Blood Blisters, A Crabapple Tree and Dad
Alright, this may be a ski magazine. And a newsletter for a ski magazine. But also, it’s the offseason, and the World Cup has taken over my world. Some of my earliest memories are of pickup soccer games with family in our backyard. There was a sloping hill on one side of the makeshift field and a gnarled old crab apple tree that defended the middle of our little pitch.
Soccer, and now skiing, have been the two most influential sports in my life. Against what seems like all odds, they’ve brought me from cage soccer courts in the Netherlands to stadiums in Vancouver to remote mountain ranges across North America and beyond. Most of my friends and community have been developed through a shared passion for these sports.
As I flash through cherished memories, I see a parallel life, one inspired in many ways by my dad. I can hear stories he’s told from before I was alive. Sneaking onto the chairlift for night skiing in Michigan because he couldn’t afford lift tickets. College soccer games in small town Wisconsin. And then forward to a young me: My dad explaining the mechanics of the orange, seal-skin strips attached to the bottom of old tele skis, or drawing tactical setups on the back of scrap paper on the kitchen counter. How Father’s Day, and my dad’s birthday, almost always coincided with summertime soccer tournaments where we stayed in friends’ basements in Boston, and he popped blood blisters on my feet instead of celebrating.
Writing this now, thinking about those moments, tears well in my eyes. It’s the most important lesson my dad has taught me, to cry, a lesson I’m very much still learning. He always has, and always will, cry tears of joy. Thanks Dad, much love.
—Liam
🛋️ Kick back, read, relax: Shared stories from the skintrack. Travel to the far reaches of your imagination. Five fat issues a winter featuring the best writers, photographers and gear testers in the world. Subscribe today »
Current Issue: The Hidden Issue
Order your copy today.
-
Stories |Lessons from Alaska: A Photo Diary
On a voyage into the Alaska Range, Sophia Schwartz skis very little and learns lessons in transportation, buried tents and why we keep going into the mountains.
-
Mount Hood Summer Solstice
Each year, Asit Rathod returns to Mount Hood on the summer solstice to celebrate friends, life and summer corn turns on the longest day of the year.
-
Mountain Skills: Mountain Rescue
Professional rescuers share when and how to call search and rescue.
Gear
-
The 2026 Dynafit Mezzalama: Reviewed
The updated Dynafit Mezzalama is a comfy, full-featured lightweight boot that speeds up the skintrack and cranks turns after transitions.
-
Gearbox: 2026 Goggles
The best ski goggles of 2026, per our editors and testers.
-
Gearbox: 2026 Helmets
The editors review a range of helmets on the market. Find the right one for your head and your objective.
-
Gearbox: 2026 Packs
Backcountry ski packs come in all shapes and sizes. Our editors review their favorites from this year.
MORE GEAR
-
2026 Editors’ Choice Apparel Reviews
Our 2026 Editors’ Choice apparel reviews span the gamut, from kits and hardshells to puffies, midlayers and baselayers.
-
2026 Editors’ Choice Splitboard Reviews
The best splitboards of 2026, from mountaineering-ready decks to slashable powder boards.
-
2026 Editors’ Choice Splitboard Boot and Binding Reviews
Editors’ Choice splitboard boots and bindings for both hard- and soft-boot setups.
-
2026 Editors’ Choice Ski Reviews
With the rate that ski gear is advancing, it can be hard to keep track of the latest space-age fiber blends and non-traditional rocker profiles. That’s where this Gear Guide comes in. Our editors spent their summer studying the newest features and technologies found in skis, boots and bindings. Then, they spent just as much…
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.
Never Miss an Issue
Five fat issues a winter featuring the best writers, photographers and gear testers in the world. Travel to the far reaches of your imagination.
Mountain Skills
-
Mountain Skills: Mountain Rescue
Professional rescuers share when and how to call search and rescue.
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.
-
Mountain Skills: International Inquiries
If you’re investing your savings in a ski vacation on the other side of the world, you’ll also want to invest your time in the research to make it the trip of a lifetime.
-
Mountain Skills: Planning a trip to an offbeat location requires more than Google
Chamonix. Hokkaido. Portillo. Certain locations are synonymous with international ski travel, meaning resources for trip planning are as plentiful as some places can be crowded. But what about planning a trip to Kosciusko, Aoraki, Vielha or some other little-spoken-of locale with limited beta, few available maps or no guidebooks? Where do you start?
-
Mountain Skills: Set a Plan and Stick to It
Sticking to your plan is easier said than done. But, it’s one of the best ways to stay safe in the backcountry.
-
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…
