According to writer Drew Zieff, Nick Russell might be the world’s first professional splitboard athlete—not a pro snowboarder who adopted the split, but one who earned significant sponsorships solely from human-powered exploits.
Semantics aside, Russell is intimate with the concept of delayed gratification both on and off the hill, having climbed the proverbial mountain of his pro career like he does literal ones—step by hard-earned step.
Sammy Carlson is no stranger to the spotlight. But after competing at freeskiing’s highest stage, the Oregon native now feels most inspired filming far from distractions in the mountains of British Columbia. There, while working on his current project, Resilience, he’s continuing to define what’s possible in powder.
As backcountry skiers and riders, we’re understandably keen to study avalanche fatalities, so that we may learn from them and avoid the same fate. But rarely do we analyze a life—particularly a life well-lived—with the same scrutiny. Luca Pandolfi, a 47-year-old Italian big mountain snowboarder who passed away in Italy’s Gran San Bernardo Valley on March 17, lived one such life, both on and off the hill.
Jibbing was hot as hellfire when Eric Blehm became editor of Transworld Snowboarding in 1995. Most snowboard media focused heavily on freestyle, but Blehm was more fascinated by the Nitro Tour than the glut of twins that graced the 501 pages of the magazine’s 1995 gear guide. Blehm’s tenure at Transworld stretched through 1998, a […]
When I drove up Utah’s Cottonwood Canyons this past Saturday, parking lots were a zoo—more so than usual, that is. Stickered Subarus and trucks cozied up mirror to mirror. Groups of diehards and new users alike spilled out into the Wasatch’s infamously well-beaten network of skintracks. And with greenlit avalanche conditions and a balmy weather […]
Toilet paper and canned goods aren’t the only commodities flying off the shelves in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Vail Resorts’ stock fell along with the rest of the market, and as ski resorts across the nation closed for the season earlier this month, the demand for touring setups has spiked. “Ski resorts […]
It’s not an overstatement to say that Jeremy Jones’s contributions to backcountry snowboarding have been unparalleled. Not only did he bring splitboarding to the big screen in the Teton Gravity Research Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy, but his eponymous brand has also dominated the splitboard market. Now, Jones embarks on his biggest endeavor yet—not solely enjoying […]
Like many snowboarders over the history of our sport, my first board was a Burton. More specifically, it was a hand-me-down ’98 122 Chopper that I got from my older brother in fifth grade. It was deep orange, banged up and beautiful.
To get their boots in the door, aspiring backcountry professionals look to mentorship, observation and a season or three spent hauling gear, shadowing classes and following in the tracks of others.
The old aphorism “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” doesn’t apply to Board Test Week—rather, it’s a marathon run at a sprint’s pace. And testers have been holding nothing back from the moment the starting gun for Backcountry’s annual splitboard test went off late last week in Crested Butte, Colo.
DAVE GRISSOM: BEHIND THE CURTAIN AT VOILÉ
In this episode, Grissom speaks to the importance of independent retail shops, and the advantages of manufacturing in the U.S. He walks us through Voile’s humble beginnings and its rich history in backcountry skiing and snowboarding. We talk about weathering the pandemic, and what the new normal might look like as the boom in demand for outdoor equipment tapers. Listen Now »
WILL RITTER: THE SPARK
Will tours us through the evolution of the company, and shares what it feels like to have the idols of his youth riding his setup. He speaks to his connection to the backcountry snowboarding community, and his 15-year pursuit of building a better backcountry snowboard binding. Listen Now »
CORINNE PREVOT: DREAM WEAVER
In this episode Corrine reflects on the loss of friends and family, and how she can only hope to match their passion and drive in her own life and work. And, we talk about legacy and how it feels to be breaking trail for the next generation. Listen Now »
After a year away, we returned to Utah’s Powder Mountain, where we’ve been testing for 15 years, bringing along 45 testers with diverse backgrounds. Even more diverse is the terrain at Pow Mow: skintrack-accessed sidecountry bowls, perfect aspen glades off the Sunrise poma, steep chutes under the Paradise lift. It’s here that we test a huge amount of gear and testers give us an even larger pile of feedback. With this well-oiled system, we find [Read More…]
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.
Spending a winter night in the mountains carries a sense of whimsy: no lights for miles, bright stars and a … [Read More...]
Skiers give a lot of credence to which beacons work best for them, with good reason, but what about the rest … [Read More...]
