Category Archives: Backcountry Access

An AK April

In an attempt to redeem the unmemorable 2012 ski season in Colorado, myself and fellow BCA employee Bruno Damico along with two of our good friends (Kelly Longe) and (Morgan Lipscomb) set off on an adventure to the deep snowpack up north. Arriving in Anchorage, we picked up our mobile command vehicle later known as the “GnaRV” and headed down south to Girdwood where we set up for the night. The next morning we woke up to blue skies and headed up to Turnagain Pass for a skin up Tincan Peak. The snow was quite heavy at lower elevations due to the high temperatures, but the snow up top was… Read more

Back from AK

Guest blogger, Donny Roth reflects after a recent trip to Alaska. Donny runs Independent Descents and is based in Boulder, CO when he is not on the road.
“There is NO way this can be stable!” I just spent over two weeks skiing in Alaska, and if I had a dollar for every time I made this statement, I could have easily ordered another pitcher of Mosaritas at Mosy’s in Haines. (Mental note: Put this in my contract for next year.) The snow in Alaska is legendary in its ability to stick to steep slopes and also for the power with which it sloughs as skiers cut through it. Before ever… Read more

Gathering Observations to Manage Hazards & Ride Powder

Matt Wade, of Peak Mountain Guides, wrote up this nice piece after teaching a recent avalanche course. To learn more about Peak Mountain Guides, visit here

Tap, tap, tap. . . . Matt’s pencil rapped against the table and his brow furrowed. “Wait, wait, say that again – surface hoar forms when the relative humidity is high at the snow surface?” It was the beginning of a Level 2 Avalanche Course with Peak Mountain Guides and we were beginning a quest to become good observers of all things avalanche: weather, snow, and avalanche activity. It would be brain bending at times, but most importantly it would help us ride good… Read more

Lessons from Genswein: for Experts Only!

As in any professional career, it’s important to stay current on your education. That’s why at BCA we regularly put our sales, marketing and customer service staff through AIARE and CAA avalanche courses. And that’s why I took a two-day workshop at Copper Mountain, Colo. last month with Swiss avalanche rescue führer Manuel Genswein. This is the third workshop I’ve attended with Genswein and my conclusion remains the same: For experts only!

Attending a Genswein clinic is good entertainment: he has a brilliant sense of humor, speaks five languages, and he has a uniquely high-pitched and heavily accented voice reminiscent of the similarly corpulent General Burkhalter in the 1960’s sitcom… Read more

Arapahoe Basin Beacon Bowl and Apres Ski Party

Arapahoe Basin Beacon Bowl & Après Ski Party

Arapahoe Basin, CO – February 4, 2012   Arapahoe Basin will be hosting the tenth annual Beacon Bowl and après ski party Saturday, February 11, 2012.  The event will benefit the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

The Beacon Bowl is an event developed by A-Basin’s ski patrol to teach and test skills for the backcountry.  Patrol will start the day at 9:15 a.m. with the Beacon Bowl competition.  This event is an avalanche transceiver competition designed for both recreational and professional users.

Free beacon clinics with A-Basin ski patrol and Back Country Access will take place from 9:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. An avalanche… Read more

ISPO Part 2: Float airbag video rocks Munich

The European crowd took note this week of the hottest new player in the Euro airbag market: BCA. While we’ve been producing airbags in North America for three years, we only recently got coveted TUV and CE approval to sell them across the pond. At the ISPO show, which ended Wednesday in Munich, Euro retailers especially took notice when we whipped out our secret weapon: footage of our recent airbag save in Colorado. Introducing a new product in a sterile trade show environment is one thing, but showing it working in a violent, real-world avalanche  is 100 times as effective. Talk about cred!

Retailers were upbeat, thanks to a banner… Read more

ISPO: Part 1

After a few years of coming to ISPO I still can never really get used to the shear size of the show.  Every year things change, small brands get bigger, big brands sometimes get smaller, new brands appear and others disappear.  It’s hard to imagine the scale of ISPO unless you have actually been before but I will try paint a picture. So take a football field thats the size of one hall now multiply that by 16 and thats the size of the show.  The BCA stand is located in hall B5 stand 115 so if you are at the show drop in and say hi.  Today was the… Read more

Whirlwind of a week: BCC / Salt Lake / OR

Another season of tradeshows has begun, and as always, it’s busy for us. Busy in a great way though- our new products coming out next season have been well received and are generating some buzz.

Before it all began though, I decided to come out for a few days to see what all the whining was about with the Wasatch snowpack. I must say, even though it wasn’t phenomenal, if you knew what aspect to get on it was pretty good, and it certainly wasn’t as bad as Colorado has been…

The first day entailed a nice long tour up Silver Fork and over onto Flagstaff, with some deep and… Read more

Hunting For Slabs on a Level 1 Avalanche Course

Hunting for slabs on a Level 1 Avalanche Course – Matt Wade – Peak Mountain Guides

The avalanche bulletin for the Northern San Juans read “Recent winds have formed tender slabs on lee slopes near and above treeline. These wind slabs have developed on a very weak and fragile snow structure.”  As we were beginning the Level 1 Avalanche Course it was apparent the snowpack was shallow and variable, and it would require keen observation skills to travel and ski safely.

After an introductory day of classroom sessions and a field session to learn companion rescue, we started our second day with a specific goal to learn more about the… Read more

Vive la BCA! Backcountry Access going big in Europe.

Achtung! Allez! BCA is making a full-on assault in Europe next season. We’ve just moved into a new warehouse near Salzburg, Austria and hired a regional sales manager out of Chamonix, France. Craig Widdicombe will take BCA sales to the next level in France, Switzerland and Italy. He’ll complement the efforts of our existing sales manager for Austria and Germany, Franz Hohensinn. Craig grew up near French-speaking Leysin, Switzerland and comes to us from Heidiskis, a boutique ski maker out of nearby Vevey. He starts tomorrow!

Starting next season, BCA will ship directly from our new Euro HQ/warehouse in Hallein, Austria to retailers in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy.… Read more