At any rate, lots of fun goals for snow sports on the fourteeners, ski, climb, snowboard — anything reasonable.

Every region of North America has its pros and cons for backcountry skiing and ski touring. Pacific Northwest and Canadian coastal regions yield late season snow and big mountains — but sometimes wet weather gets in the way.

Colorado has a zillion acres of backcountry skiing terrain where it would take an act of Congress to build a ski lift. Laughing continued about people who say we’re running out of terrain. Access is the issue, not acreage.

It’s becoming all too obvious that the key with snow avalanches is simply not to get caught in them, as the likelihood of death or grievous injury is all too high if you take a ride.

Colorado’s lost resorts used for backcountry skiing, Scarpa Laser tongue modification