5 Reasons to Hire a Ski Guide this Spring!

1. We know the snowpack in Rocky Mountain National Park better than anyone.

We have spent all winter teaching Avalanche courses, skiing, and ice climbing in this year’s snowpack. Since the first snowfall in November, we have been monitoring, documenting, and assessing the changing snowpack throughout the season. This translates to an unmatched ability to avoid and mitigate the avalanche hazard, as well as pick out the good skiing! If there is cold, dry, powder or creamy corn snow to be found, we’ll find it! When you go skiing with a Colorado Mountain School Ski Guide you can be assured that your guide will work hard to balance the necessity to stay safe in avalanche terrain while maximizing the skiing reward!

2. We know the terrain in Rocky Mountain National Park better than anyone.

Are you looking to arc beautiful turns down a 35 degree open bowl or face? Are you looking to keep the skiing difficulty low, and just spend a nice day out in the mountains using skis as your transport? Maybe you want to finally tick off a difficult couloir and would like the careful eyes of a seasoned professional to help you along the way. We have terrain to match almost everyone’s ability and desires. Backcountry skiing does not have to be at all like what you see in the annual ski films from TGR and Matchstick productions. You don’t have to want to ski 50 degree Alaskan spines to enjoy backcountry skiing! Your CMS guide will utilize his vast experience to find you what your after. I can promise you that!

3. Colorado Mountain School Ski Guides don’t just break trail and tell you to “fall in line.”

A good portion of my guiding days are devoted to instruction. Struggling with kick turns, slippery skin tracks, or when to bring sharp pointy things (ice axe, crampons)? When you hire a CMS Ski Guide, you are investing in an experience, and we do our best to cater to what YOU want. Oftentimes, our guests would like to learn something new or refine a skill along the way. If this is what you are after, all you have to do is ask!

4. But… We will break trail.

We work hard to ensure that your day out is as enjoyable and memorable as possible. We break trail and set the skin track so that you don’t have to. It’s not just any skin track though, it’s a skin track that will move through the terrain as efficiently and gracefully as possible, so that when you get to the top and it’s time to ski down, you still have enough leg strength to enjoy the ski down. We also put in the work ahead of time to prepare a very detailed tour plan for the day. These tour plans consider an appropriate all-day-long pace and precisely timed breaks and transitions to match your fitness, abilities, and daily goals. You haven’t experienced a comfortable skin track until you’ve followed a CMS skin track!

5. We can ski faster than you!

Up for the challenge? Think I’m full of it? Then book your day out enjoying the beauty and adventure of backcountry skiing or ski mountaineering with CMS and we’ll find out!