Shot on the snow-plastered, seaside steeps of Northern Iceland, this season’s first episode of Salomon Freeski TV is dedicated to Andreas Fransson and JP Auclair, who died last week in an avalanche on the Chilean-Argentine border. “Iceland is famous for its stories, mythical legends of land and people,” the narrator says, “even stories of heroic skiers.”
Video: The Works
This year, Backountry’s annual Gear Test Week brought in more than 200 skis, bindings and boots and some 50 testers, all eager to test the latest technology in backcountry gear. With numbers like these, it takes a village to ensure that each and every piece of gear gets the testing it deserves.
Video: 95 to Infinity
Most skiers can squeeze in turns for five or six months out of the year, seven if they’re lucky. For Andy and Mike Traslin, brothers hailing from British Columbia, things are a little different.
Video: Powderwhore Productions’ Some Thing Else
As Powderwhore Production approaches its 10th birthday, founding brothers Noah and Jonah Howell want to do something special. The film features shots from Hokkaido, Japan, Montana’s Beartooth Mountains and the Tordrillo Mountains of Alaska, and the Howell’s promise it will be “a ski movie worthy of our ten years filming the backcountry experience.”
Video: A Family Affair
Backcountry’s annual Gear Test Week brings together more than 50 testers from around the country, many of whom have been returning year after year for as long as they can remember. As a result, the annual event has become a family reunion of sorts. Here’s a look at what it means to be part of the Gear Test Week family.
Video: The Big Picture
In March, a crew of some 50 testers joined Backcountry’s editors for a week on snow at Powder Mountain, Utah to test more than 200 new hardgoods. But what does Gear Test Week really look like? Find out here.
Video: Makin’ Bacon
“June is the most ideal time for skiing steep lines in Washington,” photographer Jason Hummel says following a six-day early-June traverse from Mt. Blum (7,680 ft.) to Bacon Peak (7,070 ft.) in North Cascades National Park. Along with Adam Roberts, Tim Black and “Woods,” Hummel skied multiple lines off Bacon and Mt. Hagan (6,960 ft.) and a descent of North Despair (7,240 ft.).
Summer Stashes: Mount Adams
It’s June. You’re fighting the realization that winter is over. You’re probably mountain biking, twiddling your thumbs, questioning if it’s smart to watch a ski movie to gear up for next year. The Xs are already on the calendar counting down the days. But if you’re strong willed and work for it, you can find […]
Video: The End of the Earth
Australia doesn’t exactly jump to mind when thinking of skiing during the North American summer. Rather, Chile and Argentina are the spots reserved in our collective conscious for off-season, dream-trip destinations. But Australia’s southern provinces, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria, are home to about a dozen ski areas and peaks that measure taller than 6,000 feet. So think again.
Video: Spring in Tuckerman Ravine
Episode Six of the Meathead’s “Working for the Weekend” heads to Mt. Washington’s mega-classic spring ski, Tuckerman Ravine. “It’s really not about skiing,” Ben Leoni says, “It’s about celebrating the ski season…it’s a party, it’s a circus.” And the springtime-circus is filled with sunburns, silly outfits, big hucks and scary carnage, all showcased in the […]
