To say the popularity of backcountry skiing and alpine touring has grown by leaps and bounds in the past half dozen years would be a gross understatement. One indication of the growing popularity has been the demand and market for a book dedicated to the fundamental skills and knowledge supporting the activity. Mountaineers Books has published this valuable addition to its large series of technical outdoors titles. Whether this book will be an essential addition to your bookshelf will depend upon your level of experience and the type of backcountry skiing outings.

While even experienced backcountry skiers will pick up new tips and tools by reading this title, skiers with even a moderate amount of experience will find much of the information in this book elementary. Many of the basics of backcountry skiing are often learned the hard way after only a few outings. The internet also provides the developing backcountry skier with numerous resources to increase knowledge prior to and after adventuring for the first time. Such topics as equipment, gear, and clothing will be redundant and basic to all but the most uninformed and beginning backcountry skiers.

For many eastern skiers, such as myself, much of the book can be skipped over. Those of us that do not venture forth into avalanche terrain (or at least prior to the spring corn season) will find at least two chapters not practical despite being very informative. There are a variety of other titles that go into further depth regarding the science of avalanches and human decision making for those interested in pursuing this topic in detail. Backcountry Skiing does focus on the decision making and route finding aspects but is short on the full science and application. The subtitle of the book seems a more apt description than the main title. “Skills for Ski Tourning and Ski Mountaineering” is what the majority of this book focuses on.

Sections on kick turns, transitions, and skinning were most applicable and enlightening to my own repertoire of techniques and skills. While the basics were covered, the authors proposed several interesting troubleshooting tips for performing maneuvers in difficult conditions that will surely help with my turn earning.

While this title may be of essential use to backcountry skiers that venture into avalanche terrain and participate in ski mountaineering, the majority of this selection was either too basic or irrelevant to backcountry skiers that earn turns in less risky locales. I would highly recommend this title to skiers interested in or just beginning backcountry skiing, east coast skiers that venture into avalanche prone areas and participate in ski mountaineering, and most western backcountry skiers that will put more of the selections in this title to good use in mitigating some risk of avalanches and incorporating mountaineering skills into their turn earning outings. Eastern turn earners that choose not to expose themselves to avalanche risk nor approach mountains that require technical mountaineering skills will probably not receive a good value on this title despite the fairly low price.