We have a lot of conversations with people that want to get into Backcountry skiing. A typical scenario is that we will be at dinner with friends after a great day in the backcountry and the conversation will turn to how great the skiing is at some spot that only the backcountry skiers have heard of. As often as not people have the impression that backcountry skiing must be extreme in some way. As the conversation develops we always encourage folks to get out and try it, but there seems to be a pattern of reasons as to why people don't actually make the transition from skiing at the area to skiing in the backcountry. This got me thinking about what the common obstacles are and wanting to explain how these can easily be overcome.
1. Ability: I think this is the number one reason that our friends do not get into backcountry skiing. In order to have a good time off-piste you need to be a decent skier. You do not need to be great, but you do need to be able to get down the hill, in control. The solution to this is simple: GO SKIING! It all begins with getting in mileage at the ski area. Most importantly, go as often as you can in and in the widest variety of conditions possible. Everything that the backcountry throws at you can be encountered at a ski area. Don't just go on great powder days and stay off the groomers. Ski in powder, look for crusts on the edge, learn to "finagle" into tight spots, ski in the rain, ski in the heat, ski in the cold. The most important thing is that you go skiing as often as possible and that you look for and practice skiing in variable conditions. You do not need to ski fast, huck cliffs, or be extreme in any way, but you do need to practice all the stuff that you find between the groomed runs. If you ski often your ability will improve. as will your overall skiing fitness.
2. Gear: I no longer own a alpine setup. Modern Alpine Touring gear is so good that it is perfectly fine for skiing at the ski area. Look for a mid-sized ski, but a good AT boot, and buy good AT bindings and use that for all of your skiing. The ideal ski for me is a straighter ski, generally around 90 mm underfoot. We are all gravitating to fatter skis so you can go bigger, but generally bigger skis mean more weight, and while they can make trail breaking easier, fatter skis can limit you a bit in pre-existing skin tracks. The boots are expensive, but will last you for many years and tend to hold their resale value better than regular alpine boots. Skis with less sidecut (i.e. straighter) are generally harder to turn, but they have the advantage of not turning when you don't want them to. This is critical in the backcountry as there are times when catching an edge is going to bump you into something. If you ski your AT skis at the area you will get used to how they perform and this will help you in the backcountry. Don't hesitate to buy used gear. Skiers are like road bikers. They obsess over the latest greatest and often unload last year's gear. The gear does get better, but not so much better that being on a 3 year old set tup is going to limit you in any way.
3. Avalanches: This is probably the main reason that people don't go into the backcountry. There is no question that your risk of being in an avalanche goes up radically when you ski outside areas controlled by ski patrol. Where I think people go wrong is in overestimating the risk that experienced backcountry skiers take when they venture out of bounds. Most of us are really conservative. You do need to understand avalanche forecasts, be able to read the weather forecast, and know how to use a beacon, shovel, and probe. Once you are skiing well in the ski area it is time to take an avalanche course. A good place to start is with an AIARE Level 1 Course. As you begin your avalanche education you need to realize and accept the fact that this is an education that never ends. We read websites, talk with friends, attend lectures and courses, and constantly add to our knowledge. Once you get over the hurdle of realizing that avalanches do not just mysteriously come out of the mountains and envelop skiers you can start to learn to recognize the terrain that produces avalanches, get a feel for when the hazard is rising or falling, and learn to avoid dangerous situations. If you can ski well, there is always a group of more experienced people that are willing to show you the ropes, but the price of admission is being confident with your beacon, shovel, and probe, skills that are easily attained. A good rule of thumb is to ski the area anytime it is dumping, or the avalanche forecast makes you nervous.
4. Skiing with a pack: Ever wonder why people ski at the ski area with a pack? I do. I suspect for many it is the equivalent of having a carabiner on your book bag. It sends the message that "hey, I am rad." Turns out this is ridiculous. The main reason I encourage people looking to get into the backcountry to ski with a pack is that you will need to do this in the backcountry as your pack is where you carry your food, water, extra clothes, shovel, probe, skins, and either glasses or googles. Skiing with a pack is easy, but it does require you to find a new center of gravity. This will sort itself out if you are in the habit of skiing with a pack. Start wearing your pack at the resort simply so that you are used to skiing with it when you hit variable conditions in the backcountry.
