Light Tours: A Mellower Way to Tour By Ashley Peterson   “Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come.” – JOHN MUIR, 1873 The Ecological Wonder of Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in all of North America, sitting at an elevation of 6,225’. It is 22 miles long, has 75 miles of shoreline, and is 1,645 feet deep. It’s the second deepest lake in Americ ..read more

Big Mountains & Big Terrain By Ashley Peterson Stevens: A Pass With a Past Stevens Pass, named after John Frank Stevens, is located at an elevation of 4,061’ in the Cascade Mountains in Washington. The climate on the pass is a maritime-influenced climate that experiences short and mild summers and winters with heavy snowfall. Development on the pass connects back to the railway history of the Pacific Northwest. In 1890, Stevens, a surveyor for the Great Northern Railway, found the pass with the help of indigenous groups in the area, and the first tracks were laid up and over the 4,0 ..read more

Hidden Gem of the PNW By Matt Schonwald & Sam Luthy Have You Visited the Abode of the Gods? As hard as it is to believe, Deer Park and Hurricane Ridge were at one time under the ocean. Geologists believe that roughly 35 million years ago, the tectonic plate carrying the Pacific Ocean’s floor crashed with the North American Plate forming the Olympic Mountains. For more than 8,000 years, native people have inhabited this land along with wolves, elk, and bison. The Duwamish of the Salish sea refer to the mountains as ‘Sun-a-do’, and the ancestors of the Klallam have been living, hunti ..read more

The Quarry Road to Paradise By Ashley Peterson Ethics, Access and Being A Team Player Let’s talk. To help keep Marble wild and with a heavy degree of solitude, we need to follow some rules and common ethics in order to keep everyone safe and happy. Parking and road access are important components to understand before booting up. Easements and private property are not to be taken lightly. Let’s all pitch in and do our best to keep this area open for the public and not over run. 4WD or AWD is mandatory for driving the Quarry Road (County Road 3). Note that the road is narrow and most ..read more

A Place That Speaks For Itself By Mike Soucy Origins and Landmarks Massive glaciers carved out the landscape that is now the third most popular National Park in the United States based on visitation. What today is known as Rocky Mountain National Park(RMNP) was first visited by humans 11,000 years ago. Spearheads and scrapers along with other artifacts shed light into the cultural history of this land. Up until the 1700’s RMNP was a summer get-away for the Ute tribe who enjoyed the vast alpine tundras, green valleys, and turquoise lakes. Early Spanish explorers, French fur traders, and ..read more

One of Colorado's Best Kept Secrets By Rodney Ley The Early Days In December of 1972 I made my first trip up Colorado Highway 14, a winding two-lane road up from Fort Collins to cross-country ski on Cameron Pass. My old Bonna 600 edgeless wooden skis with Tempo cable bindings (borrowed from the university outing club) stuck awkwardly across the backseat of my ‘63 Ford Falcon. Wild and remote, Cameron Pass drew me back year after year. Although the road was not paved until 1976 and was closed in winter until 1979, the drive was always worth the effort. One attribute we Nordic skiers noti ..read more

Simple Terrain is a Must-Have on Your Run List By Andy Sovick Low-angle turns on a bluebird day Finding the best terrain for the conditions Cruisy skiing = more fun with friends With Great Stoke Comes Tough Decisions For backcountry skiers, a massive amount of snow in a short amount of time awakes a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, a skier cannot help but get excited about deep, deep pow. Images start appearing in our heads (and on our social media) of skiers porpoising way down into the white room, gloves and poles barely exposed above the surface as if they are the only way to ..read more

Stories From the Skin Track By Andy Sovick What is the Grand Traverse Ski Race? Simply put: It’s a competitive backcountry tour that begins in Crested Butte, Colorado at midnight, and ends 40 miles later in Aspen. The Grand Traverse (GT) race was originally conceived by Jan Runge, Mike Martin, and Cathy Frank in the 1990s and was initially created as a fundraiser for the Crested Butte Nordic Center, but now benefits a variety of charities. The journey is a legacy to the rugged skiing postmen of the late 1800s who took similar routes to deliver supplies, letters and hope to these remote moun ..read more