Best Backcountry Equipment for Winter 22/23!

Here at Tahoe Mountain Sports, we are passionate about human-powered skiing, be it dawn patrol missions in Sunrise Bowl, storm skiing on Rubicon Peak, or the spring-time corn harvest in the Eastern Sierra. We spend our summers dreaming of skintracks, our falls doing box jumps, and in between, we take the time to put together the finest selection of backcountry equipment in Truckee. Here’s a little preview of some items that we’re excited about for the upcoming winter!

Skis

The Blizzard Hustle 10 is one of our favorites to keep an eye on for the upcoming season. This ski is designed to be a lighter weight version of the popular Rustler ski, and as such, it provides a solid underfoot feel. Not the lightest on the wall, this ski is built for skiing hard, taking air, and having fun. Pair this with a downhill oriented binding like the Salomon/Atomic Shift, and this ski will be ready to handle whatever you can drag it up.

Black Crows has also revamped their Camox Freebird ski, making this ski more predictable in varying conditions. What I’m most excited about? They’ve added lengths down to 157 cm – making this ski more accessible to more people! The Camox Freebird blends fantastic skiability with a lightweight package, and this ski is perfect to pair with a pair of Dynafit Radical bindings for the one-ski-to-ski-it-all machine!

Splitboards

WNDR, whose skis we have been absolutely blown away by for the past 3 years, stepped up their game by partnering with local Tahoe ripper Nick Russell to design the brand new Belletour Splitboard! For those of you who haven’t heard, WNDR is a Utah-based manufacturer, using algae-produced oils to create new materials for ski and snowboard construction. Their construction is super damp, really playful, and replaces petroleum-based products with renewable bio-sourced materials. This board promises to be playful in the powder, stable at speed, and an absolute all-round blast!

Ski Boots

It used to be that ski boots were either light or skied hard. Scarpa is seeking to change that with the introduction of the Quattro SL boot. This boot is built with an overlap cuff design to enhance downhill ski performance, but maintains a range of motion of over 60 degrees. Yes, we’ve had the boot on, and yes, it truly does have an amazing range of motion that makes touring a pleasure! Needless to say, all this at a weight of 1430 grams makes us excited!

Speaking of light, lightweight touring boots have made huge leaps in comfort and performance! One such boot that we are excited for is Dynafit’s new TLT X boot. This boot weighs in at 1030 grams, but skis like a much heavier boot. Closure is via a Twist-lock mechanism on the lower cuff, and the single-buckle upper simultaneously controls the walk mode on the boot. While lightweight boots used to be kept in the closet until we broke out our skinny skis for spring corn touring, with performance this good, we’re looking forward to skiing this boot on a variety of skis in all types of snow.

Airbag Packs

Fan-based airbag packs have been around for a few years now, and the systems just keep getting better. If weight has been your biggest concern, consider the new Ortovox Avabag Litric Zero 27 system. Just like all battery-operated airbags, this pack will allow for easy airplane travel, multiple deployments on one charge, and no more refilling canisters. This bag, with all components, weighs in at under 2 kg, which is more than 600 g lighter than other comparable systems.

If you’re ready to get your gear dialed in for the upcoming winter, make sure to stop by Tahoe Mountain Sports, as we’ve got new products arriving daily at the moment. For bootfits, we strongly recommend to book an appointment, so we can ensure we have one of our friendly and experienced boot techs ready to help you. We look forward to helping you have the best season in the backcountry this upcoming winter!

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