How do you start skiing in the backcountry? Many of us have some story of a rough first day, perhaps postholing around or dealing with hopelessly frozen skins because we didn’t know any better. Or worst of all- snowshoeing. One of Bluebird Backcountry’s founders, Jeff Woodward, had similar experiences, including when he took his brother skiing on one of Crested Butte’s more well-known backcountry runs- Coney’s. When he got back, he started thinking, “maybe there’s a better way”. In fact, Jeff and I sat down and had a beer at the brick Oven while he outlined his general ideas for a backountry ski area. Years later, he we are with Bluebird Backcountry.

Climbers will often learn at a climbing gym- a relatively safe environment before ever trying natural rock or natural protection. With skiers, it’s usually trial by fire, or they’ll simply stick to skinning up ski areas and roads as a way of getting exercise. Bluebird is hoping to serve that void and introduce people to backcountry skiing in a similarly controlled environment. Beginners can actually learn how to use their gear (and even rent skis, boots, shovel, beacon, and probe), without also trying to avoid avalanches and pick the best route up the mountain. If you’re not supposed to venture out into the backcountry without Avy education, how are you supposed to learn the basics, like skinning. Many a course educator can tell stories of students who really weren’t ready to do an avalanche course, but can you blame them for wanting to learn before they go off on their own and kill themselves?

After some trial runs at both Mosquito Pass and Winter Park, the Bluebird team started looking for a location. Public United States Forest Land would take years and a significant investment. There’s a reason that the last ski permit in Colorado for a brand new ski area was Beaver Creek in 1980. Additionally, they didn’t want to take away an area that was already being used by backcountry skiers. Could you imagine the backlash if they decided to “close” Berthoud Pass for their own use? Which isn’t to say that public land is totally off the table- if their model proves successful, and they found an area that would perhaps work but only if they were able to thin trees and create runs to make an area skiable, that’s an option.

Instead, they looked at private land, with over 100 different potential sites. In the end, they chose Peak Ranch- it had an amenable owner, good terrain, and enough snow (they asked Joel Gratz of OpenSnow his thoughts and he gave it the thumbs-up). The area has 1500 acres, but for now, they’ll only open 300 acres without a guide. The other terrain is potentially too steep and they’re not quite ready to do explosive avalanche control- but perhaps down the road.

So for now, you can show up at Bluebird Backcountry, skin up, and ski down. You’ll need a beacon/probe/shovel, since they want to instill good habits. But you don’t have to have a partner. One of the things we’ve noticed when we’ve done our book tour events is that a lot of people ask us- “How do I find partners?”. That seems to be a common problem, after all, who wants to take on a new backcountry skier, and feel responsible for their safety as well as your own. Bluebird may prove to be a great spot for meeting people. They’re also hoping to add educational components, like clinics on route choices, gear, skintrack technique, or how to be efficient at transitions and packing, etc.

Bluebird Backcountry will open tomorrow, February 15th for the first time, and their season is expected to cover the following dates: February 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 29 and March 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15. Additionally, there are volunteer opportunities from ski rentals to ski safety, ski area operations to customer service, guiding, and instruction for those interested.

Our Thoughts

We think this is a great concept, and we think it will prove to be a successful model. Learning how to backcountry ski isn’t easy, unless you’re one of the lucky ones that find a mentor to show you the ropes. For most skiers, they’ll figure it out on their own or with a few friends. That often works, but it’s a steep learning curve. Bluebird Backcountry should smooth that curve out significantly. And who knows, perhaps someday the model will include terrain for more experienced backcountry skiers like ourselves. I know I wouldn’t mind skiing some lightly tracked steeps in mid-winter that I would otherwise consider off-limits if it hadn’t been controlled. Will the current location prove to be the one? I’m sure they’d rather be a little closer to Denver, and have a little more snow than what the photos have been showing thus far. But it seems like a good start. We wish them the best of luck and perhaps we’ll even be up there some day, just to check it out.

