I would not quite call it “playing hooky.” Yet there I was 4 hours from my adult responsibilities, two skis under my feet, trudging slowly uphill. While my dog Valentin reassured me this was the best decision I could ever make, I knew that most people in my pre-med program would never do this.

It's dark, it's cold, it's been snowing for a while. Click. Click, click. Click. Click, click. The sounds of the tech bindings attaching my feet to the feather lite skis that will gingerly grip their way up the mountain. So light it's like they aren't even there. With grace and ease I kickturn my way up the mountain, the summit getting closer with each step. Surveying snow qualities and visualizing the best descent from the peak I notice the mountains not caring that I'm there. This is for me, I find meaning in this pursuit and flow state combination. Skins are peeled from my bases and the skis take on a new life! I am exactly where I want to BE.

Since 1994, Bent Gate Mountaineering has been a place that believes in community and thrives on promoting fun and safety in the outdoors. BG's goal is to sell the gear that has the best chance of improving your outdoor experience. Whether you are a bad-ass backcountry skier or a newbie rock climber, you will feel welcome in this shop.

*Make sure to come down tonight for a Backcountry 101 clinic with Icelantic's Annelise Loevlie and Scotty VerMerris. If you have specific questions about Icelantic products, this is the bc 101 session to attend! BC 101 sessions are designed to introduce skiers and boarders with the equipment and resources that are available for fun and safe backcountry tours. Bring your gear and your questions about backcountry touring!

Topics Include:
Backcountry essentials, clothing systems, ski touring & splitboard gear, avalanche safety gear and backcountry resources.
Wednesdays at 6:15pm at Bent Gate Mountaineering. Check our calendar at www.bentgate.com/events/ for alternate events.

Icelantic athlete Owen Leeper brings us another rad edit featuring footage of him skiing some classic lines at Jackson hole in bounds and sidecountry on his Nomads with a drone, drone footage by Tim Swartz. Follow Owen on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/o_leeps/ or http://www.owenleeper.com Opening line on Triple Cliffs on Cody Peak, Couloir shot in Zero G and final shot on Powder 8 face at Jackson. Additional filming by Meredith Edwards.

Icelantic athlete Alex Taran tells us about her experience competing at "Red Bull Out Of Hell" in Chile.Take a helicopter into the crater of Volcan Puyehue, Skin across the crater, climb out, circumnavigate the cumbre and ski hundreds of meters towards the valley floor.

Icelantic athlete Max Meissner AKA "Lord Of SnowFront" out of Germany brings you another insanely rad and entertaining web series called "Adventure Seeker". This 5 part series documents Max's season long visit to the US to ski as much of Western...

Words by Julian Carr Got my first, 1st descent of my life. At the newest tenure heli operation in British Columbia, Kingfisher Heliskiing, on a heli-assit touring assignment with Backcountry Magazine, we stayed in a cabin in the backwoods you had to snowmobile to, we hopped in the heli each morning at a little farm off the dirt road middle of nowhere Canada, near Cherryville, BC, next thing you know our guide is pointing out a row of these chutes that had never been skied...

After some serious time at Silverton Mountain with the Bent Gate Crew we headed over to Telluride to see some friends and ride the coat tails of our athletes Julian Carr and Whit Boucher as they were on their way to ski with Telluride Helitrax for an article in The Ski Journal.

We arrived to more spring conditions and learned that we had an opportunity the to get a heli drop first thing in the morning to the top of the iconic Lightning Bolt Couloir which sits across the valley from Telluride Resort...