FAQs

We’ll limit ourselves here; we’ll focus on the silent sport of backcountry skiing and splitboarding with the occasional foray into offseason mountain travel. In other words, no chairlift content. We’ve all ridden chairlifts, but we’re not covering that scene or culture. Others already do a great job with that beat. 

Resort uphilling? We embrace that. And ski mountaineering/ski alpinism, we’ll report on and partake in that. 

The content you will see and read and hear on The High Route will include unbiased gear reviews, podcasts, essays, opinion pieces, reported stories, travel guides and trip reports, and how-tos.

Let’s put this in context, we’re covering the backcountry scene and it’s a heavy heavy world out there. We know it’s not the most important thing in the cosmos. But we love the backcountry, and if you are reading this, we assume you do as well. 

How we present the backcountry at The High Route matters too. We value honesty and we value our readers. There will be no BS. 

There are some who obtain summits by any means necessary, and others who aspire for summits, and sometimes achieve them, but place more value on good style. We’re in the good-style camp, not the summit-at-all-cost camp. In other words, style matters.

The High Route is reader supported. A login allows a reader, once they are subscribed, to access the full site. Without a login, readers are limited to ~500 words on each article. We do offer a free limited time subscription.

During the subscription process, you will be asked for your first and last name, and a good email address. This where you will create your username and password. In other words, your login. Let us know if you have problems with the set up.

We have a paywall. 

Potential readers can access a few free articles, but the core of our content (besides our podcasts) is available only to subscribers. This is how we pay staff and our bills. 

We will not rely on traditional online advertising (digital ads are a tenuous model at this point) or affiliate links (a thriving model) to sustain us. We will roll out a basic tiered plan for industry sponsors who support our mission—if you are keen on seeing how that will look, check out The Surfers Journal and scroll to the bottom of their site. 

We encourage you to support the backcountry shops and brands you believe in.

The financial model sustaining The High Route is not new. In fact, it is retro. We hope you value our stories, podcasts, and reviews enough to support us.

There’s now a financial premium placed on our silent sport culture. As a group, we spend considerable dollars on new gear, travel, and related experiences. Backcountry skiers and riders are consumers. Much of outdoor media has evolved to focus on SEO content—we know it when we see it—to harness that $. That monetization strategy works. But who is the end customer? Is it the reader, the publisher, or the affiliates? 

In the case of The High Route, our readers are our customers. 

This is a nascent project. And we want to build out the best content possible. That requires talent and we want to pay for that talent. As noted, our primary revenue stream are reader subscriptions. We will consider support and partnerships from companies that believe in our mission. Our supporters are listed on our footer.

Once you are logged into The High Route, there is an easy way to do this. Navigate to “My account” on the upper right. Or “Account” in the footer. This will bring you to all your account information whereYou have the option of modifying your account settings including your display name, subscription options, and addresses, etc.

Let’s all try to be on the same page, we want folks to feel welcome. We’d rather the comment section on each respective post and the forums remain free from dishonesty, vulgarities, abuse, defamation, violence, or even a whiff of obscene or objectionable.

To put this in more basic terms: be nice. To the Shred Dawgs and Boss McGillicuttys out there—please be humorous. Be insightful. Clarify things if we make a mistake (we’ll make some typos). 

We reserve the right to remove comments deemed inappropriate or vibing negative energy without notifying a user. After several violations, or an egregious violation, a user may be blocked from leaving comments. This is all about backcountry skiing/riding, let’s be a healthy community.

Oh, and please do not advertise in the comments.

You must be logged in to leave a comment.

Another good question. We’ll treat contributors fairly, and will discuss rights for contributed material on a case by case basis. In other words, please respect the material on the website. 

If you are using the site, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit our content, nor may you distribute any part of this content over any network. 

If you are interested in republishing a piece, please get in touch with editor@the-high-route.com.

The “Initial Shipment,” $12 total ($6/issue) is the cost of shipping for Issue 2 &3, the “Yearly Shipment,” also $12, is not charged at checkout. The “Yearly Shipment,” cost is the charge for shipping/year during the lifetime of your subscription. This $12 is not charged at checkout. It is simply a notification to the terms. Let us know if you have questions regarding this.

Starting in 2025-2026 (North American touring season) we will publish two issues annually. The first issue will be available/delivered to subscribers in early November. The second issue will be available/delivered in early February.