Sierra Secret Stashes: How to Create your Personal Terrain Catalog

With a range as vast as the Sierra Nevada, I could spend an entire lifetime skiing in California. Endless vertical feet of powder runs, couloirs, and multi-day tours make it really difficult to decide which ski tours make my favorites list. Some of these tours are the classics that everyone knows, but an increasing portion of ski descents that call to me are my Sierra Secret Stashes - those little known zones and runs that produce dependable backcountry skiing but take seasons of research to locate. Local ski touring guide books list iconic descents that make every rider's mouth water, but most of these runs can be very dangerous if conditions are adverse, and they list no Plan B's for easier descents nearby. Alternatively, my secret stashes allow me to always have amazing and safe terrain to choose from, even if the avalanche danger might be escalated or the weather is stormy.

Guests enjoying some steep ski practice on a low danger day in the Eastern Sierra.

Building Your Catalog

Terrain catalogs take time, but ultimately they become your personalized guide to skiing the backcountry. You'll want to start with the mapping app you're most familiar with, whether it's CalTopo, Gaia, OnX, or another favorite. I personally enjoy working with CalTopo on my laptop, as it provides many useful functions such as creating geospatial pdf topos, Sentinal layering (satellite imagery of current snow coverage), and automatically calculated travel time plans. The chore of inputting ski tours into your catalog is a great activity for this time of year, when we're still waiting for the ski season to start and dreaming about the objectives we'll get to ski this upcoming winter season. As you scrutinize the map for possible new ski zones and begin creating new tracks in your map, think about what aspect, elevation, and slope angle you're choosing, and what conditions would warrant following that tour plan. Terrain catalog development is a part of the AIARE Prepare Framework and a great way to get into the mindset of avalanche awareness in preparation for your upcoming backcountry touring season. Remember, right now we're just building a catalog or potential descents or zones, not deciding which line to ski this coming weekend. That step comes only after you've put those AIARE 1 skills into play, researching the current snowpack conditions, the upcoming weather influences, and reading the ESAC avalanche bulletin.

Guests skiing the classic Mammoth to June Traverse

Prepping Maps for in the Field

I'm usually sitting at home at my laptop, looking out the window at the snow falling, and sipping tea while I'm building my terrain catalog. However, after I've created those new gpx tracks in my map, I'll eventually need to get out in the field and do some ski touring and suss out the zones I'm curious about. To prepare, I'll download a topo pdf of my map for offline use, and export those existing tours (in the form of gpx tracks) into the map app on my phone. I'm a fan of Gaia for the mobile platform, so I'll make sure all the tracks I created have successfully imported into the app before I close my laptop for the day. A map app like CalTopo or Gaia won't work dependably unless the base map has been downloaded while still in cell service. And, I always like to have a paper map and compass back up in case my phone bites the dust due to cold or wet conditions. But let's face it, phones are what we're going to use out there, so we might as well take advantage of it.

Stoked guests transitioning at the top of a new Sierra Secret Stash

Sussing out the Goods

Now that I'm in the field with my Gaia app and gpx tracks, it's time to take photos and notes of where I'm touring, both skin uptracks and descent runs. Photos are immensely helpful, so if you have the visibility, I encourage you to take advantage of it so that you can document the slope on approach from below, as well as any terrain features or avalanche hazards that may impact the safety of travel en route. If the top of a run you were eyeing has a small cornice build up, for example, that can be an indication of repetitive wind loading and instability, and therefore a zone to avoid - you'll want to take note of that and even take a picture.

A tour like this is more of a reconnaissance trip, where I'm sussing out the tracks I already created and figuring out where the goods are. It requires heightened awareness of avalanche and terrain hazards to stay safe while skiing new lines and zones. If you created a track for a new ski descent but it doesn't look safe for traveling, then we move on to the next track. A day like this requires patience, but you can definitely still have a great time out there in the backcountry, and the diligence will pay off when you do find a track that delivers the safety and the goods. You'll be able to go back there again and again if similar conditions warrant.

Powder turns off the beaten path

Recording Tracks In the Field

Recording a track into your map app as you journey through the mountains is the most accurate way to getting a gpx track that represents your ski runs. In CalTopo, you can add pictures to gpx tracks, so all those photos you took of the uptrack, downtrack, or zone in general can be attached this way into your map for future reference. Refer to the CalTopo tutorial on how to add photos to tracks.

An example of a line drawn in CalTopo indicating a skin track, accompanied by a photo of the summit from along the track.

Take Notes

If you've found a great new zone or ski descent that you know you'll come back to again and again, taking notes about terrain features, weather influences, and hazards are important. Different weather and avalanche conditions can impact the safety of the slope as well as the quality of the snow. In CalTopo, you can add comments to a line or zone that you've drawn, so you can refer back to these notes when riding the same zone in the future. If there was a feature on the slope that could potentially form wind slab problems, I could document that in the "comments" section so that next time I went to ride that exact same slope, I'd know what to look out for. The more details we have, the better for riding enjoyment and for safety as we go back to our secret stashes over and over again throughout the season.

Remember to Ride Safely

Riding out in the backcountry with partners is fun, but it's also a way that we mitigate risk and exposure in terrain. Remember to be picky in choosing your partners, speak up for yourself, and be an active and contributing partner. Much of the criteria for riding safely is taught through the AIARE Curriculum, and if you're not feeling as confident as you'd like out there in the mountains, then maybe it's time for an AIARE 1 or refresher course to get you back on track for safe backcountry riding. Pika Mountain Guides offers refresher courses and guided backcountry trips in the Eastern Sierra for just this purpose - to get you to a level where you feel confident to make solid and safe decisions while on your ski tours.

With a solid base of knowledge in avalanche awareness and education, along with your new and personalized terrain catalog, you will be able to open up a whole new world of terrain for your backcountry ski tours. With our season now in full swing with these most recent holiday storms, we hope to see you out there choosing safe terrain, finding the goods, and shredding the gnar!