An Ode to Free-Heel Corn Skiing

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As the days lengthen, basking the world anew in renewed sunlight, the valleys return to a verdant green, and a fresh energy imbues the mountains. The promise of summer returns.

But to the rider of snow, spring has its own unique meaning. High in the alpine, where ample snow remains, the skier is promised not with the fertile abundance awaiting winter’s end, but with the beginning of a season of adventure, seeking skiing’s – especially telemark skiing’s – most prized treasure: corn snow.

The search for perfect corn is a decidedly vernal endeavor, the time when conditions finally arrive that are ripe for the sweetest of snows. Corn is formed out of the late season freeze-thaw cycle, where each day the snow surface begins as a firm exterior, but with sun and heat softens into a forgiving plane. At just the right moment – often fleeting and ephemeral – the snow is neither too firm nor soft, yielding into an indulgent and safe surface of course, grainy crystals that take a ski’s turn in the sweetest way.

This process of cooling and warming also permeates deep into the snow, consolidating the season’s pack into a safer, more cohesive mass. Not only is the spring the time for seeking out the treasure of corn snow, it also offers the opportunity for approaches and descents mostly free of midwinter’s questionable stability. This is the time for adventure in the alpine, though it is not free from all avalanche consideration.

While the spring does offer a season where persistent weak layers can find remedy, the forces of nature often take long to find these hidden dangers, especially in continental snowpacks. And some years these problems are never quite alleviated.

Moreover, new challenges emerge in this warmer time. Point releases shed snow from warming rock bands while dangerous wet slides borne on the burden of the day’s heat can gouge the remaining snowpack. Warnings of pinwheeling snow and incohesive surfaces point to the danger, begging the skier to find safer slopes.

Early morning ascents meant to avoid afternoon instabilities in snowpack bring their own considerations – firm snow at dawn has the potential for slide-for-life conditions. And spring’s high sun and building heat brings one of the most sudden risks in the mountains all the more to the present: rockfall. While the season holds unique promises for the skier, it also has dangers all its own. As always, treading carefully and mindfully is paramount.

As the endeavor of skiing high peaks isn’t without risk, by its nature it also holds rewards. And to reap these prizes brings on a different approach to skiing when seeking the spoils of spring. Ice axes and crampons find their way out of drawers, while rising well before dawn and making long approaches – often for long stretches on dirt trails – become the norm of the season. Timing turns into a dance with the sun. As slopes warm, they reach the beautiful equilibrium between a treacherous firmness and sloppy, even unstable softness. The spring skier uses all their intuition to find themselves high at that moment.

Many times the elements conspire against our best laid plans, and the corn eludes us. Many a spring descent takes place outside of the transient realm of its peak conditions. But every so often, we end up right where we planned to be, at exactly the moment we hoped.

A descent on this snow – especially after a gallant ascent – is intoxicating. When the machinations of the universe meet like this on a high peak towering above treed flanks and green valleys, an addiction sets in, keeping skiers coming back season after season. While skiing corn is a delight for all snow riders, for the telemarker it is the most indulgent of sensations; the free heel and genuflection pair with the soft grains in the most symbiotic of ways. The excitement and flow of the lead change is buttressed by a medium so smooth and supple as to become nearly effortless. The entire experience is heady and stimulating, a consummate feast for the senses.

Spring skiing’s toils aren’t without their challenges. Beyond the considerations of conditions and timing is the reality of the undertaking – backcountry skiing can be both arduous and frightening. Time away from home in a selfish venture never quite leaves the mind, especially for those of us with children. ‘Why stay?’ becomes as operative as ‘why go?’ Close calls and crummy snow can leave the question of heading out open-ended.

But the gratification is inexplicable, the endeavor not so much fun as it is fulfilling, except for those times when the moment crystalizes in full, often on rounded grains of snow slowly making their journey back to river and sea. For just a moment, as the frozen water is in its moment of dissolution, it becomes the medium for some of the sweetest freedom a person can know. What luck we have that we can enjoy one of nature’s sweetest, most fleeting bounties – corn snow.