Author Archive

Be Prepared for Anything in the Backcountry

Here’s a guest blog from Don Carpenter, one of the owners, guides and instructors of the American Avalanche Institute. He recently presented at the Yostmark Avalanche night in Driggs, Idaho, on December 1. I asked him to please share his experience for our blog. More info on Don and AAI at the end of the post, here’s Don:

The day was unfolding like so many before. A foot of fresh snow in the last 24 hours made for excellent skiing. It was snowing hard with moderate visibility. We had skied two runs and a third sounded good.

The shot in mind was similar to the last two. But what looked… Read more

From the road continued…

Well, first off, it’s whirlwind time at BCA-home for four days in the next 20. Tons of demos with our new Float 30 pack and the Tracker 2. To top it all off, this video below captures a few bitchin’ runs made while visiting our partners at the Baldface lodge in BC. If you’ve never been there, this is what I have to say: world class snow, world class people, world class food, world class accommodations (check them out at www.baldface.net/). Oh, not to mention they turned me loose for a few hours between airbag and beacon demos so I could continue testing our new BCA skins. And I can’t… Read more

Safe Backcountry Travel Techniques Reviewed

If you haven’t heard, Mt. Baker and the Pacific Northwest are going off now. We had some great touring last weekend but at the end of the day I was forced to reflect back upon a few things that were bothering me: having recently moved back to the PNW from Colorado, it took some time getting used to a new snowpack, the ability to ski steep slopes in mid-winter conditions, the hordes of people that ski tour here, and a recently repaired knee. But it was the crowd factor/travel techniques that were bothering me the most.… Read more

Northwest Snow and Avalanche Symposium Report

The third annual Northwest Snow and Avalanche Symposium (NSAS) went off without a hitch on October 24th, and BCA was proud to be a part of this important northwest event. The list of speakers this year was impressive, especially since the majority had to travel to the event. From Seattle, we had Kenny Kramer who’s a forecaster for the Northwest Avalanche and Weather Center. Colin Zacharias, guides examiner for the ACMG and AMGA as well as technical director for AIARE, came down from Vancouver.… Read more

Are You Practicing?

We had a great week of training with our BCA reps and scored the weather yesterday for our annual field day in the sands of Boulder Reservoir. Eight hours of beacon searching, probing, shoveling and the grand finale, our BCA Cup transceiver race! I’ll post video next week of some beacon searching that highlights the new terminology for the four avalanche search phases as well as some great examples of proper search technique.

We’re out practicing our skills and getting ready for this winter, we hope you’re doing the same!… Read more

El Nino-What does this mean?

At BCA our mission is to help save lives with the products we make. At the same time, we depend on several factors in order to remain a viable company and the most important factor is sales. Without sales of our products we can’t innovate and develop. Predicting sales is a challenge because we’re faced with an economy that doesn’t look so hot (if you watch the news) but the good news to counter this is that the backcountry market is growing. So what do we look at next? Weather predictions! The biggest issue facing the ski industry (ski areas, skiers, retail shops and ski companies) is snowfall. It’s no… Read more

Avalanche Rescue Footage

Here’s something that was forwarded to us at BCA from the TGR blog. There’s also a bit of a follow up conversation below the video. Bottom line: this was a great recovery effort and the numbers were solid for this scenario: one person buried and 2+ rescuers on hand to perform the beacon, probing and shoveling.

Avalanche Rescue Footage on TGR Forum

And if you’re inspired to brush up on your shoveling technique or learn something new after watching this video, check out Backcountry Access’ education page (shoveling 101) for additional information.

Be careful out there this winter!… Read more

BCA Float 30

Here’s Adam Sotkin of Backcountry Access in a recent You Tube video, inflating the Float 30. Check it out:… Read more

BCA on Facebook!

If you’re a blog reader you’re likely a computer savvy individual. Please feel free to become a fan of Backcountry Access on Facebook! www.facebook.com/backcountryaccess… Read more

Our new BCA skins…check them out!

Backcountry Access has been testing new skin material and glue for the past year and we’re bringing it to market for Fall 2009/2010. The material and glue were designed by Rick Liu who was the original founder of Ascension Skins. BCA folks and a few key shop employees tested the material over the past year and came up with a combined 107 days on snow, in several different regions, and we’re stoked with the outcome! All reports are that glide, glue and grip are spot-on and those are the results we’re looking for. The only negative report came from Aaron at Glacier Ski Shop near Mt. Baker who had a… Read more