Episode
Peaks & Couloirs with Chris Kussmaul
- Podcast
- The High Route Podcast
- Published
- Sep 27, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3366
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/c0227cbe
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-high-route-podcast-6591308/episodes/peaks-couloirs-with-chris-kussmaul/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-high-route-podcast-6591308/peaks-couloirs-with-chris-kussmaul.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
In this episode, Chris Kussmaul is our guest. I’ve been aware of Chirs for a few years—a friend of a friend kind of thing. He is based in Bozeman, Montana and for the part of the year when snow is not on the ground, which is actually a limited time of year in Southwestern, Montana, he works as a geology consultant. When he’s not officially working during the late fall and winter, he’s ski touring, and trying to keep his work schedule limited to almost none. But that is not to say Kussmaul isn’t keeping his eyes open, and maybe doing some work, too. He’s the author of the Peaks and Couloirs of Southwest Montana—A Guide to Backcountry Skiing in the Gallatin, Madison, Bridger, Tobacco Root and Montana Absaroka Mountains . Yes, this is a guidebook. Yup, a traditional guidebook, not an atlas, which are guidebook adjacent, and can be supremely useful, but maybe lack the leave it on the coffee-table and pick up and just read it, every now and then. Peaks & Couloirs, the short title for the book, is now on its second edition, and if it hasn’t been released by the time your listening to this, it certainly is available for order. The main reason I wanted to interview Kussmaul, is that in a very noisy digital environment regarding apps and sites and the socials, it is rare that a touring guidebook comes along that seems to hit a sweet spot. He includes, in my opinion, a good balance between disclosing information and allowing for readers to have their own adventures. This book might help you find a trailhead, understand the human context of a line/objective, it will not get you up or down or back home. That is up to you. I appreciate that a person took the time to organize this information and make a real-deal guidebook: one, I assume, that will stand the test of time. So bot…