100 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Routes in Washington

by Rainer Burgdofer and Rainer Burgdorfer

Book Overview

* Challenging routes for intermediate and advanced backcountry skiers and snowboarders * Includes many Washington tours easily accessible from the Seattle area * Includes backcountry day and multi-day tours * Illustrated with 80 photos and 80 maps With more than 100 backcountry Washingotn routes and tours for intermediate to advanced alpine skiers and snowboarders, Burgdorfer's guide was for many years the only reference to these adventures. Each...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898866618
• ISBN13: 9780898866612
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The book for backcountry skiing in Washington

This is the best book for backcountry skiing in Washington State. As noted by other reviewers, some of the tours are best done in the spring and summer---they are great when done it the right season. This is all covered by the authors and useful mileages are provided. Skiers and snowboarders looking for adventures in Washington State won't be disappointed by Burgdorfers suggestions---some of them are tough, but usually worth the suffering.

By far, the best backcountry ski/board guide available in WA

Reading the other reviews of this book, I felt that people were ganging up on the author and that I just needed to chime in with my two cents worth. I believe this book to be far and away the best backcountry skiing/snowboarding guide available for Washington. These are the epic routes and memorable peaks that are the stuff of touring legend. I have found the route descriptions to be highly accurate and the maps to be fine for the purposes of illustration. After all, you should really have a full USGS or at least Green Trails map when you go into these areas anyways. The only thing I wish had a bit more consideration are snowboard specific hazards such as long flat or uphill areas along the descent. These add drastically to estimated times, especially when postholing is involved. That, however, is my minor quibble. I've made several of the trips in this book and loved them all (even last weekend when I broke my splitboard out by the Sulphide Glacier). Hardly a weekend passes where I do not have this book out planning my next escapades with my climbing partner. An admirable job on highly variable subject matter. Now, if I can just find a book that accurately predicts what the snowpack will look like for a given day...

Review of a Review of 100 Classic Tours...

Everybody is a critic, including some twelve year olds.Talk about a scathing review, this kid really let me have it. However... * If you want to ride Tomyhoi in winter, get a snowmobile, or take a week off and make sure your life insurance is paid up. This is not a winter tour. As an aside, most of Washington's mountains are not accessible in winter. Blame God, USFS, or NPS. * I am not a self-proclaimed guru. Some publicist wrote that. I have a job. I try to get out and ride or ski. That's it. * The Publisher did the maps. My contribution was the relevant information, not the format. I'm sure the Publisher would be happy to create maps just for you if you would guarantee payment! *The avalanche zone indicator debate is obviously alive and well. I'm personally against showing the "danger zones" but Publisher insisted on it. And, if you read the book, you'll discover that you and I agree on this point also. *Photograph selection and captions, indeed the entire content of The Book is subject to the discretion of the Publisher. Gary Brill had agreed to provide images for this book but did not deliver by the Publisher's deadline. I had a contractual obligation to deliver and I did. Fourteen out of seventyfive aerial shots doesn't seem excessive, especially if they offer information not otherwise possible. *It is not muddled thinking to encourage dog owners to consider the consequences of taking their dog in the woods and show an image of a Husky inside the Stevens Pass Ski Area boundary. Personally, I enjoy outings with dogs. *My route times don't seem underestimated. Camp Muir is easily reached in under four hours by fit climbers, in good conditions, carrying a daypack. An hour for lunch and a nap, and an hour for a leisurely descent makes for a reasonable day. * Finally, my first guidebook was published in 1986, not two decades ago. It was intended as a year-around guidebook, not a winter guide. The current guidebook is a similar effort, with an added emphasis on snowboarding. Further comments or questions can be addressed to me at Burgdorfer@hotmail.com. Happy Trails! Rainer Burgdorfer

Gary Brill where are you now?

I heard the older version of this book has better pictures

THE guidebook for Washington backcountry skiing

This is a much better alternative than the Seabury Blair book of a similar nature. Many of the pictures in this book will get you pumped to ski some awesome terrain.Most of these tours are for advanced skiers. The book is well put together, with maps for each tour, often indicating avalanche prone areas. There are also some nice touches, such as a section on figuring out Cascade weather.The pictures, while inspiring, are not as good as those in Burgdorfer's previous book. The ones that have been removed for this edition, which were the best ones, seemed to all be from one person... Gary Brill. Interesting. Perhaps he is intending to publish a ski touring book too?There is definitely room from improvement in a backcountry skiing guide for Washington, but this is the best there is right now.