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Lou Dawson's Backcountry Skiing Weblog
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February 28 - 2005 [current
backcountry skiing blog] Avalanche accidents: You're driving up the highway for a day of backcountry skiing. You slam on your brakes and swerve to avoid an avalanche pouring off a cliff up ahead. You notice a flash of something human in the plunging snow. Sure enough, a snowboarder has crashed down on the road in tons of churning powder. Along with dozens of other motorists, you rush to the pile of debris and begin a roadside avalanche rescue. Don't laugh -- it happened a few days ago. More on the avalanche safety front: A recent backcountry skiing avalanche fatality in the Tahoe area has been honestly reported by a party member. Turns out their beacon search took quite a while, possibly because inexperienced or mentally compromised party members left their beacons transmitting and thus confused the search. This should pound home the point that beacons are a LAST RESORT and EVERY person in your group should have extensive practice doing beacon rescue. By practice, I mean doing dummy rescue scenes that include the human factor -- not just playing around with "find the beacon" out in someone's back yard. More, this accident was yet another that involved more than one person caught at a time. Unless it is absolutely necessary, we need to keep our groups spread out, and expose only one person at a time to even moderate avy hazard. Following this one practice would make a HUGE difference in many of the fatal backcountry skiing avalanche accidents over the past years. And since I'm on a safety tear, I should mention our ski day yesterday at Snowmass Resort in Colorado. We headed up there to practice on their steep terrain. We checked slope angles with an inclinometer and managed to enjoy some solid 45 degree terrain, and a few turns up in the 50s. The idea was practice for spring chute skiing here in Colorado. While riding the lifts, I witnessed a near-miss when a snowboarder caught air above a skier. More, a friend of ours recently ended up in the hospital after being hit by someone coming from above. I can't believe how frequently I see such lunacy on the slopes. A recent accident in Jackson drives home my point. This tragic junk needs to stop. Our ski resorts can control the level of idiocy and still allow skiers and riders to get radical. Slope safety folks should simply pull passes when they see people behaving in ways that put others at risk. Sounds easy? For some reason, prevention of homicidal skiing and riding is being done at only minimal levels. Perhaps the ski areas are afraid of scaring off their financial saviors (young snowboarders?), or perhaps the "extreme" ethos is so important to the resorts, they're willing to sacrifice a few innocent customers on the alter of their "extreme" image. Whatever the case, for those of us who love skiing, and regard it as a sport one can pursue for a lifetime, it appears tragic to let uncaring maniacs become human cannon balls that the rest of us have to constantly guard for. Please... MAKE IT STOP! My neck hurts from looking over my shoulder! February 26 - 2005 The trend of ski resorts to provide more "adventure," assisted by laws that limit liability exposure, has been interesting to watch over the past decades. I believe it's been a good thing. But taking the long view, I've noticed that you really have to watch out where you go at some resorts where cliffs and worse lurk on named runs. More, disturbing stories of children getting lost and such seem to crop up with more regularity than before. Perhaps it's my imagination, but it seems that in the 14 years of raising our child, I've spent an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to make sure he doesn't accidentally venture out of bounds when he's skiing by himself. Yes, the boundaries are marked, but plenty of places have unobvious ropes, with tracks leading off to slides and kickers in backcountry woods that are beyond patrol sweep. More, plenty of area boundaries around here are regularly crossed by non-backcountry skiers - many have become de-facto ski runs, only they are not swept at the end of the day as the in-bounds runs are. Parents beware. Hunter Thompson watch: I've been interested to see if the worship would tone down and realism set in. Michael Connif, a self proclaimed liberal columnist and radio host here in the Aspen area, frequently comes up with well-thought views. Check out his take. And on a lighter note, check out this column about fist fights on the slopes, by Roger Marolt, one of my favorite local writers. Man oh man... I guess ski areas can be kinda dangerous...but not because of cliffs...better go backcountry skiing or bring your brass knuckles if you decide to "hit" the resort! February 25 - 2005
Last year's Pure had a few durability problems, this year's Pure is beefed and we'll be testing it extensively. Strengthened areas include the toe jaw (see photos below), and the heel jaw post. Weight is 22.3 ounces (632 grams) per binding (with screws, without brakes). As comparison, Dynafit Comfort weighs 14.3 ounces per binding (with screws, without brakes).
