"In the early 90’s, sampling opened up a new realm of musical exploration for artists- any genre from any era could now be freely used and recombined to create new sounds and styles of music. Backcountry ski touring has also undergone a similar trend of sampling. Think of today’s state-of-the-art ski touring equipment as the Vanilla Ice of backcountry snow travel!
What is Rugged Touring? Essentially, it is using skis as a winter backcountry travel tool to allow the most effective mode of transportation possible, over snow, through mountain valleys, peaks, and passes. It incorporates elements of X-country, telemark, and ski mountaineering. It selects freely from generations of tried and true equipment and combines them with the best ski technology available today.
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Ski Back into the Future- Rugged Touring Demystified