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May 15 - 2005
Colorado Spring Backcountry Ski Season Hits Big

A ridge of high pressure has built into our region over the last few days, yielding the best spring backcountry skiing so far this season. Reports are filtering in of descents all over Colorado. Near here, Bob Perlmutter told me he had a great day Saturday on Mount Sopris, along with friends he enjoyed skiing one of the Laundry Chutes on the north face of the peak.

On the fourteeners, a couple of individuals who are trying to ski them all have been doing well. I've always been interested in (and challenged by) Longs Peak, as it's hard to find in condition for a complete ski descent from the summit. Sean Crossen and his crew were up there about a week ago and reported A+ conditions that allowed a perfect ski descent. Sean sent me this link to a web cam pointed at Longs, which has made it much easier to know when it's in condition for backcountry skiing. It looks really good today!

After stories of Sean's success filtered through the rumor mill, at least one other group went up there and nailed it. During my descents of the fourteeners, I caught the North Face of Longs in good shape and had a nice descent, but it took me a few tries to find it in decent condition. Wish I'd had that web cam back in those days! Simply amazing: you can sit at home drinking coffee at your computer, and be looking directly at the ski line to know for SURE if it's in condition or not. Makes me want to ski it again!!

May 13 - 2005
Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame

We had to keep it under our hats for the week, but now I can speak. I'm honored and overwhelmed to be inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame. Just got done with a fun press conference in Denver, where folks from the Colorado Ski Museum gave the official announcement. Met some cool guys who'd made terrific contributions to Colorado skiing. Details here.

My sincere thanks to all you backcountry skiers who wrote seconding letters for my nomination, and to Mike Marolt, who initiated the nomination. Also, while I'm quite humbled to be included in this, I am PSYCHED that a ski mountaineer has made it into the Hall based on a backcountry skiing career. Indeed, I feel like I'm representing the entire backcountry skiing community in receiving this honor. Everyone at the press conference was very aware of how skiing's roots are in the backcountry, and their support in giving the Hall more emphasis in that area is TERRIFIC.

To keep it real, on the way over to Denver I met up with Aspen Times Newspaper journalist Tim Mutrie and made a run on Uneva Peak. We got whited out up high, but got decent skiing lower on the mountain. Conditions were nice powder on frozen corn -- very nice! This is Tim cranking. He's a good skier. That's the Vail Pass rest area down in the valley on the right side of the photo. Over there, the x-c skiers fight with the snowmobilers about who goes where. On Uneva Peak, you hardly ever see anyone.

May 12 - 2005
It aint backcountry skiing -- BUT

While waiting for the snow to settle in the highcountry, we headed down to Grand Junction, Colorado yesterday to wheel Rumblebee in Billings Canyon, an extreme rock crawling jeep trail that was recently opened on BLM land in the Bangs Canyon recreation area. This trail is only about 1 1/2 miles long, but takes up to a day to drive. It's challenging and incredibly fun. I won't get into the details since that's for a 4-wheeling website, but what I find relevant to backcountry skiing about this is the multiple use and land management aspect of the rock crawling power-sport. Environmental screed of the month: Coming from the point of view of a backcountry skier, hiker, hunter, mountain biker and more, I'm amazed at how little trail motorized 4-wheelers have, how much we have to fight for it, and how heavily people oppose it and try to shut it down. This tiny trail in Western Colorado took years of negotiations to open, and is still highly controversial. Many enviros would love to see it closed, and you can bet a number of them are working on making that happen. It seems to bother some people that a few miles of trail would be used by folks with wheels and motors, and that the rocks and dirt would get moved around a bit by something other than flash floods, horses, or mountain bicycles. I've been doing some reading of late about a concept termed the "death of environmentalism." In a nutshell, folks in the "green" crowd have been doing some heavy self examination. Beyond concerns about how environmentalism is now a huge money hungry industry, some seem to be realizing their negative sky-is-falling anti human attitudes might have turned off a few people over the past decades. HELLO! At least a few die-hard enviros are examining the concept of shifting their ethos more to that of a "conservationist." They're looking at the idea of conserving our resources and managing them wisely, while still welcoming human use into the equation. Billings Canyon jeep trail is a good example of such use. It's carefully managed and closely watched. It is a good example of conservation in action, allowing human recreation but doing it smart. From the "Death of Environmentalism," by By Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus: Environmentalism is today more about protecting a supposed "thing" -- "the environment" -- than advancing the worldview articulated by Sierra Club founder John Muir, who nearly a century ago observed, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Some of those "things" that John Muir called attention to are people and their needs.

