Trailblazing backcountry, Battle Abbey 1979

Rocking it in the backcountry with legendary Hans Gmoser. Between 1972 and 1979 my parents took six trips. This video highlights one of those trips

[@Skedawg88]

Here I sit having hot chocolate in my SkiStrong mug and this new video pops up. Yay! Also, I really enjoy the info on your skiing history, all skiers have a skiing history and it is unique to each of us. By the way, my new avatar is a photo from TSV taken in 1980.

[@johnklaus9111]

Just Wow!!! Those videos that make you wish you were there too. One thing was totally clear. Wall to wall smiles were had by all! 😊

[@darrensmith9143]

As a child in Calgary during the 70s I knew about what was going on in the Bugaboos and dreamed of heliskiing. I'm now 58, still have never been. Stopped by RK Heli a couple of years ago just to see the base and was a bit overwhelmed by emotion. Probably never go now. Great video.

[@bridgetbarnhart9272]

I love hearing Margie Albrecht recollection of that time! This makes me excited for the season, let’s go!

[@johnparchman753]

What an absolute treasure both personally for you Deb and us enjoying a trip back in time. Life without a helmet!

[@simonwheatley3351]

Amazing footage and story. Thank you for sharing. All done on long skis too. Respect!

[@jakestabile7027]

Thanks for getting me excited about the upcoming ski season!Very interesting stories about the birth of CMH. Margi's stories on the early Bugaboo's trip very cool.

[@teacherguy5084]

Bob Albrecht was one of my excellent structural engineering professors at the University of Washington when I was an architecture student in the mid/late 70's. I recall what I think was the last day of one class, when he showed us images (I forget if they were movies or slides) of backcountry powder skiing trips he had taken in the Canadian ranges. He was an inspiring professor and it's fascinating to me to learn about his part in the early development of the sport.

[@DebArmstrongSkiStrong]

Thanks!!!

[@kellymrottenbucher8801]

So happy to see this post! It was a long Summer with no Deb! This video is really interesting.👍

[@ernestoespina5866]

This is so Awesome! Thank you, Deb for sharing this piece of history.

[@traceyhill7784]

❤ this must be so fantastic to watch seeing your parents in this way. You must be very proud.

[@DebArmstrongSkiStrong]

Thank you and yes😉

[@JaredG_WV]

Those are some epic lines, thanks for sharing Deb!

[@Skier_202]

Love it! Here's to an awesome ski season!! Let's go!!!

[@donheppner83]

I spent a week at Battle Abbey - had fantastic conditions.

[@billwoods7531]

As a skiier in Vancouver BC, this is awesome historical stuff to learn! Makes me want to complain less about my touring weight setup haha! Looking forward to a La Nina year here...

[@charleswallace4671]

You're mom had great form in the powder!!

[@halvo265]

How I miss the days of Powder Etiquette, when skiers would leave tight lines so others could enjoy untracked snow. Today it's slash, slash, slash (snow boarders), some of it incompetence, the rest disrespect.

[@JAlexLP]

I also find it a little sad that the old school technique of the 3-D powder turn may be in danger of becoming a lost art. Personally, I still prefer the sensation of being under the surface at the apex of a powder turn and bounding in the air as I unweight as opposed to floating near the surface with a really wide ski and slashing from side to side…but to each their own.

[@renjamun]

As a snowboarder, I can respect powder etiquette on a blank canvas. I try to leave that space for your wiggles and do my own thing off to the side.

[@charleswallace4671]

The art of spooning was lost a long time ago nobody conserves snow anymore!

[@teacherguy5084]

It's true that snowboarding allows less skilled, and younger, snowsports personnel to survive and enjoy in powder. The same can be said for fat skis. As a skier for over 60 years and a snowboarder for 30, I've seen there's plenty of blame for the lack of judicious use at resorts of a renewable mined resource (powder) toward both disciplines. However, I think more blame goes to increased hill population and high speed lifts arising from corporate greed for money. Plenty of folks know how to spoon tracks to conserve the resource and do it - I suggest you become an instructor and teach your students to do it, as I do, or perhaps move your skiing efforts to the backcountry areas which don't have lots of traffic. I do not believe disrespect is a problem at resorts; it's more often an issue of those greedy to get as much fresh as possible as quickly as possible, unwilling to spend some time to conserve it. Those who slash are not confined to snowboarders; and those who disrespect others are definitely not. As a teacher of both disciplines I take offense at your equating/correlating disrespect with snowboarding. Disrespect on the slopes is equated with a lack of personal maturity and morals, which from long experience I find is independent of chronological age. I no longer visit some skier-centric resorts because some of the skiers they cater primarily to disrespect snowboarders. Also, riding cut powder is more mentally engaging than untracked; so I enjoy both.

[@charleswallace4671]

I've been touring in the back country for more than 40 yrs. One of the real problems is the newer generation really don't know what the fall line is,they also don't know how to conserve snow.one skier or snowboarder can waste a whole slope in just a couple of runs,where I can get a couple of days just by doing spoons!!

[@robertschappert6760]

You want to talk embarracimg I had Burt Bindings as a kid !!!

[@DebArmstrongSkiStrong]

Ha!!!

[@robertschappert6760]

​@@DebArmstrongSkiStrongI 5:20 was born in Aspen in 63 I remember the early days of shooshing in the powder . Thank you for putting this film together.