Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Human Factor – by Donny Roth

BCA Ambassador Donny Roth skis all year round as an athlete, guide, and educator. He runs the website Alpine Ambitions (.com) and owns Chile Powder Adventures – a guide service dedicated to human-powered skiing in Chile.

The mountains in Colorado are seeing more frequent snowstorms.  There are even a few chairlifts are turning.  The mornings are cooler, and the days are shorter.  Winter is coming.

As a professional skier, guide, and educator, my fall is dedicated to preparing for the coming winter.  As I am preparing for the normal round of avalanche education courses to lead in the early season, my thoughts continually gravitate back to recent experiences with a… Read more

Avalanche Workshops Initiate the Winter Season

If you’re looking for a good way to transition from your stumbling summer thought pattern into your winter thinking cap, there may not be a better jump start for your lobes than to attend an avalanche workshop. Avalanche workshops (like ISSW) have been around for years and are attended by avalanche professionals, patrollers, ski/mountain guides and anyone looking to expand their knowledge of snow. Topics cover such wide topics as: fracture mechanics, winter weather prognosis and recaps of historical avalanche events. In the shadows of the grandfather event, the International Snow Safety Workshop, many regional one-day events have sprouted up to address new findings and trends in specific regions of… Read more

Trip Report: Wolf Creek Pass

Four feet of snow, no matter the time of year is worth a ski. Whether it’s a 4ft dump in January or a 4ft dump in early October, dumpage of this magnitude will drive any die-hard planker to pack up the winter gear and go for a slide. In early October, Colorado saw the first big storm of the season, dropping snow on the high peaks all around the state and burying Wolf Creek Pass. Once the word started to spread, the phone calls started to come in. It never takes much to talk me into skiing and I am usually quick to drop everything else in order to get… Read more

BCA Float Airbags Get CE Approval, Land in Europe

BOULDER, CO (October 19, 2011) – Avalanche equipment manufacturer Backcountry Access (BCA) has received coveted TUV and CE certification for its popular line of Float avalanche airbags. Available in North America since 2009, these will be the first US-made avalanche airbags ever exported to the lucrative European market.

The company went through an exhaustive two-year testing cycle to obtain European (“CE”) certification from the renowned German testing agency, TUEV-Sued. In addition to a battery of lab tests, the requirements included at least ten live deployments in real avalanches. BCA used dummies as “victims” and was assisted by several ski patrols who triggered slides for the company on high hazard days.… Read more

MSP’s “Attack of La Nina” Pukes on Boulder

Boulder may not be a ski town, but they sure now how to party like one. A couple weeks ago Matchstick Productions took over downtown Pearl St. and sent ski junkies into a frenzy over the release of their latest film, Attack of La Nina, The Bitch is Back! Sean Petit, may be the best skier on the planet as his smooth, natural airs stole the show for another year. Combine his hard charging lines with some remote trips in the British Columbia and AK backcountry and you’ve got the makings of one the season’s best, new flicks. The footage below highlights the evening’s festivities. Be sure to note the… Read more

Catalog Eye Candy

Just got our sweet new ski/snowboard and snowmobile catalogs in, check ‘em out!

Gallery:

download the full catalogs: skier/snowboarder  snowmobiler… Read more