2018 BACKCOUNTRY EDITORS’ CHOICE GEAR

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Between our Powder Mountain Gear Test Week and Crested Butte Board Test, we left no standout hardgood untested. The best of it’s reviewed in vivid, credible and reliable detail in our Gear Guide, on newsstands September 26. But to satiate your gear thirst ’til then, we’re announcing our 2018 Editors’ Choice Awards right here.

This year, for the first time ever, we’ve doubled down on the Gear Guide, not just reviewing 145 skis, splitboards, boots and bindings, but nearly 100 jackets, layers, beacons, airbags and more. When it comes to buying softgoods, there’s a lot to wade through. But we’ve done the work, choosing the best, lightest and warmest in each category.

Check out all of our Editors’ Choice Awards right here—and to see the full reviews of these products and nearly 200 more, buy a copy of the 2018 Gear Guide.

SKIS

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Freeride Skis

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice All Mountain Skis

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Powder Touring Skis

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Touring Skis

BOOTS & AT BINDINGS

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Ski Boots

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice AT Bindings

SPLITBOARDS

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Splitboards

APPAREL & ACCESSORIES

2018 Backcountry Editors' Choice Apparel + Accessories

: DOUG STOUP: THE ICEMAN
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.
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: 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.
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: ERIC BLEHM: MEET YOUR HEROES
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.
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