FEATURES

HIGHER LEARNING
Knowledge is power and, in the mountains, it leads to powder. But getting there and doing it safely takes time, practice and plenty of lessons. In our first-ever Skills Guide, we tap all types of backcountry experts for their top tips and insights for safer, smarter mountain travel and pair their wisdom with a deep dive into the essential tools and techniques of the trade. Read up, refresh, rinse and repeat.

STEEP SCHOOL
Across the U.S., there's been a mass increase in the popularity of ski-mountaineering courses. Late last April, editor in chief Tyler Cohen headed to one such course in Montana's Tobacco Root Mountains to find out why. Along the way, while traveling through a range still draped in its midwinter snowpack, he learned lessons from skiers young and old, including why to always bring matches when a ski tour involves rappelling.

DEPOSITION

CONTRIBUTORS

PERSPECTIVE
Sunstruck

EDITOR'S NOTE: BLIND SPOTS

STRAIGHT LINES
Uptrack struggles in Rogers Pass, B.C., learning the ropes beyond Telluride, Colo. and retreating with the sun in northern California

BLOWN IN

ALPENGLOW'S GOLDEN HOUR
How a Tahoe-based ski shop's annual winter festival is lighting the way for safety education and community-wide stoke

THAT GIRL: DANYELLE MAGNAN
Rogers Pass, B.C.'s first female forecaster breaks barriers to keep the region's busiest zone safe

WISDOM: EYES WIDE OPEN
McKenna Peterson reflects on life in the skintrack, running a commercial fishing operation and the loss of her earliest mentor

BEYOND THE GATES
How, after the deaths of two of its own, the U.S. Ski Team is spreading avalanche awareness

MOUNTAIN ACCOUNT
One woman tests her intuition in the Swiss Alps

GEARBOX
The greatest repair-kit tool of all time, an Editors' Choice powder setup and four poles that solve an age-old dilemma

BLOWN OUT

LETTERS
Off-piste whitewashing, land management in Valdez, Alaska and the community responsibility to look out for our own

DEPTH: WATER, FROZEN

LOCAL LEGEND: ROD NEWCOMB

BIFF AMERICA: MAD SKILLS
Napoleon Dynamite said it best: "Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills." Fortunately, Biff delivers.

LAST COL
The southwest face of Montana's Mt. Stimson