Skiing the Backcountry
April 17th, 2009Posted in Skiing Everywhere
With lift-riding skiing over with for this season, and avalanche danger usually less of a problem, April is a great month to head into the backcountry for excellent spring corn skiing, and often some very fine powder skiing as well. Of course we need to get up earlier in the morning to beat the heat, but mild temps can also mean less clothing to encumber us and weigh down the pack, making skinning easier and faster. So the pros and cons sort of balance out. There is usually less trail breaking to be done too, which is fine with me. I enjoy hearing and glimpsing greater numbers and varieties of birds singing in the trees and I like checking out the additional animal tracks left by the increased activity of the local critters too. It’s a nice mix of some of the joys of summer hiking added to the thrills of winter skiing. Plus, basking in the warm spring sun during breaks and at lunch time sure beats huddling behind a cold rock outcroppings or a dense tree copse to stay warm and avoid a howling cold winter wind.
Unfortunately, skiing’s day’s are numbered by Spring’s arrival. I’m hoping this year to continue enjoying a frequent fix of skiing thoughts and reading by keeping in touch with a relatively new skiing website, coincidentally named, skiingthebackcountry.com. It’s name tells you its focus and I’ve enjoyed reading and learning from it this past winter. I’ve been told they will keep presenting new content through the summer. Go STB!
There is a lot to like about skiingthebackcountry.com if you are a backcountry skier, and even if you’re not. It has good writers and frequent new content, so its well worth adding to your news reader. The folks there are trying to reach out to the backcountry skiing community to increase interaction and provide a wider range of information and depth of knowledge than any staff could bring to a site. If you’re a backcountry skier check out their Skiing Stimulus Package for all the swag you might get to pick from if you have things to contribute to their site before May 15th.
It may be controversial in the eyes of people who still think in the these days of Google Earth that there is a hope of preserving secret, private powder stashes, but I like STB’s Online Guide to backcountry ski locations. It is a nice clean use of Google Earth maps with a very straight forward, standardized methodology for describing the routes. I look forward to an expansion of this feature as more contributors add to it.
I’m obviously one of those people who has migrated to getting most of my information from online sources, so I appreciate new voices appearing online to enrich my knowledge about subjects I’m interested in- like backcountry skiing. I’m also happy to know some of my over-the-hill in Wilson neighbors are deeply involved in this worthy venture. I wish it, and them well.
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