Avalanches are a very real threat in the Sierra. Any slope steep enough to offer good powder skiing is a potential slide area. During the '08-'09 season, one third of all US skier/boarder avalanche fatalities occurred inside ski area boundaries. On April 17, 2006 Climax avalanched about an hour after opening. The crown where the avalanche fractured was 3-6 feet high and 400 feet across. Three skiers were partially buried but and slightly injured. Many of us wear our beacons while powder skiing on Mammoth Mountain. Any trip up the Sherwins, or Negatives should include avalanche gear (beacon/shovel/probe) and the ability to use it. At Kittredge we carry the Tracker and Tracker2 avalanche beacons from Backcountry Access, and the Peips Freeride beacon. The Tracker is still the most simple and easy to use beacon around, while the Tracker2 combines user friendliness with 3-antenna accuracy. The Peips Freeride is not as intuitive to use in a search, but it is less expensive, and a great choice for inbounds skiing. We carry also shovels and probes from BCA and Lifelink and K2. The new K2 Rescue Plus shovel has a great emergency sled kit that mate best with K2 Backside and Factory team skis.

For many of us the highlight of the ski season happens outside the lift served area. Mammoth is a backcountry skiers dream. During the winter the Mammoth Crest and the Sherwin's offer endless freshies just outside the backdoor. June Mountain is another great place to access the goods. From the top of J7, a traverse followed by a short climb gets you steep chutes off the Negatives, or the huge bowls of San Joaquin Mountain. The backcountry season really gets going around April or May, with the plowing of Virginia Lakes and Tioga Pass Roads. Then it's time to get up early and climb the frozen spring snow. By noon the sun has probably baked the top couple inches of snow to perfection, and it's time to enjoy some of the best skiing on the planet: Sierra corn snow.

Marker has dominated the Randonee/Alpine crossover binding for a couple seasons with their high DIN Duke and Jester bindings. Last season Marker released even better (lighter) AT bindings in the new Tour F10 and Tour F12. Like the Duke/Jester, the Tour bindings evolved from true alpine bindings and ski very well. This season the Tours get beefed up for increased durability and tweaked for less icing. We think they are the best skiing step-in AT bindings ever.

We really like the way K2 skins attach to their Backside and Factory Team skis, and love the way they don't ice up while skinning. Back Country Access redesigned their skins last season, and now they climb as well as ever, but are much less prone to icing than the BCA skins of old.

Adjustable poles with big baskets are great in the BC. We carry three-piece poles from K2 and Leki. This year K2 puts a simple inclinometer on their touring poles; a convenient feature to help take some of the guesswork out of terrain selection. If you already own a pair of Lekis for summer trekking, come in for some bigger baskets, and use them in the winter too.

For avalanche training and guiding, we turn to either Neil Satterfield at Sierra Mountain Guides NEIL@SIERRAMTNGUIDES.COM, or Tim Villanueva at the Bardindi Foundation tim@bardini.org either one can help you go safely into the backcountry.