Backcountry Skiing or Ski Mountaineering?

I'm extreme. Extremely extreme. <br><br> <br>

let people know that we are not young

<br><br>I take offense at the statement above.

Why look for a definition when you're having fun?

If there's no snow, why not parse?

I think that the misuse of the word "extreme" is somewhat local to the U.S. press. I believe that I have read two articles in the last couple of weeks, (NY times and Seattle times) that referred to what was backcountry skiing (I use this term because I do not know the gear that the subjects were useing as referred to in the articles) as extreme skiing when they were referring to skiing just barely out of bounds from developed areas and looking for relatively benign untracked slopes.<br><br>The U.S. press is pretty ignorant about so many things, but in a country where this sport is but a speck in the face of most and so very recently "discovered", it is even less surprising.<br><br>Now in Europe, "ski touring" on all the gear that this thread has been discussing is such and ingrained part of winter sports, this discussion would probably not take place. Literally whole families practice this on such a routine basis that the off-piste is anything but private. Ski touring is a more descriptive and general term, even more so than backcountry, because it decribes the action and not necessarily where that action is taking place. From what I have experienced in Switzerland and France, much of their high country, though rugged and as dangerous as any high country here is anything but remote. The term backcountry kinda doesn't really work. In the U.S. we still sort of have backcountry.<br><br>Alan

Just kind of curious... wouldn't one need a climbing permit to take skis (or anything else.) above 10,000 on Mt. Rainier? Went up Mt. Baker once with a group. Can't remember if we had a permit.

It has been experimentally determined that a snowboard is an inferior tool for steep hard descents.  

<br><br>Based on the little I've read and heard about, I stand behind my assertion about snowboards. In Europe people have done amazing things on them. Quite possibly the steepest descents yet done in the Northwest have been done on snowboards (1992 North Face of Mt Hood by Stephen Koch, 1998 Success Glacier Couloir on Mt Rainier by Edgar and Kellogg). <br><br>A single board with a single edge, under control of an expert, is a powerful tool. Snowboarders can also descend toe-in with two real ice tools (instead of wimpy whippets) giving them the ability to scratch their way down really sketchy stuff if they want to. This is well established in Europe.<br><br>I think skiers in this country underestimate the snowboard as a tool for steep descents.<br>