Last week snowboarder Colin D. Watt shared his survival story of being swept down L’Avanger, the line of cleared trees under the Peak 2 Peak Gondola on Whistler Mountain. There’s been seldom opportunities to ski L’Avanger the last couple seasons, so with bumper December for snow like we’ve had, one can understand why the locals are jonesing to return to this line. Watt, wasn’t wearing a transceiver or any other avalanche safety equipment when he triggered the slide that wedged him into a tree well, just like people don’t often wear transceivers when skiing Khyber Pass, Cake Hole or the backside of Flute. After all, it’s just tree skiing. I’m not passing judgement on the fact Watt was out of bounds without backcountry gear, but it does remind me of a time I was on road trip at Whitewater Ski Resort near Nelson, B.C. We’d made it to Whitewater just in time for a foot of fresh. The next morning as we loaded the car with ski gear in front of the hostel, I asked my friend where his backpack (containing self rescue gear) was.

I thought you said we’re riding the resort today?” he replied, the impatience obvious in his voice. Without trying to sound too much like I was lecturing him on avalanche safety, I retorted: “Dude, this isn’t Whistler. You’re in the Kootenays. Everyone rides with transceivers.” The avalanche control team at Whitewater are perfectly capable of making sure slopes within their boundaries are safe, but without lift-accessed alpine, Whitewater relies on its adjacent backcountry for freeride fulfillment. That means pretty much everyone (save families with kids) lines up for the chair with touring bindings and a backpack with the necessary gear. Avalanche safety receives a lot more respect in the interior mountains of B.C. and the Canadian Rockies. Because it doesn’t have moisture raining out and consolidating the snowpack like we do in the Coast Mountains. But as convenient as it is to be skiing on a safer snowpack (most of the time), that comfort level can be our downfall.

Like when Watt dropped into L’Avanger thinking it was good to go because it was below treeline next to the safety of Whistler Mountain’s boundaries. I don’t think we should all be wearing avalanche airbags for skiing the Peak Chair, though you do see Europeans doing that out of habit from skiing off-piste in their native Alps. evb backpackBut having a transceiver, probe and shovel on you – for when an out of bounds lap might happen – can mean the difference between life and death. nike nutmeg backpack for saleIf you don’t like the idea of catching your pack on the chairlift all the time you can buy a freeride vest to carry the bare essentials. nike nutmeg backpack for saleEncouraging your friends to do the same means an episode like Watt’s is more likely to turn out as a near-miss story, rather than an avoidable tragedy.dslr backpack costco

For more information on getting equipped and educated for backcountry travel visit Avalanche.ca This article first appeared in the Whistler Question  in December, 2015Last year, I built a stripped-down Khyber Pass style AK 47 under the tutelage of the Dead Goose Society (DGS). I had a great time and learned a lot about gun manufacturing. The resulting rifle has become my constant companion in my truck — much to the despair of the wild game and feral hogs the area. As so often happens with firearms, after I got comfortable with the Kalashnikov, I wanted another. So I reached out to DGS with a simple request: show me what you can do. I headed down to the Houston DGS headquarters for a little show and tell with one of their in-house builds. Lee handed me a seriously tricked out AK47 SBR. Although still an AK, it was about as far away from my home build as you can get. I stared at it for a minute. It looked like an AK. Kinda like my AK? No, not like my AK. Time to put Dead Goose Society’s firearm to the test.

The AK47 SBR’s action is butter smooth. The real surprise: the recoil impulse. It’s not a snap. It’s not a push. It’s a kind of a delayed bump, and a small one at that. I’m not an AK recoil expert. But the DGS AK47 SBR feels nothing like my AK. The recoil reminds me of the STI Edge I reviewed last year. The DGS AK47 SBR wasn’t made for the bench. It was built for moving and shooting, and shooting fast. And so I did, pouring rounds out of this gun, long after I’d shot the requisite 500 rounds to complete the review. (It was well over 600, but I don’t know how far over.) Mags were dumped, brass was made, giggles were had. As with all reviews, I sprayed some RemOil into the DGS AK47 SBR at the start. At no point did I perform any cleaning or maintenance. There were no failures of any type using surplus hollow points and FMJs, as well as 190 different hand loaded rounds with both 129 and 150 grain soft points. I shot standing, kneeling, seated on the bench, stock folded and unfolded.

