The High Route Podcast

Bonjour listeners of The High Route Podcast. On this steeps and slogs episode, we feature Aurélien Lardy. Good energy and ceaseless energy are two key qualities for those making a life for themselves in the hills. Aurélien Lardy, a prolific ski mountaineer based out of Chamonix, has been on a tear for the past few years. If first descents or rare repeats are a benchmark, Lardy, who goes by "Aurel"...

In this episode of The High Route Podcast, we speak with Lou Dawson. As much as anyone in North American ski mountaineering, Dawson has been a cornerstone of the sport and the broader culture. Last spring, he released his memoir, Avalanche Dreams. Already reviewed on the site, here's what our writer Alex Lee had to say: Lou Dawson, pioneering American ski mountaineer, climber, and writer, dissects...

Some things should be laid to rest, like the idea that splitboarders are universally slow on the ups and slow to transition. Sure, the gear might be, generally, heavier, but the athletes, in our experience, are fit, fast, and able to ride terrain in eye-opening ways.  Nick Russell fits this mold. A snowboarder living in California's Sierras, Russell and his easy-going vibe balance his moxy in big-...

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of The High Route Podcast.  There's a video clip on YouTube, back from 2014, cataloged by RedBull . You've likely seen it. Cody Townsend shimmies on his skis, perched above The Crack, which would become the best ski line of the year. A decade might as well be a lifetime ago. Since then, Townsend transitioned from ski movie staple to something more arduous and certainl...

As we open up year two at The High Route, emerging from our late summer slumber, it's time to cue up the podcast. Episode 14 is all about reflecting on year one and diving into the print scene.   We open the second year of The High Route with a freshly recorded podcast episode. Episode 1 of Season 2 of The High Route podcast is primarily a State of the Union-type episode.  Pete Vordenberg, Salt La...

The show must go on. It will go on when we bust into September. But it's a wrap for season one of The High Route Podcast. Lucky number episode 13, we'll call it good right there. In this episode, Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas bring some closure to their fall trip to the Chilean Andes. Just before Fabrikant's and Haas' departure in October, we ran The "No Excess" Ski Expedition Packing Mantra episo...

Here are a few notes to get this podcast rolling. We hope you are reading this.  1) There is some foul language in this podcast. F-bombs abound, in particular, after ~the 45:00 minute mark.   2) The episode is broken into two parts: set 1 and set 2. The first "set" was recorded in late March after a fine day of Sunday skiing in the Wasatch. We recorded the second "set" roughly a month later. The m...

Dr. Patrick Fink joins us on Episode 11 of The High Route Podcast. Fink is an ER physician in Bend, Oregon, involved with the local and broader Wilderness Medicine community. He hosts Wilderness Medicine Updates —"a podcast for those interested in wilderness medicine, search and rescue, disaster and austere medicine, and ski patrol medicine." Fink also has a site titled Mountain Lessons , where he...

We're dropping this episode a bit before March—a dreamtime month for many THR readers and podcast listeners. March is on the cusp here in the Northern Hemisphere of longer days. All that translates into more time to move through the mountains—often with warmer temps and more stable avalanche conditions. This episode is handy if you need a little push to get the wheels turning, dream, be inspired,...

This past Fall, Blizzard-Tecnica released a ski and a book to raise money to support the Hilaree Nelson Fund. The fund promotes women-specific scholarships to support women in pursuing professional development relating to mountain pursuits. Formally, the scholarship is called the W2W Hilaree Nelson Education Scholarship.  W2W (Women2Women) is the nomenclature for Blizzard-Tecnica’s program to supp...

We’re titling this the "Seeking Impeccability" epsiode for a few sound reasons. Lynne Wolfe, the guest on our first 2024 episode of The High Route Podcast , is aspirationally impeccable. She has decades of experience as an avalanche educator and a former guide for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and Exum. Such a pedigree includes both mastery and a willingness to learn and improve. By all accounts, L...

Many folks make up the backcountry community. Sliding skis or a splitboard uphill takes some discomfort tolerance (until you feel sufficiently fit) and a commitment to the unknown, even in small doses. Throw other people into the mix, and the recipe for joy, disaster, and all the combos in between are possibilities. When we came across Sophia Schwartz's talk at this year's Wyoming Snow and Avalanc...

There are some foundational values here at The High Route. Right at the top of the list is inspiring backcountry travelers to dream big adventures, and when the time is right, go out and have that adventure. Adventure has gradients, and this might seem like a tangent, but it's worthwhile—there was a 94-year-old at the climbing gym this afternoon. He's a regular. And it certainly looked like he was...

I think we all can recall our first time. You're scrambling around a digital facsimile of a library on the early Internet, and wham, you stumbled onto WildSnow. Lou Dawson, author of Wild Snow : 54 Classic Ski and Snowboard Descents of North America and curator of the website by the same name, is an integral part of the ski community's fabric. He's the first to ski all of Colorado's 14ers. And he'...

About 50 years past the start of the Anthropocene (~1950), mountain towns were abuzz with people running on trails, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and mountain biking. Rumor has it that even back then, there were complaints of crowded trailheads and spraying. And the athletes huffing and puffing up and down and across those hills likely hadn't conjured where they landed in the multi-faceted de...

In episode 3 of The High Route Podcast, we bring together two high level practitioners of their respective crafts. Kelly Cordes and Adam Fabrikant. If you are unfamiliar with Cordes and his work, you are about to familiarize yourself with a gem. He's a notable alpinist, mixologist, and even a better writer—which is saying something. If you haven't read his classic book The Tower, please do. It's s...

After a weekend day in the high alpine, where puffies, a biting wind, and turning leaves teased of winter, we're more in tune with the season—which is ski film season. The socials are beginning to buzz with the sending as production houses ramp up the visual and auditory volume. Now. Is. The. Time. To. Get. Stoked. With that in mind, we took a small detour to visit one of the best in the climbing/...

Small tremors and more rattling seismic activity have tossed and turned the outdoor media landscape for several years at this point. For example, if you are a core surfer, cyclist, and skier, you know the drill—legacy titles, both in print and web-based, have morphed and may not resemble what you recall.  There are many examples of niche and aspiring for just-beyond-niche publications that meet th...