Jean-Yves Altitude
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October 18, 2012Good Will Hunting
* Note this article is about a moose hunting trip, so if you are not down with this kind of activity you are officially warned. Not being hunters we at Altitude-sports.com were a little reticent to post this article, but it is a well written, insightful story about a subject we know little about. We think it is definitely worth reading, even for someone who may find the subject matter unpalatable.
I was never interested in hunting. I didn’t have a BB gun as a kid. I never shot frogs with a slingshot. I never even got into fishing. At one point I really wanted to make a bow and arrow, but I felt too guilty to cut down a suitable spruce knowing that it took years for the tree to grow to its size. No one in my family hunts and I never heard a hunting story growing up.
With these credentials, I’m not exactly a typical candidate for a moose hunting trip.
February 04, 2013L’escalade de glace, un défi d’équipement
L’escalade de glace est un des rares sports qui peut transformer les blues de l’hiver en rush d’adrénaline. Oui, il y aussi le ski et le snow, mais soyons franc, l’hiver n’abonde pas de milliers d’activités comme l’été. Et bien qu’on aime nos pentes, il y en a pour qui le manque de variété alourdit la longue durée de l’hiver. D’où la popularité ascendante de l’escalade de glace. Ce sport est un beau moyen de transformer une journée pantoufle en aventure palpitante, mais il pose des défis uniques d’équipement demandant une combinaison impossible de facteurs : protection contre le froid et contre la sueur, contre la neige et contra l’eau, de l’isolant et de la dextérité, le prêt-à-tout et la légèreté.
December 10, 2012GoPro Review: GoPro or Go Home
Every now and then I discover a piece of gear that is revolutionary. Not an improvement on something I already have, but a new invention altogether. Something that opens up new doors and gives me new capabilities. Something I always needed, but I just didn't know it.
I caught my first glimpse of the GoPro over a year ago when we received the HD Hero 2. I had a vague notion of GoPro as a camera brand, but didn't really know much about it. The HD Hero 2 was a small and neat looking thing but I didn't think of it as much more than a gimmick. Truth is, I’m not much of a photographer and for all the cool sports that I do, I rarely bother to film any of it.
But as time went by, videos started surfacing by the thousand on YouTube. It seemed that everyone doing anything cool was capturing it on a GoPro. Not only that, but the videos look amazing. The images were crisp, fluid and high-def. Before long I was having hours-long session of sports-porn watching behind video-after-video of waterfall drops, wingsuit jumps, aeroacrobatic skydives, rally drifts, rock and ice climbs, speed boating, dirt biking, extreme ironing and underwater basketweaving. All filmed on this curious little device.
October 18, 2012Good Will Hunting
* Note this article is about a moose hunting trip, so if you are not down with this kind of activity you are officially warned. Not being hunters we at Altitude-sports.com were a little reticent to post this article, but it is a well written, insightful story about a subject we know little about. We think it is definitely worth reading, even for someone who may find the subject matter unpalatable.
I was never interested in hunting. I didn’t have a BB gun as a kid. I never shot frogs with a slingshot. I never even got into fishing. At one point I really wanted to make a bow and arrow, but I felt too guilty to cut down a suitable spruce knowing that it took years for the tree to grow to its size. No one in my family hunts and I never heard a hunting story growing up.
With these credentials, I’m not exactly a typical candidate for a moose hunting trip.
September 13, 2012Alpine Climbing in Switzerland
I feel my peripheral vision go black as I take another step on the steep snow ridge. I look down at the precipice below me. The snow slopes fall on both sides almost vertically; no self-arrest will stop a fall here and it’s a long, long way down. It’s not that walking on the ridge is particularly difficult; there is enough space on the narrow ledge for at least one cramponed mountain boot, if not always two. But passing out here would mean a fall to certain death, and I feel faint from the lack of oxygen. I chose to stop and catch my breath.
March 25, 2012Courir le printemps
Ah le printemps! Le plus beau temps de l’année. Les bourgeons sortent, les oiseaux se mettent à chanter, et bien sur la minijupe fait son apparition longuement attendue. Pendant que la nature s’éveille de son sommeil hivernal nous ressortons nous aussi de notre hibernation collective. Voilà des mois que l’on passe nos jours à l’intérieur évitant le froid et la neige. On court de chez soi au métro et du métro au boulot et on s'en tient uniquement qu’aux activités qui se pratiquent à l’intérieur. Aujourd’hui, alors que la nature enlève son manteau blanc et révèle sa surface ravagée par l’hiver, nous nous dévêtons nous aussi et nous constatons notre corps bouffi par l’atrophie de l’hiver.
