From carving smooth powder turns to busting through crud and shredding corduroy, each tester aims to test eight products per day, a task that provided us with more than 1,100 individual review to craft the 2019 Gear Guide, available now and packed with tester feedback.
2019 Testers’ Choice: Mindy “Cupcake” Mulliken’s Picks
From the 236 products we ran up and down the mountain, each tester nominated their personal favorites. Here are their picks and profiles, so you know who’s doing the dirty work and what they liked best.
2019 Testers’ Choice: Betsy Manero’s Picks
It’s not all fun and games at Gear Test Week. Our 43 testers—32 skiers and 11 splitboarders—hit the slopes at Utah’s Powder Mountain with the dawn’s early light and don’t go to bed ’til the day’s reviews are complete.
The Winter Wildlands Alliance releases trailer for the Backcountry Film Festival’s 14th year
With 14 years under its belt, the Winter Wildlands Alliance’s Backcountry Film Festival is a mainstay of the fall movie premier circuit. A mid-November premier in Boise, Idaho kicks off an international tour of the 90-minute show. And Backcountry Film Festival Manager Melinda Quick is excited about the potential reach of this year’s show, as she hopes to plan stops for for Europe, Australia and South America in addition to Canada and the U.S.
Safety concerns spur on the construction of winter weather stations in Grand Teton National Park
Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) is known for its steep, rugged backcountry ski terrain dotted with 50-degree chutes and exposed faces, all within a five-mile skintrack of the Bradley-Taggert Parking Lot. But while tourers can approach the park’s peaks with relative ease, a hidden barrier to access exists: the absence of weather reports from winter weather stations in GTNP. This deficit is one that some Jackson Hole locals are currently working to rectify through the construction of new stations within park boundaries.
Fine tuned and dialed in: Off-season prep for the upcoming winter
It’s only midsummer, but the powder dreams are settling in each night. As the days grow shorter, trailers for new ski movies debut and you’re in the thick of researching next year’s gear, it’s also time to ask yourself how best to keep your skills sharp in preparation for the upcoming winter. Here are a few things to do during the warmer months to plan for the coming winter.
Skintrack Sketches: Artist Lindsay Dew counts on memory to create mountainscapes
For Nelson, B.C. resident Lindsay Dew, art is more than a full-time job. When she’s not working as an art therapist or serving on the Nelson District Arts Council’s board of directors, Dew is in her studio creating mountainscapes of her own. Instead of working from photos, Dew uses her memory of past mountain experiences as her main inspiration.
Sparking Change: How a Montana-based company is looking to solar for their manufacturing needs
Bozeman-based splitboard company Spark R&D takes pride in their soup-to-nuts production, making all of their bindings in house since their 2006 founding. And in an effort to reduce the company’s footprint and manage even more of their manufacturing needs, Spark R&D is now entering into the world of renewable energy so they can source their power in-house, too.
Skintrack Sketches: Vermont artist Jess Graham speaks to her love of lines in painting and snowboarding
Jess Graham looks to mountain biking and snowboarding to inspire her artwork – both as a graphic designer for Alchemist Brewing in Stowe, Vermont and in her home studio. Whether she’s embarking on powder or dirt missions or applying her creativity through acrylic paints and sketching, Graham is always thinking about her lines.
Backcountry welcomes Mountain Flyer, The Mountain Bike Journal
The publishers of Backcountry Magazine recently acquired Gunnison, Colorado-based Mountain Flyer, The Mountain Bike Journal. If you love Backcountry and also ride, Mountain Flyer is your quarterly journal of record for the sport. Through gripping storytelling and crisp, clean design, and showcasing photography only available on the printed page, Mountain Flyer celebrates the riders, racers, […]
