Early in the summer, Aaron Rice set two long-term goals. The first was to jump into the mountain-fed creek that meandered behind the house where he was living in Stowe, Vt. every single day for the duration of the season. While exhilarating, meeting that goal won’t be nearly as demanding, mentally or physically, as his second. Over the next year, beginning on December 1, Rice plans to climb and ski 2.5-million vertical feet, which would top the two-million-foot record set by Greg Hill in 2010. “You’ll never regret jumping in,” says Rice of the creek that’s a metaphor for his larger ambition. “But it’s never easy, either.”
Food Fight: Can What You Eat Earn You Another Lap Up The Skintrack?
As a committed cyclist who logs a few thousand miles annually, I can get way too focused on nutrition. Throughout the summer, my pantry is overflowing with energy gels, powders and protein bars to fuel and hydrate for—and recover from—big endurance efforts. Come winter, however, all that meticulous planning and those gel snacks get pushed aside—trail food is whatever is in the cabinet and recovery drinks are either hopped or malty. But which approach is better? And can I really earn another lap up the skintrack with energy gels and hydration mixes?
Testers’ Choice: DPS WAILER 99 TOUR1
“DPS, you have done it again. The Wailer is the ski I would like to walk away with. You ask, they do. This ski is the fountain of youth—they make everything feel easy. Turn initiation is effortless; they are incredibly light; they cut through the chunder and make you feel all-around sexy. I would equate the Wailer to my Subaru, the all-terrain vehicle, a true one-ski quiver.”
Snow Shooter: Ian Coble
Seattle-based photographer Ian Coble is always in search of new challenges, never content with sitting by and letting his career take its course. Coble likes to explore new genres and compositional styles, and his dynamic eye shows through in his diverse body of work.
Mountain Skills: Understanding The Extended Column Test
I like to approach backcountry skiing like I approach a science experiment: I take time to plan before doing the experiment; I develop a hypothesis about what is going to happen when I perform my experiment; I conduct the experiment. And then I reflect on my experiment and learn from it.
Avatech Launches Updated Backcountry Observation App
Avatech, the Park City, Utah-based maker of proactive avalanche safety tools, launched an updated version of the Avanet app today. The redesigned app, available now through the iTunes store, incorporates route-tracking and observation-reporting functions, aiming to bring safety-information sharing to the masses.
Photo Gallery: Green Mountain Snow Soldiers
“The drill hall at Jericho, Vt.’s Ethan Allen Firing Range looks like a cluttered, dimly lit high-school gymnasium,” Tyler Cohen writes in the November 2015 issue. “And on a snowy January morning, it’s filled by more than 100 young-faced National Guardsmen, each preparing for a week of tactical and on-snow training.”
