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.
Chugach avalanche kills Valdez, Alaska, heli-ski guide
Mike Hamilton, a guide with Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, died after being caught in an avalanche Monday and being swept down a steep face and over a cliff.
Mountain Skills: Knowing When To Turn Around
As spring approaches, the days get warmer and the snow on the ground changes; the daily cycle of snow warming and freezing heals many of the deep instabilities that persisted throughout the winter; typical instabilities become easier to predict. And while wet avalanches—either slab or loose—are easier to predict and run more slowly, they can still pack a punch. Therefore, getting off a slope before it becomes dangerous is important.
Please, Stand By: How an Airline Customer Service Rep Splitboards Around the World
Want to travel the world and go skiing? You could become a pro skier or rider, or you could take an airline industry job and fly standby to all the destinations you can think of.
Delayed Gratification: The Hard-Fought Ascent of Nick Russell
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.
Gearbox: Five GPS Watches to Track Your Adventures
Whether you want a GPS watch to track your turns, monitor your heart rate or give you a heads up when the barometric pressure drops too quickly, you have lots of options these days. We’ve come a long way from the digital Casio being your companion on a tour, and our editors have compiled a list of their favorites to help find the watch that’s right for you.
My Dog is the Worst Ski Partner
Following Michael Ferrara’s nonscientific study into people’s opinions on dogs in the backcountry, Tyler Cohen offers his rationale for why his border collie might not be the best ski partner. Cohen says Niva would be the most annoying of all skier types, the bro who won’t stop spewing stoke.
Do Dogs Belong in the Backcountry?
Longtime ski patroller and dog handler Michael Ferrara believes dogs can go backcountry skiing in certain situations. He was surprised to discover that not everyone agrees.