Course à pied et remise en forme par ici
March 16, 2012Mountaineering Introduction by Jean-Yves
Ice climbing is a magnificent sport of its own right. But before becoming a standalone practice, it was first a discipline of mountaineering, that noble pursuit of higher grounds for its own sake. The alpine origins of ice climbing shine through every aspect of the sport, from the French, German and Italian words to the mountain names that gear manufacturers give their products. One cannot practice ice climbing for long without getting curious about its ancestor mountaineering. So what exactly is mountaineering?
Mountaineering: find out more here
February 13, 2012Ski Styles
“Are you a downhill skier or a cross-country skier?”
I cringe at that question. It’s not that I don’t like cross-country skiing or skiing down hills, it’s just that in its oversimplicity, this question dismisses a broad range of exciting and worthwhile ski activities. There is more to the ski world than just cross-country and downhill. In fact today, hybridism has blurred the inter-genre spectrum and created so many new possibilities that it is a shame to limit ourselves only to the two most widespread style.
For the casual skier who wants to try something new, this can be confusing. It seems that the lines have all been blurred. Take the skis themselves. There once used to be virtually only two types of skis. Thin straight ones and thick straight ones. Both really long. Walk into to a ski shop today and you might find a near-perfect continuum of sizes and shapes running the entire geometric gamut with no distinctions delimiting where one ski style ends and another begins.
All this can make stepping out of the comfort zone of the familiar ski disciplines can be difficult if you are not familiar with the various styles and corresponding equipment. To help we classified the various styles of skiing into individual categories and discuss in this article their respective gear. If you want to diversify and try a new style but don’t know how, take this as a starting point. If you haven’t considered trying some new ski styles, think about it now. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Find out about different styles of skiing
December 07, 2011Tourisme au Japon: Jean-Yves se donne au bénévolat
Cela faisait déjà six mois que le grand tremblement de terre de la région de Tohoku avait ravagé le Japon. On déplorait 15,000 morts, et des milliers d’autres manquaient encore à l’appel. La reconstruction, qui prendrait des années, ne faisait que commencer. Sur la côte, des communauté entière furent effacées, remplacées par débris et boue infecte sur une terre saturée qui plus jamais ne pourra supporter d’édifices.
À dix milles kilomètres d’Ishinomaki, plus personne ne parle de la catastrophe. Les journaux ont depuis longtemps porté leur attention ailleurs et même la centrale radioactive, sujet favori des médias, ne figure plus sur leurs pages. Il ne reste plus rien à dire, on est passé à autre chose.
Mais au pays du soleil levant, les Japonais, eux, n’ont pas oublié leurs prochains. Chaque semaine, des centaines d’autobus remplis de bénévoles quittent Tokyo pour la zone sinistrée. Les volontaires sont des gens ordinaires
Japon, voyage et bénévolat: la suite
November 29, 2011Jean-Yves’ Holiday Gift Ideas
Ho Ho Ho! ‘Tis the season to get GIFTS! But as part of the unspoken convention, we have to give some to get some. Fair enough, let me help you with that.
This winter I decided to put together a list of some of the most useful gear I have, and package it as a suggested gift guide. Here you’ll find a number of items that surprisingly many people still don’t own. The gifts I suggest are all things that I didn’t appreciate before I got one, but that have since become a permanent resident of my backpack or car trunk. I also limited the list to only items that are fun to receive. You won’t find spare batteries, camp suds, or water repellent spray in this list, only cool toys.
Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, MSR and more: Jolly christmas gift ideas
November 02, 2011Climbing Mount Fuji – A Short Trip to Another World
It’s two a.m. when a man’s voice announces wakeup throughout the mountain hut. One by one, the sardine-squeezed sleeping bags begin to wiggle and unzip. Headlamps turn on and people start shuffling.
Outside, we hear the sound of wind and rain beating against the thin walls of the mountain hut. My neighbour is discouraged. She complains that she couldn’t sleep last night. The altitude air is too thin, the hut too cold and too noisy with snorers. A quick peak through the window reveals that the darkness outside is windy, rainy and freezing cold. There will be no sunrise, she decides, and she goes back to sleep vanquished.
Read more about hiking up Mount Fuji
October 20, 2011Yakushima: Island of Mystical Japanese Wilderness
In most people’s minds, Japan invokes images of crowded supermetropolises bustling with jam-packed subways, neon-drenched electronic districts and futuristic travel systems. Indeed, Japan has a highly urbanized population and some of the world’s largest cities. To visit Japan during the August high season, when the whole country grinds to a halt for the annual Obon vacation, is to suffer the stifling heat of this country’s hottest month in the suffocating pressure of the summer crowds. Or so goes popular wisdom.
