This weekend my friend Skyler and I took a trip up to Winchester Fire Lookout, an historic fire lookout north of Mt. Baker highway on top of Winchester mountain up here in Washington State (see map below). I hadn’t gotten to go skiing in a few weeks and I was itching to get out, even if the conditions looked a little iffy due to warm weather and tons of new, unconsolidated snow (and I don’t mean powder).

Uneva Peak Vail Pass Colorado backcountry skiing

Grieskogel is a medium sized ski peak in the western Stubai Alps, in the Larstiger mountains between Sellrain and Hochstubai. You reach it for backcountry skiing via the usual network of roads you find in this area, in this case reminding me of spring skiing on Independence Pass back in Colorado. I’d hooked up for today’s trip with Manfred Barthel, the Austrian alpinist elder I’ve come to know over the past few years. Manfred continues to amaze me with his skill and endurance, not to mention his amazing knowledge of the Alps. He seems to have a sixth sense of where the snow is good, the avy danger lower, or the

Our version of the Whitehouse is plenty white, but it’s not a house. Instead, it’s this big hunk of rock you climb and ski. I got up there the other day with Penn Newhard of Backbone Media. Always good to get out with Penn and talk about family life, along with trying to scam airline tickets to his latest European luxury press junket espresso fest. He’s used being hit up like that, and somehow always turns the focus back to climbing and making turns. Oh well, espresso is over rated!

(Note, I’ve got a few more trip reports to file from the latest EU trip, but this is the last of the Silvretta posts. To step through the Silvretta trip reports, start here.) Six days straight of nearly 100% bluebird…

Our adventure lifestyle is sometimes an extension of our father’s. I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old. Not only was my father quite the outdoorsman back then, but he loved gardening and had quite the green thumb. He also loved hiking and exploring.