Snow on the Mind
Huge, wet flakes of snow splash off the driveway like rain as I peer out of my office/bedroom window. As I sip a cup of tea, then coffee, then another cup of tea, the mixed precip turns to graupel, the ground reaches freezing and the graupel turns back to wet flakes that accumulate on the ground.
Between batches of editing, I quiz myself (more like guess) on the types of snow and imagine how it might bond to the faceting surface snow in the mountains. I google the snow types as a reminder. I still feel green to the world of avalanches and snow science and to the critical skills of staying alive in wintery mountain landscapes. It’s around this time of year each season when I try to get out and practice beacon searches, at the minimum. Inevitably, I feel rusty, and I’m glad I took the time to practice before the allure of good skiing becomes too strong.
The first avalanche accident of the North American season, at least to my knowledge, just occurred in Colorado. A small windslab. No one got hurt, but it’s a good reminder that even early season backcountry skiing is dangerous. As many avalanche websites are warning, “If there’s enough snow to ride, there’s enough snow to slide.”
Stay safe out there. —Liam McGee
Get The WILD ISSUE
If you’ve read Maurice Sendak’s award-winning children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, you know his fantasy land isn’t a snow-covered mountain. It’s an island in the ocean with palm trees and furry beasts—an imaginative depiction of a young boy named Max struggling to grapple with his emotions after being sent to bed without dinner.
Our wild things look a little different. Windy ridgelines; snowy spines; rocky spires; chilling seracs. A concrete, wild reality. But one that is still rich with emotions to be grappled with. The joy from a long, hard day in the mountains; the dedication to an ethical first descent; the disappointment of being skunked; and the confusion of knowing you’re risking your life to ski the highest peaks.
While there’s a little bit of wild in every issue of Backcountry Magazine, No. 159 is all about the wild things. Lesser-known ranges, unforecasted zones and unique objectives—or ways of achieving them. It’s Norway’s northern lights and New Zealand’s high peaks; a Colombian first descent and reflections on the ethics of achieving it; a fruitless trip to Chile’s Cajon del Maipo; a first winter in Alaska’s fickle Chugach Front Range; and the spirit imbued into America’s penultimate frontier, the jagged, glaciated North Cascades.
The crisp quiet of a pre-dawn skintrack is peeking around the corner and that means the wilds things are too, wherever you plan to seek them. Once the wood is stacked, find a seat, flip a page and let us take you where the wild things are.
Subscribe now to make sure a copy is coming your way 📬.
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Stories |Totality Film Premier
On December 7, 2024, the short ski film Totality will be premiering at the J Skis headquarters in Burlington, Vermont.
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Telemark pioneer Paul Parker dies at 71
Backcountry and telemark skiing pioneer Paul Parker died Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, after a battle with cancer.
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Hiring freeze puts avalanche forecasters in a bind
A recent Forest Service hiring freeze leaves the backcountry community concerned about avalanche centers’ bandwidths this coming winter.
Gear
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Summer Gear Roundup: Camping
Regardless of the mode of backcountry travel, a good camp setup is essential to multiday exploration. While most of the gear tested by our staff is designed for warmer seasons, plenty of it can, and will, double as essentials on hut trips and spring overnight adventures.
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Summer Gear Roundup: Mountain Biking
Mountain biking is often considered a warm weather parallel to skiing. Many of our staff find the same flow they search for in the winter on singletrack in the summer. Check out some of of our favorite mountain biking gear.
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Summer Gear Roundup: Trail Running
When the warm weather takes over, trail running is a great way to spend summer days and train for the first flakes of snow. Check out our favorite trail running gear below.
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Après Shoes
While ski and snowboard boots are our bread and butter, we all have to get to the trailhead, ski hill or bar somehow. So this winter, our editors put non-buckled nor Boa-sporting boots and shoes to the test.
MORE GEAR
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Kuat Grip 6 Reviewed
Transporting skis and boards to the trailhead or resort and home again is a necessary, but not always straightforward part of the sport. Not every car comes with the space for skis, so the roof is a great sot to store them. After a full winter with Kuat’s Grip 6 on the roof of her…
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Gearbox: 2024 Electronics
When you’re logging long days, overnights or epic descents in the backcountry, these are the electronic gadgets worth adding to your pack.
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Gearbox: The Cozy Collection
Whether you’re preparing for a trip to Antarctica or just run cold, this collection of extra-insulated apparel is guaranteed to keep you warm.
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Gearbox: Litric Packs
Though less-expensive canister models still exist in airbag packs, lithium-ion rechargeable versions set the standard these days.
The Backcountry Podcast
From legendary athletes to iconic product designers, activists to guides, our world is filled with new views, wisdom, determination and crustiness.
Latest Podcast Episodes
From playing NCAA soccer to a successful modeling and acting career to being the top polar explorer of his time, Doug Stoup is an enigma. Host Adam Howard recently journeyed to Antarctica with Stoup and their conversation ranges from Doug’s personal training of A-list Hollywood actors to near death experiences; adventures with Doug Coombs; and taking novice skiers to the South Pole.
Tele Mike Russell: Turns for All
Tele Mike Russell grew up as a sharecropper’s son in Delaware before attending college and becoming an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Then he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center and decided he’d better follow another path, this one to skiing in Colorado, where he’d go on to find a family in the National Brotherhood of Skiers and help found its backcountry program.
Eric Blehm’s roots in snowboarding run deep. He started riding during the sport’s infancy, and after college became an editor at Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. Years later, he was in a lift line when a fellow rider saw the “Craig Kelly is my Co-Pilot” sticker on his board, and asked Blehm: “Who is Craig Kelly?” He was floored by the notion that there were snowboarders out there who didn’t know who Craig was. And this inspired him to write The Darkest White.
The Wild Issue
Subscribe now to get our latest issue!
Mountain Skills
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Mountain Skills: Professional vs. Recreational Avalanche Training…what’s in it for me?
This winter, avalanche education in the U.S. will be evolving. The old system of Level 1, 2, 3 will be replaced with two options: a recreational track and one geared toward professionals. The goal of the split is to deliver better, more focused courses to each user group. So how do you know which one’s…
Resort Skinning Policies
We’ve compiled a database of U.S. resorts with a little about each individual policy—where and when skinning is allowed, whether or not it’s free during operating hours and the link directly to the resort’s guidelines.
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Mountain Skills: Hydrate or Die
We lose fluids through perspiration (sweating) and respiration (breathing). While ski touring, high elevation and drier air make this even more dramatic. And during the spring, warm weather further exaggerates the amount of fluid lost. Dehydration leads to a drop of performance—in stages from slowing down to bonking to needing medical attention.
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Mountain Skills: Anticipating Point Release Avalanches
As the spring approaches, many of us turn our attention to steeper, more technical lines higher in the mountains. The layers of snow that formed throughout the winter begin to gain strength and the avalanche problem is less complicated—it’s ski mountaineering season! But as the temperatures climb, wet avalanches become a more regular, primary concern.
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Mountain Skills: Take the time to be prepared for early season turns
It’s late fall and many mountains throughout the U.S. have seen some decent early season snow. As a result, stoke is high and people are itching to ski. Guide Steve Banks shares his thoughts on how to capitalize on the early bounty.
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Mountain Skills: How to Prepare for Your Level 1 Avalanche Course
Beacon. Shovel. Probe. For years, these have been the standard required tools for heading into the backcountry. But what good are they without the proper training in how to recognize hazards and use them effectively? That’s where a 24-hour Level 1 avalanche certificate course comes into play.
