2023-03-10 - What's backcountry skiing?!
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A collection of pics from a few different days out splitboarding in the backcountry around whistler.
For people who aren’t familiar, backcountry skiing refers to skiing outside of a ski resort. There are various different ways to access the backcountry (snowcats, helicopters, snowmobiles), but the most sustainable (and probably the best workout) is doing it human-powered. This is most commonly done with skis mounted with alpine touring (AT) bindings or a splitboard.
The idea with either of these setups is that they allow you to attach climbing skins (climbing skins grip the slope and allow you to slide up, but not down. They were historically made from various types of animal hair and now are generally synthetic, mohair, or a combination) to the bottom of your skis (or two splitboard halves). Then, you proceed to walk up the mountain.
After you get to the top, you take the skins off, lock down your heels on skis (or put your splitboard back into board form), and ride down.
To stay safe it’s also important to be aware of hazards that the winter mountains can present, such as avalanches. I’ve had the chance to do an AST1 training course which takes place over 2-3 days and covers the basics of safe travel in the mountains during the winter. Pic 5 is from the course and show the instructor about to do a test for snow stability.
Still working up towards longer journeys and bigger objectives, but walking up and riding down provides an awesome mix of hiking out in the mountains and getting to ride away from the busyness of a ski resort’s slopes. It’s definitely been an cool experience so far. Also props if u actually read all this idk if I would’ve made it through such a hefty comment lol
