In February 2014, photographer Kt Miller and professional skier Caroline Gleich met up with late snowboarder Liz Daley for two weeks of steep skiing in Chamonix. The trio accomplished famous and technical descents like the Y Couloir of Aiguille de Argentiere and the West Couloir of Aiguille du Chardonnet, polishing their ski mountaineering skills and surprising […]
Video: Forbidden Traverse
Photographer Jason Hummel, brothers Andy and Mike Traslin and Jeff Rich recently knocked off the Forbidden Traverse, a noteworthy North Cascades multi-day route first pioneered by Martin Volken in 1999. The group spent three days on the route, which begins along Highway 20 before passing over Forbidden Peak (8,816 ft.) and Eldorado Peak (8,868 ft.), the descent of which, Mike Translin says, was the highlight of the trip. “Good weather and good snow stability made it a good time to slog up some mountains,” he adds. Here’s a video from the traverse.
Video: Glen Plake’s Chamonix
“Chamonix has a reputation worldwide as one of the greatest ski towns on earth; a lot of serious skiing, serious climbing, just big and dangerous and cool,” says Tom Runcie of Crested Butte, Colo. Along with CJ Carter, of Bozeman, Mont., Runcie headed to the French Alps two seasons back to ski alongside Glen Plake as part of a contest thrown by Julbo. And following the trip, Julbo produced this short film about their week chasing the legend around his grand stomping grounds.
Video: Sun Dog
Dogs can shred, too. And it’s about time they got their starring role in an artful and action-filled short. DPS’s latest installment of Cinematic does just that, with Conga shredding steeps and powder around Argentina’s Refugio Frey alongside skier Santiago Guzman. His turns are nice, but the excitement in Conga’s eyes, ears and tail as she bounds through powder transcend to another level of joy. TK, Follow, Niva, Finley and the other Backcountry office dogs approve.
Over the Hill: The Wilderness Act Turns 50
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on September 3, 1964, protecting 9.1 million acres as The National Wilderness Preservation System. This year marks the Wilderness Act’s 50th anniversary, which means 50 years of undeveloped, unmechanized and untracked terrain.
Video: Out On A Limb
“I obviously knew there was going to be a bunch of obstacles I’d have to overcome,” Vasu Sojitra says about backcountry skiing. Sojitra, profiled the latest edit from T-Bar Films, had his right leg amputated at nine months old. But that hasn’t stopped him from backcountry skiing. Or from starring in this inspiring edit that was a finalist at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and a winner in the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival.
Video: Avalanche Engineers
“We’re really just trying to understand the fundamental process that causes a slope to fail in an avalanche in the first place,” says Tony Lebaron, a PhD Candidate in Applied Mechanics at Montana State University, Bozeman. “No one really knows what happens at a microstructural level.” So at MSU’s subzero lab, Lebaron and David Walters, another PhD candidate, are constructing avalanches in hyper-controlled environments to analyze propagation and microstructure. “In the lab here, we can see everything that’s happen,” Walters says, “We really see the whole story.”
Video: Chugach Classics ‘From The Road’
Five years ago, Valdez Heli Ski guide Eric Henderson took a massive fall on Meteorite, a classic descent in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, breaking his neck and ending his guiding career. Last April, he returned to the Chugach, along with a crew of Dynafit athletes, to revisit Meteorite and ski the area’s other classic heli-lines but with a twist—they’d do it all under human power.
Changing the Snowboard Landscape: Jeremy Jones’s ‘Higher’ and bc riding
Over the last 25 years, Jeremy Jones has snowboarded everywhere from Vermont to Alaska. He was once a pioneer of big-mountain freeriding and has become a pioneer of human-powered riding. In 2007, he founded Protect Our Winters, an organization aimed at stopping climate change and three years later, he launched his groundbreaking film, Deeper. This month, he’ll release Higher, the final chapter in the three-part series. This won’t mark the end of exploration for Jones, though, “We have our hands full right now getting Higher out the door,” he says, “but there’s a lot I want to do, exactly how I want to document that, I don’t know.”
Sliding The Tush: Off The Grid in Utah’s Tushar Mountains
“The sister range to Utah’s Wasatch Mountains may be lesser know,” Erme Catino writes of the Tushar Mountains in the October issue, “but it features the same approachable terrain and deep powder.” Last winter, Catino and a crew from Salt Lake traveled to southern Utah’s Tushars to check out the state’s highest yurt operation, Tushar Mountain Tours. Along with yurt owner Alec Hornstein, they experienced everything from powder to hurricane-force winds, and Catino wrote about it in the October issue feature “Sliding the Tush.” Here’s a video from the trip.
