The idea for a hut system on Mosquito Pass emerged after a summer hike in 2016 where the terrain awed Jeff Crane, and his mind latched onto what skiing possibilities might exist if accommodations were available.
The Elusive Glen Poulsen: Traveling the world with a quiet skintrack crusher
The name Poulsen is well know in California’s Lake Tahoe area—in 1938, Wayne Poulsen bought land in the Squaw Valley area upon which he later developed a world-renowned ski area. Glen, Wayne’s son, grew up on the slopes with his family, but from a young age, he ventured deeper into the Eastern Sierra to see what the world beyond ski areas had to offer.
Smooth is Fast: Increase efficiency to earn more turns
A day in the mountains is best spent traveling through them, not standing around among them. And through practice and planning, it’s possible to minimize down time to earn more turns in a day. Here’s how to increase personal and group efficiency without upping the pace in the skintrack.
Skintrack Sketches: Swiss artist Corinne Weidmann explores layers in the landscape
For 35-year-old Swiss-born Corinne Weidmann—who artistically goes by Iuna Tinta—the landscapes of home exude creative inspiration. Part of her family is from the Bernese Oberland, so images of Lauterbrunnen and the surrounding mountains and glaciers make frequent appearances on her canvas. But desire for world travel has taken her to the jungle of Costa Rica, the windswept shores of the Pacific Northwest and, now, to where she resides in Berlin.
Inclinometer Essentials: How, when and why to measure slope angles
Thirty-eight degrees is widely considered the slope angle at which most avalanches occur. But what exactly does a 38-degree slope look like? Calculating slope angle is relatively simple with an inclinometer, which, turns out, is one of the most affordable and compact items you can add to your kit.
How Rod Newcomb influenced a generation of avalanche education
Through his career, Newcomb has influenced generations of students and guides, including Sarah Carpenter, who now owns AAI with her husband, Don, and business partner Don Sharaf. Here’s what Carpenter had to say about her long-time colleague and teaching inspiration.
Mountain Account: Scott Rokis takes a slide for life on Calif.’s Mt. Williamson
Last March, photographer Scott Rokis planned to ski an Eastern Sierra classic, Mt. Williamson’s Giant Steps Couloir. Rokis hoped that shooting the line might open doors for his business but was apprehensive about the physical undertaking that would require 12,000 vertical feet of climbing. At dawn, just a few hours into the day’s journey, things took a turn for the worse after one misstep.
Nordic Extreme: From the Olympics to Aspen, XC champion Simi Hamilton makes tracks
There are those who go to Aspen for the parties and those who go for the X Games. Some visit for the foliage and others settle down for a season or two. And then there are those who made the trip decades ago, jostling and tumbling across the plains and into the Rockies. Such is the legacy of Simi Hamilton, a fourth-generation Aspenite who’s made a few treks of his own including to two Winter Olympic Games and on the Nordic World Cup circuit. But if there’s a rest day in sight, Simi would spend it on fat skis.
Carl Skoog: Remembering an icon of Washington ski mountaineering and photography
Before his untimely death in 2005 at age 46, Carl Skoog logged innumerable first ascents and descents and shot dramatic imagery in his home mountains—Washington’s Cascade Range—where he explored with his brothers, Lowell and Gordy, and many friends. And for Cascade-based photographer and adventurer Jason Hummel, Skoog’s work provided inspiration aplenty to continue the tradition of adventure ski photography in the state’s rugged ranges.
Romancing the Skintrack: How to find (and keep) love in the backcountry
To further improve your moves on February 14, we’ve polled our field of experts—namely a crack team of editors and contributors—for their best advice on how to maintain a relationship in the mountains. Here’s what the romantics had to say.