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This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s highly noticeable whether you’re trying them on at a store or actually, you know, skiing. Granted, your eyes should be looking well ahead while you’re skiing, not looking at your ski boots, but the increased field of vision does help with your awareness of everything that’s going on. I grew up playing hockey, and there is no way I could stick handle a puck while looking ahead with normal goggles, but I bet I could with the 4D MAG. There is a bit of distortion (if you concentrate on it) where the goggle lens curves towards your face, but you don’t notice it at all under normal circumstances.

As for frame fit, if you have a “medium” fit that worked well with other Smith frames like the I/O Mag or I/O 7, you should be in good shape with the 4D MAG goggle fit. I’m a bit on the small side of medium, but they fit me very well. Rumor has it that Smith will be releasing 4D versions in smaller and larger sizes as early as next year, so if you’re excited about this goggle but they don’t fit your face, you may be in luck soon. Not only does the lens curve towards the face, by the way, but the frame foam also has strategic cutouts to enhance the wider view.

Smith has a number of lens choices that swap out with the magnetic lenses found on the 4D. If you haven’t experienced magnetic lenses, they are amazingly easy to change lenses and the 4D MAG is as easy as any of them- just flip the tabs on either side of the lens and pop in the new lens. I won’t get into the different lens choices since that’s choice that should be based on your preference and typical weather and sun angle. Let’s face it, January light at Alaska latitudes is a bit different than it is in CO or CA, even on cloudy days. I will at least say that the Everyday Red Mirror is one of my favorites here in CO.

I haven’t used the Smith 4D MAG goggle long enough to comment on their durability, but nothing jumped out at me as a potential problem either. Of course, as with any nice eyewear, you probably don’t want to throw them around on the ski lodge cafeteria table, either. Honestly the only downside that I can think of is the price, but you generally get what you pay for when it comes to goggles. If nothing else, I’d recommend visiting your local ski shop and trying these on, just to experience the increased field of vision.

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When folding poles first came out I played with them a little bit and quickly determined that they weren’t for me- they were simply too flexy. The connections added too much slop, so even a little bit of pressure would make the pole bow like a bow and arrow. That might suffice for hiking but it would quickly prove to be annoying on a steep icy skintrack or during those rare occasions when you’re making old-school jump turns initiated off of a hard pole plant. Thankfully, the LEKI Tour Stick Vario Carbon Ski Poles don’t suffer this fate, and they feel as stiff as any other backcountry pole.

One might think that with so many things going on that these poles would add a bit of weight, but it’s actually pretty negligible. The reported weight is 271g, while the Aergonlite2, one of LEKI’s lightest offerings, is 249g. One compromise for the folding design comes with their range of adjustability- the Tour Sticks will only adjust from 115- 135cm, whereas the aforementioned Aergonlite will go from 110-145cm. So if your’re particularly short, tall, or just really like to adjust your ski poles, the Tour Stick may not be the best choice.

The grip is one of LEKI’s standard touriing grips with a lower handhold for sidehilling as well- it’s good and it also has LEKI’s safety strap, which will pull off if the pole gets caught on something. Trust me, it works. Keep in mind that if you like a really low sidehilling pole position and want to add athletic tape to create a lower hand position, or keeping duct tape on your pole, you can’t do that on the top section since that’s what slides into the upper shaft when you’re folding them down. The baskets, long forgotten as an area of innovation, are actually quite slick. The black plastic is a stiffer plastic complete with lips for adjusting AT binding climbing positions. And the wider part works well to scrape snow off your skins if they start glopping up on the skintrack.

