Suffering for Turns
Travel
Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness, nutrition, and adventure courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you sign up for Outside+ Sign up for Outside+ today.
BR>
“The weather got worse the higher we climbed, says pro freeskier Ingrid Backstrom of this six-hour slog up Baffin Island’s Inquisition Couloir in subzero temperatures and 50-mile-per-hour winds last May. “We were getting pounded. The climb and descent—50 degrees steep and five feet wide at points—was part of a three-week expedition that Backstrom and teammates Kasha Rigby, Hilaree Nelson-O’Neill, and Meg Oster added to their ski-mountaineering resumes. “It summed up the essence of couloir skiing, says Backstrom, “combining weather, technical climbing, teamwork, and perseverance. And the skiing was perfect: tight, thrilling hop turns at the top to get your heart pounding, and then linked powder turns for the next 4,000 feet.
