Powder Days with La Sportiva
“Powder is the essence of backcountry skiing,”
Davide shares with me as we listen to Jack Johnson in the car on the way to go on a ski trip with La Sportiva, Backbone Media and a few other ski writers. I was looking at the forecast and noticed that we may score some epic snow on our trip despite it being early April and 60° in Boulder, where Davide and I both live. We arrived at Avalanche Hot Springs near Carbondale, Colorado on Monday afternoon and settled into our rooms which were converted wagons that served as tiny homes for us to use as a base camp for our ski trip. That first night we spent soaking in hot springs, eating some Thai food in Carbondale, laughing and swapping stories about our best and worst ski days. I fell asleep that night looking at a clear sky full of stars through my wagon’s window. When I woke up, everything looked different.
The weather forecast was correct - it was going to be a pow day.
La Sportiva Skis, Boots and Apparel
Over some breakfast burritos we got kitted up with the latest La Sportiva Vanguard boots, some sleek red Tempo skis and various apparel items including their mid-layer that is sustainably sourced from the kapok tree in western Africa. I’ve been skiing in La Sportiva gear most of this winter but this would be the first experience of testing it in white out conditions and 2+ feet of fresh snow. Once we arrived at the area that we would be skiing, it was time to get the legs moving.
Our guides from Aspen Expeditions took up the front and the rear with the rest of us fell into place. Davide Giardini, the elite endurance athlete and La Sportiva ski team representative, didn’t seem to breathe hard all day - even when I was at my max heart rate trying to keep up as we ascended the ridgeline of the peak we had chosen to summit. Despite brief moments of intense breathing, all of us settled into a consistent pace that allowed us to complete five hours of skiing and roughly 4,000 feet of elevation each day.
Skiing is more than what happens on the mountain
However, the incredible powder turns weren’t the only memorable moments of this trip. Obviously, as evident from the photos and videos from our few days in the backcountry, the snow was fantastic. But what made this experience special was the people we got to share it with. Most of us were strangers before the trip but by the end of the few days, we all became pretty close. My abs hurt so much from laughing while listening to stories of getting stranded at a pride parade in Berlin or helping a friend get unstuck from a ditch in Gunnison. We spent way too long sitting in the hot springs, soaking our tired legs and getting dehydrated in the hot water. Nobody wanted to muster up the courage to leave to walk barefoot through the snow back to their wagons.
Despite what Davide told me in the car on the way to this trip, I don’t think powder is what skiing is all about. What makes skiing special is the people you get to share these epic experiences with.
This gear allows us to adventure into these wild and beautiful places so if you’re trying to decide between staying at home or getting a pair of La Sportiva’s skis, I’d recommend getting outside with your friends in the winter time. It can be pretty fun…
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Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.
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