Backcountry Magazine’s annual Gear Guide hits newsstands on August 13, but there’s a whole lot of content we couldn’t cram into the issue. That’s because we spend five days in late March testing more than 400 new products at the industry’s largest and most unbiased gear test. Here’s how it all went down.
Lance’s Lab: Research Opportunities
Each month, Backcountry technical editor Lance Riek investigates a conundrum of backcountry gear, snow science or molecular murkiness in his column “Lance’s Lab.” And he wants to help you out. Drop a line, comment below, and let our resident brainiac know your backcountry questions.
The Hard Way Out: Catedral Norte, Patagonia
“Oh God. It’s going to kill him!” I yelled as a lone ski flew down the mountain toward Sean. He was the first to ski the line and waited in a safe zone below as Wes dropped in. On the first turn, Wes’ telemark binding tore completely out of his right ski and zipped down […]
Bikes to Boards to Beers: Summer Skiing Deseret Peak
Lording high above the vast West Desert, Deseret is the tallest mountain in the range and stands with more than 5,000 feet of prominence. But what really makes skiers salivate are Deseret’s North Couloirs—twin chutes on the summit ridge that hold snow well into summer.
The Atwell Project: A Springtime Slushfest
Words and photos by Sterling Pearce Early last month Bret phoned me with an excited tone to his voice and a crazy proposition: an overnight assault on a looming mountain face that had been taunting him all winter. Bret lives in Squamish, B.C., and the face he’d been staring up was the southeast side of […]
Rapid Rainier: Elson and Carter Break Mount Rainier Speed Record
After five years, the standing speed record for a car-to-car trip on Washington’s Mount Rainier (14,411 ft.) has been broken. On Monday, May 20, skimo racers Nick Elson and Eric Carter made the round trip in four hours, 19 minutes and 12 seconds, more than 20 minutes faster than the previous record.
Backstory: Dead Dog’s Tidings
The morning sun is a welcome presence, its first few rays shooting at me over the ridge to the east. I huddle against the mountain, trying to maximize my surface area for sunlight while somehow minimizing my exposure to the wind. The howling wind dies down for a moment and I revel in the sweet, […]
2014 Backcountry Shred Test
Up here at 9,000-plus feet, the air is a little thinner and the mountains are a little gnarlier. We’ve been running our annual snowboard test at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) and in the surrounding backcountry for the last five years. Here, we have the ultimate testing grounds: the inbounds terrain spans park and pipe […]
Backstory: The Dog
I didn’t want him. I wasn’t ready for him, either. I was a 25-year-old dirtbag living in a camper. It was early in the winter and, already, I was seeing the folly of my camper-living dream. I was trying to make it work with a girl, but living on the road and ski touring every […]
Lift-Accessed Guiding, Spearhead Huts and Hamburgers: An Interview with ACMG President Keith Reid
“I kinda wear a few hats,” Keith Reid says quietly between sips of coffee. The Whistler-based mountain guide is a senior examiner for the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. He’s the ACMG’s President, too. And beginning this winter, he became supervisor and lead guide for Whistler/Blackcomb’s new resort-accessed touring program, run buy Extremely Canadian. Dehydrated and […]
