Maybe it’s the fresh snow, the gear, the camaraderie or the après-ski beers. But we want to know why you backcountry ski or ride.
Keep it simple or spill your heart out—we want to hear your reasons, and we’ll publish the best in our 20th Anniversary Issue, which hits newsstands in November. Tell us why you backcountry ski or ride here, or e-mail tyler[at]backcountrymagazine[dot]com.
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.
Listen Now »
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.
While ski and snowboard boots are our bread and butter, we all have to get to the trailhead, ski hill or bar … [Read More...]
Transporting skis and boards to the trailhead or resort and home again is a necessary, but not always … [Read More...]
I backcountry ski so that i can feel better about putting out the vibe in the parking lot post-skiing.
silence. peace. Freedom !!
I don’t backcountry ski yet….. not too much available in South Carolina… but If I get my way, I’LL BE ABLE TO MOVE TO THE ROCKIES AND HOPE TO TAKE IT UP…
I BACKCOUNTRY SKI BECAUSE WHEN I WAS 12 YEARS OLD I WOULD STAND OUT IN FRONT OF THE SMUGGLERS NOTCH SKI AND SNOWBOARD CLUB AT 9AM WAITING FOR MY FREESKI TEAM TO GATHER. AND I WOULD WATCH THE LIKES OF BERNIE CHABOT, “STRAIT” NATE HERMAN , AND ALL THE OTHER BEARDED FACE OF THE SMUGGS LOCALS WHOSE NAMES I HAD YET TO LEARN, SKIING OUT OF THE UPPER LOT AFTER THEIR SECOND RUN IN THE “BIRTHDAY BOWLS”. I WOULD SAY TO MYSELF “THATS WHAT I AM GOING TO DO”.
I ride in the BC for the love of being wild !! in the wild!!! with wild friends!!!!!! always searching for new wild rides in new wild places, and all the wild adventures along the way……..
I backcountry ski because the summit And the tUrns are so much sweeter when youve earned them.
i backcountry ski to feed a part of my soul that can only be reached at speed, slicing between the trees, powder spraying around my knees. dawn patrol is the gateway, and i am never more alive than when i am in the mountain’s embrace.
I baCkCountry ski because the atmosphere within the bacKcountry is someThing that i have CoMe to fear and love all at once. TheRe is nothing quite lIke plAying with NaTure and winning The best tuRns of your life. I backcountRy ski because NO matter how good it is inbounds, the BackcounTry is always better.
POWDER….POWDER…..POWDER!!
To get away from the bulshit and gapers in ski resorts. im not paying $115 to ski for 1 day at whistler
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is always a peanut butter sandwich…but it certainly tastes a whole hell of a lot better when you’re sitting on a peak with unobstructed views surrounded by a few good friends.
my dog makes me
I SKI THE BACKCOUNTRY AND HIGH PEAKS OF THE WORLD BECAUSE CLIMBING WITHOUT SKIING IS JUST PAIN AND SUFFERING WITH LOUSY FOOD AT THE END OF THE DAY. sKIING IS AN AMAZING THING. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW DIFFICULT IT GETS OUT ON AN EXPEDITION OR HOW LITTLE YOU ACCOMPLISH, OR WHATEVER. WHEN YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLICK INTO YOUR SKIS AND SKI, IT MAKES EVERYTHING RIGHT. IT REALLY DOES. aND IT DOESN’T EVEN MATTER HOW GOOD THE SKIING IS. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THE EFFORT OF DRAGGING SKIS ALL OVER THE WORLD AND ALL OVER THESE PEAKS AND THEN ACTUALLY SKIING THAT IS SATISFYING BEYOND WORDS. AS THE YEARS CLICK BY, IT MEANS ALL THE MORE……
Pow!
. . . because I barely get to ski. Because I spend too much time doing a gig that hardly pays the bills and too much time riding overly crowded big city buses, listening to everyone else’s annoying headphone buzz and loud one-sided cell-phone “conversations” (yeah, uh-huh, really) while getting jostled around in what little smelly, sticky, claustrophobic space I can stand in.
I backcountry because it’s where my heart ( and thoughts, most days) is even though I can barely ski like the rippers these days—I’m not looking to huck the clilffs or speed down chutes the size of straws—I’m not even looking for biig powder days, but rather, just days, just hours, maybe not filled with the most epic of descents, but maybe just un-tracked enough to feel almost like the first to ever choose that line.
I backcountry because you don’t (well, if you’re reading this, uhh . . . ) and I am happy not to see you; stay on your phone, in your car, in front of your television or your laptop, text, scroll, repeat.
I backcountry because it can be cold, wet, dangerous and absolutely beautiful just for my having made the effort, sweating, swearing ( I fall a lot ) and plowing my rig up through what sometimes feels like bales of hay.
I backcountry because, so late in the game, so confined to the life I can’t seem to “uncreate” the lure of something I cannot master, has me often thinking of nothing else but an imperfectly perfect turn—a well-timed moment where it all comes together and the mountain does not eat me, but lets me be–to enjoy another instant of bliss at being in the backcountry, gliding on two sticks of wood.
I love skinning up as much as I love face shots skiing down in thigh-deep powder. Backcountry skiing is the ultimate means of exploring the mountain landscape in winter, it takes me to the most amazing naturally spectacular places. In the big mountains of western Canada’s Rockies, Selkirks, Purcells, Monashees, Coast Mountains, that means exploring massive glaciers and skinning up fascinating icefalls. In Rogers Pass, it’s long runs through cedar forests. I can’t think of any better way to enjoy winter than a week in a backcountry lodge with no electricity or running water, just a wood stove, lots of yummy food and wine, a dozen great ski partners and lots of untracked snow. I’m in the over 50 crowd now, love it more than ever, and the best part is I can eat brownies and skinning up keeps my butt small !
Back country is challenging, fun and adventure. It is also exercise.
Area skiing is boring. Ski centers are frustrating and pretty miserable, from the distant parking lots to the city-like resort venues. Areas are expensive.
Area skiing is where you learn to ski, like learing to dive in a pool. Once you’ve mastered technique the mountains are open to you, just as the oceans are to divers.
Your mastery should inclue AT, Telemark, and XC touring.
Modern equipment has made skiing the easiest sport in the world. This is fine. I learned before release bindings, plastic bases, and even steel edges. Use this wonderful new equipment to conquer the back country, not to yo-yo lift served areas.
And get exercise. Area skiing is not exercise, it’s on par with golf, a social passtime (racers exempted).
Call me a snob if you will, but I do look down upon those who only ski where lifts take them up.