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Thread: Verts snowshoes

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
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    Verts snowshoes

    http://www.verts.com/

    http://www.verts.com/Y2KVerts.gif

    Anyone used these, or know of someone who does? Based on the reviews, I might buy a pair:

    Review from Couloir Magazine:

    "Verts remain the only viable sweat-powered ascending tool. ....... the guys or gals on Verts pull away from

    switch-backing skinners as if the latter were mired in quicksand. ....... The Vert question is a no- brainer!"

    Kern Barta - Couloir Magazine - Winter 2000
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  2. #2
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    May 2002
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    Wink

    How's TechTalk working for you... biatch!

  3. #3
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    Under the bridge, down by the river
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    Dont look like they'd offer much floatation...

  4. #4
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    Seeing as they are made from plastic and don't have any metal crampons, I wouldn't get them. They look like they would be fun just to do some trail walking on, but if your like the guys in the pictures on their site hiking super steep mountains, I think you'd be dead if you were using those shoes. They just don't look that great. If I were you I'd look around ebay for shoes made by Atlas, Redfeather, Tubbs, and MSR, which, from my findings, all seem to have decent crampons and seem like they would offer decent flotation. I just bought a pair of Atlas 8 series off of ebay for around $120, and the things are awesome. I've only had a chance to use them a few times but I did take them up a fairly steep long hill with ice/hardpack and it was then that I realized the importance of having sturdy shoes with stury crampons. Atlas makes a snowshoe for big hiking boots/snowboard boots, so you might want to check them out, they are called the Atlas 12 series, and they have some serious crampons and a really neat binding:
    http://atlassnowshoe.com/images/products/prod_12.gif

    If you look around on ebay you'll find a good deal no question about it.

  5. #5
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    Oct 2003
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    Chicago
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    I've seen them up close and played with them; and talked to a bunch of people who swear by them for B/C access.

    They're small and light, and unlike my Tubbs, fit easily in a pack...they're designed to go up super steep stuff, pretty much just designed to climb in, rather than hike with. If you want to see them in person, I think Wasatch Touring has a few for sale...

  6. #6
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    Oct 2003
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    bozone montuckey
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    Wasatch touring

    isnt that right around the corner from tech talk?
    "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    Ben Franklin

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Salt lake City, Utah
    Posts
    19

    Verts

    I helped design the Verts, they're made here in Utah by Pete Carney, an old college ski team buddy of mine (and no, I have no finacial interest in the company). They are designed primarily as a snow climbing tool. They work well in most conditions and often are faster than skins on slopes over 30 degrees, especially when you're spin laps. They also work great for scrambling on rocks and on hard neve snow (once Coombs had to put on crampons on a slope I was able to ascend in my Verts). I think they are worth having in your quiver of climbing devices. They work best on up to 18" of fresh on top of a supportable base.

    That said, if you are a skier, you may want to customize them by attaching a clip in system to the blanks instead of the stock binding. If you have clip in snowboard bindings (like all 12 of us) you can mount a plate on the blanks for really fast switch overs. If you are going to use the stock binding it will work, but you need to practice at home to get it dialed first. The Verts are not ideal on long flat approaches, and any snow conditions where they might punch trough a crust or hollow layer (do you want to be there anyway if its hollow underneath?).

  8. #8
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    Oct 2003
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    Switzerland
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    well, i can't add much to what sarge said, other than i do own a pair. yes, great for climbing but not great for deep or long traverses, they weren't designed for that, you should get snowshoes instead. one great advantage to me is that they are so small and lightweight. they fit inside a dakine helipack pro (which if you don't know, is very small). this is preferable to me than having some large-ish snowshoes strapped to the back of your pack.

    i've use them for short climbs and stompin' out of a few bad spots. once i was offpiste in the trees following a run and missed the bottom of the run (it cut sharp left and i continued straight in the trees). i was about 100m down below the run before i realized it. i used them to stomp my way back up and outta there. if i hadn't had them, it would have been a posthole death march back to the piste. or a death run down to the valley floor.

    btw, i ran across them on ebay. i think i paid about $40.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    368
    I have a pair of verts as well as a pair of little bears- same idea. They are sweet for what they are designed for, definitely wouldn't want to walk a long ways in them. If you need to go straight up some shit, ie- route around or up a ridge isn't practical, tehy are perfect. They are nice to have for doing lift accessed stuff at resorts on a board. I take them out skiing sometimes too. Not much float, but anytime stuff is too steep to skin they work well-

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