RECCO ANNOUNCES YEAR-ROUND SEARCH AND RESCUE SYSTEM LIDINGO, SWEDEN Swedish safety company RECCO has announced plans to launch their RECCO Helicopter and Search and Rescue detector, -SAR 1, in the summer of 2016 in key geographic regions of Europe. For more than 30 years, professionals have used RECCO’s handheld rescue system to locate people caught in avalanches. Now, […]
Summer Stashes: Blue Peak, Colorado
By this point in the summer, photographs of steep South American couloirs and idyllic New Zealand peaks are probably filtering through your Instagram feed. With sweltering summer heat and the end of Fourth of July festivities, you may have admitted defeat, tossed your skis into the closet and traded them in for your mountain bike. But rest […]
Backstory: Tired & Alone
The glare off the oncoming windshield bored into my weary eyes. It was the first vehicle I’d passed in more than an hour. During this long drive, my radio scrolled silently through channels. It’s not the middle of nowhere until even the Spanish and NPR channels don’t come in, and on Highway 6 between Ely […]
Jumbo’s Roadblock: Proposed B.C. Resort’s Environmental Certificate Expires
Late last week, British Columbia’s Environmental Minister Mary Polak made an announcement that will put on hold the development of Jumbo Glacier Resort. The multi-billion-dollar project, located 53 km west of Invereme, B.C. in the East Kootenay Mountains, has been a decades-long source of conflict among developers, First Nations tribes and backcountry skiers.
Why We Love Winter: Reflections from the 2015 Winter Wildlands Alliance Grassroots Conference
There’s something about a landscape covered in snow. Close your eyes and think of one of your first memories of snow. What did it look like, feel like, smell like? Where were you, and how old? This is how Kerry McClay started his presentation last weekend at the Winter Wildlands Alliance Grassroots Conference.
BC Banter: Meeting to Discuss Park City Ridgeline, Winter Wildlands Grassroots Advocacy Conference and a five-hour Rescue Mission
Utahns Meet to Discuss Park City Ridgline Development PARK CITY, UTAH. The Summit County Council met this past Wednesday to discuss the fate of 600 acres of Forest Service land along the Park City ridgeline. The meeting focused on the question of whether the roughly 600 acres of Forest Service land should be included in the Mountain […]
2015 Beer Test: Editors’ Choice
Like gear for any snow condition, there’s beer for every occasion. So this year, we organized our annual beer review by where and when our panel of home brewers, beer aficionados and a certified beer judge would prefer to drink them. The format is simple: Skintrack beers are lower in ABV and sessionable, Parking Lot/Après […]
BC Banter: White, Hinchcliffe and Soderquist Ski Capitol Peak’s North Face, Avalanche Explosive Triggers Bomb Scare, Utah Avalanche Center’s Annual Report and an Avalanche Rabbit Goes Viral
White, Hinchcliffe and Soderquist claim first descent of the north face off Capitol Peak ELK MOUNTAINS, COLO. On Thursday, June 4, Aspen locals Jordan White, Colter Hinchcliffe and Riley Soderquist claimed the first descent of the north face off Capitol Peak in Colorado’s Elk Mountains. The trio ascended the 14,130 ft. peak and then skied 2,530 vertical ft. […]
Winter Wildland Alliance to host Grassroots Advocacy Conference
Next week, Winter Wildlands Alliance will host their sixth Grassroots Advocacy Conference at Golden, Colo.’s American Alpine Club Mountaineering Center. The conference will include discussions regarding the Forest Service’s new Over-Snow Vehicle Rule, the use of maps as advocacy tools and defining a set of ethics for backcountry travelers. The conference begins on Thursday, June 18, and runs through the weekend.
Christening ‘Peg Leg’: White, Hinchliffe and Soderquist ski the north face of Capitol Peak
Last Thursday, Aspen locals Jordan White, Colter Hinchliffe and Riley Soderquist skied the first descent of a line now known as “Peg Leg,” located on the north face of Capitol Peak (14,130 ft.) in Colorado’s Elk Mountains. Before Thursday, five variations had been skied off Capitol’s summit, but the trio’s line is now the most direct. The group descended 2,530 vertical feet from the summit, completing three rappels—one of which measured 400 ft.—along the way.
