New Intro to BC Camp!
The BSBG team is excited to offer a brand new guided experience at Bell Lake Yurt this season, designed specifically for new backcountry skiers and splitboarders! If you’re ready to start exploring the backcountry, but aren’t quite sure about how to begin, this one’s for you:
Intro to BC Skiing/Riding Camp
The backcountry is calling—will you answer?
This 3-day, 2-night fully guided and catered adventure is ideal for novices (or longtime dabblers) who want to safely build backcountry experience, learn skills and techniques to improve safety, efficiency, and fun, find partners and mentors, and ski/ride as much powder as possible. It’s an excellent precursor to a Level 1 Avalanche course.
In fact, this camp comes as a response to a clear need for more mentorship opportunities, as backcountry skiing and riding has rapidly gained popularity. One way we’ve seen this expressed is by the change in experience level of many Level 1 Avalanche course students. In recent years, we’ve seen more and more L1 students showing up with zero prior experience with practical touring skills such as skinning, transitioning, packing layering, pacing, etc. And while we fully endorse all forms of avalanche education (and pride ourselves on providing the most comprehensive and immersive avy-ed program in Montana), students who are struggling to figure out the basics are not taking away the critical lessons that make a L1 course valuable.
It’s darn near impossible to think critically if we’re overwhelmed—and it’s easy to be overwhelmed in the backcountry, if you’ve never experienced any of it before. It’s not just here in Montana—this is a trend that we’ve discussed with course providers across the U.S. and Canada. And BSBG thinks we can do better to support our backcountry community with tiered learning, solid mentorship, and immersive backcountry experiences.
By breaking out introductory skills—gear familiarity, skinning skills, transition systems and efficiency, packing, layering, pacing, etc.—new backcountry skiers will progress faster, have more fun, and be more prepared to continue learning. Plus, yurt trips are a ton of fun!
Bell Lake Yurt: as cozy as it gets!
The Intro to BC Skiing/Riding Camp is for you if:
You’ve never skied in the backcountry before, and you want to start exploring safely, learn from experienced professionals, and jumpstart the learning curve.
You plan to take an avalanche course, and want to be dialed on basic avalanche awareness concepts, how to use your gear, and how to pack, layer, and skin efficiently.
You’ve gone touring a few times, but maybe it’s been a while, or you just haven’t built the confidence to venture into more interesting terrain without more practice and/or education.
You have backcountry experience, but are trying to get your partner, spouse, children, or parents started on the right foot—and you want to preserve your relationships and sanity :)
You just want to go on an awesome all-inclusive yurt trip with a relaxed pace, learn professional tips and tricks on how to make touring more fun and use less energy, and meet some great new partners!
Having fun is the whole point!
Camp Goals/Outcomes:
Our biggest priority is to ensure that everyone who attends has an excellent time—that’s what backcountry skiing and splitboarding is all about! To that end, we’ll be learning about and practicing all this and more while we shred:
touring gear adjustments and usage
gear care and basic maintenance
energy-efficient skinning techniques and strategies
advanced skinning: AVA turns, kickturns, breaking trail
efficient transitions; from touring to skiing/riding, and back
packing for success
layering for all-day comfort
pacing and self-care tricks
avalanche awareness
rescue basics
Stupid Human Tricks (ie. downhill skinning, split-skiing, getting up from a fall in deep snow, etc.)
The camp includes professional guiding and coaching, three full days and two nights at beautiful Bell Lake Yurt, delicious meals, an avalanche awareness lesson, and plenty of turns! Just bring enthusiasm for mountain exploration and a smile—we’ll handle the rest. Questions? Reach out anytime at info@bigskybackcountry.com
The world is a playground—let’s play.