Well, I’m here up at the Sulzfluh Hutte in Switzerland, finally got online. The hut keeper said Dynafit told him he had to have internet, so he ordered up a USB cell phone modem stick and we’re passing it around. I could hog it, but I’m trying to be a nice American and pass it on to the Italians, so I’ve only got a moment…
Down from the Sulzfluh, gotta get back to the hut in time for the product presentation.
Weather is amazing. Bluebird day, 1,100 meter ski tour up to the summit of the Sulzfluh above the Sulzfluh Hutte. The day you want in the Alps. You get to the summit and all around you the snow caked summits form a backdrop to your alpine wonder. Then you ski down and have a few weiss beers, a coffee or two, a streudel, and some Swiss chocolate for desert. Oh, and you fit some bacon in there somewhere as well.
Sulzfluh Hut with the journalists milling around after various ski tours. That's the Sulzfluh on the skyline. Nice weather, eh?
The new Dynafit gear looks like a home run. We’re going through the clothing right now, and they’ve got stuff that looks the best ever. Don’t know how much they’ll import for us this year, but the pants, jackets, etc. include sweet down puffies, Primaloft uppers, wool blends, and more. All in Euro styles, some too trim for many Americans, but others just perfect.
They’ve got some new skis and boots here as well. But the Dynafit powers that be have my keyboard sealed, so I’ll realease the information when they loosen my leash. For now, let’s just say they’ve got boots that might get you 20 percent more human powered vertical per day, and skis that will make that vertical even more fun. Oh, and I guess I can hint that yeah, they’ve got some wider planks that have some kind of roots in Revelstoke. Something about Greg Hill being involved, wide skis that are still light?
As for boots, you know how I’m always dissing the need for metatarsal flex (bellows)? We’ll, for those of you who still need to know, European skin tracks tend to be lower angled than the testes inspired walls of death you find in places such as the Wastach. And on lower angled terrain, bellows do help a bit. But you don’t want too much, just that touch of bend kind of like the perfect number of bubbles in the perfect glass of weissbier. This seems to be dialed, but we’ll know for sure after testing.
I should add that these guys shared an interesting statistic last night: their sales have grown 70% globally with much of that being the “international” component, which I assume means the more outlying countries from central Europe, including North America. From what I’ve seen, I don’t doubt that number. And yeah, our backcountry areas are getting more crowded. What’s that mean? Let’s open up more zones!
I’m keeping good notes and taking tons of photos. So look for more reports and photos over the next 48 hours.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
