Blogging is fun, but it’s better if someone reads your stuff. When we started blogging more than a year ago we were amazed at how many of you were reading our posts, thousands of you were visiting! Our mission is to cover backcountry skiing, including all related activities and issues such as driving, snowmobiles, summer backcountry, gear mods, ethics and more. Some blogs are pure diary, others are somewhat impersonal journalism. We aim for a mix, and know we’re far from perfect. Feel free to give us feedback via the comments feature — we read everything you write.
Department of amusing website design
I visited the Ice Breaker clothing website this morning, and was laughing on the floor when I saw their splash page image. To put it in family friendly terms, a nude guy with scissors looks about ready to cut something off that most men would rather have remain intact. Check it out and let me know if you laugh or cry (or yelp?). And check out their wool products while you’re at it — nice stuff for backcountry skiing.
Snowmobiles in the news
An extensive article in the New York Times covers snowmobile assisted skiing. It’s actually a fairly balanced piece, though includes the usual digs at motorized recreation. The author mentions how skiing/snowmobiling are making it harder to divided motorized and non-motorized use, and also covers Wilderness issues. The upshot of the surge in snowmobile use is we’ll probably encounter more public land use regulation sooner than later. More, one can’t help but wonder: If they made snowmobiles quiet (they can), would not that help immensely with making snowmobiles have less impact on other folk’s backcountry experience? Of course, yours truly covered these issues twelve years ago –glad the NYT finally picked up on it.
Canine crunch
Word is a couple of backcountry skiers near here (Carbondale, Colorado) are skiing with a pack of dogs that have bitten at least one person. Research is ongoing — bear spray has come out of storage. We don’t mind dogs in the backcountry, so long as the skin track stays white and our skin intact — but these scraggy beasts have violated both those precepts. Since these events were witnessed in legal Wilderness, we’re suggesting that Forest Service law enforcement might be able to get the situation under control, since dogs in Wilderness have to be on a leash. If that doesn’t work, I’m sure our Department of Wildlife officers would be interested in a pack of dogs ranging over the backcountry.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
