Black Diamond for everything climbing and skiing.    Dynafit -- Speed Up!    Tracker beacons, Stash packs, shovels, more more more.    Terrific deals on randonnee AT rando backcountry skiing gear.    K2 has the skis that stay true to earning your turns.    Garmont boots -- excellent choice for backcountry skiing.

Dawson Video Interview and Spring Backcountry Skiing Tip No 7 — bring your essentials!

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

Mitch Webber of Telemarktips.com interviewed yours truly while at the Outdoor Retailer show this winter. Too much coffee? You decide.

Los Lost Boys: A crew of skiers lost in the Montana backcountry have been all over the news lately.They were able to call out on their cell phone, only they had no idea of their location, and neither did authorities! They hiked out of the mountains and were picked up Friday afternoon, uninjured. I thought there was some kind of 007 way of triangulating a cell phone location, but apparently that’s either a myth, only available to Bond, or perhaps the mountain location interfered with such tracking.

Which leads, you guessed it, to Spring Backcountry Skiing Tip #7:
While preparing for spring backcountry skiing, it’s easy to become complacent and start leaving essential items at home. It’s warm out, the days are long, you like a light weight pack… But some things should be as part of your pack as its very fabric. One such is a small “survival” kit that includes a butane lighter, waterproof matches, and perhaps a bit of “kindling” material that makes it easy to start a fire.

Outdoor stores sell various kindling such as fire “paste” in a tube and small flammable bricks. Go for the bricks, they store better than the tube of paste. Or if you like multi-purpose gear, you can kindle a fire using shavings from your wax block (see tip #5 below) combined with a wad of toilet paper. Once you decide on a fire kindling system, test it once or twice before your life depends on it.

And remember your cell phone — while your’e lost you can sit by your cozy fire and chat with the mountain rescue folks.

Posted by Lou on March 19, 2005 | Filed Under Technique 

previous post: More Sun Protection for Backcountry Skiing, and tip 10, Hydration
next post: Southern Exposures in Colorado Are Corning Up

Comments

Comments are closed.

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.

All material on this website is copyrighted. Permission required for reproduction, electronic or otherwise. That includes publication and display on other websites by whatever means. PLEASE SEE OUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION.

Backcountry skiing is a dangerous sport. You may be killed or severely injured if you do any form of randone, randonnee and randonnée skiing. The information on this website is intended only as general information. While the authors and editors of the information on this website make every effort to present useful information, due to human error the information, text and images contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date. By using, reading or viewing the information provided on this website, you agree to absolve the owners of Wild Snow as well as content contributors of any liability for injuries or losses incurred while using such information. Furthermore, you agree to use any of this website's information, maps, photos, or binding mounting instructions or templates at your own risk, and waive Wild Snow its owners and contributors of any liability for use of said items for backcountry skiing or any other use.