Where is the flag?

Karl Johnson, our local "Shoeman Project" coordinator and familiar face at Alpine Shop, saw firsthand how Shoeman benefits the world. The scope of their trip was to use deep well drilling to establish clean water sources for areas of Haiti that are limited in water and more importantly, clean water. Areas he visited included Port Au Prince, where they installed a well for an orphanage, another well was installed in the town of Gonaives near a school of 300 children, and fixed several previously installed wells that had been unusable for months. All in all, 4 new wells installed and several old ones fixed, offering the little things we take for granted here in our country. All of this could be carried out because people were kind enough to donate their shoes to the cause.

Where's the Flag?

In March of this year, several Alpine Shop staff were selected for a trip out west. Let's call it "product testing". Two of the activities included snowshoeing and backcountry skiing in Rocky Mountain National Park in the old Hidden Valley ski area. Holding the flag is pro athlete, Fabrizio Zangrilli, and Alpine Shop Columbia store manager, Brennan VanMatre . We snowshoed up from the main parking area 9,500 ft to around 11,000 ft ele., swapped snowshoes for skiis from our packs, and skiied back down. Getting down took no time at all compared to the hike up, of course.
The picture to the right displays our ice climbing experience on Hidden Falls. I would have to say the ice climbing was one of the coolest things I have done in my life. It definitely helped to have someone who knew what they are doing and guided my efforts.
This blog thread will kick off our posts called "Where's the Flag". The Alpine Shop flag will travel around the world with different people and the blogs will tell it's story. Stay tuned for more photos as the flag has a few more to tell already.

Gear Review: Jackson Villian

Hi everyone. We have had a long absence in our blogging (about a year and a half), but we are back at it. So stay tuned for trip reports and gear reviews worth reading.

Last week I had a chance to paddle the Jackson "Villian" for the first time. It is one of Jackson's whitewater boats for the 2011 season. I took it down the Saint Francis in southern Missouri. The saint is a class II-III run, and the level was about 9 inches.

I have been paddling the Jackson "Hero" and Pyranha "Burn" a lot lately and was excited to give the "Villian" a try. The first thing I noticed after putting in was how fast this boat is. It has a semi-displacement hull and at 8'8" it is extremely fast. I had just finished a run in the much slower "Hero" so in comparison, I felt like I was in a race car.

When you hear displacement hull people tend to think less stability, which is what i was expecting. The "Villian" was surprisingly stable. The boat flares out right behind the cockpit and the semi-displacement hull flattens out a bit right under the paddler, adding stability. I was expecting to feel tippy as compared to the "Hero" but there was negligible difference between the two.

The "Villian" also holds a line really well. Once you pick your ferry angle or your line through a rapid, it really locks on and keeps you on course. That being said, it was much harder to turn than the "Hero" but that is to be expected with a much longer boat that is designed to be a pure creek boat. The "Villian" felt at first to be a tough boat to peel in to smaller eddies, but with different technique and strokes it became much less noticeable by the end of the run.

Overall I was really pleased with my first trip in the Villan. I am excited to get to try it out on some steeper water to see how it handles for its designed purpose.

If you would like to try the "Villian" or any other Jackson boat, the Alpine Shop has the entire line of Jackson demo boats. Just come by or call to set up a session.