33 reports · 1 countries
Every story appears in the printed BACKLINE magazine and online. Pick a year for cover, editorial and all reports.
USA · Chugach Mountains (Alaska)
This story starts like any other trip to Alaska. I am a professional backcountry ski photographer, chasing perfect spines, cold smoke powder and clean lines across some of the biggest terrain on earth. This time, I am here with my good friend and favourite skier, Simon Hillis. We have been invited …
2026 · Christoph Johann · 4 min
USA · Cascade Range
“What were you doing – waterskiing?” inquired an old man in a tee shirt and shorts. No water, hat, or even hair on his head, but he was on a quest. “I want to see the lake one last time, ” he offered. Three corners onward, I could no longer hold my mirth and laughed. “Waterskiing, of all things, ” …
2025 · Jason Hummel · 3 min
USA · Chugach Mountains
My fingers are numb from the cold, aching as if the frost is seeping into my bones. The sun is almost gone now, a thin sliver of light stretching long shadows across the snow. The temperature is falling fast; each breath feels sharp in my chest. A cold wind nips at my face, a reminder not to ignore …
2025 · Christoph Johann · 4 min
USA · Cascade Range
Ice is a book, a story of Earth’s past. Only near the very end of their eons-old story do you find lines written by humans. What are their stories? What brought them to those icy shores? Where have my own tracks intersected theirs – and how long will those faint lines endure before the next storm …
2025 · Jason Hummel · 3 min
USA · Sierra Nevada
In a winter marked by extremes, Lake Tahoe and California’s Sierra Nevada experienced a storm cycle that will be remembered for years. March delivered a monumental storm, with over 100 inches of snow – about half the season’s total – in just one month, transforming the region into a snow sports …
2024 · Ming Poon · 3 min
USA · Lake Tahoe (Sierra Nevada)
Seemingly endless atmospheric rivers flowed through California this winter, blurred into a bottomless ocean of powder where the Sierra Crest received about 62.5 feet of snowfall, according to the …
2023 · Tailer Spinney · 4 min
USA · Cascade Mountains (Mt. Baker)
Hidden among vast green forests and thousands of jagged peaks lie the five volcanic monarchs of Washington State's Cascade Mountains, known as Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams …
2023 · Jason Hummel · 4 min
USA · Alaska Range (Denali)
I'm not too fond of the smell of airports. Nevertheless, it's the scent of duty-free that always stands for adventure. I feel happy when I realize I'm just passing through the Anchorage airport …
2023 · Tiphaine Duperier · 4 min
USA · Sierra Nevada (Mammoth Lakes)
Yet another 4 am alarm abruptly wakes me from my sleep. I can't remember the last time I slept in. But the snow is soft as butter from the desert to the tops of the ridge lines, the wind is calm, and …
2023 · Zak Mills · 4 min
USA · Lake Tahoe (Sierra Nevada)
My lungs pump cold winter air as I follow the skin track through the snow-covered trees. It’s a magical, windless morning. I feel like I’ve stepped into a candy land. Somewhere behind the gray-blue clouds, the sun is rising on the other side of the lake. It’s February in Lake…
2022 · Julie Brown · 4 min
USA · Stuart Range
The Stuart Range lies between dry desert and verdant forests. A topography of steep, weather-worn granite towers, of which ten rank among the 100 highest peaks in Washington State, dominates the glacial-carved valleys. Cupped in every low spot are lakes. They reside where once…
2022 · Jason Hummel · 4 min
USA · Sierra Nevada (Tahoe)
Retirement isn't really a word Daron Rahlves understands. Sure, he retired from racing in 2006 after a long and decorated career on the U.S. Ski Team, but he didn't exactly call it quits. Instead, he …
2021 · Megan Michelson · 6 min
USA · North Cascades
Of all the magical places in the North Cascades, a few particularly enchanting remote spots have escaped my attempts to visit them. Among these is a spear of mountains thrusting itself beyond the …
2021 · Jason Hummel · 5 min
USA · Olympic Mountains
In 1890, while on a pioneering climb of the Anderson Glacier, deep within Washington State's Olympic National Park, Private Harry Fischer postulated, "...man may never know how deep, the snow, and …
2020 · Jason Hummel · 5 min
USA · Chugach Mountains (Alaska)
One move at a time, we moved up the steep face of Sphinx. Step, place the axe, step, place the axe. Looking down more than 1,500 vertical feet, you knew a fall would allow for a long time to …
2020 · Ming Poon · 5 min
USA · Rocky Mountains (Sun Valley / Idaho)
I shuffle forward in the skin track, pulling my neck warmer up over my nose, the radiating sun my only reprieve against the bitter Idaho cold. Black husks of burned trees rise like porcupine quills …
2020 · Vince Shuley · 5 min
USA · Sierra Nevada
As the winter winds down, spring gives way to new adventures in California. It is the season for bigger peaks, longer days, and exploration. There is no other place that I would rather be than the …
2019 · Michelle Parker · 5 min
USA · Wasatch Mountains
About 10,000-year-old petroglyphs found in the Altai Mountains, situated in the border area between Russia, Mongolia, and China, seem to represent the first images of people on wooden boards in the …
2019 · Martin Fiala · 4 min
USA · Kichatna Mountains (Alaska)
I first skied in the enormous Alaska Range in 2012 with Chris Davenport and John and Jim Morrison. It was a wild, eye-opening experience on several levels. Not only was it my first time skiing in …
2018 · Christian Pondella · 5 min
USA · Sierra Nevada
Teetering on the edge of a couloir, poised in the gap of a cornice, you are hanging in the wind and waiting to drop. The snow is immaculate, and the skies are blue. Clean granite walls frame the view …
2018 · Hans Ludwig · 5 min
USA · Olympic National Park (Mt. Olympus)
"Did you go to the top and ski it?", a six-year-old boy blurts as I exit the Olympic Mountains after eight days. When I tell him we most certainly did, he loudly declares, "I'm going to do that!" …
2018 · Jason Hummel · 5 min
USA · Chilliwack Mountains (North Cascades)
"Go there," I was told. Years after this suggestion I dangled above Depot Falls. With my fate entrusted to a branch, I understood and quickly became mesmerized by the thunderous rumble of glacier …
2017 · Jason Hummel · 5 min
USA · Sierra Nevada (Mt. Williamson)
The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California are home to some of the biggest ski descents in the continental United States. And Mount Whitney, standing the tallest at 4,421 meters, is – without a doubt …
2017 · Christian Pondella · 5 min
USA · Sierra Nevada
Three explorers, united in mutual desire, meet in the high desert of the Eastern Sierra Mountains to accept the challenge of navigating through colossal terrain and in an extreme environment. This …
2016 · Max Hammer · 5 min
