Category Archives: BCA Product

A Chamonix Vacation

Way back in January during the OR show BCA’s European sales manager, Craig Widdecombe, regaled us with tales of an epic Chamonix winter.  In my powder starved state I somewhat impulsively purchased tickets for my girlfriend, Steffie, and I to spend two weeks in Chamonix during the first weeks of April. The trip exceeded all expectations with great snow, stability, and just enough blue sky to head up high a few days. It was hard to whittle down two weeks of pictures, but below are some of my favorite. A big thank you to all our new Chamonix friends. Thanks for showing us the ropes.
 
We stayed with local legend Gary Bigham a few days.… Read more

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

Avalanche Rescue Caught on Video

This video was produced by some Utah snowmobilers along with the Utah Avalanche Center. There’s a lot to learn from watching it but many folks are probably going to find it easy to criticize some of the choices and actions from this day. If you watch the entire video, you’ll see that the group was aware of some of the key mistakes they made. So let’s look at the positive aspects of the video and not harsh on them.… 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

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

Silverton loves simplicity

Below are some words from Doug Krause, the Snow Safety Director of Silverton Mountain. Doug works day in and out with avalanche mitigation, and it’s a huge honor for him to speak so highly of the Tracker 2.

As a Ski Patrol we are responsible for mitigating avalanche hazard in over 1800 acres of Class A avalanche terrain filled with one of the most dangerous snowpacks on earth. Our mountain is riddled with couloirs, cliff bands, large alpine bowls and steep below treeline gladed skiing. It snows a lot here and when it does the slabs come crashing down the mountains.
Avalanche hazard assessment and reduction is an everyday job… 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

Snow Study Tool Rundown – Part Two

In our second installment of the rundown, Donny takes us through how to use the Digital Thermometer, Crystal Card and the Magnifier Loupe.… Read more

Snow Study Tool Rundown – Part One

We’re back with another video from Donny Roth shot down in Bariloche, Argentina where he takes us through a few of the items found in our Snow Study Kit. Stay tuned for Part Two.… Read more