To illustrate our monthly reader-submitted essay, “Backstory,” we send the selected story off to any number of freelance artists not fully knowing what we’ll get. “The piece was very esoteric,” contributing illustrator Jamie Givens writes on his Studio Peril blog about Todd Krankkala’s January 2014 essay. “[It] described the author’s feeling of flow as he […]
Covergirl Jen Hudak On Skiing Mechanics, Good Lattes and Miley Cyrus
Jen Hudak isn’t atypical for freestyle skiers in that she started skiing mostly in the park and moved out from there. It’s a trend among high-profile park skiing pros like Tanner Hall, Eric Pollard and others. An East Coast native, Hudak grew up skiing at Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow,Vermont, and her story isn’t all […]
Higher Education: The SheJumps’ Guide to Alpine Etiquette
The wake-up call comes at 7 a.m. with whiffs of bacon and coffee that fill the bunkhouse. The smell promises a hearty start to the first day of the SheJumps’ Alpine Finishing School. As eight women organize their backpacks, SheJumps headmaster Claire Smallwood is prepping the day’s syllabus with the support of guides Kate Devine, […]
Backstory: A Snow Angel Named Liz
The date had been set for more than a year—our 22nd-annual gathering of the Tribe in Vail, Colo. Our plan was to skin northward, away from the piste-bound fashonistas into the rugged, untracked terrain of the Gore Range. Rousted from our day jobs as professional artists, construction workers, ranchers, engineers, attorneys and even a token politician, we arrived from bustling cities, paved suburbs and mountain retreats on both coasts.
Backcountry’s New Coverboy
This year, we’re releasing a special edition of the Photo Annual for subscribers only, featuring a clean, basement-wall-worthy, light-on-the-text cover. High schooler Jake Teuton is the subject of the cover shot—it’s a stunning Bruno Long photo from the Selkirk backcountry. Jake didn’t know he was BCM’s new coverboy, at least until he inadvertently ruined the planned surprise unveiling of the cover […]
Red Scare: A Stealthy Trip Into Slovakia’s High Tatras
In the December issue, contributor David Rocchio travels to Central Europe’s High Tatras, located in the far north of Slovakia. Decades after any Soviet presence, all is well in the land of Dracula, and a growing adventure sports community, far off most Western skiers’ radars, has taken root. The author calls it a “frontier” where a lack of local language proficiency can leave you on your own. But with the right guide, you can get into the High Tatras, which are heavily protected in winter. Once there, Rocchio says, “You have entire mountain valleys to yourself.” Here’s the beta on how to get there.
Avys in the East: Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop Recap
Last Saturday, November 9, more than 150 skiers and snow enthusiasts converged on North Conway, N.H. for the third edition of the Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop (ESAW). Having doubled enrollment since its inception, the full-day event brought in presentations from some of the most revered avalanche experts in the country. “This third year seems to be the breakthrough,” says Chris Joosen, lead snow ranger on Mt. Washington, of the turnout.
Remembering Magnus Kastengren
Extreme skier Magnus Kastengren died Sunday in a fall on New Zealand’s Mt. Cook (12,316 ft.). The Swedish ski mountaineer was skiing near the summit ridge at 3,700 meters when he fell, reports the New Zealand newswire The Press. Kastengren was on the mountain with friend and longtime ski partner Andreas Fransson. The pair had […]
Front Range Powder Factory’s Calendar of Hope
Casey Day has a simple goal—to stop suicide. Seven years ago, Day’s friend J.T. Fielder, took his own life in the Colorado backcountry. After that, Casey, a ski photographer from Silver Plume, Colorado, decided he didn’t want anyone else to go through the suffering that he and his friends had experienced. So along with a […]
From the Ashes: Sun Valley Trekking’s Coyote Yurts Rise Up
“The two yurts, they got completely nuked,” Sun Valley Trekking Co-owner Joe St. Onge says about their Smoky Mountain Coyote Yurts, which were burned in Idaho’s Beaver Creek Wildfire over the summer. But the yurts have been resurrected. “I headed straight there after the Teton season wound down and spent the last two weeks with […]
