Category Archives: Backcountry Skiing/Snowboarding

Taylor Glacier: (way friggin’) steep and aesthetic

In Colorado, it’s special when you can ski something really steep. It’s really only feasible late season, when the snowpack has had lots of time to build–and has had repeated freeze thaw cycles to help stabilize it. So when spring comes here, it’s game on! Some of the steepest terrain in Colorado is right here in the Front Range, if you don’t mind a long approach. On Sunday, we slogged our way up to Taylor Glacier, in the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. There’s a reason “the Park” is so popular: the alpine environment is mind-blowing–but so are the winds. After a nearly four-hour approach — in shoes, not… Read more

Bella Donna and BCA on stage in Cham: Be Careful Assholes!

BCA’s provocative Bella Donna “popped up” last week in the skiing epicenter of Chamonix, France. Deployed on stage at the Micro Brasserie de Chamonix (“MBC”) at a gig by Gary Bigham and the Crevasseholes, the unsuspecting victim was 11-year-old Kiwi shredder Manu Barnard.
Young Manu got an education on female anatomy last week at the MBC.
BCA
Bigham is a legend and needs to be called out here. He’s a former ’70′s freestyle competitor and long-time ski industry photographer, including copious Patagonia catalog images and Greg Stump’s “The Blizzard of Aaahh’s”. He and wife Anna run a bed-and-breakfast (and yummy dinner) operation, Vitamin Ski Holidays, in nearby Argentiere. If you’re… Read more

Utanahoming road trip

It happens every year, that itch for skiing new places that can only be scratched by a nice, long roadtrip. Last year it was satisfied by our trip to Washington, and for this year we opted for Montana, a frontier full of new lines. So Daan, Alex and I loaded into the Forrester and hit the road: first stop, Solitude Utah. There we met up with buddies Zach and Jonny, and proceeded to drink heavily and ski tour to relieve the consequent pain.

We hit up Silver Fork and US Basin over the weekend, then booked it up north to arrive in Bozeman by Monday morning, ready for more of… Read more

Reflections from an AMGA Ski Guide Course

Below is a guest blog from Norie Kizaki, a Colorado Mountain School (CMS) guide who won our AMGA Ski Guide Course scholarship and just took her course:
My name is Norie Kizaki and I am a mountain guide for Colorado Mountain School in Boulder, Colorado and a ski guide for Hokkaido Powder Guides in Hokkaido, Japan. I received the 2012 BCA scholarship for the AMGA Ski Guide Course. My Ski Guide course took place in Aspen, Colorado from March 12th to March 23rd. There were ten course participants (including me) from across the US (and the world), along with our instructors, Amos Whiting and Peter Leh. I have been preparing… Read more

Sampling Some Powder

Here’s a helmet cam video of 18-year-old Shana Rosen ripping it up in WA. Shana is a Mt. Baker local and found herself far from home and having to put in a few extra 1,000 feet of climbing on this day. But she said it was well worth it:… Read more

BCA Monarch Cat Skiing Day

On St. Patty’s day a crew of BCA folks enjoyed some skiing in Monarch’s back bowls. After watching a safety video and getting a rundown on what to expect, we were heading up the mountain. We did a beacon check at the top and then loaded in the cat.

The accommodations were pretty posh on the cat, comfy seats, good tunes and a killer view…oh and not having to skin uphill. The snowfall has certainly been less than usual, but we found good turns in the Dog Heaven and Bold Dog areas, including the Krudski Chutes. It was hard crusty snow conditions in the morning, but by noon the snow… Read more

Microburst in RMNP

Rocky Mountain National Park had been getting some decent snowfall for a change, so I planned to check it out with a fellow Avy Level 1 classmate, Julie Harris. We pulled into the Glacier Gorge trailhead on an early Sunday morning of March 3rd to find a very desolate parking lot and wicked wind. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was keeping away the crowds.
The plan was for a 10 mile round trip tour that would hit Green Lake. The map showed good skiing in the area, but we were aware of the high avy danger reported from CAIC. The area had received 8-16” of new snow in… Read more

Kootenay Pass TR

Following the hectic tradeshow season, I decided it was time to get out and do some skiing. With the state of the Colorado snowpack being in shambles though, I opted to head north. My buddy Derek, who is in Spokane studying the law, had been sending me photos of the immense snowpack just north from there, so I opted to fly up there to check it out. We headed past the border and set up camp in a small cabin near Kootenay Pass and spent the next three days lapping excellent, stable powder; it was awesome.… Read more

Pro snowboarder saved by Float

Exciting news- we have another confirmed airbag save, this time coming out of our own backyard near Montezuma, Colorado.
Meesh Hytner, a pro snowboarder, was riding near the Snake River drainage on January 25th and triggered a substantial (R2D2+) avalanche that took her tumbling to the valley floor below. She was able to deploy her Float 30 avalanche airbag shortly after the crown broke, allowing her to remain on the surface of the giant slab as it broke out above her.
We had a chance to catch Meesh’s story firsthand when she dropped by the BCA booth at SIA. “I felt like I was riding a mattress down the stairs,”… Read more

Powder and smoked salmon at Mt. Baker

With a total of zero powder days to date—and no end in sight to the Colorado drought –we made a quick hit up to Mt. Baker last weekend for some stormchasing, smoked salmon, and the Mt. Baker Beacon Rally.  Talk about core, this is the coolest ski area north of Silverton. They’re calling it a low snow year, but Baker’s base is well over 100 inches already. With a 20-inch storm coming, $130 fares on Southwest, and on open invitation to the Beacon Rally, throwing down for a plane ticket was a no-brainer. Seattle-based BCA sales director Steve Christie met me at the airport with a cooler full of beer… Read more