I have now had the Beta AR jacket, stormhood, for almost a year. Right away I could tell it was high quality that would stand up over time. The fit of the jacket is roomy enough for comfortable movement, but also feels flattering.  The pocket placement is spot-on and the hand warmer pockets are extremely roomy. There is plenty of space for a phone, I even was able to carry around my kindle! The zippers feel heavy-duty, while also being easy to pull. The stormhood is nice and adjustable. I a...

For the Mom who spends as much time chasing pow as she does kids! After many, MANY  years in the same ski outfit, it was time for me to upgrade. The gear budget for the past decade or so has been largely allocated to the annual rotation kids gear. After looking back at photo albums, I quickly realized that I have the same outfit in almost every picture!  So began my journey looking for a new jacket and pants.  It was important to me to find an outfit, not just a nic...

Establishing a new adventure-tourism tenure in BC's backcountry is not an easy task. You can buy an existing one and go through the process of massaging that tenure to fit your vision, or you can establish a new one. Currently in BC, there is a great deal of hesitation on approving new commercial use tenure after experience relatively explosive grown through the early 2000's. Getting a catskiing operation off the ground requires extreme dedication to the dream, an understanding of the government...

One of my favourite jackets of all-time is an Arc'teryx insulating piece that I have owned for over 20 years. It has stood the test of time and taken me on a myriad of adventures. So this season when it came time to replace my old outerwear kit, Arc'teryx was top of mind. Now, if you have shopped for Arc'teryx before, you know that they gear for almost any outdoor adventure so I needed to have some criteria for what I was going to peel my wallet open for.  My top three features that I neede...

Watching the weather and the calendar we attempted to time paddling amongst the Fall colours just right. A fools errand to try to predict the weather and nature at the same time but every so often you hit it just right.  For about a week and a half the messages had been trading on our group chat.  "What was the weather doing?  "How are the leaves on the trees looking?  "When are you all available?" "We have to get there before it snows" The other trick in lining this sort of ...

When I first saw the now famous U2 Joshua Tree album cover I have wanted to see the terrain with my own eyes. It seemed so foreign to me as a forest-living Canadian. Almost alien looking. After many years of visiting and exploring around the Palm Desert area we finally packed our hiking gear, a picnic and prepped the kids for a day in Joshua Tree National Park. Our first visit to Joshua Tree National Park blew us away and exceeded our expectations. We didn't realize how accessible it would be an...

 It all started when my old knife broke... Before ordering the Roark Cassius Knife, I had never heard of the brand. I figured if Valhalla Pure Outfitters stocks it then it must be a reliable piece of equipment. That is the beauty of shopping with a place like VPO - their staff use the gear they stock and are as enthusiastic about such things as I am. When I am looking for something to suit my needs it isn't necessarily the brand I go after but the source that is recommending it to me. But t...

Like all of you we have been constantly watching the webcams, weather updates, storm predictions all in anticipation of opening day. We got the call to go up and see how things are shaping up for the 2021/22 season so we dusted off our gear and headed up. Although the base is a little less than we would like, the snow is skiing amazing. And the crews were out everywhere working so hard to get the mountain ready for us all. Here is a little sneak peek to get the stoke firing even more. See you Fr...

Twas the night before ski season and all through the hillNot a skier was stirring except some liftie named BillThe skis were waxed and hung in the rack with careDreams that tomorrow no lift lines would be thereThe children nestled all warm in their bedsWhile visions of pow shots danced in their headsAnd momma in her toque and me in my capCan barely sleep we're all in a flapWhen all of the sudden the wind howled at the doorIt was starting to snow...and we wanted more! I arose from my bed I was al...

You can never really know how a new product will hold up until you can put it through the paces. That means getting out and testing it where it will be used. What I mean is, often times we buy a product for what it can do but use it for much less that that. Take the RUX 70L storage system that I had the opportunity to test on a recent trip. The RUX system is designed to be rugged yet convenient and versatile, however, I can see many people using this for things less rigorous like grocery runs, p...