Backcountry Magazine September 2016 - 2017 Gear Guide Bags the approach of old age

the approach of old age and the unavoidability of loss

In the process of trying to stay alive

More than a century after both natural history and mountaineering fractured into subdisciplines

a granite dome

Carbon-fiber applications—from typical to absurd

Backcountry Magazine September 2016 - 2017 Gear Guide Bags the approach of old ageFEATURES 2017 SKI TEST & GUIDE Last March, and for the ninth year running, the annual Gear Test Week reigned over Powder Mountain, Utah. Three days of furious flakes welcomed our 40 person tester team as we mowed through more than 200 skis and almost every backcountry boot and binding available. And after ripping, railing and hiking on the latest, our testers produced 1,300 test forms from which we've designated the best 140 skis, boots and bindings