Adding weight in the gym may be a point of pride, but on the skintrack every gram counts. For a long time, this meant powder planks were relegated to deep, lift-serve days and those who couldn’t give up the freeride ghost. But advancements in core technology have recently created new space on the skintrack for […]
2020 Gear Test Week: The ties that bind
There is one piece of gear that is the foundation of all AT setups, since Dynafit’s 1986 Low Tech model: the binding. And this technology has come a long way since the early years of the sport. From multi-norm compatibility to ultra-light, race-ready models, AT bindings now run the gamut of design. The advent of […]
2020 Gear Test Week: With boots, is less more?
In recent years, AT boots have sported all manner of buckle systems, from the Boa cinch to the traditional four-buckle lock-down. Each method is geared toward a particular use; the Scarpa Alien RS’s no-buckle Speed Lock system aims for rapid ascents while the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro takes the recognizable shape of a downhill-charging […]
The Battles for Bear Creek
Four years ago, when I dropped into the San Joaquin Couloir beyond Telluride Ski Resort in the upper Bear Creek drainage, the greatest challenge before me lay the firm, moguled surface of the thinly-covered, shale-walled chute.
Betsy Armstrong reflects on deep research and deeper turns
From Washington’s Mt. Olympus to the Himalaya, Betsy Armstrong has centered her life around research—whether on avalanches, snow safety or publishing. After an early start in glacier research with snow scientist Ed LaChapelle, Armstrong went on to work with the University of Colorado’s San Juan Avalanche Project, forecast avalanches with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, teach at Colorado’s Silverton Avalanche School and the American Avalanche Institute and help create The Avalanche Review.
Solo skier dies in Bridger Range, Mont. avalanche
Yesterday, February 26, a skier was caught and killed in an avalanche in the Bridger Range outside Bozeman, Montana.The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center (GNFAC) reports that the victim, who has not yet been identified, was carried around 1,000 feet. At this time, the cause of death is thought to be related to trauma from the fall.
Inbounds avalanche at Swiss resort claims the life of a ski patroller
On Tuesday, February 19 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, four skiers were caught in an inbounds avalanche. All who were buried were recovered and transported to a hospital in nearby Sion, Switzerland where a nine-year ski patrol employee of the resort later died of his avalanche-related injuries.
Sylvia Forest is in the arms of mountains
Throughout much of her career, Sylvia Forest often found herself hanging from a rope in the blue deep of a glacial crevasse. A compact and agile 5’2”, Forest was always the one to descend into an otherworldly fracture to recover whoever had become lost, even if she was busy overseeing the scene from her post as manager of the mountain rescue program in Jasper National Park. When she moved to Rogers Pass in 2005, she would trade crevasses for avalanches.
Avalanche claims two Aspen, Colo.-based skiers while training for the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse
In an accident following the February 15 storm that dropped two feet of new snow on the Crested Butte, Colo. area, Aspen resident Owen Green, 27, and Carbondale resident Michael Goerne, 37, were killed in an avalanche in the East Brush Creek area dubbed Death Pass.
From Rogers to the Bugaboos
Nineteen seventy-three was my best year as a mountaineer. I climbed four north faces in the European Alps and narrowly missed the first ascent of a 25,000-foot summit in the Nepal Himalaya. But perhaps the most memorable experience of that year was an 80-mile ski traverse in May from Rogers Pass to the Bugaboos, across the glaciers and ice fields of the Selkirk and Purcell ranges.
