A few years back, Backbone was promoting Ski the 14ers book, by Chris Davenport and Art Burrows.
Ski the 14ers was the culmination of Dav’s epic goal of skiing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000′ peaks in a year. For you ski historians out there Lou Dawson was the first person to complete this task, in 1991 over the course of many years. By achieving this goal in just twelve months, Chris mixed tenacity, a high acumen of planning and route selection and displayed his voracious appetite for skiing.
This fall 2010, Backbone is again promoting another title with Dav – Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America. Co-authored with Art Burrows and Penn Newhard (yep, that is me), the book is a tribute to fifty of the greatest off piste descents in our continent.
Rather than just sit down over beers and decide what we thought was best, Chris, Art and I reached out to friends and skiers all over to get their opinion. By doing so, Fifty Classic Skis of North America becomes more than just a coffee table book of pretty pictures but combines the perspectives of our contributors becoming a snapshot of ski alpinism in 2010.
The contributor list ranges from iconic ski mountaineers like Lou Dawson, Chic Scott and Lowell Skoog to steep aficionados Andrew, McLean, Kris Erickson and Ptor Spricenieks and leading skiers including Glen Plake, Eric Pehota and Hilaree O’Neill. The book covers all types of peaks and exposures ranging from done-in-a-day classics like Tuckerman Ravine to expedition goals like the Messner on Denali. The contributing photographer list is strong with Christain Pondella, Scott Markewitz, Jordan Manley and Brad Washburn to name a few.
Fifty Classic Skis will be available through Wolverine Publishing in November 2010. Pre-orders are being offered at a slight discount. You can leanr more on Facebook. Check it out.