The place to find all The High Route's articles about building and refining your backcountry specific skills.
Get off your damn phone in the backcountry! But also use it; it’s such a great tool. Confusing? Welcome to a moment of zillennial madness while I repeatedly get on and off my high horse regarding technology use in the backcountry with a slew of opinions you may or may not share.
Two words: kick turns. An art. A science. A timeworn skill set. To some frustrating. To others, ballet. Kick turns. It’s what’s on the skin track. Here’s a THR how to.
The elegance and efficiency of ski touring often comes to a screeching halt whenever we encounter technical terrain, as we trade the simplicity of up and down tracks for anchor building, rope tangles, and shouted commands. What a bummer. One aspect of the technical bits that can satisfy even the most idealistic of mountain travelers, however, is the humble V-Thread.
Tree wells are small to large voids that form near the base of a tree and its trunk during winter. In this instance, we use the term void as the tree well is a large air pocket. It forms throughout the winter as snow falls when tree branches and boughs prevent snow from infilling the void near the tree’s base. A thick and strong layer of branches and limbs becomes an umbrella, preventing snow from filling in around lower portions of the tree trunk.
What appears to be well-consolidated at the surface could be a facade under which a tree well lurks.
Determining when a slope is in sun or shade is important for spring planning. With this in mind, Shademap.app is an excellent tool.
The use of sat images can assist with trip planning and near real-time assessment of on-the-ground conditions. Here’s an intro to Sentinel Hub, a sat image product that can be beneficial to backcountry users.
