Nerds Are Ruining Backcountry Skiing

This story originally appeared in the print magazine POWDER 2026 Photo Annual. Copies are still available while supplies last. Click here to get yours.Shane McFallsNerds! Self-Righteousness! Paleolithic Murder!Taking backcountry skiing seriously is seriously dumb. I always figured that it was so purposeless, so goofy and impractical that it couldn’t become nerded out and uptight. I was so, so wrong.In 1991, high in the Alps on the Austria/Italy border, German tourists f