There are actually three models of Pure that'll be imported next season. The Pure X-Mountain will weigh slightly more but is value priced. The Pure Freeride is beefed, is higher off the ski, and dials to DIN 12. We'll be testing those models as well. All may be excellent for backcountry skiing. February 24 - 2005 What's that have to do with backcountry skiing? Well, it reminds me that Chamonix, France is still there. It's no secret that Chamonix is still THE ski alpinism epicenter. Check out this website to get started on a virtual tour. Moving in a Teutonic direction, I got a kick out of the article about St. Anton (another center for ski alpinism). It's politically incorrect to talk about, but the fact is that adventuresome alpine sports such as climbing and backcountry skiing are dominated by men. As a result, St. Anton life has become somewhat interesting. Check out this excerpt from the Times newspaper of London: By 8.45am, the cafe is packed with about 30 men, each methodically checking though a rucksack full of equipment, as if they belonged to some sort of special-forces unit. There are just three women in the room, one of whom is serving drinks.. just as a Swede to our right starts explaining that his avalanche probe is a metre longer than the average, an awed hush descends on the room. The cause? A German has trumped everyone by pulling out a metre-long snow saw, crafted from what looks like polished titanium... Read the whole hilarious article here. Gonzo journalism department: You probably heard that famed writer and self proclaimed weirdo Hunter Thompson shot himself a few days ago in his home near here. The local press frenzy has been incredible -- totally over the top in a kind of perverse hero worship that's truly "weird." In honor of Hunter, here is a gonzo take of my own: Trying to base your life on being as weird and drug addled as possible, as Hunter did, always seemed to me like a loosing proposition. Kind of sad, in a way. I guess Hunter proved that out when he ate a .45 caliber pistol with his 6-year-old grandson nearby, and his wife on the phone listening to the click of the gun and a "loud muffled noise"! Sick. According to reports, Thompson's last wish is to have his ashes fired from a cannon. I wonder if that seems important to him now? Check out what one of our local pundits writes about Hunter. February 23 - 2005 There is some question about doing this trick with Dynafit brakes installed. It may (sort of) work, but as you rotate that heel into the touring mode the brake has to retract under the force of the rotation -- and it may take considerable force to do this (especially if there is snow under the brake actuator plate). This force, along with the upward pressure of the brake and your your boot, will cause more wear on the thimble bushing (see FAQ) inside the binding, and if too much force is required something may give (as in "breakage"). Normally, when you change Dynafits to touring mode from alpine mode, you should retract the brake with your hand before rotating the heel unit, thus allowing the heel unit to rotate freely. Thus, take care using this trick if you have brakes installed. Google Provides Avalanche Safety Insights Perhaps the media's "experienced skier" verbiage panders to the booty quaking fear we should ostensibly feel when encountering the world outside a newsroom office (especially in places with trees instead of asphalt). But there is something to be learned. Fact is, many avalanche victims ARE excellent backcountry skiers and riders, and they frequently have many days of backcountry experience. NO DOUBT most of the reason "experienced" folk are more likely to be avalanched is they're spending more days out -- but what a sad commentary that is on all our expertise and avalanche education. In other words, we spend thousands of hours learning and practicing, and somehow it is not helping many of us. My opinion: it boils down to risk taking. I go out all the time with experienced backcountry skiers, and frequently observe them taking easily avoidable risks (gang skiing, sloppy route finding), along with ratcheting up their overall level of acceptable risk (hucking off a cornice into an unskied powder filled chute, and things like that). If you look in the mirror and see an experienced backcountry skier, it might be time to assess your backcountry style, and do some thinking about your level of acceptable risk. If you're one of the rare "inexperienced," you might ponder the fact that the more you know, the more likely you are to get injured or killed. Can we reverse this trend? Perhaps we need a major paradigm shift in avalanche education. More, perhaps our backcountry skiing culture needs a subtle shift from the rabid cliff-hucking powder lust ethos that's developed over the past two decades. And least we take this too lightly, Google keywords "skier avalanche" and watch a virtual avalanche of 98,000 results. February 22 - 2005
We returned last night from a 3-day backcountry skiing cabin trip in the area between here and Crested Butte. Snowpack depth in this region (one of Colorado's "high snow micro climes"), is averaging about six feet (in sub-alpine zone below timberline). Our snow is building fast now that winter's wettest months are upon us. Should be plenty of terrific March and April powder backcountry skiing, along with the May/June spring snow season we long for every year. Photo story below, click images to enlarge.
