Cross-country skiing the Beaver Trail, Boise National Forest, Idaho.

5 Kids, 4 Days, No Wifi, Only Trees, Snow, and a Yurt

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By Michael Lanza

We pause at the top of a steep hill on the Elkhorn Loop Trail in Idaho’s Boise National Forest and contemplate where to go from here. My 17-year-old niece, Anna Garofalo, and I have cross-country skied for two hours to reach this quiet spot in the ponderosa pine forest, miles from the nearest road—and more than 2,000 miles and an experiential chasm from the only place she has ever known as home.

I lay out the choices to Anna: turn around and ski two more hours back to the Skyline yurt, where we’re spending three nights with my wife and kids and another family; or explore a trail I’ve never actually skied in the many trips I’ve made to this system of ski trails and yurts north of Idaho City. I’ve never skied it because, unlike most of the trails out here, it’s not groomed, and it lies out on the farthest perimeter of the trail system. Going that way would take us at least three more hours to reach the yurt. But I’ve long wanted to ski it, if for no other reason than its name: the Wayout Trail.

“Let’s do it,” Anna tells me. “After all, when am I going to be back here again?” God, I love that attitude. But I suppose that’s how you would look at something you’ve been literally waiting almost your entire life to do.

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Last Day to Win a Big Agnes Down Jacket

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Big Agnes men's Hole in the Wall Jacket.
Big Agnes men’s Hole in the Wall Jacket.

A good down jacket is gold in the backcountry, keeping you warm on frosty mornings in a mountain campsite, or staving off a chill during a break on a ski or snowshoeing tour on a winter day. Today’s the last chance for you to enter to win an outstanding, lightweight puffy jacket stuffed with high-tech, water-resistant feathers, the Big Agnes Hole in the Wall Jacket.

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Ask Me: Can I Backpack With a Tent in the Alps?

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Dear Michael,

I am 22 and am looking to do some backpacking with a friend in Austria’s Alps this summer, specifically the Grossglockner and Schober Groups out of Zell am See.

You wrote an article in 2009 for Backpacker Magazine on backpacking Austria’s Alps and so I hope you can help me with a question on the subject: What is the tent environment like in the Alps?

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Gear Review: Rab Alliance Gloves

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Rab Alliance Gloves
Rab Alliance Gloves

Winter Gloves
Rab Alliance Gloves
$165, 8 oz. (medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL
rab.uk.com

In winter activities like backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, and snow or ice climbing, you’re out for many hours and can face a huge range of temperatures and weather conditions—and often have your hands right in the snow. To me, gloves that fend off all precipitation and wind—and are super warm when my fingers turn white but versatile enough for moderate cold—are worth every penny. Several days of backcountry and resort skiing in Idaho’s Boise Mountains convinced me that the Rab Alliance are some of the best gloves I’ve ever used.

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Rediscovering A Sense of Wonder: Backcountry Skiing the Tetons

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By Michael Lanza

The morning air at 8,800 feet in Wyoming’s Teton Range hovers in the single digits Fahrenheit, and the breeze wields a below-zero wind chill like a straight razor: It feels on the verge of shaving the two-day-old beard from my face. In blinding sunshine, six of us step outside the Baldy Knoll yurt to find at least six inches of light powder—cold smoke—that fell overnight atop the 10 inches of snow that had dropped from the generous heavens in recent days. We arrived here late yesterday afternoon, just a couple hours before the frozen waterfall of fat, featherweight snowflakes began pouring copiously from a coal-black night sky.

Skiing in the mountains, as with anything else in life, is really all about timing. And sometimes you just get lucky.

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