Avalanche Center

Before you venture beyond the ski area ropes, be sure you possess the necessary skills to travel safely in the backcountry. Snow stability assessment, the impact of weather on the snowpack, how to read terrain, proper route selection, practicing rescue scenarios, and understanding the human element are all important factors in making sure your day in the backcountry starts and ends safely.

There are a number of excellent resources available to you on the web. We've listed a few of them for you here:

• "A Day in the Backcountry". Informative slide show by the USFS national avalanche center.
• Interactive backcountry tour. Test your decision making skills in this pretend backcountry outing.
• Conway's Corner. Good avy info from Sarge over at TGR Films.
• Current avalanche bulletins. A comprehensive listing of US state-by-state and international avalanche forecasts and bulletins compiled by the Cyberspace Avalanche Center (CSAC)
• Avalanche education. State-by-state listing of avalanche courses compiled by CSAC.
• Avalanche incidents. Learn from past avy incidents. What was done right or wrong?
• Avalanche.org. One stop shop for comprehensive avy info.
• Splitboard.com avy talk forum. Share your avy observations and post questions here.
• Telemarktalk avy forum. Avy discussion provided by our friends at telemarktips
• National Weather Service homepage. Your comprehensive weather information resource. You can't understand snow if you don't understand the weather.

In addition to these resources and taking a snow safety class from your local avalanche professional, we recommend that you read some of the excellent books out there on snow science and backcountry safety. Although there are many good ones (see "Backcountry Library" below), if we had to read just one, Splitboard.com recommends Bruce Tremper's Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain. In this book, Tremper (Director of the USFS Utah Avalanche Center) covers the basics of snow safety in a highly readable book with terrific illustrations and charts.

Backcountry Library

The list of available books on backcountry skiing and riding, wilderness travel, guidebooks and snow safety is large and growing every day. We couldn't possibly list every book of interest, but below is a listing of some of our favorites (admittedly from a western US/California bias):

Avalanche Safety

• Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain -- Bruce Tremper. A highly readable book that covers all of the basics of avalanche safety.
• Snow Sense -- Jill Fredston & Doug Fesler. Great little book by the Alaska legends of avy instruction. Compact size fits in your daypack.

Guidebooks

• Backcountry Skiing in California's High Sierra. John Moynier. A lifetime of outrageous touring and descents in one nice compact book.
• 50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California -- Paul Richins. Some overlap with the Moynier book, but every California splitboarder should own both.
• The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes and Trails -- R.J. Secor. The bible of the High Sierra. Loads of great reference photos for some of the best splitboarding terrain on the planet.
• Backcountry Snowboarding and Skiing in the Northern Sierra -- George Hurchalla. Nicely updated guide to the great local Tahoe stashes by our friend George Hurchalla.
• The Chuting Gallery -- Andrew McLean. Wasatch steep skiing guide by celebrated skier and all-around funny guy Andrew McLean.
• Backcountry Skiing Utah -- Tyson Bradley.
• Dawson's Guide to Colorado Backcountry Skiing -- Louis Dawson.
• Climbing the Cascade Volcanos -- Jeff Smoot. More a climbing guide, but you gotta go up before you can come down, right?
• Cascade Alpine Guide. Fred Beckey. The must-have reference (in three volumes) for cascade ramblers.
• 100 Classic Ski and Snowboard Routes in Washington -- Rainer Burgdorfer.
• Backcountry Ski! Oregon: Classic Descents for Skiers and Snowboarders, including Southwest Washington -- Christopher van Tilburg.
• Oregon Descents: A Backcountry Ski Guide to the Southern Cascades. David Waag.
• Wild Snow: 54 Classic Ski and Snowboard Descents of North America. Louis Dawson.

Tips and Instruction

• Backcountry Snowboarding -- Chris van Tilburg. Not splitboarding specific, but a good introductory book to snowboarding in the bc.
• Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book -- Allen O'Bannon & Mike Clelland. Great book chock full of great winter camping tips, sweet illustrations and classic humor.
• Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills. The classic text of mountaineering know-how; a must on everyone's bookshelf.
• Wildsnow.com. Lou Dawson's excellent backcountry glisse-oriented website.

Maps, Mountaineering and other Backcountry Resources

• Topozone.com. Free online topo maps for the entire United States.
• Summitpost.com. Online community of peakbaggers. Lots of great information on skiable peaks, including plenty of reference photos.
• Climber.org. Collection of mountaineering trip reports and associated resources. Heavy sierra emphasis.
• Telemarktips.com. Tele-skiing focused website, but with a great talk forum containing lots of useful info on backcountry skiing and riding, winter camping, trip reports, etc. "More blah blah blah than you can shake a misery stick at."

National Forest and Wilderness Information

The vast majority of backcountry skiing and riding in the US takes place on public lands administered by the US Forest Service (Dep't of Agriculture) or the National Park Service (Dep't of Interior). There's a lot of red tape to deal with, including permits, quotas, use restrictions, etc. Know before you go, and remember -- respect the wilderness!

• US Forest Service homepage. Link to your local area.
• Wilderness.net. A clickable national map with links to all US wilderness area, including comprehensive information on permits and other requirements.
• National Park Service hompage. Link to your local national park.