Our mission this trip: Two men, with 60+ years combined experience in avalanche safety, mentoring four strong and committed teenage skiers with their lives ahead of them. We began each day with weather radio and a group consensus on hazard level, then proceeded to group assessment, then set group goals based on hazard. The boys rated avy danger on this trip as Considerable/Extreme. Goals: Remember beacons are for finding dead people. With that in mind, find 100% avalanche safe powder then rip it. Aspen glades provided the key. Three days of avalanche safe backcountry powder skiing was the result. Law of unintended consequences: Some years ago, environmentalists pushed for creation of small pocket wilderness areas in the Utah Wasatch mountains. Such legal wilderness is frequently too far from road access for much human-powered winter recreation such as backcountry skiing. It's also illegal to use with machinery. Result: helicopter skiers and human powered backcountry skiers are forced together in more accessible areas of the Wasatch. Creating legal wilderness is a harsh way to protect our backcountry, and may even result in over-use of other land, thus destroying as much "wilderness value" as it creates. Perhaps we need another land designation that allows limited mechanized access but still protects the land from overzealous development? February 18 - 2005 Polo's publishing the photos without caption or credit to the photographers is a huge bummer I'm trying to rectify -- but it's like trying to fix something at city hall. FYI, writer/photographer Brian Litz took the photo with the green hat (Polo - not), and Couloir Magazine publisher Craig Dostie took the black&white shot. As always, I hope an article such as this is good for the sport of backcountry skiing, but I doubt it. I think it's more about Polo filling their kitchen-sink website up with fluffy suds. We'll see if I can at least get Brian and Dostie's names on their photos. Gad, the least they could of done is hot linked to here -- or sent cowboy hats to Litz and Dostie! Backcountry skiing blog schedule: I'll be out of the office for a 3-day weekend and may experience powder turns during that time. Look for a report Tuesday.
February 17 - 2005 No, WildSnow has NOT been doing THAT well -- just kidding -- but keep visiting here, perhaps We'll move to Aspen yet (smile). Avalanche education: Getting geared up again to help a group of backcountry skiing teenagers learn to survive. Those of us with decades of route finding experience can take a lot of things for granted. For example, we generally know how far to skirt the base of an avalanche path so a natural release doesn't kill us. Kids may not have a sense of that. We're teaching them to read terrain features, but also to use an inclinometer to catch the "alpha angle" of a slope, and thus determine where it could run. Alpha angle is just a fancy way of saying "average angle," and is figured from the top of the slope to any arbitrary point at the bottom. To figure your safe zone, you do a rough measurement with an inclinometer, and figure out where at bottom of the path you can measure from and get an alpha angle of about 23 degrees or less -- and that's as close to the monster as you want to get (unless the only route forces you closer -- then it's decision time...). Several of this year's backcountry avalanche accidents involved people being hit while below paths, perhaps a better sense of "alpha angle" would have saved them. Randonnee bindings department: Just got off the phone with Garmont. They're distributing 3 (yes THREE) models of the Silvretta Pure binding for next season. We're reviewing all of them (whew) for Couloir, but interesting rig is still the lighter weight "standard" Pure, which has been strengthened. While slightly heavier than Dynafit, Pure is possibly a viable lightweight alternative for backcountry skiers who don't want to niggle with Dynafit's quirks. More soon. Silvretta website here. |
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. |
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