Ski Touring News Roundup — June to July “Summer”

Time to think about a trip down under? This be Mt. Darwin. Never a dull moment in New Zealand. Beau Fredlund photo.

We’re glad to hear this gal survived a fall down Montana backcountry snow. According to one news report the accident was ostensibly caused by a binding failure or pre-release, perhaps exacerbated by hard snow. She’s hurting and in the hospital, sounds like her helmet was useful. We’ll put this out there: If she or her companions want to contact us we’d love to report on what happened regarding any sort of equipment failure. In any case, best wishes for speedy healing.

More from Montana, the wildlife nightmare we all try not to dream about. Brad Treat, 38, was knocked of his bicycle by a grizzly bear and died due to the attack. Condolences to family and friends. Bear attacks have been increasing, boffins say that’s because bear-human interaction is at an all-time high. One also has to wonder, however, when bears were hunted more aggressively did they not shy more readily at the presence of humans, and now that they’re definitely at the top of the food chain, they truly know no fear? Moreover, when humans basically lived off the land and eventually hunted certain species to near or total extinction (both pre-columbian as well as early settlers), were not “human wildlife” interactions also occurring at a pretty good clip? Wildlife biologists, comments on. News report here.

Thinking of a ski mountaineering trip to the southern hemi this “summer?” An eternal dilemma is New Zealand vs Australia. We’d like to do this ourselves and indeed find the NZ/AU discussion recurs at least several times a year. Then there is Chile, the disrupter. My take is if you want the best adventure travel go to Chile, if you want the most accessible alpine mountains go ski touring in New Zealand, and if you’ve always been fascinated by the Aussies one needs to ski AU at least once. I like this opinion column covering the NZ/AU question.

Going local to our WildSnow Colorado homeground. Roger Marolt is one of my favorite writers here in the old mining districts. He comes from a skiing multi-generation skiing family and often pens his thoughts on glisse. This is a nice recent one, summer ski adventures on high.

Staying local, how about some land use issues? Foot and bicycle trail development around here has been at a fever pitch since younger and more enlightened individuals have gradually inculcated themselves into power. Even so, the “traileratti” runs up against difficult obstacles now and then. For example, near Aspen a land holding family donated a prime backcountry area into the public trust, only it turns out they stipulated there would be no developed trails other than one out-and-back to a memorial site. Weird thing is, as this whole thing was taking shape one of the original owners built a popular and nearly essential trail that crossed the parcel. After this was in use for a few decades, for some reason someone noticed that the deeds for the land contained language restricting the trails. Simply weird. Now the lawyers are sorting it out.

A bit more to pass the time this hot Thursday? I’m not exactly sure how I missed this incredibly important moment in the history of ski innovation. Video below. The hundred foot bungee cord is radical, as is his try at the most literal rail slide ever attempted. Your thoughts?