BAckcountry Skiing

Scott McMahon wrote: This is always my go to example of things that you thing are no biggie...which kill you

Important lesson on terrain traps and depth hoar:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdkdHFAjn5w

Interesting video on the 3x3 Formula by Werner Munter:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pSBUXFJXiY

(Cut and paste the links. I disabled the youtube links since for quite a while the youtube links on MP are not usable. Does anyone else have that problem?)

Mike's exactly right: fastest growing segment of the ski/ride industries is backcountry.

The fact we're staying flat means we're actually way down on per capita accidents/fatalities.

Dammit, Jason, why you gotta get all official and shit?!

No, great question. I think there are some data from Leisure Trends in Boulder, as well as the Outdoor Industry Association. The AIARE guys could give you an idea about how many more folks are enrolling in courses, but as you you can imagine--that's a subset of a larger group....

Interesting numbers to have...lemme know if you dig up specifics!

RC

coppolillo wrote:Dammit, Jason, why you gotta get all official and shit?! No, great question. I think there are some data from Leisure Trends in Boulder, as well as the Outdoor Industry Association. The AIARE guys could give you an idea about how many more folks are enrolling in courses, but as you you can imagine--that's a subset of a larger group.... Interesting numbers to have...lemme know if you dig up specifics! RC

Hell just go out in the mountains any day! Went up to the dragontail in the park yesterday and including our party of 4 I think there were 10 of us taking a look. Walked out and there was an AIARE group of like 6, and most of those classes sell out all year.

Add it how much R&D is obviously being dumped into pack / ski / safety gear design shows how much revenue is being generated in what was a niche market. 'Member when only crusty mountain people ice climbed? Now hidden falls can see 20-30 people in a day.

I remember seeing some articles on it too, but man the proof is most certainly in the puddin'!

After I made my claim I went to look for hard stats and it seems that there aren't many to go around. These guys are running a live survey with volunteers but the results won't be out for at least a year or two wasatchbackcountryalliance.…

I agree, Scott, it's obvious....god, Berthoud makes the Park look quiet....but curious if anybody digs up any hard-and-fast data....it'd be shocking, I bet.

Just skiing at the resort, it's remarkable the number of "tour-able" bindings out there, the Duke, Baron, Guardian, etc....so I bet whatever reporting is done, there are a huge number of people saying they backcountry ski....who might be occasional/rare visitors to the backcountry...

Anyway, just a guess. The Project Zero guys might have an educated guess, too......