How to find a backcountry ski partner you can trust

In the backcountry, your partner is your rescue plan. If you are caught in an avalanche, the person most likely to dig you out is the one standing above you, with a transceiver, a shovel and a probe, in the few minutes that matter. That changes what a "ski buddy" means. You are not just looking for someone who rides your pace. You are looking for someone whose training, gear and judgment you would trust with your life, and who can trust yours.

The good news is that the backcountry community is used to this. Partners are found the same way everywhere: through courses, local groups and avalanche center events, then built up one easy tour at a time.

Get trained before you look

The fastest way to find good partners is to take a course, because everyone in it is looking for the same thing.

• In the United States, recreational avalanche courses follow frameworks such as AIARE and the American Avalanche Association's guidelines, starting with an introductory Level 1 course and a separate avalanche rescue course. Your local avalanche center, listed on Avalanche.org, usually links to course providers and free awareness events.
• In Canada, Avalanche Canada runs the Avalanche Skills Training program, starting with AST 1 and moving on to AST 2.

Courses do two jobs at once. They give you the skills a partner needs from you, and they put you in a room, and then on a slope, with people near you who are at the same stage. Swap numbers on the last day.

Where to find backcountry partners

• Course classmates. The most reliable source. You know their training, because you did it together.
• Avalanche center events. Many centers run free talks, beacon practice days and fundraisers each season. These are full of local backcountry skiers and splitboarders.
• Clubs and mountaineering groups. Many ski and outdoor clubs run touring days with experienced leaders. How to join a ski club covers what to ask before you sign up.
• Gear shops and guiding services. Backcountry shops often host clinics, demo days and group tours, and staff know who in town is looking for partners.
• Online groups for your area. Useful, but be most careful here: you know the least about who you are talking to. Use the questions below and start small.
• Your resort crew. Friends you already ride with inbounds are worth recruiting. You already know their pace and temperament. How to find ski buddies and how to find snowboard friends cover building that crew.

What to ask before a first tour

A new partner should be able to answer these without hesitation, and should ask you the same things:

1. What avalanche training have you done, and when? Skills fade. Ask when they last practiced a rescue.
2. What rescue gear do you carry? A transceiver, shovel and probe for every person is the minimum. Check that transceivers are compatible and working at the trailhead.
3. Where have you toured, and in what conditions? Experience in your area and your snowpack counts more than a long list of trips.
4. How do you make go or no-go decisions? Listen for someone who reads the avalanche forecast, names the avalanche problem and is comfortable turning around.
5. What are your goals for the day? A partner who wants a summit at any cost and one who wants three safe laps in low-angle trees should not tour together yet.
6. Any medical issues or injuries I should know about?

Make the first tour an easy one

Treat your first day with a new partner as an interview that goes both ways.

• Pick low-angle, well-known terrain with little or no avalanche exposure, on a day with a low or moderate forecast.
• Do a transceiver check at the trailhead, and practice a quick search together if you have not done one recently.
• Agree on a plan and a turnaround time before you leave the car, and tell someone who is not coming where you are going and when you will be back.
• Talk on the skin track. Ask what they are noticing about the snow and the weather. You will learn how they think.
• Ride one at a time on any slope steep enough to slide, and regroup in safe spots, out of the runout.
• Debrief afterward. What went well, what you would do differently. A partner who welcomes that conversation is a keeper.

Build up from there: more tours, gradually bigger terrain, as you learn each other's habits.

Red flags

• Unwilling to do a transceiver check or missing rescue gear.
• Dismissive of the avalanche forecast, or never mentions it.
• Pushes to keep going after the group has agreed to turn around.
• Vague about their training or where they have toured.
• Treats the first tour as a test of how hard they can go.

None of these make someone a bad person. They make them the wrong partner for the backcountry today.

Weather is part of the plan

Avalanche danger follows the weather. Heavy new snow, strong wind and rapid warming all load or weaken the snowpack. Chinook winds and snow explains rapid warming, snow-to-liquid ratio explains why some storms load more weight than others, and why snow forecasts disagree helps you judge the forecast behind the avalanche bulletin.

Stories from the skin track

Francesca's first year splitboarding in Bend, Oregon is a good read on starting out in the backcountry, finding people to tour with and taking safety seriously from day one. If your crew rides the trees inbounds on deep days, no friends on a powder day? explains why staying in sight matters there too.

SkiBuds helps people find riding partners by terrain and pace, and the rebuilt app for iOS and Android is coming soon. For the backcountry, treat any new connection, from an app or anywhere else, as the start of the process above, not the end of it.