1) Beacon Practice:

Even without a dusting of snow, you can still practice your beacon skills, and it’s a great reminder to change your batteries before your first trip to a trailhead. A grassy meadow is probably your best bet to conceal the beacon that you’re searching for. Sure, you’re missing out on the probe and shovel practice, but you can still deploy those tools when you find the beacon, and make sure those tools are ready to go.

2) Ski The White Ribbon of Death:

OK, a man-made strip of snow probably doesn’t replicate the conditions you’re likely to find (or look for) in the backcountry. But hey, it’s still exercise and it still gets the muscle memory in those stabilizing muscles ready to go when it does start snowing. Hey, what else are you going to do…

3) Stay Fit:

Speaking of which, the last thing you want to do going into ski season is become a couch potato. Dry years still offer plenty of recreational opportunities in the mountains. You can keep hiking or mountain biking, especially if you’re in an area with easy access to lower elevations. Go to the desert if you have to. Meanwhile, dry years are actually great years when it comes to ice climbing. It’s one of our favorite things about ice climbing- if the skiing sucks, the ice climbing is probably great. Finally, if you prefer fluorescent lights to sunlight, you can always lift weights or go to ski conditioning classes.

4) Get your head in the game:

Re-read your favorite avalanche book. Read a new book, like The Snowy Torrents that I recently finished. Read avalanche accident reports. Take a first aid class if you haven’t already. The point of all this is to be mentally ready when it does snow, so your “avalanche eyeballs” are ready to go.

5) Start dreaming:

Late fall is a great time to start thinking about the upcoming season. Do you have goals? Maybe you can find a few routes in our new book. Maybe you want to do a hut trip, or ski a few fourteeners. Whatever the case, a dry early season isn’t a bad time to think about some bigger goals.

6) Plan B:

Of course, sometimes, it really doesn’t snow. Or at least barely. And as we all know, in Colorado a low snow year means a sketchy snowpack. There is plenty of time, but if the snow keeps avoiding Colorado, we might end up with one of those years. In those years, sometimes it’s best to take drastic measures. That means road trips! Areas like Jackson and Montana are off to a great start, so if that keeps up it might be a good year to visit. And last-minute airfare can be a great deal, too. Maybe this is the year to visit Europe, or BC (see the video below for a Pemberton, BC road trip). It’s never too early to start leaving some blank spots in your schedule- it’s all about having options.

So there you have it- things to do if it isn’t snowing. What do you do when it isn’t snowing? Let us know in the comments section.

The post 6 Things Backcountry Skiers Can Do When It Isn’t Snowing appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

I began reading this book after the first major snowstorm this fall, in an effort to “get my head in the game”, which is something I always try to do at this time of year. In this manner, I think I’ve read through the previous version covering 1980- 1986 on at least a couple of occasions. Reading The Snowy Torrents isn’t just morbid fascination with avalanches, it’s a series of reminders not to make the same mistakes that others have made.

I moved to Crested Butte in 1996, so interestingly this volume covers the beginning of my full time ski “career”, for lack of a better term. The seasons roll by, and I can remember the relatively good and stable years, along with the bad. What I also found interesting was remembering some of those early seasons, skiing bottomless facets on 205 GS skis, which is a different experience today on fatter skis…

Ultimately, however, I found this volume to be less educational than the previous one. Perhaps it’s just that I have so many more miles under my belt. But I think the main reason was that far too many of the accidents in this volume are so sadly similar. The typical scenario: a group of snowmobilers are highmarking in questionable conditions, one gets stuck, another goes to help, the avalanche occurs, and no one has any gear. It happens over and over. The good news, I think, is that snowmobilers as a rule are more prepared today than they were at the turn of the century.

Which isn’t to say that you shouldn’t buy this book. It’s just that the best examples for an experienced skier to learn from are harder to find. And the scenarios that make you think are well worth spending the time thinking about, and maybe even discussing with your partners (i.e. how you would have handled the same situation). Perhaps the next volume will include more “teachable moments”, and most importantly, delve deeper into the heuristic traps that I feel are largely to blame for avalanche accidents. You can find the book at the American Avalanche Association website. What do you think? Have you read any of the volumes of The Snowy Torrents?

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1) You Refuse to Ride Lifts

So, you think you’re too “core” to ride lifts, eh? Well guess what, it shows in your skiing. Let’s say you’re an aerobic animal, so you regularly ski 10,000 feet in a day of backcountry skiing. At a ski area, you can bang that out and then some in an hour. Every other run you take after that at a ski area is extra practice that the backcountry skier doesn’t receive. If all you ever do is backcountry ski, you’ll never get very good. Skiing is hard. Backcountry skiing is harder. You’ll hit every type of snow imaginable, and it sure helps when your legs have all those extra miles of muscle memory under them. Nobody wants to see your sidesteps down a steep couloir because you haven’t put the time in at the ski area to just ski it.

