Research Paper in English
By Mathias Zollbrecht
Theme: Backcountry Snowboarding in Oregon and the Southwest
Washington Cascades.
First of all, the definition of Backcountry Snowboarding:
When you see photos from snowboarder with deep fresh powder
snow in magazines it is like a dream, you want to feel free and you
wished you were with the snowboarder on the picture. Those boarder
don't use chairlifts and board on a slope with many people on it, they
use very often the helicopter or the snowmobile, because with them
they can get into untouched powder slopes. Here I want to show you
another way how to get into the nice winter landscape of Oregon's
Backcountry Mountain and what equipment you will need for your
safety on the slope.
The environments of the Cascades:
The landscape here in the North Pacific Cascades is made out of
extreme high volcanoes and their smaller neighboring mountains.
Mount Rainier is the highest of them with its 14,411 feet. It is also the
tallest mountain of the Cascades, and that's also the reason why
around 10,000 people every year try to climb him. But only half of
them make it.
Equipment:
There are three different kinds how to go on the mountains:
1. The snowshoes, they are the most common method to hike
the mountain. They are like a board, which goes on the bottom of
the snowboard boots.
2. A few people cut their cross-country skies in apart. So they
can hike the mountain with the short skies and when they go
down they put the skies on the backpack.
But all of these methods have one problem: They do not include the
snowboard which must be carried on the back of the backpack. And
hiking with backpack and snowboard is very exhausting for a...