This episode of The High Route Podcast is brought to you by our good intentions to fill you with joy. Episode 5 brings together Adam Fabrikant, Billy Haas, and Lou Dawson to discuss the golden age of ski mountaineering and the darker side of powder fever.
Let’s be direct: when it comes to the things we care about, it’s often said that “it’s hard to put into words” how we feel. But it’s not tough regarding Lou’s contribution to backcountry skiers, ski mountaineers, or (here’s a nod to Gavin) the ski tourists out there. We are grateful for Lou’s decades-long good work.
In this episode of The High Route podcast, what goes down is part back-of-the-bar conversation and part scholarly. (But really, they are not mutually exclusive.) Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas, in their behind-the-scenes way, are keen on documenting local, regional, and global skiing from the perspective of going to the edge of where the dragons are, and descending remote lines in a particular style. Lou, throughout his career, has done the same, particularly as it relates to North America. So yes, they deep dive into the why and how of documenting the past and current status of making turns (usually in steep terrain) in the non-industrialized mountains.
Ok, so how did this all come to be? In episode 1 of The High Route Gear Shed Podcast(yes, we have a gear-specific podcast, and episode 1 focused on ski mountaineering ropes) Adam said this about the golden age of ski mountaineering.
Adam: “So I mean, today, ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon, we delve deep into the different options for ski ropes, some of the pros and cons, some of the nuances and a lot of our subjective personal preferences. But we’ve formed these opinions over, you know, hours, days and years in the mountains. And I encourage everyone to test this gear thoroughly before bringing it out into the big hills. But it’s pretty cool. We live in the golden age of ski mountaineering, lot of options for ropes and belay devices to get us up and down the hills.”
Here’s Billy’s response: “How lucky are we to be living in the golden age of ski mountaineering? That’s, that’s special ha. I don’t know, maybe we could get Lou on the line and see if he agrees with that or something.”
Fast forward a month or two, and we get Lou’s response on the podcast.
Deep thanks to Adam, Billy, and Lou for the conversation.
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That was a good one (they have all be great)!
Lou’s tangent near the end brings up a good subject for another podcast:
North American vs European backcountry skiing, what’s the same and what differs. And not so much the exact specifics, but more how that leads to different culture and experience. Bring on some European guests with experience in NA and vice versa.
Agreed, this was a great conversation. I think it also touches on a question that was recently posted in the mountaineering sub-forum of mountain project of “Is there an equivalent to MountainProject for ski touring where people post their tracks and descent beta?” and the answer was mostly “No” and “We don’t want it anyway.” But it does seem to exist in Europe (https://skitour.fr/) which also captures some of the community events, what’s going on in the sport and some topics brought up in this episode. Very different ethos, and probably worth exploring more.
Good idea, we’ll follow up and explore that topic more. Thanks and glad you liked the episode.
Hi Slim and Spo, good to see you over here! I was psyched to talk with Adam and Billy, they’ve got a more up-to-date perspective than old me. But it was fun to chime my two cents. Kudos to Thehighroute for taking the time to produce! Making podcasts is work, good sign that this site is an authentic endeavor.
This podcast was so great. Met Adam guiding in 2012ish, now very cool to hear thoughts and opinions from the bleeding edge of ski alpinism, tempered and contextualized by Mr. Dawsons dulcet tones. The podcast episode is fantastic, as are all episodes thus far. Happily subscribed.