With eight inches of snow accumulating over the course of the first day and 11 inches in the recent 48 hour period, the 2017 Gear Test Week at Powder Mountain, Utah started out with a bang. Gear tests are more fun and more productive when the conditions are good, and day 1 saw testers […]
Gear Test Week Arrives at Powder Mountain
POWDER MOUNTAIN, UTAH The 2017 Backcountry Magazine Gear Test Week kicked off yesterday, with over 200 pair of skis arriving to be tested over the next week. More than 50 testers flocked to Powder Mountain to give Backcountry Magazine their blood, sweat and toenails in pursuit of finding the best of next year’s skis and boots. And when the testers […]
Seventh-annual Splitfest comes to Mt. Baker
BAKER, WASHINGTON This weekend, the seventh-annual Mt. Baker Splitfest will host splitboarding clinics, demos and a raffle and silent auction with proceeds going to the Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC).
Traffic Control: The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance hosts a free shuttle day for Little Cottonwood Canyon
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH This week the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance announced that on March 12, 2016 they are going to being offering one day of free shuttle service to Little Cottonwood Canyon. Through this event, the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance hopes to gather information about winter recreational transportation issues in the Salt Lake City area.
Director of Wallowa Avalanche Center Dies in Oregon Avalanche
Confirmed in a statement published yesterday by the Wallowa Avalanche Center, Kip Rand, the center’s director, died Tuesday in an Oregon avalanche. Rand, who assumed the role of Wallowa Avalanche Center Director last November, was skiing Chief Joseph Mountain, west of Joseph, Ore., when the avalanche occurred. According to The Observer, Rand, 29, was skiing […]
Spring comes early: Aspen skiers make use of warm weather and descend Mt. Daly
At the end of February, there was a warming trend in the Rockies that, along with a stretch of no snow, provided uncharacteristic opportunities for skiers to get out and attempt certain lines that generally aren’t approachable until later in the spring.
Renoun Skis feels the Bern
Renoun Skis, a Burlington, Vermont-based ski manufacturer founded in 2011 by Cyrus Schenck, is making waves in the ski industry through their use of a non-Newtonian polymer in their skis’ cores that’s designed to increase dampening qualities. But this deep-space-sounding material is not the only thing setting Renoun apart.
Looking for Gold: An Adventure into Colorado’s Most Remote Wilderness
The plan is to take the 130-year-old, coal-burning train 20 miles into the Colorado backcountry where we will access Chicago Basin, a remote drainage containing three 14,000 foot peaks. The goal is to hike six miles into a base camp on Saturday, ski all three 14ers on Sunday and hike back to the train by 3 p.m. on Monday. It’s not lost on the group that this is an ambitious goal, but we board the train with optimism.
Avy Report: The difference between low and no
High pressure systems are making themselves at home in the Rocky Mountain region, greatly reducing the avalanche danger forecast ratings from Utah all the way up to Montana. This trend in increased stability sits in stark contrast when compared to that of January and early February when slab avalanches and depth hoar were prevalent dangers. The Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) reminds us, however, that “low doesn’t mean no.”
Snow Woes: Will There Always Be Winter?
“The long-term trend is moderating temperatures. Accelerating, moderating temperatures,” says Nick Bond, Washington State’s climatologist and the senior climate science researcher at the University of Washington. “It’s going to be two to four degrees warmer in 2040, on average.”
