Choosing the right gear for backcountry skiing can make or break the sport. Brett St. Clair shares tips for purchasing your first setup.
Backcountry Magazine Barn Bash 2025
Join Union Bank and Smugglers’ Notch Resort for the 16th Annual Backcountry Magazine BARN BASH at the Cambridge Community Center on Friday, November 7. Grab your mountain buddies for great ski films including “Big Mountain Soul: Ski Africa.” A team of fearless Black skiers travel to the mountains of Africa where they reconnect with their roots and ski some of the most wild and beautiful mountains on earth. Plus “The Best Skier You’ve Never Heard Of,” starring Adrien Grabinski, the caretaker of small, community-run Shames Mountain, in B.C., and, like the title suggests, potentially the best skier you’ve never heard of.
Enjoy great live music; the legendary Backcountry Magazine raffle, food from Spicy Spoke and beverages from The Alchemist, von Trapp Brewing, Lot Six Brewing Co, Cold Hollow Hard Cider and Stella 14 Wines.
All proceeds benefit the Cambridge Area Rotary Winter Wellness Days program which gives local kids the chance to ski and ride for free, regardless of income. For many of these groms, their five full days at Smuggs (and not at school) are their first introduction to snow sports.
Backcountry Skiing Basics: Getting Started
Brett St. Clair shares tips for getting into backcountry skiing in the first of six columns.
AIARE Expands Professional Growth Network Offerings
AIARE rebranded its Women’s Mentorship Program to the Professional Growth Network in 2024. This year the program expands to be more accessible.
Mountain Skills: Planning a trip to an offbeat location requires more than Google
Chamonix. Hokkaido. Portillo. Certain locations are synonymous with international ski travel, meaning resources for trip planning are as plentiful as some places can be crowded. But what about planning a trip to Kosciusko, Aoraki, Vielha or some other little-spoken-of locale with limited beta, few available maps or no guidebooks? Where do you start?
The Strength of the Hills
Learning to backcountry ski can be daunting at first, but a small hill in Vermont’s Green Mountains is paving the way for new members of the sport, creating community and inspiring confidence along the way.
American Mythology: Smarter Than Your Average Sasquatch Story
Some folks chase endless winter, other’s chase mythological beings. Giano Cromley’s American Mythology offers a deep dive into the importance of wild spaces through a fantastical lens. And a chance to put off powder dreams for a couple more sweaty summer days.
Senate Reintroduces Public Lands Sale to “Big Beautiful Bill”
An amendment to sell off public lands was recently reintroduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) after it had been removed from the Big Beautiful Bill—also known as H.R. 1—prior to the bill’s passage by the House of Representatives on May 22. If passed by the Senate, the amendment would allow for the sale of 0.5 to 0.75% of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land—roughly 2.2 to 3.3 million acres—across 11 Western states, to add housing and infrastructure.
Wisdom: David Owen
According to PowderQuest owner David Owen, skiing isn’t the only reason to take an international ski trip.
