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
Sucking the Bloody Marrow
Backcountry.com enters the mainstream media in a large, naked, gloriously documented way… This is Backcountry. Here, blood meets rock, sweat meets trail, and the well-worn path to a routine existence reaches its terminus. This is an invitation to feed your wanderlust, to rediscover the spark inside you and feel the strain of your muscles against […]
Antarctic Peninsula Gear List
I must be getting excited about skiing as I spent the day compiling a list of 30 gear recommendations and accompanying photos for the upcoming Ice Axe Ski Cruise to Antarctica this November. A lot of this gear is just variations on a general backcountry theme, but having been down there four times, I’ve developed […]
White Hot White Rim
The 100 mile White Rim trail outside of Moab, UT is one of my favorite mountain biking adventures and I’ve done it clockwise, counterclockwise, in a day, over three days and at night. There are far burlier rides out there, but I like the White Rim as it is such a classic slice of the […]
Antarctica November 2013 Update
Although the 2013/14 Wasatch snowfall totals were a bit of a bust, I’m already looking forward to my next anticipated skiing outing in Ushuaia, Argentina before heading down to Antarctica for ten days of skiing in November with the 2013 Antarctic Ski Cruise. This is one of my favorite trips of the year (or actually […]
Bunching
It’s hard to say which is worse – bunched up skiing, or bunched up underwear, and although both are unpleasant, bunched up skiing is definitely more dangerous. You usually hear about the dangers of bunching up in two scenarios; either in an avalanche course where the instructors say to avoid it, or when there’s been […]
Mega Stoveboard Revelation
I’m almost embarrassed to think of how long it took me to realize the significance of using a huge stove board for heavy winter camping, but now that I’ve been enlightened, camping will never be the same. There are many different styles of winter camping and ski mountaineering expeditions, but for those which involve flying […]
Cooking the Perfect Cheese Bagel Spinner
There are many “last great challenges” in the world of Ski Mountaineering, but how to cook a perfect cheese bagel spinner is now no longer one of them. Just because bagels, cheese and white gas are the three pillars of backcountry camping, doesn’t mean they always get along and many a bagel has been badly […]
Narrated Couloir Video
I’ve been in a video uploading frenzy lately and put together this 4:30 clip on chute skiing. The couloir itself was a 40-45 degree line which was about 1,800′ tall. After editing the clips together, I went back and narrated over the top of it afterwards. There is obviously far more to skiing couloirs than […]
Ruthless Ambitions Photo Gallery
I’ll get around to writing this trip up ASAP, but first… photos. Ruthless Ambitions 2013 This was the second part of my trip to Alaska this year and involved a nine-day outing in the Ruth Amphitheater (thus the “Ruthless Ambitions” trip name) with Garrett Grove, Noah Howell and my old skiing buddy, Mark Holbrook. The […]
Retro Pfieff
In the process of organizing my photos, I found this classic 1992ish image of Alex Lowe skiing the NW Couloir of the Pfiefferhorn in the Wasatch Mountains. A lot has changed since then, including Alex no longer being with us. More than anyone, Alex was the guy who showed me, and many others like me, […]
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