Making Better Snow Tools: the MSR Snow Saw Legacy

For some, winter adventures in the backcountry mean snow camping—for others, backcountry skiing. Whether you see yourself building a snow shelter or checking snow conditions this season, you’ll need snow tools you can rely on to deliver unmatched performance in the field. Developing gear that’s safer and easier to use is something MSR has been doing for more than five decades, and it’s a focus that has led to innovations in snow tools, including the snow saw. But first, a little history… Making a safer saw: the Igloo Tool The innovation started soon after the founding of MSR, with the introduction of the MSR Igloo Tool. First offered through founder Larry Penberthy’s Mountain Safety Research newsletter in November 1969, the tool provided alpinists and expedition travelers with a safer alternative…

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Eric Larsen’s North Pole Expedition Through Photos

By Eric Larsen On May 6th 2014, I reached the Geographic North Pole after what I can only describe as the most difficult 53 days of my life. Sitting in my chair now, with the perspective of time and distance, I am amazed that I was able to persevere long enough to be successful. After all, no one had completed a North Pole expedition since 2010 and comparatively few over the span of polar history. In 1995, Reinhold Messner, easily the most accomplished mountaineer of all time, called his unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole, the horizontal Everest. While over 6,000 people have summited Everest only 250 people have traversed the Arctic Ocean from land to the Geographic North Pole—less than 50 of those traveling unaided and un-resupplied (meaning…

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Eric Larsen on Dog Sledding, the Team Dynamic & Running with Your Best Friends

By Eric Larsen In the fall of 1994, I was living in a remote cabin in northern Minnesota and working odd jobs. I stopped in a local lodge looking for work and was hired as a dog musher on the spot. At the time, I had never even seen a sled dog let alone driven an entire team of them. I dropped everything I was doing, drove 10 hours back to my parent’s home and grabbed as many base layers as I could find. For good measure, I rented the Disney movie Iron Will to glean a few pointers before my job started.

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Remote in Chamonix

MSR athlete Eric Larsen took the Remote, one of the newest additions to our mountaineering tent collection, to the heart of Chamonix’s backcountry.

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