A few blog readers have asked recently about the D System that Andrew McLean and I (along with the help of many other skiers) developed last winter for rating backcountry skiing descents.
I’ve been revisiting the D System page and making revisions, mostly working on the content at the end of the page that speaks to other rating systems. Also added a link here on the blog (in nav menus to right,) and did some work so the D System is easier to find with various search functions. Much of what got me going with this was adding the example of Neal Beidleman and Chris Davenport’s route from last winter on the east face of Capitol Peak, Colorado. Their line is super tough, and makes a good illustration of how well the D System works.
One of the problems with informing skiers about the D System is that searching for a term with a single character in the search phrase may be problematic. Turns out my blog search function won’t do it, but my website search function will. Google does fine with it, and as always you can restrict a Google search to one website by using the “site” operator. To do so, in the Google search box type the phrase “site:www.wildsnow.com d system” without the quotes and you’ll get all the D System hits for this website, including the blog.
(Just to help with searches, I’ll type the phrase here and in the post title as D-System with a dash, but so far the “official” way to spell it is without the dash.)
To discuss the D grading system please go to this blog post.
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.