Backcountry Skiing: Skills for Ski Touring and Ski Mountaineering (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert) [Paperback]

It's bizarrre: For as huge as backcountry skiing has grown, the definitive "how-to" manual hasn't been written. Until now.
I own everything from Lito Tejado-Flores' ancient book "Backcountry Skiing" to the slim "Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book" and about three avvie and ski-guidebooks. None of those has everything that today's newbie Alpine ski-tourer needs to know.
But this book by Schell, Wheeler and Volken has it all. And while experienced backcountry skiers might be able to skip parts of chapters, and skim others, this longtime backcountry skier was surprised (and a little embarrassed) how much he learned -- the mountain-guide authors cover in detail things like seated belays, various shelters, placing protection on ice, and building several kinds of anchors. Pair this book with an even more detailed avalanche-awareness book (or better, a class) and you'll be ready for the mountains this winter.

This is a great book. Not too basic and not too advanced for someone wanting to get into the best way to ski-the earn your turns way.

I used to teach alpine touring and ski mountaineering in the army and this would have been a great book to have around as the textbook. We taught all of this and then went in depth on the important items like avalanche safety (avoidance) and rescue. This book gives a beginning or intermediate ski mountaineer a taste and encourages AIARE level one certification (I recommend level two personally...)

I still have my copy of the past standard, Peter Cliff's out of print classic "Ski Mountaineering" (no, I won't be selling it on EBay) and this is an improvement on it.

It is great for learning and a great review for those that think they remember everything. I got some good tips on gear that, damn, I SHOULD have known!!!

Scott Schell, Margaret Wheeler and Martin Volken have teamed together to write the definitive guidebook on backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. All three authors, who are either IFMGA or AMGA certified mountain guides, have organized the discipline of backcountry skiing into ten concise chapters that take the reader through such topics as gear selection, avalanche preparedness, ski mountaineering, and mountain rescue techniques. One highlight of the book is the clear photos and graphics to demonstrate the useful skills and ideas that are helpful in the backcountry. For example, I recently used the skin cutting guide for my new touring skis. The step-by-step instructions and accompanying photos walk you through the essentials to match your skins perfectly to your skis. Instead of just describing what specific items you need for safe travel in the backcountry, the book has clear pictures of such items and procedures as a basic ski mountaineering rack, building an emergency sled, and crevasse rescue just to name a few. Make sure you have a highlighter and sticky notes to mark important information for you'll find yourself returning to this handy guidebook time and again for further reference. "Backcountry Skiing" is designed for both the experienced backcountry skier looking to hone his/her skills and the novice seeking to strectch his/her limits outside the ski area boundary.

This probably is the sixth of the Mountaineers Outdoor Expert Series books that I have purchased as published by the Mountaineers Books. As with those other texts, I was able to learn some things and was surprised and disappointed at the information which was not covered. This book is no exception.

On the positive side, there is very good instruction on roped skiing and on situations requiring belay stations and stances with skis. The avalanche safety section is good, but not definitive. The strong point of this book is the techniques for skiing in various terrain, along with the transitions that inevitably occur. For this, I would say this is one of the better, more up-to-date instructional books.

A big disappointment comes with the lack of depth in discussing the merits of various gear options. For example, in the beginning there was a brief illustration of the history of telemark vs. alpine touring setups, followed by a bare discussion about the merits of each. This fundamental question is then quickly dismissed simply by the statement "the best answer remains to choose the right tool for the job, or quite possibly to go with whatever style you prefer." That completely misses the point on why someone would buy this in the first place; these experts should give much more information to the reader before the readers embark on the very expensive quest to discover this for themselves...the reason for an "expert" series in the first place.

Another example is their discussion on ski weight. It starts out good, but then the authors punt again by saying "Shop at a store where the salesperson can answer technical questions and can point you in the right direction for your intended application." But isn't this the reason one would buy this book?? Having very frustrating experiences with so-called "expert" salespeople in many of these stores leaves much to be desired, which is why I would like the opinions of the experts who wrote this book. This punting on fundamental gear questions grows tiresome quickly...

There is no discussion on the merits of wax or XCG/Crown/Fishscale means of level or uphill locomotion. And there is nary anything about using mountaineering boots in conjuction with ski setups...only an acknowledgement that you can. These examples of lame treatment of important gear questions frankly minimizes the utility of this book. Certainly, the authors have an opinion about such things; the reason people like me buy books by experts is to read their reasoned opinions. This gives nothing of the sort in order to be "gear" neutral (a sort of "political correctness" imported to an "expert" book so as to perhaps not offend any company or various gear afficionados...)

A second and larger disappointment is that this book deals minimally with hauling gear for winter camping/expedition purposes. For all intents and purposes, this book should be entitled "Day-Trip Backcountry Skiing" because there is hardly anything referring to the load-carrying complications of overnight and/or expedition-type traveling. There is no instructions on how to rig a pulk/sled, or how to rig a backpack even for overnight use. Absolutely nothing on winter camping after the skiing, which to me is the essense of ski mountaineering.

In sum, the good technique instruction in this book is worth the purchase price. But this definitely is not the definitive Ski Mountaineering book...if this is what you are looking for, you might need to look further...I'm still searching.

Nothing is left out of this comprehensive guide. I have been backcountry skiing for several years, but this book still had many new ideas for me. And a beginner would find a huge amount of practical advice - would save years worth of trial and error on your own! The steep snow and glacier travel sections are also really well done.