Preparing For Your Best Backcountry Skiing Season Ever - Part 1
It’s never too early to start thinking about backcountry skiing.If you’re like me, there is a very brief gap between my last ski day of the season and the return of intrusive thoughts about backcountry skiing. That dormant season usually lasts about a week. During that week I thaw out physically and mentally after a long winter of teaching and guiding in the backcountry. I clean and (reluctantly) store my gear for the off-season. And for a few days my mind takes a break from thinking about weather patterns, expedition planning, and avalanche problems.
Then – inevitably – dreams of winter return. Thoughts of skin tracks, freezing temperatures and powder turns push into my mind sometime in May or June. Unfortunately, migrating south to chase summer turns in South America isn’t an option for me and the early season snow of next winter seem impossibly far away.
So, every summer I face the question: what can I do to prepare for the next season of backcountry skiing while I wait impatiently for temperatures to drop and the return of the snows?
Luckily for me, preparing for backcountry skiing is a core part of my job. I work as a university professor, ski guide, and the program lead for ski touring the Adventure Studies Department at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. It’s a dream job. Especially for someone like me who dreams about skiing. My university classrooms include some of the best locations for backcountry skiing in Canada and around the world. Students in my courses move to the front of the class on skis or splitboards, leading out towards professional careers in the adventure tourism industry.
All Photos by Jerry Isaak.
Every fall semester my students and I engage in a months-long process of preparing for the upcoming ski season. Although you won’t be able to join us on campus, in the weeks leading up to the start of the 2023-2024 ski season in Canada I invite you to join me on BackcountrySkiingCanada.com for a series of articles on how to prepare for your best season of backcountry skiing ever. Topics will include information on:
- Avalanche skills training.
- Fitness training for backcountry skiing.
- Mental fitness training.
- Planning ski trips in Canada and around the world (my top 10 recommendations for backcountry skiing locations in Canada, plus my top 5 international backcountry ski locations).
- Gear prep and recommendations.
- And more. Let me know in the forum if there are specific topics you’d like to see.
I look forward to connecting with you over the coming weeks – as we all impatiently wait for temperatures to drop and the first snow to fall.
Jerry Isaak is an Associate Teaching Professor and the program lead for ski touring in the Adventure Studies Department at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia.
He is an AMGA certified Ski Guide and has guided backcountry ski adventures in Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, and throughout the United States and western Canada.