How (not) to make your very own BC ski partner

Good general approach.  The only "red" elements aren't really related to your planning -- e.g., doing this with a s.o. is always both good and bad, and if I understand correctly that she's in Crested Butte but hasn't skied much powder, she may really just not be that into it.  That also may have bearing on whether she'd every want to move up to steeper terrain/dealing with stability issues, etc.  So planning-wise I probably should give you a great rather than good assuming you go ahead and rent some skis.

Need more options.  Since I'm not a good person to be commenting on successful technique in this area, I'd like to see "Waiting to see how it turns out" and maybe "Luck with your project" options.  

Make sure it's not too cold and windy. I damned near put my wife off of b.c. by bringing her out during a high wind -20c day.

Any chance to play with powder inbounds so she's not spending her entire trip digging herself out of craters?  Nobody likes having to make people wait for them, especially after they get cold, wet and frustrated.

FWIW, I managed to pull off "epic fail" when I tried to get my then-boyfriend/now husband into BC skiing.  I made the silly assumption that since he regularly is much faster than me on snowshoes when heading for ice climbs, he would be similarly able to at least keep up skinning. Uh-uh.  I'm slow as molasses but I still chicked him hard, and he doesn't want to play any more.  :(  He'll ski inbounds to placate me and the kids, but that's about as far as it goes.

You are really lucky to have a wife who is even willing to ski with you. much less BC ski.  If she is willing to BC with you, then she isn't just one in a million, she is one in a TRILLION.  Almost every BC ski adventure I go on is either a weenie-roast all-male excursion or a solo trip - or maybe a trip with my faithful dog.

I guess you have already gone on your trip already, but I recommend to all in this situation to make the trip much shorter and much less adventuring than you would even consider easy.  If your BC means going downhill through trees and brush, that is pretty scary for most and girls especially don't like being scared.  Did I understand that you plan to tour in the UP as in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan?  Kinda hilly, second or third growth forests where vegetation is dense and difficult to crawl through.

Keep it simple, keep it easy, keep it short.  Build her into it.  Stay at a lodge and do day trips rather than winter camping.  Bring hot chocolate and Reeses Peanut Butter cups.  Treat her to dinner at a restaurant at night.  Look at all her photos from the day and tell her she is brilliant - you know, treat her like it is a first date, because for her, it kinda is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan Shefftz 
 

Ha ha!  I concur.  Sounds like a "three-hour-tour" to me.  She is either going to be bitching and complaining, or crying, or giving him the silent treatment.  He will definitely be buying her diamonds after sending her wobbly-legged down a powder laced tree-populated  back-country hill, THEN back up again.  Whooo Man!

Rock on!

And for all of you who dis on chica BC skiers, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of friends of mine... I'm nothing to write home about but these girls stomp it, hard.  While smiling and looking charming.

Wow, So cool to see BC chics in action!  Thanks for the pics.

You meows are one in  billion.

Keep your heels free!

You're on the right track, Que, but I'll make an alternate suggestion:

What about waiting until corn snow season?  It's March already and you're in a part of the world where some great cornfields have got to be setting up pretty soon.  Corn snow is an outstanding way to introduce someone to bc skiing because it's so smooth and forgiving.  Plus, even the EASIEST terrain can be great fun when the snow is firm underneath but just starting to warm up.  Plus, plus, good corn snow - by definition - means a sunny spring day with minimal weather issues.  Plus, plus, PLUS, skinning up mellow terrain on smooth pre-corn is about the easiest skinning there is. 

I got a kick out of your post because it reminded me of an "epic fail" I managed to barely avert (thanks to my wife, not me) on my wife's second trip on skins.  This was about 15 years ago and we were living in SLC.  I wanted to take her powder skiing to Patsy Marley peak up at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, across from Alta.  I somehow got it in my head that we could just skin east up the gully rather than switchbacking west from the main trailhead and then back east above the main gully.  Within 15 minutes, we were in a miserable little stand of brush, kickturning every thirty feet on the really steep side of the gully, ducking branches and tripping over logs.  I turned around at that point and asked her how she was doing.  Her muttered reply was "I'd rather have a root canal".   Luckily, we got out of that crappy stuff soon after and went on to have a great tour.  Now, she loves to go and we've had many, many fun times together in the backcountry. 

Good luck with the outing and make sure you post some of her photos.