This Saturday, Oct. 5, the who’s who of Colorado outdoor athletes and safety experts converge on The Art Campus at Willits (TACAW) from 11am to 5 pm. Aspen Public Radio and TACAW present the first annual Backcountry Symposium, starting with a resource fair, following Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club’s (AVSC) Community Sports Swap just a few blocks away. Fifteen organizations will be available to share information about avalanche safety, gear choices, eco-conscious travel, literature resources and more.
Local businessman Sam McBride and his family moved to the Roaring Fork Valley during the pandemic. As they have become better acquainted with local recreating opportunities, “[It] got me thinking about my own passion for the backcountry and what I’ve learned from members in the community,” he shared. “More and more people are recreating in the backcountry … but not very many formal opportunities for knowledge-sharing exist.”
Organizers hope the event will attract families from the AVSC swap. A key thing the McBrides noticed as they settled into the valley is that parenting kids here can entail different safety considerations than elsewhere. While there already are trainings and opportunities for skill development, more conversation may be needed when it comes to proper know-how, comfortability and, of course, safety.
From noon onward, that’s exactly what the Backcountry Symposium aims to fulfill. Through a series of conversations around wilderness safety, communication and decision-making, the event consolidates local experts’ knowledge.
“A lot of people get out and start doing things without knowing how much more they could know about an activity,” said McBride. “Hopefully this event can help people differentiate between legitimate safety practices versus social media presentation.”
“The level of knowledge and experience in this Valley is amazing,” he continued. Having learned at the hands of Valley experts himself, like Aspen Expeditions’ Britt Ruegger, McBride hopes that community members come to connect and listen. “I’ve learned so much from the Aspen Expeditions team. Seeing how they plan and prepare throughout the season has really impacted how I think about my own excursions.”
If there’s someone who knows about planning excursions, it’s Lou Dawson, prolific guidebook author and the first person ever to ski all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. He and fellow Colorado skiing icon Chris Davenport will close the Symposium with a keynote conversation. Their interview will center around Dawson’s recently released memoir, “Avalanche Dreams,” and dive into the nuts and bolts of backcountry and avalanche safety.
“The goal of any good backcountry preparedness seminar should be to have something for everybody,” said Dawson. Both Valley locals, Dawson and Davenport plan to touch on mountain living and raising families in the mountains. Good communication and knowledge-sharing are essential to Dawson, who emphasized that such practices also increase the possibilities of what families can do together. “You can do ski touring and backcountry exploration even with small kids, it just takes thought and consideration,” he stated.
Dawson has been involved in outdoor risk evaluation and guiding since he was a teenager. He attended a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) instructor course at age 18 in 1970, taught by NOLS founder Paul Petzoldt, and started working for the organization shortly thereafter. “I’ve always enjoyed sharing experiences. I’ve always felt called to share,” Dawson continued. “That led to all the guidebooks and guiding, leading folks in the backcountry.”
He spent the next 14 years guiding — in between countless personal mountaineering pursuits, including many first ascents and descents — before publishing his first guidebook, “Colorado High Routes,” in 1986.
Within the nearly four decades since, Dawson continued these pursuits. A self-described introvert, he finds writing and knowledge-sharing about outdoor activities to be his most comfortable and favorite modes of spending time with those outside his inner circle. Asked whether demographics differ between speaking events and guidebooks, Dawson responded, “There isn’t a specific target group or medium. The more opportunities people have to learn and gain information, the better.”
“It’s tempting to generalize demographics, but it’s actually important not to do that. Risk tolerance and experience conversations should be based around each individual, not descriptions that may or may not apply to them,” Dawson stated. He also emphasized the importance of group- and self-awareness. “There’s a certain amount of caution involved in self-exploration as well as outdoor exploration. These kinds of sports require a high degree of self-assessment, not just external risk assessment.”
Dawson recommends that everyone spending time in the backcountry also spends time thinking about how they make decisions. “How much risk do you think you’re undergoing when you choose to ski a slope or climb something, versus the actual risk you’re undertaking?” he prompted.
The points Dawson emphasized are exactly what McBride hopes to convey at the symposium: Reinforcing connection and communication in the outdoors and within the recreating community. Before and during a backcountry excursion, Dawson said, “It should come down to respect, communication and the concept of the veto. If someone becomes uncomfortable, does the group have a plan of what to do?” The answer: Know before you go.