These Six Products Make Spring in the Backcountry That Much Better

Featured Image: Aaron Dodds

With the winter we've had out West, it's hard to believe it's already that time of year to start thinking about spring skiing and all that comes with it. Longer days, warmer temperatures, soft corn snow. There's a whole vibe to skiing in the spring, whether you're lapping the lifts or bagging peaks under your own foot power. While skiing bottomless powder will always be our favorite form of skiing, spring slush comes in at a close second—especially in the backcountry.

As spring's thaw and freeze cycles stabilize weak layers in the snowpack, avalanches become less of a concern, which opens up more terrain in the alpine (above treeline) that typically can't be touched mid-winter in the interior Rockies. Spring ushers in long days where you're out before sunrise, or long mornings while you wait for the sun to soften your objective. Either way, we know you're going to be spending a lot of time in your ski boots the next couple of months. While the true essential gear items for backcountry spring skiing are your beacon, shovel, probe and emergency communication device, we at FREESKIER have put together another list of items we think are crucial for having the absolute most fun on the mountain day after day, but that you may have never thought of before. Keep scrolling for our full list of spring ski essentials, below.

YogaToes

MSRP: $36.95

Have you ever had a foot cramp inside your ski boot while on a committing bootpack with nowhere to rest? YogaToes are rubber toe separators intended to be used after your ski day to help your feet relax and recover for back-to-back-to-back days in your boots. Whether you deal with chronic foot pain, bunions, hammer toes, plantar fasciitis or overlapping toes, YogaToes helps reset and recondition your entire foot. You can wear these pretty much anywhere—at home, at the parking lot aprés or even in the hot tub for a multitask recovery.

Ski Snacks Cookbook

MSRP: $22.95

If your go-to skintrack snack is still a smooshed PB&J, you're robbing yourself and your taste buds of complete enjoyment. For your next mountaintop lunch, take a recipe out of Lily Krass Ritter and Max Ritter's inspiring Ski Snacks cookbook. With everything from homemade onigiri to chocolate-dipped pocket bacon, there's a tasty treat for every craving in this book of crowd-sourced recipes from one ski bum to another. Plus, there's nothing more satisfying than muching down on your own delicious creation.

Neve

MSRP: $9 (Trial Pack)

Maybe cooking is just not a skill or passion of yours, and that's okay! Neve (pronounced ne-vay) is a type of snow you find on a glacier as well as the Italian word for snow, and now it's also a woman-owned brand based out of Vail, Colorado. Founded by a female endurance athlete and backed by registered dietitians, Neve is a plant-based smoothie pouch designed to give athletes the energy and fuel they need in a convenient design that allows re-sealing so you don't have to finish the smoothie all in one. Gone are the days of taking your whole pack off to search for your snack bag. Throw a Neve pouch or two (available in two flavors) in your pockets and you're ready to rock.

LifeStraw

MSRP: $29.95 (Peak Series Solo)

Spring skiing often entails a few creek crossings and the warmer weather dehrydates you faster. There's no doubt longer days in the hot sun require more water but a filter helps save space and weight in your pack for a more enjoyable day. LifeStraw's Peak Series Solo straw weighs just 1.7 ounces and filters up to 2,000 liters of water. The straw fits on to any standard water bottle and can filter up to a liter in just 20 seconds. Save yourself the weight of an extra water bottle and just carry the LifeStraw with you instead.

Mio

MSRP: $3.18 (Walmart)

One of my friends brought Mio on a multi-day camping trip and it changed the way I pack for backcountry overnighters forever. Sometimes big days in the mountains require a bit of creativity for morale. Enter Mio. Fill up your water bottle with clean, fresh snow, ideally you've dug down into the

snowpack a bit, and then cover that frozen liquid in Mio or your favorite liquid water flavoring for the best damn backcountry snowcone you will ever have in your life. Bonus points if the flavoring has electrolytes for extra hydration.

NoNormal Outdoor Coffee

MSRP: $40 (two pack)

Sometimes spring missions start well before sunrise and it's hard to get up early enough to not only make a cup of coffee, but also enjoy it before you have to head out. NoNormal makes coffee in the outdoors a simple and simply delicious solution. A highly condensed paste in a recylable tube, NoNormal coffee comes in two flavors, classic black and sweet black, and each tube contains 30 cups of coffee. Simply add a 1/2 teaspoon of the paste to hot or cold cold water, stir, and enjoy—in your tent, in your car or halfway up your approach. Each serving contains 35 mg of caffeine.