Most fly yo go fast, backcountry pilots not so much, and some flying is better if slowing down.

Yep, the CFI lied when he/she said speed is you friend!! Lots of accidents happen when pilots land fast because the kept adding 5mph for crosswind then 5mph for safety, then 5 mph buffer for stall, then 5 for mom and the kids!!! Planes love speed in the air but not so much once on the ground!!
DENNY

Another excellent video demonstration of the speed control approach and pitch/power deceleration on short final to insure a safe slow landing to any airport or landing zone. While the basic mission of takeoff is to develop and retain zoom reserve airspeed for maneuvering, the basic mission of landing is to land as slowly and softly as practicable. While using a 1.3 Vso stabilized approach sets us up well for deceleration on short final to prevent the speed up of the apparent rate of closure with the desired touchdown point, limited horizontal space available in irregular terrain may require easing up on short final a bit. As your videos clearly demonstrate, elevator pitch and flaps to slow to the point that sink occurs brings dynamic throttle into play to exactly control glide angle all the way to a very accurate touchdown.

I can understand slowing in canyons to reduce radius of turn back if necessary and you do correctly allow the nose to go down in the turn to prevent stall. Unless low ceiling prevents the energy management turn, however, the law of the roller coaster can make any turnback much safer. If we are able to use cruise airspeed, especially at high DA, that much extra zoom reserve airspeed can be traded for altitude wings level just prior to unloading the wing in a now slow airspeed turn back of enough bank angle to make the bottom of the canyon the target. This ability to safely turn to target the lowest portion of the drainage going down drainage has gotten me out of many tough limited vertical space available situations. When the canyon is formed by ridge valley ridge drainage systems up to the high DA pass, we in little airplanes may already be near Vy just to maintain altitude. In this situation, already slow, your turn at whatever bank is necessary and release back pressure to prevent stall works well.

Again, great video lesson.

Good point Denny. It drives me crazy when instructors teach their students to land with more ground speed in a headwind component than in a no wind condition. The wind is our friend if we use wind management.