I am curious about one thing, but unfortunately I can’t check it. The lower pole will spin freely on the upper shaft, so perhaps that will make this pole difficult to use with Dynafit bindings- especially the older ones where the risers are used by spinning the binding as well. Thankfully, we haven’t had to suffer through Dynafit use for several years, so we don’t have any bindings to check this theory out on. Please comment if you have tried this pole with Dynafits and let us know. I’ll update this post once I can try it out on some one else’s binding…

The Verdict

The LEKI Tour Stick Vario Carbon is a great choice for a number of applications. Splitboarders immediately come to mind- these poles fold up so short that they can easily fold up into your pack and not get hung up on trees or anything else. Climbers should take a serious look at these as well, for the same reason. Backcountry skiers have less reasons to switch to a folding pole, but even then I can see myself wanting to put my poles in a pack on a highly technical climb, as one example. Plus, these are great for summertime hiking since most hikers only use poles on the descents and they can live in the pack on the uphill. If you’re in the market for a new adjustable ski pole, be sure to give these a look.

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Skinning within minutes of leaving the car, with Cameron behind (also still holding snow):

With such a high trailhead, we made quick work of the climb and were on top of Democrat in just a couple of hours, taking our summit shots:

We chatted with a couple of other skiers that were headed back towards Kite Lake via the Emma Lake chutes, which also looked like they were in good shape. We downclimbed 15′ (no summit descent), and started down the familiar North face. Frank:

The freezes have been very light lately. Thankfully, the snow seems to have transitioned to a full summer snowpack, without a lot of free water within the snow. Still, the top couple of inches easily peeled off and slowly slid down the mountain. If you picture a “people mover” walkway at the airport and double its width, that’s about what the slide looked like. It was so slow and methodical that I actually skied in it, as if I was whitewater kayaking down a stream. It was really fun, truth be told. Larry:

Brittany:

Near the bottom of the line, the route narrows and doglegs. From most vantage points, it doesn’t even look like it goes. But it skis great- no downclimbing or sidestepping required:

With so much snow this year, we were still able to ski quite a ways down the valley, avoiding most of the willow bashing that might occur with less snow cover. North face of Democrat behind us (we skied the middle line, the tight exit is hard to see):

Once we hit the Wheeler Lake road, we switched to approach shoes. I recently got a pair of La Sportiva Tempesta GTX shoes with GoreTex. My feet stayed dry, with a lot of rock hopping effort on my part. These are great shoes- I’ll do a review sometime soon.

Eventually you hit the Magnolia mine, which is the 2wd trailhead:

And that’s about it- over 2K’ of great skiing on the last day of June. Get an early start and enjoy some 4th of July weekend turns. You’ll be glad you did, these is not your average summer skiing conditions. It’s still good out there, much more like May than July.

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With aspirations of skiing Maroon Peak the following day, Brittany and I were looking for a shorter day- and Indy fit the bill perfectly. Our friend Larry traveled down from Steamboat, while Ann and her friend Kara met us from the Roaring Fork valley, and Natalie came over from Summit County. That’s the great part about Independence Pass skiing- it’s basically a giant party of like-minded skiers that aren’t ready to put the skis away yet.

We met at the old ghost town of Independence on the Aspen side of the Pass at 11,000′ or so. At one time, the town had as many as 1,500 residents, but today only a few buildings remain. Directly above the townsite is the aesthetic 12,793′ summit of Independence Mountain. Brittany, with Independence Mountain above:

Another group ahead of us headed out to the fun looking mini-golf lines called the Palisades that I’ve taken note of for years. We thought about heading that way too, but decided it was a bit late in the day.

Still, we had time to drop in the East bowl, which had the best corn snow we had skied in years. Lately, it seems like corn snow barely exists- we get dust, or rain, or the temps get too hot, too fast. But not this day- we had effortless skiing. We made our way back to the summit, where the more North-facing bowls were just beginning to turn “ripe” with the corn harvest.

Second run, Kara:

Frank:

Larry, with the highway below:

After our second lap, we headed towards Lou Dawson’s barbecue, where we found plenty of friends old and new, along with beers and brats. If you haven’t caught an opening weekend at Independence Pass, we’d suggest putting it on your “ski bucket list”.

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Quandary Peak is an interesting mountain. On the one hand, an easy and safe winter route on a 14er means that crowds are the norm all year long. On the other hand, beyond the standard East ridge route there is a lot to be said for the mountain, from the challenging scramble of the West ridge, to the entry-level Cristo couloir (which isn’t really a couloir), to the routes that drop to the North, including the Quandary couloir.

