Equipment Outfitters

Charging down a hill at warp speed on a bike is a rush that most of us have enjoyed at some time. As bikes developed they headed down the path of tradition, and for a while, all a bike buyer could find was a road-racing-style bike or a cruiser. Road bikes were fine for speed and offered a broad range of gears. But road bikes offered little comfort and didn’t take very well to rough surfaces. Cruisers were very comfortable, but heavy and not geared very well. All that changed in the early Eighties when a Japanese bike company by the name of Specialized purchased a unique bike made in Marin County, California, and took it home for a closer look.

The mountain bike can trace its roots back to when a small and unknown group of riders in Marin County, California first began riding stripped down and beefed up Schwinns on mountain roads just prior to WWII. One can only assume that the natural propensity of extreme oriented riders continued to pursue downhill riding until a few notable pioneers of the modern mountain bike began simultaneously experimenting and redefining the equipment they were riding. According to one of those pioneers, Gary Fischer, the early Schwinn “Ballooner” Cruiser bikes everyone was riding were so heavy that they were pushed, not ridden, uphill. Fischer is reported to have been the first to equip a Ballooner with multiple gears, an act that made it easier to pedal uphill, but also added 25 lbs (11.35 kg) to their weight. Read the rest of this entry »

Mountain climbing is as old as mankind. It has not always been a “sport,” perhaps it was better classified as a survival skill. Now that we no longer require mountaineering skills to traverse the globe, those that still enjoy getting out into the mountains are clearly enthusiasts of the sport of mountain climbing.

Furthermore, while mountain climbing is the act of ascending a mountain under your own power, extreme mountain climbing is hardly a leisure activity.

Climbing mountains covers two basic categories, technical and nontechnical. The latter requires little more than sheer energy and knowledge of one’s own limitations. No special equipment, just a good rugged and supportive pair of hiking shoes. Technical climbing requires the use of ropes and other specialized equipment to ascend the terrain to be climbed. The equipment is used so that, in the event of a fall, the climber is both protected from injury and securely fastened to the rock or ice. Read the rest of this entry »

Traveling down a snow-covered 60-degree slope at an excess of 125 mph (200 kph) on a skis is without question extreme. In fact, the 150 mph (240 kph) record for speed skiing was recently established. Is there any doubt that riding a mountain bike down that very same slope and seeking to achieve that very same speed is extreme too?

Over the past few years, downhill mountain bike racers have been pushing the limits of speed on specially outfitted mountain bikes, and have already broken the 125 mph threshold. The bikes are fitted with special aerodynamic fairings and tires modified with large spikes to grip the snow and ice-covered surface as they accelerate to maximum velocity before racing through a speed-trap zone (a timed distance that determines the official speed established by the rider). Read the rest of this entry »

Rescue services

Most mountain and wilderness areas have established rescue services and they may be broadly divided into three sections:

1 Amateur but skilled teams: These are often the members of climbing clubs, hill walking organizations, or the local Civil Defence teams, who are trained in rescue techniques and stand by at weekends or in bad weather in order to answer emergency calls. These are almost always part-time volunteers, without whom the wild places would be a good deal more risky than they are.

2 The police: In remote areas the police have assumed the liaison role in mountain rescue. Many members of the police service are trained in rescue techniques, and thanks to their radio communications network and mobility, are in the ideal position to liaise between people in trouble and the rescue services. Read the rest of this entry »