Backcountry skiing is hard - and especially harder at elevation. My husband and I no longer travel to Colorado for skiing because of how long it takes to acclimate to the elevation.
As I get older, I try to avoid falling at all costs. Most of the time my skis do not come off when I fall and so I have to take them off to be able to get up. What a pain to try to clip back into the bindings when you are standing in the snow and the bindings and boots are bunked up with snow and maybe ice. As we age, we lose a lot of flexibility (even though I do yoga almost every day). But good for you to go out and try something new......I have always wanted to skin up and ski down but I have enough to do with just skiing up on waxable skis and being able to ski down. When I was doing more downhill, I stayed away from the powder.
I’ve gotten into backcountry skiing the past couple of years, and really enjoy having a way to get into the mountains in the winter. It’s also a way to escape the PNW rain in the winter. As someone who grew up in Illinois, I have zero winter sports background so it took me quite a bit to get some downhill confidence. I spent the first year “side country skiing” at the local resorts here that allow uphill travel and then you ski down on the groomers. I’ve only very recently had a few true backcountry ski adventures with mixed success/enjoyment. Skiing the volcanoes here usually has some wide open places to make turns, but doing anything at lower elevation involves trees. I HATE narrow runs and trees. I don’t know that I’ll ever gain the skill to feel comfortable in that terrain. Honestly, even if all I ever did was stick to the side country stuff I’d probably be happy.
I love the reflection that it’s ok not to get good at everything you try. This can be difficult for me to remember in the moment! But there’s a lot of good growth and learning that happens from being a beginner, so I’ll keep doing it, even if I never get good!
I’m like you! I prefer hiking or running flat terrain and hills to going downhill. My first time learning to ski in powder I fell and tore my MCL, ACL, and meniscus. My accident was during the pandemic so I had to wait nearly 9 months before I could have surgery. These days I am more risk averse and prefer snowshoeing to downhill skiing.
Oh god, that’s awful! I’m grateful I didn’t hurt myself. I took all last winter off from skiing because I was so risk averse while recovering from my partial tendon tear and trying to stay healthy and get back in shape for Hardrock. Then my daughter fractured her tibial plateau while skiing and needed complicated surgery with hardware to repair it, so that gave me another reason to avoid skiing last season. But I’m trying to get back into it — carefully.
I came to backcountry skiing from downhill. I was a fearless alpine ski racer specializing in speed events. As my husband says, "nutters, the lot of you," and he's not wrong. Racing turned into guiding professionally in my 20's. I lived for the rad downhill you could only access by hiking up.
My husband is like you, though, loving the uphill, nervous about going down. Over the years, we've found a very happy medium: Climbs chosen for beauty combined with low-angle descents. Now that we're parents, we simply don't ski descents steeper than 30 degrees in the backcountry unless it's fully in the corn cycle in spring. (Avalanches can't happen below 30 degrees.)
I noticed something in your adventure that worried me a little. As the weakest downhill skier, you never should have been left to descend last. Best practice is for the strongest to go last so that they can arrive quickly if someone is injured or just needs help getting their ski back on. If you ever decide to go out again, you should insist that someone stronger descends after you.
Also - some encouragement! Powder is different than groomers, but once you get the knack, it's a LOT easier. Have faith, and practice with the lifts. If you're practicing in order to feel more confident in the backcountry, it won't take too long.
Finally - do you know about skimo racing? That may be your tribe. They're the mountain runners who race uphill on skis through the winter. We do the few events we can out here in California, but Colorado has way more of them.
Meant to comment on this earlier. I’m so glad you tried this amazing sport, especially living where you do. Though sometimes I think I’m a bit spoiled in New England where I can, with pretty good certainty, stay away from avalanche zones. Still. Everything about alpine touring is incredible. Being outside in places a pedestrian won’t have access to; experiencing the meditative nature of the uphill; the joy of the downhill, no matter how short.
Living in Chamonix, France, and being a runner too and not a skier, I do totally relate to your story !
Thanks for sharing !! At least now I know I'm not alone being surrounded by moutaineers who just can't get why everybody around does not spend 100% of their time on skis !
Love this post Sarah! Great job, I'm always impressed with you going out of your comfort zone to try things like this. Also, backcountry skiing in Ophir sounds like a dream to me.
If you come up to Steamboat in the winter, I'll take you on a great little tour that could be done as a lunch lap on Emerald, with some more friendly downhill options,. What size feet do you have?
Thank you Cara! Now that Telluride has reopened, it’s unlikely we’ll take a trip to Steamboat, unfortunately. It’s just too expensive when we already purchased season passes here (which we’ve barely used) and difficult to line up dog care. Plus we’re going to the Bay Area mid-March. I would love to, however. I bet you’re a pro at backcountry skiing! I look forward to seeing you & meeting Max down here during his competition.
