Look: California's Backcountry Is Still Open For Business

Last weekend, we bid farewell to Mammoth Mountain, California, one of the last major ski areas still open in North America.

Yet, just because most of the lifts have stopped spinning doesn't mean getting the goods this late into the summer is impossible. Provided you're willing to break out the backcountry gear and sweat a little, that is.

Professional skier Garret Balen took advantage of this fact on a recent mission in the California backcountry. Check out the fruits of his labor below.

The exact location of this line, as with countless similar videos, remains mostly mysterious. Identifying a backcountry spot on POV footage alone isn't easy. However, we could probably circumvent this problem by hiring Trevor Rainbolt (aka Georain Bolt), a now-well-known Youtuber who earned a following by being a geographic guessing game virtuoso.

For context, you could give Rainbolt an image of a dirt road with no identifiable features, and he'd say, "Oh, that's in Mongolia." He'd probably be right, too.

In the absence of Rainbolt's impressive Google Maps skills, here's what we do know. Garrett Balen is based in the Lake Tahoe, California area. The Sierras, a mountain range also located in California, got a truckload of snow this past winter. Therefore, in this video, Balen's likely taking advantage of the last scraps of alpine snow in the Sierras.

This raises another question: "Is it worth it to trek God knows how many miles just to ski a paltry patch of snow?"

To that, I don't have a clear answer. I suppose it depends on your willingness to schlep ski gear uphill under the August sun.

What's clear is that it is possible to still ski in North America, at least in California. It's up to you what you do with that information. Although if you choose to act on it, please make sure your backcountry skills are up to snuff. Avalanches are always possible in the backcountry, even during the summer.

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