Backcountry skiers in the U.S. treat the alpine environment with respect – seeing trash in the mountains is rare. The Leave No Trace backcountry ethic is engrained in us. While these established rules work, especially in high-use areas like the Colorado Front Range, backcountry skiers venture into atypical terrain where hard rules may be more detrimental to the mountains than adjusting some rules.

Mountain Commode
Nature can handle, um, for want of a better term, human droppings. It’s an integral and important part of natural cycles of decay and renewal. However, human crowding and overuse can lead to pollution in any natural system, including the wintry mountains. Human excrement decomposes slowly on snow, creating an eyesore and a health hazard. (Pee, on the other hand, is just an eyesore. Just be sure to scuff a layer of fresh snow over the stain.)

One option for high-use snow-covered areas is carrying out your load in a Wag Bag. Although essential for spring ski trips up Mount Rainier’s Emmons Glacier, for example, packing poop is gross and has an unnecessary carbon footprint compared to planning ahead and using the solar toilets at Steamboat Prow. In less populated areas, wait until you get to a snow-free area or tree-well and deposit your prize under a rock, in a cat hole, or use the smear technique.

Glaciers, where excrement stays on ice, require additional consideration. First, get off the glacier where poop can biodegrade. If this is not possible, ask yourself if the sewage runoff will be a potential hazard to others. For example, on a huge Alaskan glacier, the sewage runoff is undetectable – the solution to pollution is dilution – so drop trow in a crevasse or moulin where it will be diluted and out of sight. But if the risk of contamination is high, as on Mount Rainier, Wag Bag it.

TP is an eyesore and decomposes even more slowly. Never leave TP in the mountains. Carry a lighter in a Zip-Loc freezer bag with your paper (cardboard tube removed). Burn the used paper completely by unfolding and rotating while roasting. Pack out anything that doesn’t burn.

Cairn About The Hills
Never, ever build cairns – those mini rock towers that some use to mark backcountry routes and summits. Cairn building means leaving a sign of humans rather than leaving the mountains in their natural state. If you’re concerned about route-finding, bring a GPS or choose an easier route. If you come across cairns or other markers, take a few seconds to clean up the mess and scatter the rocks.

Camp on snow if possible. If you must camp on land, avoid vegetation, especially fragile heather and go for rock slabs or places that are naturally level and lack vegetation. Use your clothing, pack, and rope underneath you to level out rough spots (rather than raking the ground completely flat). Before decamping, restore your campsite to a natural state by scattering rocks, lichen side up. Leaving your excavated bivy ledge doesn’t help anyone.

Clean Cuisine
Processed backcountry food is ridiculously over-packaged. By spending more time planning and preparing food before a trip, you can eliminate most of your packaging and your trash bag will, in turn, stay small. Resist the temptation to crevasse your trash, which may melt to the glacier surface, or burn your trash, which often leaves tin-foil and a burn stain.

On glaciers, dump liquid waste – remember to filter chunks out with a strainer – in a concentrated sump hole and take your organics, including the contents of used tea bags, to decompose in the dirt alongside the glacier. When camping off-glacier, place your stove on the non-lichened side of a flat rock instead of burning a hole in the tundra.

Consider the logic of canister stoves – packaging fuel in small metal containers is kind of crazy. Yes, some outdoor stores will recycle canisters, or you can recycle canisters yourself by completely draining them, puncturing them with a chisel, then hammering them flat. But remember: it’s reduce, reuse, then recycle.

Drink Draft Beer, Not Gas
We also need to keep the bigger picture in mind. Carbon emissions from our driving and flying to the slopes have a greater negative impact on the natural environment than all our pooping, flatulence, and cairn-building. Do your part by skiing locally. Boost your outdoor creds by getting 40-plus miles-per-gallon. Streamline your rig – and keep your skis warm and happy – by ditching the ski rack. You’ve heard it all. The trick is doing it.

The aim of minimal impact skiing is to let everyone discover and experience nature as we first did, and reduce our negative effect on our environment. The ethics and technology available for doing this are constantly evolving. In 10 years we may have Stinkles Instant Poo-Dissolve and use solar power to get to the hills. For now, even if we can’t eliminate our impact, we can reduce its severity.

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