Average age of touring folk on NS

Drail

Drail

Active member
i think the average age of the site as a whole is 22 or something, but for touring folk, I always assume people all older than they are. In the sun drinking a beer instead of going to the park for the afternoon and was curious.

I'm 30. This near average? Am I young, or an old dude comparatively?
 
I started touring when I was 15, and I was pretty much always the youngest guy on the skin track. I had quite a lot of trouble finding partners, most kids my age weren't interested and no adults wanted to touring with a teenager. So I found myself lying about my age most of the time in the backcountry. Even now, I find people are sometimes put off when I say how old I am.
 
13353806:VD. said:
I started touring when I was 15, and I was pretty much always the youngest guy on the skin track. I had quite a lot of trouble finding partners, most kids my age weren't interested and no adults wanted to touring with a teenager. So I found myself lying about my age most of the time in the backcountry. Even now, I find people are sometimes put off when I say how old I am.
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Truu, im 15 and finding a partner who I trust to go into the backcountry with is tough.
 
Join a local mountaineerig club, or if you've got a university/college near you see if their Snosports society or Mountaineering society allows external members, that's probably your best. When your email them, probably best not to lead with I'm 15.
 
I'm 24..two years touring. I find it tough to find BC partners as well. Most of my skiers friends would love the ride down but the skin up is what drives most of them away.

I find it weird that in avi classes going out alone is so frowned upon, but I meet lots of people in UT who are out and about on their own. I would say just as many solo people as those that have partners.

Side note: I also find it odd how I rarely ever see pits dug on the slopes. Do people trust their local avi forecaster? I was chatting with a solo guy at the base of a parking lot and we were talking about the runs we had done. I told him I was staying away from such and such aspect because of wind. He had no idea what I was talking about. I'm not saying I'm perfect but even some of the old farts I see out seem very underprepared.
 
13357605:Loco-Deer-Slayer said:
I find it weird that in avi classes going out alone is so frowned upon, but I meet lots of people in UT who are out and about on their own. I would say just as many solo people as those that have partners.

Side note: I also find it odd how I rarely ever see pits dug on the slopes. Do people trust their local avi forecaster? I was chatting with a solo guy at the base of a parking lot and we were talking about the runs we had done. I told him I was staying away from such and such aspect because of wind. He had no idea what I was talking about. I'm not saying I'm perfect but even some of the old farts I see out seem very underprepared.
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I often tour solo, although it is dependent on the objective. If it requires a fairly high level of technical skill, then I usually prefer to ski it solo. I suppose AAIRE/CAA classes teach to the doctrine of 'safe travel', and of course if you're caught in a slide, you're chances of being dug out from a full burial are higher if you're in a party.

Pits are really time consuming, and don't always provide a great deal of insight.You can dig three pits in a line next to each other with a few metres in between, and they'll all give you different results. Sometimes these results will correlate, but they'll often be pretty contradictory. Again in AAIRE/CAA classes they teach you dig them pretty liberally, but in reality it's not practical. In North America pit digging seems to have much wider popularity than elsewhere.

Yeh, some people are pretty clueless, and the more time you spend in the backcountry, the more you see it.
 
^ a partner is your best bet to make it out safe should ANYTHING bad happen to you. Avalanches are only one thing that can happen. Hit a tree, twist a knee, get lost, fall into a creek, the list goes on. Ski with friends!

oh and I'm 33.
 
13358346:snomaster said:
^ a partner is your best bet to make it out safe should ANYTHING bad happen to you. Avalanches are only one thing that can happen. Hit a tree, twist a knee, get lost, fall into a creek, the list goes on. Ski with friends!
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Yeh, I think it really depends on where you're skiing. Here in Scotland a lot of the test piece descents are grade I/II winter climbing routes, so you normally get an audience at the bottom and sometimes on the route geared to the hilt with technical axes, twin ropes and trad gear.
 