Yes, so understandable. We are looking forward to seeing you im the beginning of March and getting to know Morgan I think it will be just Dave and I as Max will be traveling with his team, but not 100% sure. Hopefully maybe you might want to ski one of those days and you can meet him ❤️ Its been too long since Ive been to beautiful Telluride, I used to come once or twice a year. Until then, I hope we all get some much needed snow, very concerned about the summer.
Good work getting out of your comfort zone and following your curiosity. Downhill is my jam (and powder!), but it seems like a good workout to go up? Backcountry skiing is something I've always been curious about, so I appreciate reading about your attempt. Thanks for the story! I might try skate skiing...
I tried skate skiing three times, with an instructor, and could not get the hang of it. If you like in-line skating, then you would probably like it. I liked classic Nordic better because it imitates running more.
The running motion is definitely something to consider! Maybe I'll try both. For me the variety is appealing. I don't do well on wheels, haha...but I am a decent ice skater and I always enjoy faux skate skiing when on a flat spot on downhill skis.
You are braver than I am! (Also, Hunger was such an excellent book. Another one with similar topics, though from a male perspective, was Heavy, by Kiese Laymon.)
Ha, I felt all of this. Since I love winter and mountain running/hiking, many of my friends are continuously urging me to get into backcountry skiing. I insist that *I am not interested in gravity sports.* I used to snowboard as a teenager, but honestly never felt the same sense of flow from the downhill runs, even when a more fearless version of myself had me carving powder through the trees.
A combination of relative fearlessness and being an inherently uncoordinated person from birth meant the injuries started to pile up. As I grew older and drifted into endurance sports, the cost of these wrist and knee injuries started to seem far too high. But I continued to dabble in dirtbag backcountry (snowshoeing while carrying my board) and Nordic skiing.
What I learned is that I don't love any of this. I do love snowshoeing — let me hike up *and* downhill, and I get all of the flow all of the time. It's slow and ridiculously strenuous for what it is, which is why most gravity sports enthusiasts hate it. But it also carries all of the avalanche risks of backcountry skiing, so I limit my winter hiking to places where the risks are relatively low.
Backcountry skiing is hard - and especially harder at elevation. My husband and I no longer travel to Colorado for skiing because of how long it takes to acclimate to the elevation.
As I get older, I try to avoid falling at all costs. Most of the time my skis do not come off when I fall and so I have to take them off to be able to get up. What a pain to try to clip back into the bindings when you are standing in the snow and the bindings and boots are bunked up with snow and maybe ice. As we age, we lose a lot of flexibility (even though I do yoga almost every day). But good for you to go out and try something new......I have always wanted to skin up and ski down but I have enough to do with just skiing up on waxable skis and being able to ski down. When I was doing more downhill, I stayed away from the powder.
I’ve gotten into backcountry skiing the past couple of years, and really enjoy having a way to get into the mountains in the winter. It’s also a way to escape the PNW rain in the winter. As someone who grew up in Illinois, I have zero winter sports background so it took me quite a bit to get some downhill confidence. I spent the first year “side country skiing” at the local resorts here that allow uphill travel and then you ski down on the groomers. I’ve only very recently had a few true backcountry ski adventures with mixed success/enjoyment. Skiing the volcanoes here usually has some wide open places to make turns, but doing anything at lower elevation involves trees. I HATE narrow runs and trees. I don’t know that I’ll ever gain the skill to feel comfortable in that terrain. Honestly, even if all I ever did was stick to the side country stuff I’d probably be happy.
Thanks for reading and for that perspective! It motivates me to do the same on the one groomer at the resort where uphill skinning is allowed.
I love the reflection that it’s ok not to get good at everything you try. This can be difficult for me to remember in the moment! But there’s a lot of good growth and learning that happens from being a beginner, so I’ll keep doing it, even if I never get good!
I’m like you! I prefer hiking or running flat terrain and hills to going downhill. My first time learning to ski in powder I fell and tore my MCL, ACL, and meniscus. My accident was during the pandemic so I had to wait nearly 9 months before I could have surgery. These days I am more risk averse and prefer snowshoeing to downhill skiing.
Oh god, that’s awful! I’m grateful I didn’t hurt myself. I took all last winter off from skiing because I was so risk averse while recovering from my partial tendon tear and trying to stay healthy and get back in shape for Hardrock. Then my daughter fractured her tibial plateau while skiing and needed complicated surgery with hardware to repair it, so that gave me another reason to avoid skiing last season. But I’m trying to get back into it — carefully.
I came to backcountry skiing from downhill. I was a fearless alpine ski racer specializing in speed events. As my husband says, "nutters, the lot of you," and he's not wrong. Racing turned into guiding professionally in my 20's. I lived for the rad downhill you could only access by hiking up.
My husband is like you, though, loving the uphill, nervous about going down. Over the years, we've found a very happy medium: Climbs chosen for beauty combined with low-angle descents. Now that we're parents, we simply don't ski descents steeper than 30 degrees in the backcountry unless it's fully in the corn cycle in spring. (Avalanches can't happen below 30 degrees.)
