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Bloggin’ The Euro Adventure

Bookmark and Share            By Lou
Backcountry Skiing

Silvretta Traverse

Ok, on the road headed for Austria, Switzerland where we’ll backcountry ski the Silvretta Traverwse! Drove over to Boulder yesterday afternoon and visited Brian Litz, co-founder of Backcountry Magazine and general man about the Colorado mountains. Got together with him, Gordon Banks, Pam Rice and Chris Webster for some of that Littelton Mexican food Brian kept promising. Pam and Chris got Capitol Peak skied last year. Chris only has two 14ers to go to have skied them all, and Pam has just over a dozen more to be the FIRST WOMAN to lay tracks on every 14,000-foot peak in Colorado! Problem is, Pam and Chris have too much fun. A planned trip to Italy will happen for them during prime ski mountaineering season this year, so who knows how many more years it’s gonna take these guys! But it’s true, you don’t have to rush it when it comes to the 14er Project — might as well savor every summit and every turn.

Backcountry Skiing

Check this out. Brian layed some magazines on my for my archive, including a full set of the early (before it was bought by current owners) Backcountry Magazine. This is issue Number One. I remember when this came out in 1994.. Craig Dostie was working his fingers to the bone on Couloir Magazine -- with a skeleton staff because the market for backcountry skiing pubs was so small. Along come these cats from Boulder, and I thought 'wow, do they know something about this market that I don't?' Turned out both magazines pretty much limped along, then 'Backcountry' got bought by a motivated and resourceful publishing company, who then bought Couloir as well. As for the pink motif on the cover, Brian?

At any rate, I’m sitting here in the Philly airport watching my laptop battery drain down. This is somewhat the whirlwind trip and I’ll be in a few locations without internet access while on the Silvretta Traverse. I’ll publish ongoing trip reports when possible, otherwise I’ll add them in later. Meanwhile we’ve got a few more guest blogs for your viewing pleasure, and perhaps WildSnow (the website) will even take a rest day! Whew!

Posted by Lou on April 2, 2009 | Filed Under Trip Reports 

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Comments

6 Responses to “Bloggin’ The Euro Adventure”

  1. Sean April 2nd, 2009 7:03 pm

    hey, it’s not every day I see someone I know mentioned in one of your posts, Lou. Chris is my step-brother of sorts, our parents are married. I haven’t seen him or Pam since their wedding day… good to hear they’re still having a lot of fun.

  2. Dostie April 2nd, 2009 10:53 pm

    To clarify. You have my work ethic down to a tea, but the staff you refer to, at the time, was me and one lone part-timer named Mike Warnick who, as a result of his short time with Couloir went on to be a graphic artist.

    More trivia on that. Four years later, when Couloir DID have a staff we arranged a retreat at Tioga Pass Resort to figure out how to improve the mag (you were there Lou). One of the results of that was we knew it was time for a graphical makeover, particularly our logo.

    We spent the entire summer of 1997 creating article templates and researching fonts for a new look. One day I happened to be skiing at Alpine Meadows and ran into former employee Mike Warnick, who was going to school at Chico State. I explained the logo concept I’d thought of earlier that week, and he sent a mock up of his interpretation two days later. We played with that idea, tried others, and after 3 months came back to something very close to his original mock up and the “look” of Couloir that we stuck with ’til the end. The key, by the way, was a custom C, the final incarnation of which was courtesy of Mark Nadel, the inspiration of which I stole from Coca-Cola, and Mike Warnick defined the basic parameters of.

  3. Frank Konsella April 3rd, 2009 7:32 am

    Well, Chris has joked about wanting to take the longest of anyone to ski the 14ers, so I guess he needs to come up with excuses not to ski those last 2 this year. :) Pam’s taking the high road, not wanting to overtake Brittany Walker (with just 9 to go), while Brittany mends her new ACL this spring. :)

    Have fun in Europe, Lou.

  4. Tony Z April 3rd, 2009 12:55 pm

    Have fun on the Euro adventure!!

  5. Pam April 4th, 2009 7:04 am

    ’tis true, I have 12 to go – but doesn’t Capitol count twice? ;-)
    I hope the rehab is going well and look forward to skiing with Brittany next season.

    Wow, hi Sean, it has been a long time, hope you are well. Still in MT?

    And great meeting you Lou, safe travels, hope to make some turns together sometime!

  6. Forrest Thorniley April 7th, 2009 11:08 am

    Is that Mt Toll on the cover?

    Also, where is this mexican place? inquiring minds near littleton want to know.

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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