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Podcast #4: JetForce avalanche airbag, AvaTech SP1 probe, Skimo gear

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This episode features two interviews that discuss two new exciting products that will increase our safety in the backcountry. There is also a short intro discussing some of the lightest skimo racing gear that is currently available.

JetForce avalanche airbag

The JetForce is a first time avalanche airbag from Black Diamond and uses a fan to inflate the airbag. The fan is electrically  powered with a rechargeable battery. This means you don’t need to replace and fill up any gas cylinders after deploying the airbag, just pack it up inside the backpack and it is ready to deploy again. Black Diamond says you can do four deployments on a fully charged battery.
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» JetForce on Black Diamond website

AvaTech SP1 snow probe and AvaNET data sharing platform

The AvaTech Sp1 is a probe-like device that “…is designed to help professionals understand the snowpack more quickly, accurately and objectively, and then share that information with the broader mountain community…” through a cloud data sharing platform called AvaNET.
The SP1 is proactive snow safety device that reads snow pack structure, slope angle and aspect in seconds and uploads the data, along with GPS location, in real-time to the AvaNET server. This technology will dramatically increase the amount of data snow professionals can share and analyze, providing a unique geo-spatial database of crowd-sourced snowpack observations. Also, professionals will also be able to upload their own manual snowpack observations with AvaTech’s Snowpit Editor that also features geo-tagging, photo upload and multiple forms of data visualization.
However, it’s important to keep in mind, that the SP1 is not an avalanche probe and it doesn’t replace sound decision making. It is a snow analysis tool.
» AvaTech website
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Podcast interview with Chad Brackelsberg on Wasatch Powder Keg, race organizing, racing

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I didn’t think the second episode of SkinTrack podcast would come so soon but the opportunity was there so why not. Now, after the interview with Melanie Bernier, you can listen to my conversation with the Wasatch Powder Keg race director Chad Brackelsberg. It’s full of great tips for anyone involved (or wanting to be) in the skimo racing community,
Chad is a skimo racer himself but he is mostly known in the rapidly growing skimo community as the guy that puts on one of the best races on the continent.
At the beginning, I provided a preview of the upcoming events in North America, and at the end, I talked about the Canadian Skimo Championships that will be held at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, BC over two days on Mar 21-22, 2013.

This interview is full of great tips but we mainly discussed:

  • all about, history included, the upcoming Wasatch Powder Keg skimo race which will be held on March 7-9
  • how the Wasatch Citizen Skimo series is growing
  • what organizers can do to improve their races
  • Chad’s skimo and ultra trail running
  • his passion for FKTs in the mountains (fastest known time)
  • how he balances training, work, and family

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Thank you for listening and leave a comment below with ideas how these episodes could be improved.

Podcast Interview with Melanie Bernier: Lots of tips from her training for skimo racing, gear, nutrition…

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This is the first ever episode of SkinTrack.com podcast! It’s not fully podcast-like in a sense that you can download it (will come later) but you can definitely just sit back and listen instead of reading.
For this first episode, I chose to interview my good friend Melanie Bernier who is one of the most inspirational people I know, and a fellow member on the Canadian National Ski Mountaineering Team.
Melanie is one of the most accomplished skimo racers in North America with a 4th place from 2013 Pierra Menta being one of her career highlights. She is fine tuning her game every season and her improvements are results of long-term daily hard work, strong commitment and big passion for skimo.

In this interview we discussed:

  • Melanie’s last winter Euro racing campaign and her most favourite moments
  • her upcoming trip back to Europe for more World Cup action
  • current training
  • nutrition (Paleo diet)
  • her current racing gear
  • skimo pole lengths
  • and her future goals

Resources related to this podcast episode:

I really hope that you enjoyed this interview format and please leave a comment below if you liked it. If not then please leave suggestions on what can be improved going forward with these podcast episodes. Thank you!