Days on the Slope - Backflips in the Backcountry

Pencil sketch of my recent backcountry adventure at North Walton Peak on Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

My family has called Steamboat Ski Resort our home mountain my entire life. While I grew up in Denver, my parents wanted a home away from home in the mountains as soon as they moved to the city. My dad, a rural Montanan and former high-level ski racer, was naturally drawn to Steamboat because of its distance from Denver ski traffic, the excellent terrain within the resort, and the town’s reputation for producing an unusually high number of Olympic skiers, more than any other town in America. (They don’t call Steamboat “Ski Town, U.S.A.” for nothing.)

Consequently, my parents bought a townhome near Stagecoach State Park with a few family friends shortly after I was born. I have been extremely lucky to call Steamboat my second home. It’s an amazing place, and I can confidently say that some of the best days of my life have happened there.

Steamboat, both the mountain and the town, is full of surprises. I’ve spent countless days exploring all that it has to offer, and every year I seem to discover something new that deepens my love for it. My newest find was North Walton Peak at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass. After work on Wednesday (Feb. 18), I drove up with a buddy to do some backcountry touring. Our plan was to follow the designated North Walton Peak trail until we found a slope steep enough to build a kicker we could throw backflips off. The experience was everything I imagined it would be.

As a novice backcountry skier, North Walton Peak was a perfect route. It was mostly flat with a low-angle incline (no avalanche danger), but there were a few spots between dense trees that were prime for building a jump, where the face became slightly steeper and offered a great ramp for gaining speed. Once my buddy and I found a good line, we split duties to get things ready. I focused on building the jump while he worked on shaping the in-run. In just 30 minutes, we were ready.

After testing the jump with a couple of 360s, we committed to the flips. For the next hour, we took turns throwing backflips into bottomless powder. Did we land all of them, or even most of them? No. But we had so much fun falling into the pillow-soft snow that it didn’t matter. (And we got our best ones on camera, so that’s what counts.)

We stayed out well into the night, and by the time we were done, it was completely dark. We toured back to the car under the stars. It was an incredible experience, and I can’t wait to do it again.