Monthly Archives: April 2011

Equity, corkscrew and silver couloirs

Lately the warm spring days we’ve been expecting are getting trumped by fresh snow; the trick is finding the right elevation and aspect to collect on it.

With a good chance of clouds and snow in the forecast, Adam, Steph and I ventured out into summit county to do some exploring.

Our first stop was the “K” branch of the sky chutes, a west facing tree line, which turned out to be a total bust- dust on a boot-breakable crust, no good.

So we decided to try out Equity, a north facing, just above treeline chute, that maintained some cold shin-deep powder- very nice.

 … Read more

BCA tech rep Nick Armitage locates Teton avi victims

BCA tech rep Nick Armitage located the transmit signals of Gregory Seftick and Walter Kuhl on Saturday in Garnet Canyon, in Grand Teton National Park. The two victims succumbed to an avalanche while camped in the basin during a snowstorm the weekend before. After six days of searching with probe lines, dog teams, and Recco detectors, Armitage picked up a faint signal with his Tracker2 avalanche transceiver. The victims were buried 13 feet deep and were evacuated by helicopter on Easter Sunday.

BCA’s Felix Camire wins award

We’re excited to hear that Félix Camiré, our tech rep from the Canadian Rockies region, won the “Denali Pro Award” for helping rescue a stricken climber from West Buttress camp on Denali. The full story from the Alpine Club of Canada’s Gazette and written by Lynn Martel, is below:

In June, long-time Alpine Club of Canada members Nancy Hansen, Doug Fulford and Félix Camiré travelled to the Alaska Range to climb Denali, North America’s highest peak. After all three acclimatized by climbing to the mountain’s 6194-meter summit via a combination of easy, frequently travelled routes, Hansen and Camire summitted again via the much more committing and difficult Cassin Ridge. Unfortunately,… Read more

Pep Fujas- Self Edit

BCA Athlete, and all around good guys, Pep Fujas, sent over this self edit last week. Pep was injured for most of the year, but is back at it again in Wasatch.

Pep Fujas 2010 self edit from NIMBUS INDEPENDENT on Vimeo.… Read more

BCA Float 30 in Action! AK Style…

A helmet cam video from Jeff Wyshynski shows first-hand how a Float 30 avalanche airbag from Backcountry Access (BCA) can save a life.

Pagoda-Chiefshead Couloir

Having to wait until 10 pm the night before to know whether you’ll actually be able to ski something the next day is a little nerve-racking; but those good ol’ boys in Washington pulled through for us and approved a temporary budget that allowed Rocky Mountain National Park to remain open. The destination: a thin couloir splitting two thirteeners out of Glacier Gorge.

The approach was a bit on the long side, but with blue skies and warm temps it wasn’t bad. Soon enough Adam, Daan and I were staring at the apron, wondering whether the snow would be any good within the north facing line. As we began the… Read more

Skiing’s next rock stars?

The Junior Freeskiing Tour wrapped up yesterday with an impressive performance by 14-year-old Grant Howard. Could he be skiing’s next rock star?

Curvacious Couloir, Piaute Peak

Ah, the transition into spring…

My buddy Daan and I wanted to ski something, and I almost backed out of it due to the impending “considerable” pockets to go mountain biking instead. But he stuck me to it, and we ended up nabbing a thirteener on a bluebird day with decently good snow.

We started out fairly late for such a big day, leaving Boulder around eight and skinning up the road to Brainard Lake around 9:15. But with just the two of us, we made incredible time getting above treeline, and then were able to scope a nice ascent to the base of the originally intended line- this beauty:… Read more

Avalanche Survivor Talks about Deploying his Float 30

The following video is an interview with Nick Roche and was filmed at the recent Jackson Hole Hill Climb-one of the largest and busiest snowmobile events in North America.

Background: Last March, Nick was caught in a large avalanche in western Montana and he believes the Float 30 played a major role in saving his life. The debris pile was 10 feet deep and he came out on the surface much to the relief of his uncle and friends who were on-hand to witness the slide. We received some pictures from his uncle last spring after interviewing both Nick and him:

At the time this was our first reported… Read more