The Winter Itch

The Winter Itch

By Avi Kleiman

The Winter Itch

itch
/iCH/
noun
     an uncomfortable sensation on the skin that causes a desire to scratch.

Summer has ended and the seasons are changing.  For me, this is when I start to get the “winter itch”.  It always hits me at the same time each year around the end of September.  I feel a deep desire to climb mountains and ride down them, and I need to scratch this itch!

It comes in many forms, but most people with a love of skiing and snowboarding know this feeling.  When you are ready to get back in the snowy mountains, but the mountains are not yet ready for you.  So what can we do?

Here are a few of my usual activities around this time of year:

  1. Plan a ski trip
    This is my go-to activity every September.  Since I can’t go backcountry skiing yet, visualizing the next trip works great to satisfy the itch.  I’ll write a longer post on my backcountry trip planning process soon.
  2. Watch Ski Movies
    If you can’t go skiing, at least you can watch other people ski!  My personal favorite right now is Cody Townsend’s “the FIFTY” project – free on YouTube.
  3. Tune up the gear
    We all know we should do a good end of winter tune up before storing the gear for summer – but that doesn’t always happen.  Now is a good time to break out the wax and files and give your planks some love.
  4. Test your gear
    How would you do this, you might ask?  There is no snow on the mountains; but you can get creative.  I’ve strapped on my board do some jibs in the living room, set up the winter tent in the backyard, and even cooked a home meal on my backcountry stove.

These are my favourite ways to deal with the itch.  If you have a unique way of dealing with the winter itch I’d love to hear from you.

Stay safe, stay Savvy, and get out there!

Avi Kleiman
Founder, Savvy Touring Company Ltd.
For Life in the Backcountry

P.S.
A great free tool for some trip planning is the Munter Calculation Map.  It is not the most user-friendly, but is a lot of fun to use in planning out the minute details of a climb.

For “back of the napkin” math, you could also try our Ski Touring Travel Timer 

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