But as large as Japan’s 128 million strong population may be, most of it is concentrated in a small portion of the country, leaving vast mountainous areas wild and untouched by urbanism. A prime example is Yakushima.
August 01, 2011Learning Whitewater Kayaking
How do you get started in whitewater kayaking if you don’t have any friends to show you the ropes? It took me a while to figure that one out. But I did, and I will now share with you what I found.
I first decided that I wanted to try whitewater kayaking while rafting on the Rivière Rouge. Perhaps you’ve tried the rafting trips offered by the many companies on the Rivière Rouge (ABV, Nouveau Monde, H20, Propulsion, etc…). They’re great fun, and I highly recommend them, but the whole time we were rafting I was fixated by the safety guide following us in his kayak. Inches above the water line, this guy would dive head first in 2m standing waves, return in an eddy and surf the waves with his boat. He would perform flips of all kind, effortlessly burying nose and tail of his boat into the water as he pleased occasionally tipping completely over only to eskimo roll right back up as if nothing had happened. When the sun shined too strong, he’d wet his hair in an eskimo roll. When our raft got stuck on rocks, he’d surf a standing wave while waiting for us.
It. Looked. Awesome.
Read more about white water kayaking with Jean-Yves
July 12, 2011Bungee Jumping – Jean-Yves’ Adventures
The Leap.
It’s a moment that everyone must go through at least once in their lives. You worked your way up to where you are with a clear objective in mind and you have bold plans. You’ve come a long way, and now it’s time to take a leap of faith. But suddenly, at the critical moment, you find yourself standing at the edge of an abyss, scared to move forward. What’s ahead looks risky. You look back at what’s behind and it seems so safe and familiar. You consider changing course, turning around and sticking to the comfortable life you led before.
May 11, 2011Kayaking the Mangroves in the Florida Keys
Florida is a very popular winter destination for us cold-stricken Quebecers. By March, we’ve already had 4 months of winter and have at least one more month of it before it all melts away. It’s only natural that we seek to escape our frigid fate, if just for a week. And so we head en masse for the sun-drenched beaches of the sunshine state.
Click here to find out more on kayaking in Florida
April 05, 2011The North Face Jannu II GTX Review
I’ve tested the TNF Jannu II GTX boots on an Adirondack trail (Mt Marcy) and was globally happy with their performance. Here’s what I found.
Read on about The North Face Jannu II GTX
April 05, 2011The North Face Jannu II GTX – La critique
J'ai testé les bottes The North Face Jannu II GTX sur une piste dans les Adirondacks (Mont Marcy) et j'ai été content de leur performance en général. Cliquez le lien pour voir ce que j'en ai pensé, plus en détails.
Cliquez ici pour le reste de la critique des The North Face Jannu II GTX
March 31, 2011The North Face Alkaline GTX XCR – La critique
Le pire c'est que je ne voulais même pas ces souliers. Je voulais les The North Face Single-track, mais par accident, j'ai commandé les The North Face Alkaline GTX XCR. Je voulais les Singletrack parce qu'ils sont légers et se rangent facilement dans un sac à dos. C'est selon ces critères que j'évaluerai les Alkaline GTX XCR. Ainsi, mon erreur sera à votre avantage puisque je ne pourrai qu'être impartial!
Cliquez ici afin de lire la critique des The North Face Alkaline GTX XCR
March 30, 2011The North Face Alkaline GTX XCR – Reviewed
I didn’t want these shoes. I wanted the The North Face Singletracks, but I accidentally ordered the The North Face Alkaline GTX instead. I wanted the Singletracks because they are as light as shoes get and their soft uppers flatten easily, which make them ideal features for packing into a backpack, and light on your feet. But my "loss" is your gain. It has allowed me to be an impartial reviewer of the Alkaline.
Click here to read The North Face Alkaline trail runner review
March 29, 2011Les meilleurs coins pour patiner à proximité de Montréal
L’hiver achève et on aura bientôt plus de neige et de glace pour jouer dehors. Au moins peut-on se réjouir de la crue imminente qui ouvrira la saison des sports aquatiques! En attendant, c’est le moment idéal pour recueillir l’expérience qu’on a acquis cet hiver, en but d’en faire usage l’année prochaine.
Cliquez ici pour voir les meilleurs coins où patiner à proximité de Montréal
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