About

Alpenglow Publishing Studio is mainly one guy, Dex Burke. That’s me. I have been lucky enough to have spent the last 25 years living around some of the best skiing areas in the western United States. The last quarter century has been a religious experience for me ever since I went on my first ski tour in my home town of Bend, Oregon. I have to a fault dedicated my entire existence to exploring as many mountain ranges as I can on skis. From the Cascades & Sierras all the way to the Rockies and every range in between, It’s been a heck of a ride.

Back when I first started there wasn’t much information available in print or on the internet. Google Earth was just gaining momentum. I was living in van before van-life became a thing, and when vans only cost $2000! A lot has changed since then, but one thing hasn’t . The availability of high quality photos to help better understand the terrain you might want to backcountry ski in is still in rare supply. To get any info on a new backcountry ski area, meant one thing, go and explore it yourself. This can be extremely time consuming, unsafe, and lead to a lot of dead-ends. The process is slow, tedious and unnecessary.

My first book, the Oregon Ski Atlas, was never meant to turn into anything. I just wanted some photos to help plan my ski tours in the high country. But once some friends saw what I put together, they encouraged me to offer it to the public, and here I am today!

I am stoked to share my knowledge and wisdom that I have accumulated over the last 25 years. My books are meant to be another tool in your tool box to help you plan a safe outing in the backcountry. While I do have extensive knowledge of a lot of backcountry areas, I generally will also rely on fact checkers that are comprised of long time locals and/or guides to help make sure everything is as accurate as possible.

While I did give myself “author” credit in my first book, Oregon Ski Atlas. I generally will give the fact checkers a shout out and leave myself off of the by line. It just seems really egotistical to say I am the author, when all I am doing is taking pictures and putting some labels on them, along with access points and stats. The mountains have existed long before me, and it just seems silly to call myself an author. I am not doing this for attention, I am doing this becuase I think it is such a useful tool. I truly believe that aerial photos are really one of best tools to stay safe while skiing in the backcountry.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy drooling over these photos as much as I do.

-Dex Burke