There’s a difference between a vacation and a trip. Vacations are stress-free, feet-up affairs spent sipping cocktails in luxury’s lap. Trips are relaxing in a high-paced, flow-state way, filled with activity and energy, often leaving one begging for a vacation by the end. Resort skiers go on vacations to carve corduroy and eat filet; backcountry skiers go on trips to find adventure. And while the latter is easily more rewarding, earning those rewards takes proper planning and preparation. Here’s how to maximize a trip for all it’s worth.
Up and Down Colorado’s Elk Range with Michael Wirth
Michael Wirth explored a lifetime’s worth of peaks in Colorado’s Elk Mountains in just two months. The young ski mountaineer summited and skied all 59 13ers in the remote range, becoming the first person to do so.
Happy Place: Grace Staberg finds her flow on the Skimo World Cup
When Grace Staberg starting skimo racing during her freshman year of high school in Summit County, Colorado, she was the slowest kid on the team. Now age 20, Staberg is living in Europe and competing on the Skimo World Cup.
Mountain Skills: Cody Townsend Ditches Deviance
What do space shuttles and backcountry skiing have in common? According to freeride skier Cody Townsend, it’s a relationship that stems from an explosion and a theory. Better yet, he’s adapted a method of assessing off-piste risk based on that relationship.
Till Death Do Us Part: Hadley Hammer’s Journey of Love and Loss in the Mountains
It took 178 days for pro skier Hadley Hammer to fall madly in love with Austrian alpinist David Lama. It took one day to lose it all. The mountains brought them together, ripped them apart and carried her back from the gutter of grief.
Gearbox: Four Headlamps to Light Your Early Morning Adventures
It’s June, so you may have already transitioned to bike mode, which is fine, but if you live in one of the ranges across the United States still being hit with periodic storms, you may be looking for a headlamp to light the early morning wakeups. Or you’re looking for a light that illuminates any number of other outdoor activities, for a headlamp is a piece of gear that transcends seasons, that always lives in your pack, that saves you at just the right time, no matter the time of year. From the classic to the futuristic, here are four lamps that will help regardless of what type of adventure you’re on.
Manageability Thoughts: Are you biting off more than you can chew in avalanche terrain?
Avalanche educator Sarah Carpenter takes a step back to evaluate what hazards are manageable in the backcountry, what what needs to be avoided.
Expedition Review: Group Dynamics, Movie-Making and Managing Risk in the Swedish Arctic
Not everything goes to plan in the mountains, which the team featured in Arctic 12, a film about skiing the 12 highest peaks in the Swedish Arctic, learned firsthand. Poor communication and disparate individual goals and perspective added to the innate uncertainty, leading to what guide and author Erin Smart called “the most challenging expedition I’ve ever been a part of.”
Talking Risk: How to Better Understand and Communicate About Uncertainty
Traveling in the backcountry means moving through a constantly changing environment. Because of this, it’s important to communicate about uncertainty throughout the day. Sometimes decisions are easy and obvious. Sometimes they’re tricky. The one constant is that uncertainty will exist, so guide and educator Sarah Carpenter shares how we can effectively talk about risk.
Have Patience: How April Storms and Powsurfers Reinvigorated my Winter
As the saying goes, April showers bring…April pow days. In a strange season that brought up visions of mountain biking a bit too early, Associate Editor Tom Hallberg was reminded that surprises and learning new things keep life fresh.
