Backcountry skiing is all the rage right now, but sometimes you just want to ride the lifts and find untracked powder beyond a resort’s boundaries. In those instances, you don’t need a full, heavy pack filled with tons of gear to get you through an entire day of touring. Enter the Karve 11 pack...
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In general, skiing has two options: resort and backcountry. But what some skiers may not know is that you can combine the two and ski the “sidecountry.” In essence, when you’re sidecountry skiing, you ride a ski resort’s chairlifts to the top of the mountain, but then ski down out-of-bounds back to the base....
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Snow conditions weren’t perfect, and it was a far cry from the chest deep, 30-something inches that blew the minds of anyone who touched Alta’s slopes in October last year, but my first ski day for the 2011/2012 ski season was fun nonetheless. It was a party atmosphere on November 6th as skiers and...
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Have you heard the tale about a girl who skied Mount Superior butt naked? The story has been all over the Internet the past few days as a picture of pro skier, Vanessa Aadland, has been making the rounds. The image shows her standing atop Superior, arms spread, with no clothes (save an avalanche beacon – safety first.) Many questioned whether...
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It’s awesome when the outdoor community comes together for a common cause, just as Backcountry.com did this week to help keep the Utah Avalanche Center running until the end of April because of their very generous $6,300 donation. The UAC generally ceases operations at the beginning of April due to a lack of funding....
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Sometimes a video comes along on the internet that just makes you stop and go, “wow.” The past few years, tilt-shift photography has been making waves. This technique involves using a special camera lens that allows for a very narrow depth of field and blurry edges to give the impression that everything in the...
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Tom’s Hill is one of many backcountry ski areas in the ever popular Mill D South Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Open spaces, glades, and low-angle slopes are the main features of this little knob amongst larger brothers like Reynolds and Little Water Peaks. But its diminutive size (9,040 feet) is what sets Tom’s...
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For backcountry skiers and snowboarders, it’s always tough to hear about an avalanche fatality in Utah’s mountains. It’s even more disturbing to discover that the touring party was experienced and did everything right, but even then, a life was lost. Avalanches are unpredictable, and no amount of knowledge and precautions can ever make a...
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The Fritschi Freeride binding series has been a backcountry ski staple for years now. Despite huge competition from Dynafit and Marker, Fritschi remains relevant and continues to be seen on skin tracks in mountains around the world. Their latest release is the Freeride Pro, a backcountry binding made specifically for wide powder skis. I’ve...
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The Lake Blanche Trail to Sundial Peak is the most popular hike in the Central Wasatch. Every summer, thousands of people ascend to the crystal waters of Lake Blanche near the top of Mill B South Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. But in winter, upper Mill B South Fork is empty. Sure, the backcountry...
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