It’s May 1st and there’s more fresh powder on the Tetons again this morning, even down to 6000′ in the valley there’s a dusting. If the SNOTEL measuring is to be believed it looks like there’s about 4″ of new snow in the mountains, and the sun is shining! Could be a fun morning to [...]

Skiing the Backcountry has a couple of new posts about the merits of avalanche airbags in general and the Snowpulse one in particular. The writer, or writers, share my enthusiasm for these devices. But, just because I wake up some mornings, like today, in a feisty mood, I want to take exception to a commonly [...]

The winter of 2008-2009 started off in the Western U.S. and Canade with a miserable and dangerous snowpack which resulted in a cluster of avalanche deaths once heavy snows started falling. The recent heavy snowfalls in the Alps ratched up the danger there and  a total of seven people have been reported as avalanche fatalities [...]