Summer foliage and snow ribbons in the Elk Mountains
The evolution of WildSnow’s coverage of the wide world of ski touring
I spent some time this weekend looking out at the dwindling ribbons of snow snaking down the Elk Mountains of Marble, Colorado. Having survived the hottest days of summer, a slow solace descends with the knowledge that every snowflake ahead counts to the totals of the upcoming season instead of the one melting behind me. There is no sweeter build than that which comes from nights and days cooling, even if the days are only slipping from 90 degrees into the 80’s.
With the tinges of cooler weather providing the first traces of excitement for the 2019-20 season, a torrent of anticipations comes from some new developments with WildSnow. I have followed Lou and contributed as a guest blogger for over a decade and am honored to step into a bigger role to drive the site into its third decade of publication, and the third decade of this millennium. Lou, Manasseh and I have been working hard all summer to be ready to hit the ground running for the upcoming season. Here’s some insight into what lay ahead.
If you are reading this post, you have probably noticed the site itself looks a little different. We approached this with the following goals in mind: easier navigation, a more responsive design and, above all, better readability for the ski touring community. We plan to do this by decreasing ad space and keeping the simple layout and maintaining focus on the great writing that WildSnow is known for.
Of course, we could not keep the dream alive without generous support from our sponsors. A special thank you goes out to The North Face for their long term commitment to keeping WildSnow a leading voice in the ski touring community. It is due to their support for an amazing third year in a row that we have been able to call a truce in the arms race of advertising saturation plaguing most online publications.
If there is one thing that Lou and the team here believe is important, it’s that providing you with engaging and helpful content is king. None of this is necessarily new, but with the edit support from Lou, and the updated website, we will have the ability to standardize a publishing schedule.
Let’s face it, some of you are here because you are fellow gear nerds, others enjoy the storytelling through trip reports around the world, and many just want to soak up some mountain culture. Our new publishing schedule runs the gamut, with certain posts published on certain days of the week so you know when to look for what’s most interesting to you. So, tune in when a topic speaks to you and share with a friend when a joke or a quote is calling their name.
Here’s the projected run-down:
Mondays – Stories
On Mondays, you can look for longer form essays that explore our sport through creativity, journalistic research, interviews, thoughtful insights and more. These stories require the extra bit of inquiry and craft that’s sure to extend your procrastination at least an extra 15 minutes before work.
Tuesday – Tech Tips
For the beginner through the expert, we are collaborating with Dynafit to offer you written and video how-tos and helpful tips to get you dialed for your next day out.
Wednesday – Totally Deep Podcast
My personal speciality. We will be releasing a new episode of Totally Deep every other Wednesday, a long-awaited goal that needed the powerful backing of WildSnow to make it official. Along with the audio file, we will publish liner notes and other interesting reads relating to the podcast conversation. The following Wednesday will be a more researched and fleshed out followup story on an aspect of the conversation.
Thursday – Gear Reviews
First looks at products before they hit the market, in depth opinion pieces on gear we have been thrashing and of course, plenty of hours of tinkering in the WildSnow HQ to bring you a range of gear mods from useful to absurd.
Friday – Trip Reports
Remember, it’s always snowing somewhere. These pieces are designed to bring you straight from your desk to where the snow is the best, even if it’s with retrospective longing for colder days and snow filled nights.
Weekends – Everything Else
News roundups, spontaneity, humor, or just whatever general tirade we feel like embarking on.
Lou will of course retain his throne as the reigning opinion leader in the space of ski touring and mountaineering, but he’ll be accompanied by consistent guest bloggers here to keep the content rolling and your ski culture appetite satisfied. Even as we write this, we’ve got writers off collecting stories in hemispheres where the snow is falling.
Editors note: While we slog through the remaining dog days of summer, the posting will not be regular as outlined above, but come September you can expect to get all the content, all the time. Or something close to it ;).
We’re psyched for the year to come and couldn’t keep the WildSnow torch burning without you, our readers. Through the month of August we will be experimenting with some new formats on the old staples of articles, so, keep in touch in the comments to let us know what you’re loving and what you want more of.
And remember, though it may be late July, the days are getting shorter and snow totals are only going up from here.
Cheers,
Doug and the WildSnow crew
P.S. If you like what you’re hearing, make sure to sign up for the first ever WildSnow email blast for weekly recaps and to make sure you don’t miss a post.
[mc4wp_form id=”26300″]
Doug Stenclik is an avid skimo racer and ski mountaineer who lives for sharing the amazing sports of ski touring and splitboarding. Since his first time on skins he was hooked and the obsession has taken him all over the United States and the world pursuing the human powered ski turn. He founded Cripple Creek Backcountry in 2012 and took over the Colorado Ski Mountaineering Race Cup in 2014 to spread knowledge and the love of the sport. In 2019 he took a step back from the ski shop and race promoter life to become a publishing partner with WildSnow.
