Backcountry Magazine September 2015 - 2016 Gear Guide

The 2016 Gear Guide is here. And with 77 skis, 21 splitboards and almost every backcountry-specific boot and binding out there—and Editors’ Choices in each of those categories—the Gear Guide has everything you’ll need to ski, ride and tour this winter. For two weeks in March, our 80-person team of skiers and riders descended upon Powder Mountain, Utah and Crested Butte, Colo. to shred, assess and rank more than 400 skis, splitboards, boots and bindings, evaluating the newest carbon construction, binding innovations and rocker profiles along the way. Read all the reviews, plus stories of how Whistler’s Chris Prior changed the snowboard industry, why a French engineer quit a real job to build telemark bindings and what last season’s avalanche cycle means for this winter in the Alps. FEATURES ’16 SKI TEST & GEAR GUIDE he annual Gear Test Week returned for its eighth consecutive year to Powder Mountain, Utah, and this time, 14 inches of Powder’s namesake greeted our 40-person test team