There’s a difference between a vacation and a trip. Vacations are stress-free, feet-up affairs spent sipping cocktails in luxury’s lap. Trips are relaxing in a high-paced, flow-state way, filled with activity and energy, often leaving one begging for a vacation by the end. Resort skiers go on vacations to carve corduroy and eat filet; backcountry skiers go on trips to find adventure. And while the latter is easily more rewarding, earning those rewards takes proper planning and preparation. Here’s how to maximize a trip for all it’s worth.

Spring skiing was in full swing on Mt. Baker, Wash. by early last April when photographer Grant Gunderson and his ski partner for the day, Kirsten Rowley, hit a skintrack for Baker’s Shuksan Arm. The duo had spent the previous day at the resort exploring sidecountry zones that had proved to be stable, so they went into the backcountry feeling confident about the snow stability.

Anna Soens didn’t expect that she’d become an adaptive role model over the last two and a half years. In December 2015, however, the 30-year-old Boise, Idaho-based wildlife biologist fell 35 feet at a climbing gym, breaking her lowest thoracic vertebra, an injury that left her with partial paralysis from the hips down. As an […]

Ace Kvale has been on the forefront of adventure photography for the past 40 years, with subjects ranging from Himalayan peaks to the valleys of his southern Utah home. Kvale, 62, kickstarted his career in the ski industry as an athlete and model before moving behind the lens in the 1980s.