If you do go to the backcountry instead of a ski area that is patrolled by professionals, check in with Colorado Avalanche Information Center to make sure the area is safe. Take an avalanche course to learn about terrain choice, hazards, conditions, route finding, digging pits and equipment.<\/p>\n
I love back-country skiing. I have skied big scary peaks, high-consequence canyons and easy touring areas.<\/p>\n
I used to go up to Molas Pass with lots of gear, hot coffee and headlamps under a full moon to ski down underneath the Engineer Mountain ramparts. I thought nothing of avalanche potential there; I was cockily certain it was safe. But one day it slid, taking out forests and power lines and carving a huge gouge in the landscape; even though the slope\u2019s incline was below 30 degrees, it slid intensely.<\/p>\n
Before you venture out of bounds, make sure you know what you\u2019re getting into. Is it safe? Worth the risk? If you must travel in the back country, look into the American Institute for Avalanche Research & Education guide operations.<\/p>\n
Go online to CAIC to check on avalanche conditions. If it\u2019s low, then go \u2013 otherwise, don\u2019t. Be safe, smart and level-headed.<\/p>\n
Paul Pennington <\/em>Durango<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" you do go to the backcountry instead of a ski area that is patrolled by professionals, check in with Colorado Avalanche Information Center to make sure the area is safe. Take an avalanche course to learn about terrain choice, hazards, conditions, route finding, digging pits and equipment. I love back-country skiing. I have skied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49499"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}