Andrew McLean
Andrew McLean lives in Park City, Utah and is a gear designer, writer, photographer, ski mountaineer, climber and Mountain Unicycle rider. He and Polly Samuels McLean are the parents of two very loud little girls.
Andrew McLean's Latest Posts
Chuting Gallery Survivors
Although it was never intended to be skied in its entirety, the 90+ lines and accompanying check boxes make The Chuting Gallery a logical steep skiing ticklist for the Wasatch. It took about five years of collecting lines to write the book and since then about ten people have collected the entire set. Skiing/riding them […]
Snowbrains.com Podcast
I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing Mile Clark of Snowbrains.com for many years and on many continents. I think we first met in Antarctica and have since crossed paths in Svalbard and back in the States. At one point we got to share a tiny three bunk cabin in the aft of a sailboat […]
New Chuting Gallery Hats & Gift Combo
Book & Hat Gift Combo The ultimate starter kit for steep skiing in the Wasatch Mountains, or an excellent gift for your favorite chute skiing fanatic. This is a combo gift package of a signed copy of “The Chuting Gallery – A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains” and an embroidered Ouray Sideline […]
Neff’s Canyon Cave – 2001
When I first heard of Neff’s cave in about 2000, it was considered one of the deepest caves in North America. Since then, I think deeper caves have been discovered in the US, but at 1,165′ deep, Neff’s is definitely still an adventure. Bombs away…. Mark Holbrook at the gate and in the first few […]
Ursus Horribilis, The Bear’s Face 1998
In my recent slide scanning frenzy, I had a few from the 1998 first ascent of “Ursus Horribilis” in Montana which I did with Alex Lowe over three days. Like most Alex adventurers, it was a wild ride and prior to going, I really had no idea what I was getting into. The Bear’s Face […]
35mm Slide Scanning
After staring at a closet of 25,000+ 35mm color slides, I finally got around to having 1,000 of them digitized. It only took me about 3 years to cull them down, organize them and send them off, but it is great to have all of these old images in modern format. Part of the project […]
Europe 2018 Trip Report – Lyngen Alps, Norway
The Lyngen Alps in northern Norway is so perfectly suited for skiing it is almost like it was designed as a 600 square mile ski mountaineering amusement park. There are roughly 145 peaks ranging from about 3,000′ up to 6,000′ and most of them have runs on every aspect and can be done as a […]
Europe 2018 Trip Report – Chamonix
After only spending 36 hours there, I feel a little sheepish about writing a trip report about Chamonix, especially as we only skied the default beginner run, the Mer du Glace. But as much as anything, Chamonix is the birthplace of modern alpinism and ski alpinism, so just being there and catching a glimpse of […]
Europe 2018 Trip Report – Switzerland
Switzerland was part one of a three part trip to Europe which inadvertently came about as a way to salvage plans and plane tickets from a trip to Greenland which was cancelled due to lack of snow. Like much of skiing, it was destiny as Europe was having a great snow year and many of […]
Slow Motion Uphill Kick-Turn Video
Uphill kick-turns are one of the essentials of backcountry skiing. In general, it is better to do a “walk around” turn to change direction, but when the slope gets too steep, kick-turns are the way to go. It’s hard to say that there is any one way that is better than the others as much […]
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