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Outdoor Retailer trade show covered for backcountry skiing gear, 2009. Ski boots, gps, crampons, sleeping pads, more.

Outdoor Retailer trade show, summer, still has tons of backcountry skiing related gear.

News about ski touring and backcountry sports, covering land use issues and bicycle access as well as skiing.

Went on a short tour on Thursday in Tairn Basin (the basin behind cheesman ski area). Some great powder turns, I have some good pictures so I can make a sweet little trip report once I get good internet. Tomorrow I am going to go on a ski tour with grant and some other people, should be fun. They are having amazing conditions down here right now. There is great recrystalized powder around and stuff. There might be a little snow and wind tomorrow. New Zealand really is amazing. The people are all super friendly, and the terrain is terrific.

Review of Mystery Ranch Sweet Pea backpack for backcountry skiing and other mountain sports use.

Ortovox D3 avalanche beacon review for backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering

Mount Rainier Fuhrer Finger ski mountaineering trip report

I didn’t want to mention it at first, but hey, I’m a blogger… I hitched a ride on some rich guy’s private jet and ended up in Germany over the last few days. Was amazed and disappointed to see that…

G3 Onyx backcountry skiing bindings, this review covers important ski touring differences between Onyx, Dynafit, Fritschi and others.

Case in point: Alpinist Magazine, that wonderful large format pub that tastes and smells of the high alpine, was bought last winter by the same folks who publish Backcountry Magaine. More, they acquired former and famed Climbing Magazine publisher Michael Kennedy as Editor in Chief, meaning my old friend and climbing partner “MK” is charge of making sure the pages look and read as good as we’d expect from such a magazine.

How trashed do you allow your land to get? Ask that to the USFS and private land owners up above Crested Butte, on the Kebler Pass road. We drove over there last weekend, and I was appalled at the snowmobile graveyard we drove through a few miles above the ‘Butte. We saw abandoned sleds in the creek, in the bushes, over by the forest — everywhere. It looked like the mountain version of an ATV war zone.

Congrats to 27 year old Colorado native Joe Brannan, 6th person to ski all of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks! Till now I’ve known the fourteener skiers pretty well by the time they’ve finished their projects. It helped that all were from this area (including Crested Butte).

Uneva Peak Vail Pass Colorado backcountry skiing

Had a couple of choices for parties last evening. Jordan White’s 14er skiing victory shindig was the one. After all, who can resist a festival where the doorway decorations are a quiver of Dynafit mounted backcountry skiing planks, along with the most worn out pair of AT ski boots on the planet?

Ski crampon reviews for backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering

Jordan White backcountry skied all the Colorado 14,000 foot peaks in three years. He is the latest of a handful of ski mountaineers to climb and ski back down all 54 of the fourteeners. He began with Quandary Peak on May 4th 2006, finishing with Snowmass Mountain this past May 3rd, 2009.

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

As long time backcountry skiers my wife and I have always been excited to share the exploration and fun of back country skiing with our children. We got just that chance recently with a late season blast of snow and a hut trip we’d planned with our friends. Check out one of our best yet ski adventures.

(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…