I noticed something in your adventure that worried me a little. As the weakest downhill skier, you never should have been left to descend last. Best practice is for the strongest to go last so that they can arrive quickly if someone is injured or just needs help getting their ski back on. If you ever decide to go out again, you should insist that someone stronger descends after you.
Also - some encouragement! Powder is different than groomers, but once you get the knack, it's a LOT easier. Have faith, and practice with the lifts. If you're practicing in order to feel more confident in the backcountry, it won't take too long.
Finally - do you know about skimo racing? That may be your tribe. They're the mountain runners who race uphill on skis through the winter. We do the few events we can out here in California, but Colorado has way more of them.
Thank you for all that! With the snowpack so low now, I am barely skiing, sadly.
Meant to comment on this earlier. I’m so glad you tried this amazing sport, especially living where you do. Though sometimes I think I’m a bit spoiled in New England where I can, with pretty good certainty, stay away from avalanche zones. Still. Everything about alpine touring is incredible. Being outside in places a pedestrian won’t have access to; experiencing the meditative nature of the uphill; the joy of the downhill, no matter how short.
Thank you, and I agree—I just need to improve my ski skills!
Hi,
Living in Chamonix, France, and being a runner too and not a skier, I do totally relate to your story !
Thanks for sharing !! At least now I know I'm not alone being surrounded by moutaineers who just can't get why everybody around does not spend 100% of their time on skis !
I suck at cross-country skiing even though I own the equipment, so your story was funny to me because I could picture myself in it! On Saturday I did something harder than normal, the Bandera 50k (where Molly Seidel had a huge win). Please read about all the fun like falling on my ass! https://open.substack.com/pub/karlrysted/p/bandera-50k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jf7oz
Love this post Sarah! Great job, I'm always impressed with you going out of your comfort zone to try things like this. Also, backcountry skiing in Ophir sounds like a dream to me.
If you come up to Steamboat in the winter, I'll take you on a great little tour that could be done as a lunch lap on Emerald, with some more friendly downhill options,. What size feet do you have?
Thank you Cara! Now that Telluride has reopened, it’s unlikely we’ll take a trip to Steamboat, unfortunately. It’s just too expensive when we already purchased season passes here (which we’ve barely used) and difficult to line up dog care. Plus we’re going to the Bay Area mid-March. I would love to, however. I bet you’re a pro at backcountry skiing! I look forward to seeing you & meeting Max down here during his competition.
Yes, so understandable. We are looking forward to seeing you im the beginning of March and getting to know Morgan I think it will be just Dave and I as Max will be traveling with his team, but not 100% sure. Hopefully maybe you might want to ski one of those days and you can meet him ❤️ Its been too long since Ive been to beautiful Telluride, I used to come once or twice a year. Until then, I hope we all get some much needed snow, very concerned about the summer.
Sounds great! We still need snow… most of the mountain’s terrain is still closed.
Good work getting out of your comfort zone and following your curiosity. Downhill is my jam (and powder!), but it seems like a good workout to go up? Backcountry skiing is something I've always been curious about, so I appreciate reading about your attempt. Thanks for the story! I might try skate skiing...
I tried skate skiing three times, with an instructor, and could not get the hang of it. If you like in-line skating, then you would probably like it. I liked classic Nordic better because it imitates running more.
The running motion is definitely something to consider! Maybe I'll try both. For me the variety is appealing. I don't do well on wheels, haha...but I am a decent ice skater and I always enjoy faux skate skiing when on a flat spot on downhill skis.
You’d be great at it then :-)
You are braver than I am! (Also, Hunger was such an excellent book. Another one with similar topics, though from a male perspective, was Heavy, by Kiese Laymon.)
Yes, I read Heavy too! It’s interesting to compare/contrast them because they have similarities but are so different in their storytelling.
I love when Cobalt makes the newsletter <3
Aw thank you! Next time I’ll try to include Maverick too!
Ha, I felt all of this. Since I love winter and mountain running/hiking, many of my friends are continuously urging me to get into backcountry skiing. I insist that *I am not interested in gravity sports.* I used to snowboard as a teenager, but honestly never felt the same sense of flow from the downhill runs, even when a more fearless version of myself had me carving powder through the trees.
A combination of relative fearlessness and being an inherently uncoordinated person from birth meant the injuries started to pile up. As I grew older and drifted into endurance sports, the cost of these wrist and knee injuries started to seem far too high. But I continued to dabble in dirtbag backcountry (snowshoeing while carrying my board) and Nordic skiing.
What I learned is that I don't love any of this. I do love snowshoeing — let me hike up *and* downhill, and I get all of the flow all of the time. It's slow and ridiculously strenuous for what it is, which is why most gravity sports enthusiasts hate it. But it also carries all of the avalanche risks of backcountry skiing, so I limit my winter hiking to places where the risks are relatively low.