Backcountry Places to Explore
Summer Skiing
Each year it gets harder and harder to put the skis away for the season. With longer days and stabilizing snowpack, I look forward to the corn skiing season as much as any other. Beating the heat of a scorching summer day on a cool mountain snowfield is very cool indeed. This year, I've found myself heading out for a hike with skis on my back with remarkable regularity.
Memorial day, the traditional transition to summer pastimes, found Independence Pass to be overloaded with skiers of all abilities and ages. The parking lot and surrounding snowfield looked as busy as any old-time commercial ski area, like the small hills I cut my teeth on back in New England in the sixties. Likewise, on July fourth, the Fourth of July snowfield on Peak Ten was a true celebration of freedoms as only die hard skiers know them. These congregations provide people who don't regularly ski in the backcountry an opportunity to share their enthusiasm for the sport with those who do.
It wasn't until my wife told friends, trying to make the usual summer plans such as hiking, biking or paddling, that I hadn't missed a week of skiing yet, that I actually took pause to reflect upon that regularity. As I looked back at my records, it was mid October when I began the ski season with regularity. Counting forward, I was up to 42 weeks of skiing. As the alpine snow patches recede in the heat of August, it does become harder to think of strapping the skis on the back to trek far out to some distant glacier when there's so much to do nearby. The joy of being in the mountains, traveling by the power of my own two feet to reach a remote spot far away from the hustle and bustle keeps me going. Who knows, perhaps I'll make 52 weeks before I call it a year!
Anyone considering extending their season into the summer should be aware that while the usual avalanche concerns diminish as the summer snowpack becomes more solid, the risk of going for a long slide off the snow and onto bare ground is more of a concern. Self-arrest techniques should be learned and practiced. Protective clothing, helmets and kneepads are recommended. Lines with long flat aprons of snow for run-outs are preferred over those that end steeply in a talus field.