May 10 - 2005
Schoolboy's Dawn Patrol

We pulled it off: a ski descent in the Elk Mountains, then boy on time for school at 8:15 a.m. Above, school bell minus 70 minutes and counting. The question is, how well do you do on your tests when you got up at 3:00 a.m.?

May 9 - 2005
Cadillac of Backcountry Skiing Rigs

Are we gear junkies? Perhaps so, but it's better than the alternative. We got a good fix last week setting up a beautiful new backcountry skiing rig, then testing it this past weekend.

Our complete state-of-art rig. Dynafit D-812 skis in 160cm, Dynafit Comfort binding.

We mounted Dynafit Comfort bindings without brakes, instead using our favorite minimalist safety strap and clip on toe unit. Not using brakes reduces weight, but more, allows easy rotation of heel unit to switch modes from downhill to touring while still latched into the binding. These bindings are set up for use with Scarpa F1 boots, hence the black shim block mounted just behind toe unit.

We installed our well known Rat Tail, the skin attachment system we developed over the past several years. As always it works great and was fun to make.

We've had a few days now to test this D-812 setup. The skis are incredible. They're super versatile, lightweight, and ski well in shorter lengths. We love short skis for spring backcountry skiing, as they not only save weight, but are much easier to carry on a backpack. The Comfort bindings are also working well. We've not experienced any issues with coming out of the toe while touring (a reported problem that's most likely the result of ice building up under the toe unit, and easy to rectify with diligent field maintenance), and of course they ski downhill like a dream (a now acknowledged property of Dynafit bindings). The Low Fat skins are light and pack nicely in our smaller springtime backpacks. As with any climbing skin, rubbing with a block of alpine wax before each trip makes them perform much better (improving glide and also preventing ice buildup), and this seemed to be especially true for the Low-Fats. More, BCA skins are known for their super sticky glue. This pair of furs was no exception, and we're finding that storing them with a release liner on the glue is mandatory, rather than doubling them and sticking them to themselves.

Weight per ski, with skins, ended up being 65.2 ounces (4 pounds).

In all, a fun project, and just in time for the peak of spring skiing, as sunny weather in Colorado today is baking the corn snow.

May 7 - 2005
Skiing the merry muck of May

Well, we did get out in the backcountry today but we're not impressed. Colorado has been getting an amazing series of storms, but warm inverse density muck made the skiing difficult. Should firm up come clearing spell on Monday. Then the backcountry skiing will be fantastic, and we're betting it'll go on through June.

May 6 - 2005
Details from Elk Mountains Traverse

I had the privilege this morning of assembling text and photos from a Crested Butte, Colorado crew's stunning attempt at a backcountry skiing traverse of the high Elk Mountains in central Colorado, including exploration of a possible new ski route on Capitol Peak. Check it out.

May 5 - 2005
Blog - Backcountry Skiing Swimsuit Issue

Still working on the "new" products for the Vintage Ski World online store. Amused today while scanning store promo shots from classic book Total Telemarking. Inside, none other than famed star of early hot dog freestyle skiing and well known telemark gal of the 1970s and 1980s, Penelope Street, enjoying some backcountry skiing spring corn snow near Crested Butte, and working on her tan -- The book is chock full of other amusing photos, including bearded backcountry skiing maniacs from the Crested Butte tele revival crowd, and lots of racing photos from the infant days of telemark gate competition -- when skis were skinny and so were the skiers -- or something like that...

