6 minute read
BACKCOUNTRY SKIING
Backcountry Skiing & Snowboarding Things I wish I knew before I started
BY DANI REYES-ACOSTA
START WITH THE ‘HUMAN FACTOR’ TO BUILD SAFE, FUN ENVIRONMENTS
“Epa! Epa! Epa!” I’d never heard so much stoke. Around the campfire, my new friends beckoned, inviting me into the circle. We chanted, sang and drank in our love for this place. Earlier that day, we slid down the face of a nearby mountain, scampering over boulders to celebrate our joint wildness.
In 2014, my first trip to the Andean high country south of Santiago, Chile, accidentally became my first backcountry snowboarding mission. That day combined happy luck (new friends inclined to walk uphill with a newbie) with mourning (the local government would dam the river running through the zone the next day).
I still come back to this day, and the formative experiences that followed it, often. I may have ticks from the Andes, Cascades, Coast Range, Rockies, Sierra Nevada and Tetons on my belt, but these mountains remind me that lifelong learning is a crucial part of being a backcountry fiend.
The ride down that first mountain face opened my soul: glee, fear and joy poured an emotional cocktail I’d never sipped. Wherever you are in your backcountry skiing or splitboarding journey, I hope that we can share this drink one day — and savor every ingredient the mountains mix in along the way. ››
Freeskier and ski mountaineer Sophia Schwartz skies the Gothic Couloir just south of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Due to easy access from the resort, the Jackson Hole “sidecountry” can be a dangerous area for adventurous resort skiers who don’t have backcountry experience or avalanche safety education, but is a paradise for mountain athletes with the knowledge and skills to handle the terrain. photo by Iain Kuo
IT’S ALL FITNESS
Whether you’re new to the backcountry or clicking into well-worn tech bindings, know that fitness will set you up for a season of success. Fitness doesn’t just make you faster or more efficient on the uphill; it also supports your reactivity in adverse conditions and body awareness in unknown settings.
Adventure photographer and Tetons-based ski mountaineer, Iain Kuo, reminds us, “Speed equates to safety in the mountains: the less time you spend exposed to hazards, the better. Having a disciplined fitness regimen and knowing your limits should be a part of your backcountry preparedness, just the same as monitoring and understanding the snowpack.”
FITNESS TAKEAWAYS 1. Fitness helps us have fun and safe days, but it also helps us access flow state: a combination of focus and awareness that yields better athletic results and drives emotional stability. 2. Check out programs like Uphill Athlete or Samsara Mountain
Training for mountain-specific regimes. 3. The Nike Training Club app also has great free and low-cost HIT (High Intensity Programs) options available via the NTC app.
BROADEN YOUR CONCEPT OF “EDUCATION”
“. . . It’s anticipated that we’ll see a 300% increase in backcountry usership in the Colorado Rockies,” Breckenridge-based Colorado Adventure Guides (CAG) Lead Guide Justin Ibarra said.
Ibarra reminded me of my own educational progression: awareness education and field experiences were just as important as AIARE certification. ‘Education’ doesn’t just mean a paid experience.
Ibarra backed up my hunch to recommend the Know Before You Go avalanche awareness program, working with his team to build the coursework into his organization’s educational progression. “[We also developed] our Mentorship program so that no matter what stage you are in, you can jump right in. It is laid out from complete beginner (101 Clinics, Intro to Ski/Split Course, Level 1 Avalanche) to more advanced users (Level 2 Avalanche, Ski/Splitboard Mountaineering, Guided Mentorship Days, etc.).”
EDUCATION TAKEAWAYS 1. Take an avalanche awareness course via www.KBYG.org or a local guiding service. 2. Find mentors with more experience to build your technical and communication skills. 3. Check for discounts: guiding operations like CAG offer price cuts when buying education in a series. Some retail stores like Jagged
Edge Mountain Gear in Telluride, Colorado, partner with local
AIARE-certifying guide operations to discount the purchase of new touring gear, too. 4. Look out for scholarships from brands like Voile and Weston, nonprofits like AIARE and community organizations like Friends of the San Juans.
GROUP DYNAMICS ARE EVERYTHING
Remember that phrase, “No friends on a pow day?” Leo Tsuo of Weston Backcountry reminded me: ”The only thing we want is friends on a pow day!” Friends can save our lives, just as much as they can make the day amazing. But ‘team culture’ — the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours shared by a backcountry crew on any given day — can also be dangerous.
Too many of us remember the ‘summit fever’ that took the lives of multiple climbers on Mount Everest in 2019. The drive to reach their objective (in the context of a traffic jam on the peak) prevented both individuals and groups from making life-saving decisions.
Runaway train and herd mentalities both contribute to summit fever. Touring groups of more than four people can prevent safe, effective communication.
By “letting more people into your backcountry group last minute... the runaway train group may make terrible decisions,” Emily Hargraves, Lead Guide and Owner of the woman-focused Backcountry Babes operation, said.
“Although we want to be inclusive and invite everyone, big groups can mean bad decisions. Make a plan the night before with 3-4 people... inviting only one new person at a time,” Hargraves said. “Piling on more people last minute to your group means confusing planning, late arrivals, different goals for the day and a communication nightmare.”
Instead, Hargraves encourages tagalongs to create their own small group for the day.
GROUP DYNAMICS TAKEAWAYS 1. Do not follow tracks just because they are there! Both uphill skin tracks and downhill ski tracks were created by the skier or rider preceding you, but it’s impossible to validate the correctness of their decisions. 2. Think for yourself. Consider slope angle, exposure and general direction of travel when following tracks. 3. If what you see doesn’t make sense, go your own way!
Four women on a ladies-only hut trip found the perfect group dynamic in the Sierras, with open communication, backup plans and a culture of mutual support making the experience extra special. From left to right: Alex Spychalsky, Brooklyn Bell, Dani Reyes-Acosta, and Jen Violet Callahan. photo by Pete Schleifer 4. Normalize conversation with your backcountry partners. Check in on energy, objective and motivators throughout the day. 5. Debrief every tour with your partners. Each person can take a turn. What went well, what could have gone better and what were some things to watch out for next time? Each person in the group has a voice in this conversation.
THINK FOR YOURSELF
Backcountry skiing isn’t about decision by consensus. If one person does not agree with a decision or voices a counter opinion, everyone needs to listen and adjust the plan accordingly.
Lack of formal education isn’t the biggest danger in the backcountry. Instead, human factors like risk tolerance and assessment, heuristic traps and silencing are our biggest hazards.
Backcountry skiing and splitboarding offer us the opportunity to taste the cocktail the mountains pour with a heavy hand: joy and glee live behind every snow capped tree, at the top of every scoured ridge. But we have to choose the manner in which we imbibe, because snow, and the way we approach it, can be too much of a good thing.
For a list of upcoming avalanche and backcountry courses, visit www.adventurepro.us/20-21-colorado-avalanche-courses.
DANI REYES-ACOSTA is a freelance brand inclusivity strategist, educator, a dvocate, writer and mountain athlete redefining who plays outside and how we build community with others on this planet. Whether adventuring in her van, El Torito Blanco, or based on a rural homestead in Southwest Colorado, you can find her online at @NotLostJustDiscovering and www.DaniReyesAcosta.com.
