Author Archive

How “magic” is 38 degrees? A report from the Colorado Snow and Avalanche Workshop.

Everyone who owns a pair of climbing skins knows that most avalanches happen on slopes between 30 and 45 degrees. But 38 degrees is often cited as the “magic number” where most slides happen. Is this a wive’s tale? Actually, this magic number can vary between 38 and 51 degrees, according to Ian McCammon, who spoke last Friday at the Colorado Snow and Avalanche Workshop (CSAW). The event was organized by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), with nearly 500 professionals attending from the all over the western U.S.

The magic number can depend on snow climate, avalanche type, and grain type, said McCammon, who studied several hundred avalanches since… Read more

Here’s the glass half full on El Niño: Front Range upslopes!

There’s an upside to the El Nino conditions predicted by Joe Ramey of the National Weather Service: Front Range upslope storms. Start picking your lines in the Flatirons!

BCA Norwegian rep featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes “Birdmen” segment.

BCA Norwegian rep and “Birdman” Tom Erik Heiman was featured on 60 Minutes last weekend for his wingsuiting exploits with J.T. Holmes and Julian Boulle.

ISSW-Europe wraps up, “marking” takes a hit in beacon tests

At the ICAR and ISSW conferences in Switzerland last week, “marking” functions for multiple burials were highlighted as too complicated and time consuming for recreationists using avalanche transceivers (beacons).

BCA Storms Europe, showcases Tracker2

“Stur wie ein Esel.” This was the motto last week at our big two-day Tracker event on the Breithorn Glacier near Zermatt, Switzerland. Roughly translated from German, this means something like, “Follow me like a donkey.” This is what we told the armies of mountain rescue teams from Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and scores of other countries at the International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR) field day at the base of the Little Matterhorn. They weren’t offended, but actually got the message loud and clear that Tracker2 is even easier to use than the Tracker DTS–and infinitely easier to use than other technologies out on the glacier that day.

The… Read more

BCA athlete (and niece) Jacqui Edgerly wins South America World Freeskiing Competition

BCA athlete Jacqui Edgerly won the first stop on the World Freeskiing Tour this week at La Parva, Chile. She’s the niece of BCA co-owner Bruce Edgerly. She skis with a Tracker DTS avalanche beacon, but that’s not why she won the comp. She won because she charges!

The beach: the ultimate beacon training ground

It’s a lot easier practicing with your beacon than it used to be, thanks to over 50 BCA Beacon Training Parks that Backcountry Access has installed in various alpine countries. But if you really want to make beacon searching fun, try it on the beach. We do this every fall at BCA rep training at Boulder Reservoir. Last year, to train our European distributors, we rented an outdoor volleyball complex in downtown Munich. One of my favorite places to practice, however, is on the ocean–particularly in Ocean Park, Maine, where our family gets together every summer (Higgins Beach, 20 minutes north, has some of the greatest surf in underrated New… Read more