May 4 - 2005
Military Backcountry Skiing

Today I'm enjoying making promotional copy images of this poster for Vintage Ski World's online store. This famous image first appeared on the cover of Saturday Evening Post magazine, March 27, 1943. The original image is a painting by Mead Schaeffer. Soldier Horace Quick was the model. He was one of the skiers on the incredible Trooper Traverse, when a group of 10th Mountain troopers skied from Leadville to Aspen in 1944.

May 3 - 2005
PM Update

And look what arrived by FedEx today (the skis, not the kid). No wonder we're looking for avalanche reports. Thanks Life-Link! Full report on these D-812 backcountry skis here soon. We all know the bindings are perfect, but perhaps we'll write something about those too.

Avalanches engender interesting events in Colorado. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center is closed for the season even though we've got backcountry avalanche danger all over the place, so in a strange twist the CAIC boys are now posting reports at the Teton Gravity Research web forums.

Problem is, TGR is chock full of content that's offensive to many people and blocked by filtering software such as Cybersitter, so not everyone can look at reports there.

Request from Dawson family: we'd like our son and his friends to learn about avalanche activity so they keep their awareness level up while spring backcountry skiing, so CAIC folks, any desire to post on a more family friendly forum, or, gasp, on your own website?

After looking at all this, another question is if we can configure Cybersitter to block kids from backcountry skiing without beacons on Loveland Pass avalanche slopes. Time will tell.

May 3 - 2005
Northwest Backcountry Skiing Race

Northwestern U.S. ski historian and backcountry skiing pioneer Lowell Skoog recently organized a re-enactment of the Silver Skis, a historic downhill race that was held in olden days from Camp Muir on Mount Rainier down to the Paradise ranger station and parking area. Looks like fun was had.

Department of Lungs: I just got off the phone with Andrew McLean, who recently returned from an Alaskan expedition (got skunked by the weather). Incredible endurance skier Greg Hill was along on the trip. According to Andrew, Greg's latest enduro endeavor is to log as much ski climbing vertical as possible in one 24 hour period. His best yet is 40,000 vertical feet in one 21 hour period, starting at midnight. That's not a typo. Along with that, he's trying to log a million vertical feet in one season, and had 940,000 feet the last time Andrew spoke with him. Track back.

previous backcountry skiing blog weblog

Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 35 years has been alpinism and back country skiing -- and all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and snowboarding, and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the famous Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, as well as tons of Randonnee rando telemark backcountry skiing info.

All material on this website is copyrighted. Permission is required for reproduction, electronic or otherwise. That includes publication and display on other websites by whatever means. For more about this, PLEASE SEE OUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION. Backcountry skiing is a dangerous sport. You may be killed or severely injured if you choose to do all forms of randonnée and randonnée skiing. The information on this website is intended only as general information for a variety of aspects of backcountry skiing and outdoor recreation. While the authors and editors of the information on this website make every effort to present useful information, due to human error the information contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date. By using the information provided on this website, you agree to absolve the owners of WildSnow.com of any liability for injuries or losses incured while using such information.

Always go backcountry skiing with a partner, and learn about avalanche safety before you ski outside of ski and snowboard resorts. The best season for this sport is late winter and spring, when the snowpack compacts and avalanche danger is more predictable. The Colorado wilderness backcountry skiing season reaches its prime in May and June. Maritime snow such as that of the Pacific Northwest may be less avalanche prone than continental snow of that such as Colorado and Wyoming. The California Sierra also provides a relatively reliable snowpack for backcountry skiing, snowboarders, snowmobilers, telemarkers and the like. Backcountry skiing is a wonderful sport, but it can transition in moments from wonder to tragedy. You agree to use any of this website's information, maps, photos, or binding mounting instuctions or templatates at your own risk, and waive Wildsnow.com its owners and contributors of any liability for use of said items.

Keywords: Ski Information, Info, Outdoors, Wilderness Skiing, Randonnée and randonnée, Ski Mountaineering, also Ski Alpinismo and Backcountry Skiing.