With an impressive slate of industry experts, a packed schedule of cultural events and a prime location in the Kootenays, the inaugural Cold Smoke Powder Fest promises to be one of the best backcountry gatherings of the season. The event, which will take place February 23 through 26 at Whitewater Winter Resort, was created to blend instructional and educational backcountry clinics for all skill levels with the social atmosphere that forms an essential aspect of the off-piste community.

A collaboration between Arc'teryx, Mountain Gear, Whitewater, and touring guru Nils Larsen, the Cold Smoke Festival is designed to be a true celebration of backcountry culture in a spectacular mountain setting. The roster of clinics for the event includes everything from snow study, terrain assessment and route finding to freeheel, splitboard and AT technique improvement sessions. Slide shows and presentations are also planned featuring leading industry professionals such as Greg Hill, Andrew McLean, Martin Volken, and Meagan Carney. A dual-class Rando Rally, the storied Gericks Telemark Cup, and a Saturday night Buff-Eh are all eagerly anticipated elements of the packed weekend schedule.

With slots filling fast with passionate backcountry enthusiasts, RECCO–a rescue technology company focused on promoting avalanche education on a mass scale–signed on in support of the Field Rescue Scenario at the festival. The search scenario, which will take place at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, February 24, was designed by ACMG guide Mark Deschenes to hone search skills in a high-pressure situation. The scenario, which will be orchestrated by Deschenes in his role of Cold Smoke out-of-bounds coordinator, will incorporate elements such as group dynamics, resource management and an expert debrief analysis as well as transceiver searching, probing and digging. Gordon Burns, RECCO's training specialist for Canada, will demonstrate the avalanche rescue system as a component of the timed scenarios.

Larsen sees the Field Rescue Scenario as consistent with the educational mission of the Cold Smoke Festival. "The Cold Smoke is a first-of-a-kind of event where you have a big backcountry festival with a strong educational component,” he says. “I think it is a great mix because it offers people a chance to improve their ski skills as well as their backcountry skills. The simulated scenario gives a sense of the stress and the chaos that is involved with an avalanche incident. Until you actually go through something similar, people don't really have any awareness, so it sheds a lot of firsthand insight into the dynamics of the situation."

More information about the festival can be found at www.coldsmokepowderfest.com.