Skiing low angle powder in sketchy avalanche conditions is a wise decision. But you know what’s more fun than skiing low angle? Skiing steep angles! And it doesn’t matter if the snow is powder, chowder, or chalk- skiing the steeps is more fun than skiing the flats.

Finally, bad skiers are sketchy. They crash and lose their gear in the middle of starting zones. Nobody wants that.

2) You Know How Many Grams Each Piece of Gear Weighs

OK, if you’re one of those Lycra clad skimo racer types, that like to run up the hills and then come down them in a manner that closely resembles the comedy sections of old Warren Miller movies, have at it. And go ahead and count up every last gram that you carry with you, because it might actually matter to you. But for the rest of you- stop. Just stop. We’re backcountry skiers, not road bikers.

All you’re doing is getting to the top 5 minutes faster than the skier with decent gear. And now you’re cold because you’ve been waiting. So now you’re going to ski down on silly little carbon-titanium skis with flimsy worthless two buckle boots while you’re cold and stiff. So you might even ski worse than the guy mentioned above who refuses to ride the lifts.

3) You Cut the Straps Off Your Boots

Ugh- now you’ve really done it. If you’re a gram counter that never rides lifts that also cut the straps off your boots to save even more weight, the beautiful sport of skiing has turned very ugly indeed.

As a custom bootfitter once told me, the one thing that makes the liner and the shell work together is the strap. Think of it as The Dude’s rug in The Big Lebowski. The quickest way to kill your boot’s performance? Skip the strap. Skiing an alpine run in near nordic gear doesn’t do anyone any good. But hey, if you think the 10 seconds you save is really worth it to ski down then…

4) You have No Idea how to use Pole Straps

OK, so you were told in your avalanche class that you shouldn’t ski avalanche terrain with your pole straps on. No argument there. But just because you noticed a bunch of crusty ski patrollers cut their straps off, doesn’t mean you should cut yours off, too.

For some reason, quite a few backcountry skiers seem to have no idea how to use something as simple as a pole strap. I see it all the time. I guess maybe I’d cut mine off, too if I didn’t know how to use them. So here’s the deal. If you use your straps, you don’t have to hold your pole in a death grip. Watch the Nordic crowd- they know what they’re doing, at least when it comes to pole straps. So the next time you’re skating down a road or skinning up the forest, use those straps- they’re there for a reason. And it’s more than just making sure you don’t drop your pole.

Finally, the straps make attachment to your pack far easier when you’re climbing or rappelling. Loop the strap over your ski tips, whether A-frame or diagonal, and you’re all set. I stumbled upon a blog where the author was removing his grips for some dumb tape job and he had his poles strapped to his pack in an X shape, like some sort of deranged butterfly princess.

5) You use Kinko Gloves

OK, so you just moved to a ski town and you want to fit in. So you buy some Kinkos, Snoseal them up in the oven and Boom!- you just earned some mad cred. You can even step it up a notch and write your initials on the cuff, or better yet “ski fast” or “love hate” on the knuckles. Yeah, you’re fitting in now!

But there are two things to consider about Kinko gloves. One- they are the coldest gloves you can buy. It’s almost like there’s a reason they only cost fifteen bucks. I have pretty warm hands overall, but I can’t imagine using those gloves unless it’s at least 45 degrees out.

There is another glove company that says of their gloves “they’re dexterous as &*^%.” If Kinkos had a similar saying, and they were truthful, it would say “they’re dexterous as a brick”. They’re as anatomically correct as a Barbie doll. What’s the point of a winter glove that you have to take off to grasp anything smaller than a beach ball?

Now, I do own a pair- it’s just that I’d never ski in them. I’ll shovel with them, or use them to rappel, so I don’t ruin a decent pair of gloves. Or maybe on a hot summer day, so my hands will cool off…

If I made you decide that you should perhaps ride some lifts, save some money at Liftopia:

Otherwise, feel free to leave a comment to tell me how awesome your Kinkos are, and how much time you save leading a strap free lifestyle. Better yet, tell me what other things backcountry skiers should stop doing (other than writing articles like this one :))

The post 5 Things Backcountry Skiers Should Stop Doing appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

After some local research (remember, this was pretty much before the internet went big), we headed up to a trailhead that we were told would offer a number of choices. We awoke the next morning at South Lake at the same time that the occupants of a nearby truck were also stirring. Since they also had Colorado plates and were clearly going skiing as well, we started chatting as we all made our coffee and breakfast. As it turned out, the skiers on the other side of the parking lot were skiers from the other side of the Elks- Aspen. That was the first time I met Brad Smith, who now owns the Red Onion in Aspen, and Ted Mahon, who would finish his 14er skiing project right before me.

