My Rules for Ski Mountaineering
- Don't get hurt or killed
- Practice relentless forward progress
- Don't push too many things at once: Speed/fitness, technical difficulty, complicated route finding, weather/snowpack
- Bring enough gear to be able to survive a night or two out there
- Sometimes you need to go slow to go fast
- There is such a thing as too light
- It often takes more courage to bail than it does to keep going
- Beware the line between type 2 and type 3 fun
- Don't run out of food or water
- There is always time to check the map or snowpack and there is always time to eat or drink
- Always carry a satellite communication device
- Do what you can reasonably do to decrease your carbon footprint
- Don't be an asshole or take yourself too seriously, this is just a ridiculous and unnecessary sport
Books:
- Training for the Uphill Athlete - House, Johnston, Jornet - 2019 - Paperback - A skimo oriented update to "Training for the New Alpinism"
- Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Routes Washington - Martin Volken - 2014 - Paperback
Podcasts:
- Totally Deep by Cripple Creek
- Fastest Known Podcast
- Dirtbag Diaries
- The Avalanche Hour
- The Utah Avalanche Center Podcast
Websites
Lowell Skoog is a crusher who can still keep up with the young guns well into retirement. He also pioneered many of the best routes in the cascades along with his brother Carl. They were also doing single day pushes long before it was cool. Many great write ups about prior trips. He also keeps tabs on first descents routes on may of our premier mountains. These guys are true adventurers.
Amar Andalkar's amazing website about skiing on the Cascades volcanoes. Anyone who has spent any time on the volcanoes has probably seen Amar with his OR sun hat and double whippets. He is one hell of a character and I am certain he has done more PNW volcano skiing than anyone else out there. Great info about all the volcanoes especially the lesser known ones.
Jason has been getting after it in the Cascades for a long time now. He was smart enough to realize that to really explore the Cascades he couldn't be burdened by traditional employment so he cut his tied to what we consider "normal life" and moved into a camper. He is an amazing resource and has skied more places in the cascades than probably anyone else. Buy one of his amazing photos and help support him.
Shameless commercial plug. These guys rock! I use their site 80% of the time to just look up gear weights and specs. I still buy a ton of stuff from them though. Support the Skimo folks!
As silly as skiing is, it takes place on snow slopes and glaciers that are responsible for much of the world's freshwater supply. What is good for skiing is good for humanity. Oil companies and other rich polluters have been lobbying governments forever, we need to advocate for ourselves and POW is leading that charge.
Peter and Buzz are OG's in the world of running FKTs. They have developed an amazing site that catalogues these achievements and have become the defacto moderators of an entire movement. Other than one or two ski FKT's the site sticks to non-technical running.
Sam and Alison run an awesome coaching company. They are very athlete focused and Sam especially has a ton or knowledge about skimo. Consider supporting them!
Richard, Maudie, and Westy are working their butts off so that we can have an awesome skimo race series here in the PNW. Support them any way you can!
Sky Sjue is one of the original badasses of steep skiing in the PNW. Take a look at the list of first descents on Mount Rainier alone. Sky got after it.