Backcountry ski touring news.
As many of you know, we blog factory tours. You do see that sort of content elsewhere, but never as much as I’ve always assumed would flow from the vast universe of panting bloggers hovering over their keyboards like children picking ice cream flavors. But here is a terrific one, check out the camera to end all cameras.
I’ve been considering destinations for an April ski touring trip, with Europe in mind. Classic tours in the Alps are appealing, but we have heard wonderful things about the Pyrenees mountains, both France and Spain parts. Anyone suggest a classic hut-to-hut tour?
Uphill skiing at resorts is the news topic that keeps on giving. Jackson, Wyoming has a take.
You might want to track the skimo World Cup. Laetitia is amazing, and North Americans are in there.
Oh yeah, check our very own John Gaston at 27th in the recent Villars race! and 16th at Puy Saint Vincent! John is co-owner of Strafe outerwear, I wonder if he’s getting six figure sponsorship offers from European clothing brands anyhow?
Downer. It’s announced that no new sports will be added to the 2022 winter Olympics — thus ruining our hopes for skimo. More here. We were optimistic we’d be personal friends with a few skimo athletes and perhaps even travel to the Games for WildSnow press credentialed coverage. Shucks, I guess we’ll go anyway and fake it as curling journalists.
As a new wrinkle on ice bowling, curling mixed doubles made it into this winter’s Games and will presumably go again at the 2022 melee. Some of you may fail to believe it, but your friendly blogger actually did some curling in high school, when he came to the cruel reality that his ice hockey skills were not up to par. A sore tailbone was the only result, though he can testify it’s funner than it looks. I remain a skilled sweeper.
I’m beginning to feel we need a WildSnow cannabis category, as we do originate in Colorado. Not that we’re advocating or going crazy with consumption, it’s just interesting as North American mountain towns have never been strangers to the leaf. Latest, during last tax period in Aspen town they actually sold more money’s worth of legal pot products than liquor store booze. That’s in my opinion quite an interesting economic factoid. More here.
Do you drink backcountry creek water direct from the stream, no purification? I’m of the opinion, based on a lot of experience, that doing so is unwise unless you’re in a very special place, for example quaffing a burbling brook in the high mountains of Norway. Slate magazine published a controversial article attempting to debunk the practice of wilderness water treatment. In my opinion a ridiculous effort at clickbait. So I won’t link to it (smile). Discover published a good rebuttal.
Can’t leave a news roundup untouched by climate change. It’s amusing (and in the end sad) reading all the hand wringing about geo-engineering, that when we’re sitting here inadvertently engineering the climate every single second of every day.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on climate engineering and by no means am I advocating. But googling reveals an amazing amount of negativity regarding what could possibly get us out of the relentless march of global warming. It is strange to me that we can accidentally engineer our way into badness, but won’t devote extensive resources researching tools that might open the door to goodness. Truly, it sounds like some rich guy could just buy his own island and pump sulfur dioxide into the air for a few months, solve the problem. Your thoughts?
Oh, and more climate content. Thanks to one of our commenters, my attention is directed to this Vox interview with Paul Hawken listing what might actually be most effective in curing global warming. “Population control” advocates of course repeat ad nauseam “overpopulation is the problem” and there is logical truth to that — but the solutions always appear draconian (we need a new virus!).
Sounding a more reasonable note, Hawken claims that the simple acts of educating girls and family planning are easily up there in the top ten, due to mitigation of the population issue. Of course “education” and “planning” can easily trend to the draconian (e.g., China’s one-child policy, or the act of “educating” someone who’s beliefs don’t align). In any case, interesting to see this on the list and how the semantics evolve.
Bonus video find. Below is oddly compelling. Along the lines of “what will humans do?”
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.