Our friend Larry Fontaine joined us from Steamboat and we headed up the mountain with 50+ other people. I was glad I had ski crampons- the terrain isn’t that steep, but given all the people bootpacking, skinning, and snowshoeing up the peak, the snow surface wasn’t exactly uniform and grippy. It was windy, like it always is on this mountain. What is wasn’t, was snowy. The new snow that we skied in Crested Butte didn’t make it to Summit County, so we were left with a skiff of new snow on top of a frozen base. We can’t win them all, I guess.

We made our way to the top of the couloir a little ways down from the summit. We had plenty of snow surfaces to choose from- stiff little windslabs, avalanche debris, icy hardpack, and the occasional chalky patch. Brennan:

Larry:

Brittany:

Frank:

The couloir itself is a long one- nearly 2,000 vertical feet with a handful of twists and turns along the way.
Brittany:

Brennan:

Larry:

Frank:

From the bottom of the couloir, it’s a bit of a slog back to the trailhead via McCullough Gulch. The good news, however, is that there are a lot of lines off this side of Quandary which are worth exploring:

While we didn’t get the few inches of fresh snow that we were hoping for, we did enjoy this line immensely. While it’s a bit harder than Cristo, it’s a good option for anyone looking for a bit more challenge, and a bit more aesthetic (and actual) couloir.

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So it was last weekend when Brittany and I set off to ski something off of “no name” ridge, the long ridge extending East of the Copper Creek drainage above the East river (easily seen from the ski area). With a few inches of snow over the previous 2 days, we hoped to ski powder in the sheltered North facing El Nacho couloir, or if we really got lucky, a West facing line that we’ve been wanting to ski might go, too.

Getting to this area in late spring is a bit of a slog. Heading directly towards no name requires a cold crossing of the East river, or heading all the way to the Gothic townsite to get over the bridge. Sadly, Gothic road has been closed to snowmobiles since the late 90’s, aka the good old days. So slogging we went, eventually crossing the East river just before the bridge thanks to a massive slide that came off Gothic’s East face. The nice thing was that even low-elevation South facing terrain was still holding snow:

Ascending this area has always seemed tricky thanks to convoluted terrain and thick forests, but this time we just headed downvalley and had great access to the bottom of the “big bowl” and a straightforward ascent from there. Remnants of this bowl sliding were still visible as well:

We ascended what we’ll call “Pavillard ridge”, a shallow ridge that is just a hair less steep than the surrounding terrain. Jean Pavillard and a group of aspiring guides were descending the ridge 10 years ago when a massive slide took out nearly all of the terrain surrounding them- a highly visible lesson in slope angles and terrain management for everyone in the Crested Butte area to see.

We reached the top and determined that the West facing terrain unsurprisingly formed a crust the day before, so we decided to ski El Nacho into Queen basin. the last time I skied it, it was after the ’96-’97 season on skinny skis with my friend Bart, who has been ski patrolling up in Big Sky for the past 20 years or so. But first, scenics. Gothic and Owen:

Southwest face of Whiterock, and the White Widow couloir, two routes in our guidebook:

Pyramid, and Maroon on the far left:

Time to ski, heading to the couloir.

The first turns in the couloir were pretty good:

Then we discovered that the couloir slid, and we were actually going to be dealing with plenty of debris. Brittany:

Frank:

Most of the skiing in the couloir was difficult and energy-intensive, requiring plenty of momentum to keep the flow. The apron, on the other hand, was perfection:

On our way out, we ran into some of the guys from Cold Smoke Splitboards, who had skied White Mountain and the White Widow couloir. Pretty awesome to see outher people getting after it, slog and all… While we didn’t quite find the conditions that we were looking for, it was still a great tour and trip down memory lane in my case. The following day we decided to try something decidedly easier- the Grand Couloir on Aetna. More on that later…

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