It wasn’t so long ago that I was actually looking forward to the onset of spring. An epic winter in Whitefish, Montana, left me secretly yearning for sunny days and warm temps. Let me rephrase that, I just wanted the temps to rise above freezing so I could start training for what would be an epic 7-day mountain bike stage race, the BC Bike Race. Oh how times have changed.

It’s the third week of November in the Pacific Northwest and oh how little snow there is in those there mountains. But finally, finally I woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw this…

First snow of the year...Olympic National Park

It’s not much, but it’s snow. Which means only one thing…it’s time to go skiing. After mulling over some telemetry data, our group has decided the first ski tour of the year will be enjoyed on the flanks of Mt Rainier. Which of course meant something else…time to organize the backcountry gear. Yikes.

Do I have everything? The backcountry pack.

I recommend everyone heading out for their first backcountry ski day, to dump all their gear on the floor and really look at it. That’s a lot of crap we have to carry for just a day on the mountain.

But if only it were that easy. By dumping everything on the floor, I was able to slowly add missing gear as the night wore on. Headlight, sun screen, first aid, new batteries for the avalanche tranceiver…I think it’s all there.