The Guardian is doing some slackcountry skiing in Arosa which it calls Switzerland’s best-kept ski secret. I remember we used to ski down to Arosa from the top of the Parsenn lifts in Davos, or at least to the railhead.

Below us is a deserted valley and though it hasn’t snowed for several days, there’s not a single ski-track to be seen, if we were in Verbier, St Anton or Chamonix, that run, known as the Schafrücken, or Sheep’s Back, would be covered in tracks by 11am on the first morning after a big dump of snow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/nov/15/ski-switzerland-off-beaten-track

Steve Romeo at TetonAT is in Anartica of all places

http://www.tetonat.com/2009/11/iceaxetv-antarctic-peninsula-ski-cruise-update-5/

well worth reading and gawping at the pictures.

Lou Dawson has been looking at the Backcountry Bomb, a cornice cutting tool

http://www.wildsnow.com/2202/backcountry-skiing-cornice-cutting/

Looks like a lot of faff for the backcountry although useful for ski patrollers.

Fernie has seen an avalanche triggered by two pre-season ski tourers at Fernie Alpine Resort on Monday afternoon. The mountain was officially closed when the avalanche happened and owners RCR have urged skiers not to return until the lifts open next month, when avalanche control will be in place.

http://www.thefreepress.ca/article/20091110/FERNIE0110/911109999/0/FERNIE02

Over in Vancouver a decision to close one of B.C.’s busiest backcountry ski and snowshoeing areas on Vancouver’s North Shore because of the Olympic Games is upsetting those who use the wilderness trails for their winter recreation.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/11/05/bc-cypress-bowl-park-backcountry-olympic-closures.html

Meanwhile Washington State skiers are tackling the Chamonix - Zermatt haute-route

“The biggest difference is that Europe has been so heavily populated for so many years, they’ve built this extensive system of mountain huts, lifts and trams to accommodate people in the high country”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/15/backcountry-skiers-tackle-haute-route/

The articles claims

The Haute Route was first traversed by skiers in 1911.

whereas PisteHors.com readers will know it was 2003… or is that 1903!

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0660-skiing-chamonix-zermatt-haute-route/

Chamonix - Zermatt Haute Route ...
Yes visiting skiers who live in the western USA mountains tend to be fascinated by the refuges / huts. Especially visitors from the Cascade mountains in the state of Washington (where that party came from)—which have almost no huts, no useful lift access, and not much road access (even less in winter).

The mountains in that part of USA do have lots of spectacular peaks, but the skiers only rarely get close to them. Because getting into those peaks requires hauling tents + sleeping bags + stove + food long distances + over passes—so only a few skiers do it, and not often.

The Chamonix - Zermatt HR for them is amazing: Easy access to spectacular peaks, easy to just hang out and enjoy the view at the end of each day. Then the possibility of stringing together six different refuges is beyond miraculous.

The fact that the Chamonix-Zermatt HR has the least amount of good skiing of any of the European traverses is beside the point for them—They already know where to find good skiing back home in their Cascade mountains.

Some of these visitors also go beyond just enjoying the huts + views—and get sucked into the “mystique” of the route itself—the need to “do it”, to succeed in finishing “it”. As if Chamonix-to-Zermatt were a single “it”, as opposed to a linking-together of two or three different independent “routes”, any of which nowadays could be done as a satisfying 2-3 day trip (or single-day tour).

So the history of the first ski traverse from Chamonix to Zermatt gets cited—without noting that most modern parties who claim to “do” the HR do not actually ski from Chamonix to Zermatt. Instead in the middle of their tour they take a bus or taxi from Champex to Bourg St Pierre (or Verbier). So they did not even do the “it” (which nowadays is no longer an “it").

But rather than negating their ski-traverse achievement, the bus ride enhances it—because it’s further proof of the miraculous difference between the accessable European Alps and their remote mountains back home.
(I met some visiting American skiers last year and they told me about using the buses in Switzerland. I told them that the timing of the bus schedules made them almost useless for normal single-day tours, and that most serious French + Swiss + German skiers get access to ski tours by driving their cars. The visitors sounded very disappointed.)

I am myself an American visitor. Key difference is that I (unfortunately) do not live in the western mountains. I don’t have much good backcountry ski touring where I live. So when I come to Europe, I really do care about the quality of the skiing itself. What amazes me about France is the very large number of great ski tours I can access without using the refuges.

Ken