5. Fitness: You need to be fit to ski in the backcountry. You do not need to be super fit, but the more fit you are the more terrain you can see in a day. The best way to develop this fitness is to skin uphill. It can be on a closed road, on the edge of the ski area (check with your resort about their rules), or in backcountry terrain that has limited exposure to avalanches. We have friends in Park City, UT that take a lap to the top of Deer Valley with us whenever we come to town. We simply drive up in the dark, put skins to skis, add a headlamp and ski uphill for a few thousand feet. Running, biking, skate skiing, and rowing will also build your fitness. If you are fit and can ski well people will be happy to have you along on a backcountry tour.
6. Commitment: I think this is the most important step. Commit to becoming a backcountry skier, follow the 5 steps above, and you will do it. Think about it. To get into backcountry skier I need to ski a lot, own backcountry ski gear, get in shape and educate myself. These things are not obstacles, they are opportunities to feel better and have an interesting winter. The backcountry ski community is one of the friendliest, most open group of folks you can throw in with. If people see that you are committed to sampling the beauty of untracked, snow covered mountains in the winter that will be enough to welcome you to their tribe. Without sounding too soap boxey, the backcountry does offer a better way of living. Over time I found that I loved all the great untracked powder I get to ski, but what almost seems more important is the time I get to spend chugging uphill, going to the top of obscure, unknown spots, and hanging out with great people. For me it is not about being rad, it is about being outdoors in a beautiful spot with some of my best friends.
If you need a priority list it would look something like this:
1. Buy AT ski gear.
2. Buy a ski pass to your local ski area.
3. Get in shape!
4. Ski as much as possible in as many conditions as possible.
5. Take an avalanche course.
6. Look for friends that already tour and join them once you feel solid on your skis.
7. Gain experience in the backcountry with people that are solid in their skill set.
8. Consider a backcountry ski course.
9. Go on tours that have a reputation for being relatively straight forward and check with your experienced friends before you head out. This often means repeating tours you are familiar with.
10. Start to plan your own tours when you begin to feel comfortable with your ability to recognize the hazards and have your game dialed when touring with others.
Being a guide I must plug our new Backcountry Ski Fundamentals Course. It is designed to mop up all the stuff that we do not cover in any depth on an AIARE L1 Course. You do not need a course like this to get into backcountry skiing, but it is very valuable to get out with someone solid in their skill set and gain an understanding of things like skinning, kick turns, making transitions between uphill and downhill skiing, and get a sense of how to move through the terrain. At first it will all seem like a mystery and a puzzle, but if you are committed to getting into the mountains it will eventually all come together.
1. Ability: I think this is the number one reason that our friends do not get into backcountry skiing. In order to have a good time off-piste you need to be a decent skier. You do not need to be great, but you do need to be able to get down the hill, in control. The solution to this is simple: GO SKIING! It all begins with getting in mileage at the ski area. Most importantly, go as often as you can in and in the widest variety of conditions possible. Everything that the backcountry throws at you can be encountered at a ski area. Don't just go on great powder days and stay off the groomers. Ski in powder, look for crusts on the edge, learn to "finagle" into tight spots, ski in the rain, ski in the heat, ski in the cold. The most important thing is that you go skiing as often as possible and that you look for and practice skiing in variable conditions. You do not need to ski fast, huck cliffs, or be extreme in any way, but you do need to practice all the stuff that you find between the groomed runs. If you ski often your ability will improve. as will your overall skiing fitness.
2. Gear: I no longer own a alpine setup. Modern Alpine Touring gear is so good that it is perfectly fine for skiing at the ski area. Look for a mid-sized ski, but a good AT boot, and buy good AT bindings and use that for all of your skiing. The ideal ski for me is a straighter ski, generally around 90 mm underfoot. We are all gravitating to fatter skis so you can go bigger, but generally bigger skis mean more weight, and while they can make trail breaking easier, fatter skis can limit you a bit in pre-existing skin tracks. The boots are expensive, but will last you for many years and tend to hold their resale value better than regular alpine boots. Skis with less sidecut (i.e. straighter) are generally harder to turn, but they have the advantage of not turning when you don't want them to. This is critical in the backcountry as there are times when catching an edge is going to bump you into something. If you ski your AT skis at the area you will get used to how they perform and this will help you in the backcountry. Don't hesitate to buy used gear. Skiers are like road bikers. They obsess over the latest greatest and often unload last year's gear. The gear does get better, but not so much better that being on a 3 year old set tup is going to limit you in any way.
