For some, training zones and training plans and documenting those efforts as they prep for backcountry skiing is tedium. Yeah, it’ll get you fit, but the good doctor up in Anchorage (Alex Lee) takes his own fitness path to be better than average. And still, some who have followed him up the skintrack, yo-yoing all day, would say he’s way-way better than average too. Here’s his advice.

Pre-season is not mid-season: Now is the time to thoroughly check your gear to ensure your backcountry skiing dreams aren’t kneecapped by faulty gear. Here’s a pre-season checklist to help guide you on this important task.

As a navigation tool, CalTopo offers a complex feature set that sometimes takes time to hone. With a little savvy, CalTopo offers some hidden gems to make backcountry skiing/riding trip planning more useful. Here are three specific features to dial in your ski and winter climbing plans.

The DIY ATK tech binding mount process can be done. Take a breath, read up, and practice several times on a 2″ X 4″. Here’s a many-steps process to help guide you along. Ok, easy peasy, mount those bindings.

Drilling holes in a ski, especially as a DIY process can be nerve wracking. But once you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad, or stressful. But the question remains, how many holes can you, in fact, drill in a ski and maintain the ski’s integrity? Lou Dawson has some thoughts.

It’s not always the ski, but the skier: some backcountry ski self-improvement ideas for those are already thinking of next winter.