So, in the world of just about everything, we all have our own unique twists on words, nicknames for things, acrinims. Our own isms, if you will.

Surf culture has their own language. Ski culture has their own language. The “new slang” of it all, and not of The Shins varietal.

I thought it would be fun to compile a list of slangs and sayings that relate to my crowd of folks within the adventure Backcountry community. Not those commonly used references to things being “bomb proof” or “stoke” or such, but those truly authentic.

My list isn’t long but here’s what I got:

1) Alpine Chips – a reference to payment one receives for the tasks that one does at home to be used for future Alpine endeavors. Eg. Offering to stay home with the kids so your spouse can go for a night out would be the gaining of said chips. Putting in a request for you to get out for a Backcountry weekend would be the cashing in of said chips (or possibly going into a deficit).

2) Juicy Danglers – Ok, so this one originally came from a night of dice games in a hut a few winter’s ago. The short version was that in this particular game you would gain points based on what dice you rolled, and had the choice to hold your points and pass on the remaining dice to the next player, if you left too many dice or too many points on the table for others to take, it was said to be a “juicy dangler”, the reference has now loosely made itself into many other areas, such as having your gear too loosely affixed to your pack, or the looseness of a cornice in the distance.

3) “Sometimes your the scheisse, sometimes your the lederhosen”. I feel like this one is self explanatory. But often at some point on a Backcountry weekend you feel like column A or column B.

4) Pretty much any reference to the movie dumb and dumber.

Share your thoughts, and lists. Maybe we’ll create a Backcountry Thesaurus.

Cheers.