The High Route - Issue 2 | Early Winter 25 / 26

The High Route Journal is a high quality print magazine with stories and images from the world of backcountry skiing and snowboarding. 

Immerse yourself in backcountry skiing culture with The High Route Journal.

Issue 2 of The High Route Journal contains the following:

• Diego Saez, a Chilean mountain guide, presents a striking photo essay. We expect this photo spread might entice you down south in the years ahead, or at a minimum, to explore something unknown to you. 

• Luke Hinz (writing) and Noah Kuhns (photos) weave a fine tale about their expedition to Baffin Island, where skiing was only part of the story. The “Fiery Furnace,” the piece’s title, refers to a stalking polar bear that had the duo reflecting on their place on the Baffin Island food chain.

• Madeleine Martin-Preney, a Canadian guide, in “Rising and Falling,” writes about her experience traversing the full length of the Canadian Selkirks, a first, with a group of four guys. Thirty-six days in total, and now nearly a decade later, Martin-Preney adds some fine perspective and some wisdom, as she writes about this mighty feat.

• Andy Lewicky, some of you may know him from SierraDescents, presents a heartfelt ode to his family and the home they lost in LA’s Palisades Fire, and yes, touring. We love the title, “How the Story Ends.” Lewicky sorts through the charred remnants of a past life and finds problems to solve on the skintrack.

• We also experimented a bit in a series of four pieces under the heading “Applied Science.” We sent three splitboarders the same writing prompt and received three very distinct pieces in return. You’ll hear from Clark Henarie, Christine Feleki, and Forrest Shearer in this section.

• Of course, there are poems, and Crested Butte poet/writer, Leath Tonino delivers with “There’s Not One Tree” and “I am soaking wet.” 

• Master of the Creativity Department here at The High Route, Pete Vordenberg delves into the words and diagrams of W. Rikmer Rikmers, an old-school ski mountaineer from days long gone by, in his piece “Art of the Ski Runner.” 

• Tina Haver Currin from Colorado’s Front Range was a find for us. She writes about her time as a beginning backcountry skier, mentored by Jon Krakauer, in her story “Uphill Both Ways.” 

• Chamonix-based photographer Layla Kerley provides the shots for a playful photo essay titled “Arc of the Sun: When will we need headlamps?

• And we close out with a profile of Tom Turiano and a celebration of the Greater Yellowstone landscape in “Unlost in the Greater Yellowstone,” by Jason Albert.