I got a reminder from Backcountry Access that they’re doing a survey to use at the ISSW avalanche study conference. Please participate, the avalanche study community is always lacking in data about people, as it’s a lot harder to gether than snowpit profiles.
Eldora ski area, near Boulder, Colorado.
According to sources, Eldora ski area outside the town of Boulder, Colorado will allow uphill skiing this winter. This is a big deal, as in the past Eldora has been adamant about allowing NO uphilling, and Boulder is packed with uphill junkies. Word is the resort will have several different uphill routes, perhaps one for opening hours, and one defined for when the area is closed. While they don’t have a summit restaurant, I was told they’ll be experimenting with keeping the base area restaurant open into evenings if it seems popular for the after-hours skiers. This came about because the area is under new ownership, and the parent corporation owns other areas that have managed to incorporate uphill skiing. It’s said that parking might be the crux, perhaps carpooling and bus service could be the solution.
Eldora has been attempting to expand, as a result they’ve been heavily attacked by NIMBYs. It’ll be interesting watch how that goes, allowing uphilling will probably help with favorable public opinion. More here.
Along those lines, it appears skimo is going to be an Olympic sport!. This report says the finalization of the The International Ski Mountaineering Federation’s (ISMF) proposal is a rubber stamp, and other reports say this past Saturdy the IOC granted full recognition to the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (which had received provisional recognition in 2014).
Ski mountaineering competition in the Olympics is extra exciting because the skimo community in many countries is quite small — including in the U.S. — so the chances of your friend the human lung being an Olympian are pretty good. Along with more uphill areas, continued gear improvements and the explosion in uphill skiing popularity, skimo becoming part of the Olympics completes a convergence that’s going to make the ski industry really perk up and take notice. Just imagine Eldora, as mentioned above, if they’d continued to ban uphilling and thus possibly banned some of our Olympic athletes. Eldora’s timing is good, to say the least.
Oh la la. I was wondering about the Chillan volcano in Chile, during my ski trip there a few years ago locals told me it does rumble now and then. Sure enough, Nevados Chillan blew out during a ski day. Amusing, scary, and I don’t know what else — all in one. Check it out here.
What is Neveplast you ask? I’ll not say more so as not to taint the pristine wildness of WildSnow.com, but you can check it out here. I heard on the street that the substance was first used for plastic surgery, specifically, lip plumping. But that could just be misinformation spread by spam shills. While the stuff has been around for a while, news is that Nevaplast is becoming more common on ski slopes due to the unreliability of shoulder season snow coverage due to climate change. More, we’re seeing reports of areas offering “year around” skiing. I suspect that snapping into a pair of planks and “skiing” on plastic when it’s 100 degree F outside has to be weird, but I’d love to give it a try. And how about skimo training? One has to assume you could skin climb up the stuff. More here.
Global warming can have some grisly results, and I’m not talking about Greenland ice sliding into the ocean. As the glaciers in the Alps melt down, they’re solving some mysteries, revealing long lost human remains. Advice is to not touch, report, and “take the object with (you) should there be an immediate threat to it or if it is unlikely the location can be found again. I.e., Is that a tibia in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? Interesting.
Still under a heat spell here in central Colorado, and yes it’s been a hot summer nearly everywhere. If that brings us a warmer winter and thus more snow and a denser snowpack, good for Colorado skiing. But wow, it’s been scorching here. Our house is super-insulated so we just cool it off at night then shutter up for the day, but we’re blessed by being in a climate that does cool off at night. Some places are not so lucky.
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.