We started talking about backcountry skiing and Brad and Ted mentioned that someone had just skied a big line in the Aspen area- the line adjacent to the Landry line on Pyramid now known as Frank’s Angst. As it turned out, those skiers were actually Jay and I. It was pretty cool to know that a line that I had had my eyes on for years, and took several attempts to complete, had been noticed by the local crowd. Anyway, after talking the four of us decided we might as well ski together on the nearby and highly aesthetic Hurd Peak. Two weeks later, we ran into Brad and Ted again, this time at Bunny Flats on Mount Shasta. Jay and I had just skied Shasta, while Brad and Ted were gearing up to do so. Brad and Ted finished their season with a successful ski of Denali, while Jay and I got weathered out on Rainier.

Fast forward to 2016. Along with our friends Jordan White and Anton Sponar, Brad would be joining us to ski Greg Mace peak. This was the first time we would ski together since skiing Hurd Peak back in 2000. I told Brad that we should probably ski together again in another 15 years- preferably someplace really cool like the Alps, and preferably randomly. Anyway, on to Greg Mace.

We made our way up Castle Creek and then found ourselves in the Alpine. Jordan:

We had a great view of the east face of Castle. Skiing this is as close to a “first date” as Brittany and I have. Which is awesome.

The West face of Taylor. This zone can be accessed from Crested Butte, and I remember looking down this line thinking it looked like a good one.

We gained the summit ridge of Greg Mace and were treated to an aerial show by a group of Eagles that appear to live near the summit.

The south face was looking good so we decided to start with it. It was perfect corn, a type of snow that seems like a rarity lately, either because of dust storms or spring storms, both of which seem common in CO these days. Brad:

Anton:

Frank:

The corn was great, but there was still powder to ski on the north side, along with some nice aesthetic lines. Brittany:

Jordan:

Brad, figure 8-ing:

This line was so much fun, the twists and turns of the couloir were perfectly spaced for GS-style turns:

Anton, with Castle behind:

Looking back up at Greg Mace Peak, while Brittany finishes up her line:

One of the great things about backcountry skiing is how small of a world it is. How cool was it that a car at a random trailhead in the Sierra had a couple of skiers that lived just on the other side of the Elks? It was good to ski with Brad again, and Greg Mace served up the goods, with both perfect corn and springtime pow.

Jordan and I argued about the merits of Dynafit bindings on top of Greg Mace. The correct answer is #dynajunk.
Vipecs are so much better:

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Frank’s first day on skis was a treasure. It was at Vail and his father, Phil, put him in a ski lesson as most good fathers do, and then went skiing on his own. “We’ll take a run together at the end of the day,” Phil said. But, then something happened. It snowed. It dumped as a matter of fact. The day turned cold, snowy, and miserable. So, when Phil returned at the end of the day, he removed his ski clothes, assuming Frank would be ready to go home. Little did he know that Frank stood on the deck with his goggles on, waiting for his father to take him for one more run. He couldn’t get enough of all that powder.

So, I ask you – What brought you here? How did you begin your love-affair with skiing? Don’t be afraid to share your stories with us. We’d LOVE to know

The post The Love Affair appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

Rider 7 struggled to reach a 911 operator on his cell phone. He made about 10 calls, passing some information to the dispatcher each time. He moved around searching for better reception.

Throughout the mountains of the west, cell range is constantly “close”. And while many people carry a satellite phone, PLB, or other rescue communication device, most of us hope that our cell phones will suffice. And they usually do. But I’ve also had occasions where I needed more.

A few summers ago, we went on an ambitious bike ride and due to some factors out of our control, we found ourselves 35 miles and a long climb from home as the sun was setting. As luck would have it, Brittany called me when I barely had cell service. We couldn’t really understand each other, but I kept saying “Other side of Kebler, pick us up” and Brittany was able to catch my drift and get us (and save herself some worry since we would have limped home much later than expected.) When we got home, she made me sign up for a texting plan for emergencies just like that one, when a text probably would have gotten out when a phone call didn’t.

Which brings us back to a true emergency like Star Mountain, when texts might be able to communicate with Search and Rescue or 911, when a phone call won’t. Can you text 911? Not really, not yet. But it’s on its way, and in at least one place in Colorado, it’s already a possibility. By the end of 2014, the FCC has determined that text capability will be required by carriers. As of 1/15/2014, the only location in Colorado with 911 capability is Pitkin County for Verizon users. It’s nice to know that in many parts of the Elk Mountains, you can shoot off a text in case of emergency.

Better not to need it at all, but there’s the info and something to think about. Besides, it will make for one more unbelievable plot twist in horror flicks- “Why isn’t he texting 911, what a dummy, Freddy Kruger can hear you!”

We haven’t played with this device ourselves, but maybe this is an even better option:

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Thanks to all of our viewers for your support! Looking forward to some more great skiing this season

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