safety

News items about backcountry skiing, including an avalanche, Colorado items, and skiing the fourteeners, opinions about ski touring issues.

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.

Consider the new Onyx backcountry skiing binding from G3. Not only do these guys have to take a complex meld of ski machinery from fantasy to reality, but they’ve got things like user manuals to produce, not to mention putting together an effective back country story for their marketing, as well as educating their retailers and sales reps on how to mount, maintain and use the Onyx binding. Oh, and how about minor details such as customer service, spare parts inventory/supply, and having an army of lawyers on tap just-in-case. Must be an interesting life. For now, I think I’ll stick with blogging. To that end, let’s get on with mounting those Onyx.

Whew, that was a whirlwind Spring Break with the family. Ended up skiing five days in a row, rest day yesterday, perhaps a few pow turns later today. Leaving for Europe and Silvretta traverse all too soon, so I’ve been…

With all the fatal avalanches we’ve seen this season, a good chunk of them at resorts, there is renewed awareness that skiing inbounds doesn’t guarantee 100% safety. Patrollers do a great job keeping our resorts controlled, but avalanches don’t play by the rules. And while my ski crew is always safe and takes precautions, getting my AIARE Level 1 avalanche certification was in order so that I could make good decisions when skiing – either in the Bowl or in the backcountry – without relying on others to make those decisions for me.