3. Avalanches: This is probably the main reason that people don't go into the backcountry. There is no question that your risk of being in an avalanche goes up radically when you ski outside areas controlled by ski patrol. Where I think people go wrong is in overestimating the risk that experienced backcountry skiers take when they venture out of bounds. Most of us are really conservative. You do need to understand avalanche forecasts, be able to read the weather forecast, and know how to use a beacon, shovel, and probe. Once you are skiing well in the ski area it is time to take an avalanche course. A good place to start is with an AIARE Level 1 Course. As you begin your avalanche education you need to realize and accept the fact that this is an education that never ends. We read websites, talk with friends, attend lectures and courses, and constantly add to our knowledge. Once you get over the hurdle of realizing that avalanches do not just mysteriously come out of the mountains and envelop skiers you can start to learn to recognize the terrain that produces avalanches, get a feel for when the hazard is rising or falling, and learn to avoid dangerous situations. If you can ski well, there is always a group of more experienced people that are willing to show you the ropes, but the price of admission is being confident with your beacon, shovel, and probe, skills that are easily attained. A good rule of thumb is to ski the area anytime it is dumping, or the avalanche forecast makes you nervous.
4. Skiing with a pack: Ever wonder why people ski at the ski area with a pack? I do. I suspect for many it is the equivalent of having a carabiner on your book bag. It sends the message that "hey, I am rad." Turns out this is ridiculous. The main reason I encourage people looking to get into the backcountry to ski with a pack is that you will need to do this in the backcountry as your pack is where you carry your food, water, extra clothes, shovel, probe, skins, and either glasses or googles. Skiing with a pack is easy, but it does require you to find a new center of gravity. This will sort itself out if you are in the habit of skiing with a pack. Start wearing your pack at the resort simply so that you are used to skiing with it when you hit variable conditions in the backcountry.
5. Fitness: You need to be fit to ski in the backcountry. You do not need to be super fit, but the more fit you are the more terrain you can see in a day. The best way to develop this fitness is to skin uphill. It can be on a closed road, on the edge of the ski area (check with your resort about their rules), or in backcountry terrain that has limited exposure to avalanches. We have friends in Park City, UT that take a lap to the top of Deer Valley with us whenever we come to town. We simply drive up in the dark, put skins to skis, add a headlamp and ski uphill for a few thousand feet. Running, biking, skate skiing, and rowing will also build your fitness. If you are fit and can ski well people will be happy to have you along on a backcountry tour.
6. Commitment: I think this is the most important step. Commit to becoming a backcountry skier, follow the 5 steps above, and you will do it. Think about it. To get into backcountry skier I need to ski a lot, own backcountry ski gear, get in shape and educate myself. These things are not obstacles, they are opportunities to feel better and have an interesting winter. The backcountry ski community is one of the friendliest, most open group of folks you can throw in with. If people see that you are committed to sampling the beauty of untracked, snow covered mountains in the winter that will be enough to welcome you to their tribe. Without sounding too soap boxey, the backcountry does offer a better way of living. Over time I found that I loved all the great untracked powder I get to ski, but what almost seems more important is the time I get to spend chugging uphill, going to the top of obscure, unknown spots, and hanging out with great people. For me it is not about being rad, it is about being outdoors in a beautiful spot with some of my best friends.
If you need a priority list it would look something like this:
1. Buy AT ski gear.
2. Buy a ski pass to your local ski area.
3. Get in shape!
4. Ski as much as possible in as many conditions as possible.
5. Take an avalanche course.
6. Look for friends that already tour and join them once you feel solid on your skis.
7. Gain experience in the backcountry with people that are solid in their skill set.
8. Consider a backcountry ski course.
9. Go on tours that have a reputation for being relatively straight forward and check with your experienced friends before you head out. This often means repeating tours you are familiar with.
10. Start to plan your own tours when you begin to feel comfortable with your ability to recognize the hazards and have your game dialed when touring with others.
Being a guide I must plug our new Backcountry Ski Fundamentals Course. It is designed to mop up all the stuff that we do not cover in any depth on an AIARE L1 Course. You do not need a course like this to get into backcountry skiing, but it is very valuable to get out with someone solid in their skill set and gain an understanding of things like skinning, kick turns, making transitions between uphill and downhill skiing, and get a sense of how to move through the terrain. At first it will all seem like a mystery and a puzzle, but if you are committed to getting into the mountains it will eventually all come together.
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