13358346:snomaster said:
^ a partner is your best bet to make it out safe should ANYTHING bad happen to you. Avalanches are only one thing that can happen. Hit a tree, twist a knee, get lost, fall into a creek, the list goes on. Ski with friends!

oh and I'm 33.
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I always ski with partners but realistically with a lot of the touring areas around here a SPOT device or similar would be just as useful, if not more useful than a partner, assuming you're still conscious. When you're hours away from cell reception/an emergency phone/the road a broken leg or more life threatening injuries can mean self-extrication is impossible and the healthy partner is still hours away from even raising an alarm. Reading the Parks Canada accident reports from around here following avalanches and injuries it's always scary how

long it takes for groups to get help without such devices.

Getting rescued is a very last resort of course but when things really do go bad the ability to raise an alarm from the backcountry is huge.

I'm 31 btw.
 
13356039:Pipe_Munky said:
Really Darryl? I thought you cared about us industry folk...
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Individually, you guys are awesome. Group setting is a total different beast.
 
I really wish I could have a partner everyday but the reality is I don't. As cliche as it is, not having a partner is not going to stop me from pursuing something I love.

Dark mornings in the woods alone or camping alone are scary as shit though. I'm beginning to get used to it but I'm contemplating on buying a small fire arm for wild life protection. Am I crazy? Maybe bear mace?
 
I've had to be heli evacuated from running into a tree up in a backcountry lodge in Canada. Rescues are not cheap, that should definitely be your last resort! Even with trip health insurance it was still a fuck load of money, being a US citizen.

Totally worth it though. Shout out to all the Nelson BC nurses you are all babes and I would come back any day.
 
13358346:snomaster said:
^ a partner is your best bet to make it out safe should ANYTHING bad happen to you. Avalanches are only one thing that can happen. Hit a tree, twist a knee, get lost, fall into a creek, the list goes on. Ski with friends!
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Like everything in the backcountry, it's all about where you draw the line of acceptable risk. Everyone will draw that line in different places for a myriad of different reasons.
 
13360421:Loco-Deer-Slayer said:
Dark mornings in the woods alone or camping alone are scary as shit though. I'm beginning to get used to it but I'm contemplating on buying a small fire arm for wild life protection. Am I crazy? Maybe bear mace?
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Haha, yeah, I know the feeling. I've had a few paranoid moments worrying about cougars and bears whilst on solo approaches in the dark. Bear spray and making noise definitely puts my mind at ease a bit (and I have pulled bear spray out several times when running in to bears on the woods, not yet had to use it though) but nothing would be much help if you've got a sneaky cougar stalking you.
 
13360421:Loco-Deer-Slayer said:
Dark mornings in the woods alone or camping alone are scary as shit though. I'm beginning to get used to it but I'm contemplating on buying a small fire arm for wild life protection. Am I crazy? Maybe bear mace?
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah, I know the feeling. I've had a few paranoid moments worrying about cougars and bears whilst on solo approaches in the dark. Bear spray and making noise definitely puts my mind at ease a bit (and I have pulled bear spray out several times when running in to bears on the woods, not yet had to use it though) but nothing would be much help if you've got a sneaky cougar stalking you.
 
^^, Maybe i'm a dirty treehugging hippy. But doesn't it seem pretty lame if your going out hiking with a gun. Your bringing yourself into the bears territory, sure bear spray is good, a whistle. But don't put yourself in a situation where your likely to have to kill such a magnificent species. Living in a National Park I don't get that option and spend a fair bit of time camping and living outside. Bring some protection but I feel like if your in an area you don't feel safe being in without a gun you should maybe just not be there.
 
13353806:VD. said:
I started touring when I was 15, and I was pretty much always the youngest guy on the skin track. I had quite a lot of trouble finding partners, most kids my age weren't interested and no adults wanted to touring with a teenager. So I found myself lying about my age most of the time in the backcountry. Even now, I find people are sometimes put off when I say how old I am.
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I feel you. I am 15 years old and from Connecticut (yeah, there are actually small mountains here) and this was my first year of touring, most of my touring is alone or with my Dad... Aside from the presedential range in New Hampshire I have never been in avalanche prone zones. 760115.jpeg760114.jpeg760106.jpeg760105.jpeg
 
13360595:ShredMasterPlus said:
^^, Maybe i'm a dirty treehugging hippy. But doesn't it seem pretty lame if your going out hiking with a gun. Your bringing yourself into the bears territory, sure bear spray is good, a whistle. But don't put yourself in a situation where your likely to have to kill such a magnificent species. Living in a National Park I don't get that option and spend a fair bit of time camping and living outside. Bring some protection but I feel like if your in an area you don't feel safe being in without a gun you should maybe just not be there.
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I totally agree with you man about killing the animal (I guess that makes me a dirty hippy too??). It's more peace of mind. Going out alone you are much more likely to be attacked by wild life than in a group (lets say from .0001% to .001%).

