2016 Aspen Power of Four winners John Gaston and Max Taam traveled to Switzerland for Patrouille race, which got canceled.
Biggest “ski” news I’ve seen lately might be the recent decision by a federal appeals court to allow the Alta, Utah resort snowboard ban to remain. Here at WildSnow we’re somewhat amazed by that, as we can’t help but think riding and skiing are so similar it would be difficult to even come up with legal definitions. For example, what if the guy gets on the lift with his splitboard as two skis? In that case can he ride cable to access the backcountry out of Alta’s permit area? According to this report, “The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with lawyers for Alta who said luring skiers with the promise of a snowboarder-free experience is a private business decision that doesn’t violate anyone’s rights.” As many of you know we are not unfriendly to business, but when a business uses public land we feel there might be a more accommodating definition of things such as “rights.”
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Skimo racing: We were bummed to see Patrouille des Glaciers race canceled as our local favorites Taam and Gaston were over there in Switzerland to podium. Nice to see that uphill rocket Laetitia Roux get the overall Worldcup trophy, she is amazing. Also, Boscacci edged out Jornet. More here.
Interesting to watch the development of Japanese backcountry skiing. They’re mobbed, and appear to be evolving their ski safety culture in a way that might be effective but perhaps over reaches as well. Any of you who’ve skied Niseko care to comment?
We just had someone from the U.K. stop by the WildSnow production studio, they mentioned that ski touring in Scotland can be beautiful provided you get decent weather and snowcover. Aparantly they’ve got the snow, though I don’t know about the weather. I’d sure like to hit Britain some day, be it for cycling, hill walking or skiing.
Whew, read this survival epic in Alaska. Apparently these skiers had an inReach or something like that, otherwise they’d still be up on an Alaskan icefield, buried forever. How they made a snowcave without a shovel is something I’m not sure I care to know.
File this in your “never gonna happen” folder? Income producing resorts on US Forest Service land give a chunk of their revenue to the Federal treasury in payment for special use permits. Meanwhile, National Forests in Colorado (and elsewhere) containing those resorts have an ongoing problem with budget shortfalls (the cause and necessity of which is debatable). With an act of Congress, those ski resort riches could perhaps be kept by local USFS branches for regional use. Seems logical on the surface. On the other hand, don’t those resorts extract money from folks on the upside of the income curve, and by keeping that money regional they’d just be helping improve amenities for those same folks instead of sharing the bounty with the rest of the country? Newspaper reports of course don’t look at those nuances. Nonetheless, reading up on this is interesting if you track public land issues.
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.
