to topics that help us better understand what’s going on in the local community that each shop serves.James Reddy, the director of Escape Route in Whistler and Squamish, British Columbia, joins us to talk about Escape Route’s backcountry-only focus; the ski culture(s) of the Sea-to-Sky Corridor; elephant snot; the new Dynafit Radical Pro boot; the Fritschi Tecton; avy pack comparisons, and more.SPECIAL PROMO FOR OUR CANADIAN LISTENERS: Go to escaperoute.ca and enter the promo code “blisterreview” for $50 off your purchase of $200 or more! Good till 6.30.21TOPICS & TIMESEscape Route today (3:40)James’ background & history of Escape Route (5:51)Alpine Demo Center (12:46)Squamish vs Whistler: ski culture (21:17)Elephant Snot (23:07)Fritschi Tecton A/T binding (27:36)New Hoji walk-mode boot: Dynafit Radical Pro (36:16)DPS skis (41:40)Avy airbag pack comparisons (48:36)What We’re Celebrating (54:14) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Mars 202156min

Luka Koppa, Sascha Anastas, Kara Williard, and Jonathan Ellsworth offer a bit of a recap of our inaugural Blister Summit in Mt. Crested Butte, then discuss a number of skis from 4FRNT, Rossignol, Wagner Custom Skis, Dynastar, Icelantic Skis, WNDR Alpine, and Folsom Custom Skis that we spent time on at the Summit. TOPICS & TIMESBlister Summit Recap (00:42)4FRNT MSP 99, 107, & MSP CC (13:50)The new 4FRNT Hoji (17:19)Dynastar MFree 108 - 182 vs 192 cm lengths (23:09)Rossignol Rallybird TI (27:26)Rossi Soul 7 vs Rallybird (29:10)Rossi Sender vs Sender TI (32:34)Wagner Skis’ custom ‘Blister Summit’ skis (36:49)WNDR Alpine Vital 100 & Intention 110 (45:50)Iclenatic Nia Pro (54:45)Folsom Cash 106 & Folsom Primary 104 (57:16)What We’re Celebrating (1:09:19) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 Mars 20211h 14min

Today we’ve got another Shop Talk episode for you, where we speak with folks from one of our Blister Recommended Shops to get their perspective on a mix of topics ranging from broadly applicable to all of us, to topics that help us better understand what’s going on in the local community that each shop serves.Mark "Osman" Osell and Jeff Perry join us from Gear West in Long Lake, Minnesota. We talk about the Minnesota ski scene; the Gear West campus; dropping cliffs in the Iowa backcountry; the fantastic bike culture of Minnesota, and more.TOPICS & TIMESThe surrounding community & ski culture of Long Lake, MN (4:32)How covid has changed the dynamics at the shop (9:44)The Gear West “campus” (15:42)The progressive bike culture of MN (17:37)Dropping cliffs in the Iowa backcountry (19:56)“Dad boards” & the snowboard side of Gear West (23:48)The bike side of Gear West (26:41)What We’re Celebrating (32:46) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19 Feb 202134min

Today we’ve got another installment of our “Reviewing the Reviewer” series, where we ask various BLISTER reviewers questions about their backgrounds and gear preferences to give you a more complete picture of the people behind our reviews. And since we like to rank & review things around here, we also give a score to each of our reviewers’ answers, then come up with a cumulative review grade for each of them. And in the hot seat today is our mountain bike and ski reviewer, Dylan Wood.TOPICS & TIMES:Dylan’s Dry February / Athletic Brewing (3:58)Dylan’s background (8:43)What sports did you play growing up? (9:42))How did you first get connected with Blister? (22:41)Injuries (27:46)Dylan’s bike & ski preferences (35:56)Who is your favorite reviewer at Blister? (40:35)Who is your favorite pro biker & skier? (41:56)What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done? (45:14)What are you better at than Sam Shaheen? (54:07)What gear are you most & least picky about? (55:09)Top 3 favorite books, movies, and musicians (58:47)Random review (1:01:32)What’s the best question I haven’t asked you? (1:07:11)What We’re Celebrating This Week (1:13:22) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Feb 20211h 15min