GET YOUR SIGNED COPY! After 2 seasons of research, and one year of a lot of writing and editing, Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes: Colorado, was released in October, 2017! Published by Mountaineers Books, a foreward by Chris Davenport, and featuring 102 routes, we think you're sure to enjoy it. Buy your copy here and we'll personally sign it for you!
This post is part of a Throwback Thursday series featuring trip reports that we haven’t had a chance to write about until now! Look for them at least every other Thursday! This report features Mount Trelease, which can provide some fun low-angled terrain for backcountry skiing on pow days if you choose your terrain right!
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Both Frank and I are firm believers that boots are among the most important part of our backcountry skiing kit. We spend countless hours in our AT boots each season and need them to be both comfortable and lightweight for our ascents as well as stiff enough for dependable performance on steep descents. My feet don’t typically fit the normal mold of a stock liner, especially for a boot that I wear more than any other footwear that I own and sweat in incessantly. I’ve relied on Intuition Liners< for several years, over several models of boots to help improve both the comfort and performance of the AT boots I use in the backcountry.
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“Dumb things” is probably a little bit of a strong statement for what I hope these blog posts will be. Perhaps “Avalanche mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned from them” would have been a more appropriate title, but missing the eye-catching alliterative aspects of this one. Part 1 can be found here, and part 2 is here. It is my hope that these posts will at the very least offer something to the reader to learn from, since near misses are less talked about…
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Many of you are familiar with the Throwback Thursday trip reports I’ve been doing during the last two ski seasons, where I featured all the Colorado fourteeners that I skied. While the fourteener portion of that came to a wrap last spring, the Throwback Thursday reports themselves are back in action. The first Throwback Thursday report of this season begins with a ski of North and South Diamond Peaks in northern Colorado just last year!
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Heuristic traps are something that every backcountry skier needs to know about, and be very aware of when making decisions in the backcountry. Frank and I have both admittedly fallen prey to these at times, and any backcountry skier who denies that they haven’t would be a liar. However, you can minimize their impacts, and being aware of HOW you think and make decisions (metacognition) can help reduce heuristic traps. In my mind, it’s a topic we can’t talk enough about, because these heuristic traps are always there and the brain works in ways that keep making them happen.
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As I write this on the last day of November, the temperature is in the teens and it got well
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If you’re looking for gift ideas for backcountry skiers, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re looking for gift ideas for yourself or for someone else, you’ll find a wide range of selection below. Furthermore, all of the products we recommend as gifts are things that we use regularly, and that we love – they’ve passed our harsh tests. So check out the 20 gift ideas in our Holiday Gift Guide for Backcountry Skiers and you’ll likely find something for you or those that you love.
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We are bringing back “Snow Safety Sundays”! Every Sunday evening at 6 pm, we will feature an article or video related to snow safety that we find useful, to be posted through our Facebook and Twitter social media platforms, using the hashtag #snowsafetysunday. These articles will range from the basics to more complex decision making problems. But, we will post things that EVERYONE can learn from.
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Black Diamond hit the money on the Helio 116’s. They are the perfect blend of a lightweight ski that still performs well on the descent in a variety of conditions. Even with this fatter width, the Black Diamond Helio 116 skis are not just a mid-winter powder ski. The increased width improves the dampening and stability of the ski, allowing it to perform exceptionally well in variable spring conditions too. If you’re looking for a one-ski quiver for your backcountry setup, the Black Diamond Helio 116 should be at the top of your list!
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