It was a beautiful day for a backcountry, I mean, slackcountry ski tour. Slackcountry means a lot of different things, but in this case, we used the resort lifts at The Canyons to get to a suitable starting point for the tour. We rode up the 9990 lift, did a quick beacon test, then boot packed up and exited through the gate with the creepy skull and crossbones. A few people have gone through that gate, only to meet their doom. Our modus operandi today was to play it safe, even though the avalanche danger was forecasted as low. Our goal was a little bit of aerobic exercise, and hopefully finding a few rewarding turns in snow that didn’t suck. For two of us in the group, it was the first time testing out new climbing skins. It was comical at first, then we got the hang of the routine of pulling fresh and sticky skins apart, figuring out how to mount on our skis, and getting the hang of gliding rather than picking feet up too far and clomping down too hard. It didn’t take long. We all found a few good face shots before calling it good, skinning back up to the ridge and returning to the resort, calling it a day. When I made it down to the parking lot, there were some wannabe skids who were trying to panhandle lift tickets from people who were leaving for the day. I took the long way around to avoid them and scurried off. There are skids, and there are dirtbags. They’re not the same.

An unidentified Slackcountry skier.