I try to mitigate the hazards, bury my food 100 yards away, leave nothing that smells out of a zip lock bag, but still there is always that chance. I only get the idea because growing up my dad would sleep with a gun within quick reach when we went camping. Granted we never had to use it, but he explained to me why he had it, and it made sense to me. So I guess that's why I'm contemplating. Also, this might sound even crazier, but around the area I grew up there was a serial killer who went on a spree getting people in their tents.
 
13360917:Loco-Deer-Slayer said:
I try to mitigate the hazards, bury my food 100 yards away, leave nothing that smells out of a zip lock bag, but still there is always that chance. I only get the idea because growing up my dad would sleep with a gun within quick reach when we went camping. Granted we never had to use it, but he explained to me why he had it, and it made sense to me. So I guess that's why I'm contemplating. Also, this might sound even crazier, but around the area I grew up there was a serial killer who went on a spree getting people in their tents.
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For bears you're better off just getting bear spray. It's cheaper, lighter and easier to carry, and the research suggests it's safer than being armed with a gun.

Eg:
http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/grizzly/bear spray.pdf
 
Word!! Thanks for the link, bookmarked. Yeah I've always just kind of thought if a bear ever attacked me I was done for (and a mountain lion/cougar). I've shot side arms (very minimally) in my life and yeah I don't think they have the stopping power to kill a bear even going through a full mag (unless you know where to shoot).

Guess it's time to start bringing an RPG with me everywhere I go.
 
13360602:Jamartini said:
I feel you. I am 15 years old and from Connecticut (yeah, there are actually small mountains here) and this was my first year of touring, most of my touring is alone or with my Dad... Aside from the presedential range in New Hampshire I have never been in avalanche prone zones.
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Doesn't matter where it is or with whom, so long as you're getting out there you'll pick up a lot of little things and your few extra years of experience will stand you in really good stead for when your older and most of your peers start touring.
 
13358247:VD. said:
I often tour solo, although it is dependent on the objective. If it requires a fairly high level of technical skill, then I usually prefer to ski it solo. I suppose AAIRE/CAA classes teach to the doctrine of 'safe travel', and of course if you're caught in a slide, you're chances of being dug out from a full burial are higher if you're in a party.

Pits are really time consuming, and don't always provide a great deal of insight.You can dig three pits in a line next to each other with a few metres in between, and they'll all give you different results. Sometimes these results will correlate, but they'll often be pretty contradictory. Again in AAIRE/CAA classes they teach you dig them pretty liberally, but in reality it's not practical. In North America pit digging seems to have much wider popularity than elsewhere.

Yeh, some people are pretty clueless, and the more time you spend in the backcountry, the more you see it.
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I know this thread is about the age demographics of NS backcountry folks but this passive attitude towards direct observations of snowpack concerns me.

1. Snow stability tests (CT, ECT, SS) can be done in 15-20 min (with practice) and should done EVERY time you are entering a new area. Tremper's motto is "if your toes get cold, you're taking to long."

2. If you are skiing with a group, have everyone split up and dig pits on different aspects, slope angles, shaded/open slopes.

The SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION of snow layers is the exact thing you are looking for (or trying to avoid).

3. If you still can't afford to stop dig hand pits: feel for hardness differences, preform hand shear tests.

4. Find test slopes for ski cuts: small slopes with low consequences

If you ski in the Wasatch or other areas with lots of people there's probably more snow pack data available from secondary sources, so my point is don't go into the backcountry without SOME idea of what the snowpack structure is like, I live in Idaho where data is sparse expect for a few concentrated zones.
 
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