#backcountry-skiing

#backcountry-skiing

"She was just a lovely person and would light up the room," Diane Gerold said. "Always very happy."

Backcountry | The Télécphérique de La Grave in France is mythical. It owns myth. It deserves myth. It owns my fear. I've been wanting to come here since I was 22, but I knew I wasn't ready. At 47.6 years old, I suppose I finally felt prepared to explore La Grave and see how she treats me. Conditions ReportMy friend Per has been a guide in La Grave for 30+ years and his calm demeanor and laissez-faire attitude towards the place calmed me some.

And the old man wasn't just rambling or lost-he had a damn point. If you start a tour wearing minimal layers and are already feeling cold (which, given the current conditions will likely require a certain degree of bravery), then your body will warm itself up as you shed calories hiking up the hill. This will prevent you from overheating, and keep you more comfortable on the way up.

The journey to Silvertip Lodge begins with a charter flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Williams Lake Airport, followed by a 45-minute helicopter ride to the property. Situated on the shores of Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo Mountains, the lodge is accessible only by helicopter during winter operations. This level of isolation places it among the most remote destinations I have experienced, ensuring that the immersion in wilderness begins the moment you arrive.

BackcountryonX Backcountry has released a major expansion of Beacon Guidebooks content for the 2025-26 ski season, adding hundreds of newly curated backcountry ski routes across Colorado and Washington, the company announced on January 21. The update, now available in the onX Backcountry app, significantly expands access to vetted route information in complex mountain terrain, pairing Beacon Guidebooks' expert-authored ski descents with onX's navigation and avalanche safety tools.

Cornice collapses can be incredibly dangerous, having the potential to crush people, pull them down mountains and potentially over rocky cliffs, and cause larger avalanches. Professional skier Josh Daiek doesn't seem to be impacted by cornices as much as a regular skier or snowboarder would be, though. This incredible line starts with a heart pounding moment as he looked over the edge.

Alaska is a hot spot for grizzly bears, easily home to the most of any of the 50 states. There are an estimated 30,000 across the entire state, representing over 98 percent of the United States population. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the population, ensuring that the population remains healthy and grizzly bear viewing opportunities stay abundant.

BackcountryFor most skiers, "all-inclusive" means a lift ticket and a buffet. Forrest Schmidt means something very different: a hot titanium stove in a tipi, filet mignon next to a steaming hot spring, and ancient araucaria trees holding cold smoke over a perfectly set skintrack. Schmidt, a 44-year-old "East Coast kid" from rural New York, runs APEX Andes (Andes Puro Exploraciones) out of Malalcahuello in Chile's Araucanía region. His guide service is small by design with

This quaint little town, surrounded by green pastures and granite cliffs, is the northern gateway to the High Sierra. Bridgeport always evokes nostalgia and is one of my favorite views of the Eastern Sierra. In my younger years, it was all about the resorts, and Bridgeport was a place to stretch the legs on the way to Mammoth Mountain. Now, I look more to the backcountry trailheads, and Bridgeport has become an alluring area along the 395 corridor.

Having settled on where to ski in Norway, I found myself packing up the Kvikk Lunsj wafers and sweet brown brunost cheese sandwiches at the glassy Juvet Landscape Hotel, deep in the Sunnmøre Alps. Then the slow ascent, with skins on our splitboard skis, up to the peak at Mefjellet: torturous in some ways, looking at all that glinting Care Bear snow all the way up, but also a deliciously tantric act of meditation and delayed gratification.

The issue surfaced publicly this week after the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance (WBA) posted that it is actively communicating with the Town of Alta to better understand ongoing access challenges. The organization asked users to document instances where parking reservations show as unavailable while lots appear partially or fully empty, requesting screenshots and timestamped photos to support advocacy efforts. WBA emphasized that this kind of documentation could help clarify whether the problem stems from policy, enforcement, or technology.

I rode the Kicking Horse lifts and absorbed the spectacular dawn. The first chute was intimidating. Steep, sluff-filled, and raw. I made a handful of turns, ripped out a sizeable sluff, and had to plaster myself into the right wall. It passed quickly, and I carried on working the left side of the chute to avoid the sluff track. The snow was delectable. Back up.

I found the chute entrance pretty quickly, but the cornices up here make it tricky. I dropped in and the snow felt good. A ghost track in the chute from before yesterday's snowstorm comforted me. As I entered the chute proper, I smashed a right turn on the far left of the chute and ripped out a small sluff. Honestly, it spooked me and I needed to be conservative as I was solito.

We climbed, then descended with a goal in mind. Christmas Tree Chute. The chute is dramatic. A jagged notch in the rugged ridge lined by a massive rock wall on the right and a fluted alpine wall on the left. Last night's storm enhanced the cornice that guards the chute. It failed in the night, sending a sluff down the length of the steep chute. We carefully climbed up to examine the entrance, found a way in, and clambered into the crack in the mountain.