0utdoor Retailer Day 3 — Backcountry Skiing Media Harmonic Convergence

So, I’m walking the booths and checking out Arc’teryx, and who shows up but Mitch and Tim from Telemark Tips, then Dostie pops in (founder and publisher of Couloir mag, for those born yesterday), and along comes Brian Litz, co-founder of Backcountry Magazine. Even Steve Romeo of Teton AT showed up at the same time! This convergent event must have been caused by some kind of vibration resonating between a new boot plastic over at Scarpa and an aluminum cam alloy being kept secret at Black Diamond. I don’t know where I fit in exactly, but I guess I’m founder of WildSnow.com so there you go. It’s always amusing talking to Mitch about the dynamics of a radical web community such as he’s developed at Ttips. The guy has gained a huge amount of wisdom when it comes to how web forums operate, and how to make a useful and successful website that gets a community feel going. As many know, we didn’t want to do a “me-too” over at the Couloir Magazine forums, but rather create something that was more nuts-and-bolts and would add to the variety of backcountry skiing forums you can find on the web. Whether that worked or not is something the jury is still out on, but look for continued effort at BackcountryWorld (now owned by Backcountry Magazine) to keep going with that paradigm, albeit with more pizazz.

The boys of the backcountry, from left: Lou, Litz, Tim, Dostie, Mitch. It’s been an interesting ride for all of us, to say the least. And it just keeps going.

By the way, to you collegiates out there, our visit to Utah State yesterday went well. Nice place and amazing options for backcountry recreation. Let’s just say I’m getting mighty interested in how you get a college degree and ski 100 days a season. That might make some good guest blogs from someone who might try it.

More later, and thanks everyone for visiting WildSnow.com!