Not so much as a hiccup no matter what I did. Although I’d never raised the DGS AK47 SBR before, it took zero learning time to get the gun up and the sight on target. Or more appropriately, the bore on target. I shot my first magazine through the red dot — without a battery. So there was no red dot. At 50 yards, 100 percent of my rounds made it into the 19” silhouette. Proof that the DGS AK47 SBR has a natural point of aim. The DGS AK47 SBR provides a dramatic improvement on ye olde AK safety. Unlike the standard AK safety/selector lever, I could operate the switch one with just my right index finger. In combat, with my AK, I kept my safety on unless I could identify a threat. If I wanted to manipulate the safety, the rifle had to be out of position. Which meant I couldn’t keep it shouldered and pointed at the target, and still take the selector on and off. With the DGS safety selector, I can be looking through the sights (or red dot) and easily go from safe to fire.

I was a little concerned that I’d accidentally switch it off, but in a couple of days of beating it up on the range, that never happened. The improved safety lets you hold the AK’s bolt open. Anyone who’s ever thrown a lot of lead through an AK will tell you that front grip heats up awful quick. There’s no shame in wearing gloves if you are burning through the mags with Mr. Kalashnakov’s glory. The DGS AK47 SBR’s forward grip eliminates that challenge. It drops your supporting hand down and away from the source of all that heat, while keeping your hand in a good position to transition the rifle from target to target. This AK47 SBR comes equipped with a collapsible stock, like my home build. But DGS’s SBR has a full stock, offering a real cheek weld with a much more comfortable nest into your shoulder. The collapsible stock is extremely useful for getting in and out of a truck, Polaris or other hunting vehicle. As an added bonus, with the short barrel and collapsible stock, the rifle fits in a backpack.

With the short barrel and muzzle break, the DGS AK47 SBR is some fierce kinda loud. Good ear protection for you — and anyone in the general vicinity — is a must. The DGS AK47 SBR’s accuracy is less than stellar. With the red dot on, I couldn’t shoot anything better than 3” groups, using surplus or hand loaded ammunition. Hoping it was an optic problem, I swapped the red dot for a 4X scope. I shrunk my groups by half-an-inch. This particular version of the DGS lineup attaches the hand guard with a barrel band, which doesn’t help. (DGS says the gun is available without the barrel band.) I take the accuracy of my bolt guns and AR’s seriously. None of them shoot greater than a minute of angle. But the M4s I took into combat rarely shot better than 2MOA. They were accurate enough well past the realistic performance capabilities of the round. That’s even more true for the 7.62X39. The DGS AK47 SBR is an AK, and 2 1/2″ MOA is plenty acceptable accuracy for an AK.

I have more guns in my truck right now that most gun owners have at all. And yet, 10 minutes into shooting this rifle, I wondered what had gone wrong in my life that I didn’t own this one already. Specifications: Dead Goose Society AK47G SBR Capacity: variable, this one came with a 40 round magazine Length: 32.5” unfolded, 23.5” folded Barrel: 12.5” black nitride barrel Receiver: 1mm stamped side folding receiver, Hungarian (original) forged trunnions, AKM style ALG AKT trigger (custom shop polished) Snake Hound Machine Enhanced internal spring kit (heavy springs) Black Jack Buffer Tech. extra thin internal buffer Gas tube has been vented to reduce overgassing Venom 90deg gas block with FSP Mid West Ind. Keymod standard length forend Strike Ind slant grip Attero sight block mounted low profile top cover rail Hogue overmold pistol grip Arsenal full stock side folding poly stock (4.5 pin) V Project (Polish style) top cover

(The Kreb enhanced selector must be matched with a safety catch top over) Primary arms (Holosun) red dot Price: $1,558.60 (plus applicable $200 tax stamp to our benevolent federal overlords) Ratings (out of five stars): Appearance * * * It has no wood, nothing engraved, nothing polished. In short, it rates zero on the grace scale. But everyone I showed it to loved the way it looked. Reliability * * * * * Perfect with any round, and I was absolutely cooking that barrel. Customization * * * * * Stock, rails, optics, hand guards, trigger, sights, barrel and brake are all non-standard for this rifle. This is the gun that proves the “Barbie for Men” isn’t always an AR. Accuracy * * * * Like the STI Edge, I feel like this should be split into two categories. On the bench, it gets three stars. On the move in fast fire, five. Ergonomics * * * * * Five stars to an AK for ergos. I deleted one of those stars several times, because I can’t get over the fact that this is an AK.